Flyers Notes: Briere out after abdomen surgery

After undergoing surgery yesterday morning for a double tear in his abdomen, Flyers center

Danny Briere

is expected to be out three to four weeks.

The surgery was performed by specialist

William Meyers

at Hahnemann University Hospital in Philadelphia.

"It went really well," Flyers general manager

Paul

Holmgren

said. Meyers, the GM said, "felt very confident, with the nature of what he did, that it's not going to be longer than that time frame."

Holmgren said he does not anticipate making any trades or roster changes, but he did not dismiss the possibility.

"If something comes along that makes sense for us in the long term, yeah, we'd look at anything," he said.

"Obviously, you don't want to be without one of your better players for any time frame, but the fact that it's going to be three or four weeks is probably going to be the best news we could get out of it."

Before being sidelined, Briere had three goals and four assists. He scored with 65 seconds remaining in regulation to force overtime in Wednesday's 7-6 loss to the San Jose Sharks.

"Danny is hard to replace, because he is such a dangerous player," Holmgren said. "But we're at a stage right now, in order to catch up in our conference, we need to win more games. We're at a stage where guys need to pick it up.

"Some guys are starting to come around," he said, noting that

Scott Hartnell

scored two goals in Friday's 6-3 road win over the New Jersey Devils. "I think we have enough guys to get through it if we're playing on top of our game."

Midway through the second period yesterday, the Flyers honored Warrington's

Ben Stear

as a "Youth Hockey Hero."

Stear, 15, was paralyzed from the shoulders down in June after an accident at a local hockey rink. In addition to a No. 17

Jeff Carter

Flyers jersey presented by defenseman

Randy

Jones

, Stear received a big ovation from the crowd at the Wachovia Center.

- Rick O'Brien