Will the Flyers Survive Without Chris Pronger?

The Philadelphia Flyers seem to be unable to stay out of the news these days and out of my blogs, but this breaking news out of the front office might hurt the franchise and already hurts Flyers fans.

Captain Chris Pronger will officially miss the rest of the season due to severe post-concussion syndrome, which has kept him out of the game since Nov. 19.

Flyers GM Paul Holmgren said "It is the recommendation of doctors Maroon and Collins that Chris not return for the remainder of the 2011-12 season or playoffs. Chris will continue to receive treatment and therapy with the hope that he can get better."

The Flyers have already lost star forward Claude Giroux to a concussion, but he is out indefinitely and not for the rest of the season.

Pronger has only played in 13 games this season, with a goal and eleven assists but with him out of the lineup for the rest of the season, it's going to make it harder for a Flyers team down the road, even though they have won six games. With Giroux and Pronger both out, their schedule is going to get harder. After Montreal tonight, home against Boston, then a six-game road trip where they go to Colorado, to Dallas, at NY Rangers, at Tampa, and at Pittsburgh. These are teams that have pretty good offenses and without a defensive guy like Pronger, it's going to be tough to win against these powerhouse offensive teams.

It's tough to say if the Flyers will survive for the rest of the season. There are a lot of offensive teams out there and without Pronger there, that defense could face a major setback and maybe some games. They're fine now at 19-7-3, but that might change in the next few weeks or so if they start losing a lot of games.

We don't know when Giroux will come back. As I said before, he is out indefinitely so there is no timetable for his return. This team is already losing good players to concussions and let's hope there's no more to come. This team was one of my surprise picks to make it far this year, but with all this mess of concussions, their season could change just like that. I hope that Chris Pronger recovers and that he makes a full recovery. I hate to see Chris Pronger out of the game, but this is a very serious matter and he needs his recovery. Good luck, Pronger, and good luck, Flyers.