Richards to have shoulder surgery Friday

As always happens at the end of a hockey season, the injuries become public.

And one of the more surprising announcements of the offseason is that Mike Richards has been playing with a torn labrum in his right shoulder and will have surgery Friday. The Flyers also announced that Richards will need surgery on his left shoulder, too. Richards said he will have that procedure after the first surgery and once he regains some strength in his right shoulder.

"Once I get my motion back and get a little bit of strength back I will have the left one done so I will just be able to do some things," Richards said.

According to general manager Paul Holmgren, Richards suffered the injury early in the season, underwent cortisone treatments to manage the pain and continued to play. He will need 8 to 12 weeks of rehab, Holmgren said.

"It's been going on for a while," Holmgren said this morning. "We managed it during the course of the year but we knew at some point he was probably going to have surgery.

"It's been since early in the season, really. It was one of those things where he wasn't going to make it any worse by playing. He had some cortisone injections over the course of the season to help him manage a little better."

Holmgren said this is the first decision for surgery and that there are "a few other issues we're getting checked out, guys with hip issues. (Randy) Jones obviously was one and Darrell Powe is another guy. But we don't know the extent of those yet until they see the doctor."