As above, so below, or so they say. The injury bug has already bitten the Flyers and tested their depth, and the depth even deeper in the organization will be tested going forward as well.
Last Saturday’s Phantoms game against the reigning Calder Cup champion Hershey Bears saw them lose a key piece of their lineup, as Eetu Makiniemi was knocked out of the game with an injury in the second period. It came on a play when he was trying to stop a one-on-one shot coming at him with speed, and he dropped into a split, seemed to over-extend something, and wasn’t able to get back to his skates under his own power.
It looked bad at the time, and the confirmation came this evening that it was, in fact, bad. On this evening’s broadcast from Providence, Phantoms broadcaster Bob Rotruck announced that Makiniemi will need to undergo surgery for a “core muscle sports hernia” injury, and is expected to miss 3-4 months (putting his return, at the very earliest, at the end of February). This also makes for another season cut short for Makiniemi who hasn’t played a whole lot of hockey in his North American professional career — in his three seasons stateside, he hasn’t broken the 25 games played mark in any single season.
This leaves the Phantoms goaltending tandem as Cal Petersen and Parker Gahagen — a little thinner than is ideal, but it’s a tandem that was successful for them down the stretch last season, so there’s that.
And as for the Flyers, they’ve been lucky that, while their goaltending group has struggled through some bumps and short-term injuries, they have been carrying three at the NHL level of late, so they’ve been insulated a bit from things going completely sideways on them. This extra depth has been a blessing, but if it’s tested much more, things will begin to look a little more scary. But we’re not there yet.
