Samu Tuomaala leaves Phantoms game with injury

Another Flyers prospect struck with the injury bug, as Samu Tuomaala was knocked out of Saturday’s Phantoms game with an injury.

The revolving door of injuries just keeps on turning for the Phantoms. Just as tonight’s game against the Bridgeport Islanders saw a bit of good news coming down in this form of Cal Petersen making his return from injury, getting in for his first game in six weeks (replacing the injured Parker Gahagen, we might add), they were dealt another blow when Samu Tuomaala left the game with an apparent injury.

The play in question came about halfway through the third period, when Tuomaala got kind of tangled up along the boards by the blueline when he took a hit on the Phantoms’ attempted breakout. He stayed down on the ice for a moment and attempted to get to his feet, but struggled to do so, and the whistle was blown. He was able to stand up and skate off under his own power, but he went straight down the tunnel and didn’t return for the final nine minutes and change remaining in the game.

And this comes as an unfortunate cap-off to a tough couple of weeks for Tuomaala. He missed two games at the end of the team’s last home stand with an undisclosed injury, got back in for one game to start the trip, then sat out the next two, before returning to action for the final game of the trip, and then Friday’s return home.

Now, it’s unclear if this is a new injury for Tuomaala or an aggravation of the same issue which had previously been troubling him — head coach Ian Laperriere did not have any updates on his status immediately postgame — but from Tuomaala’s reaction on the ice (slamming his stick in visible frustration), it’s fair to assume that, at least in the moment, he sensed that something major had happened.

We’ll hold on catastrophizing until we know more, but if this is a longer term injury, it comes at an inopportune time, to say the least. It will be a significant blow to the team, to be sure, as Tuomaala generally plays a lot of minutes in high leverage offensive situations, but it’s really tough luck for him as well. His last season was ended with injury around this time as well, and despite some ups and downs in his play this season, he likely remained high on the list of options to get a late-season cup of coffee with the Flyers, once their race for a playoff spot is well and truly over.

The Phantoms are back at it on the road tomorrow in Hershey before continuing their road trip with a pair of games next weekend down in Charlotte, and we’ll see if there’s an update on his status before long. Stay tuned.