Before the Flyers lost 5-1 to the Stars, the 33-year-old center skated on the ice and throughout the day his back tightened up. An X-ray later revealed something that the Flyers medical staff did not think was right. Lecavalier was flown back to Philadelphia and today, an MRI revealed a non-displaced fracture in the lower back and will be expected to miss 3-4 weeks.
Lecavalier has missed the last three games with back spasms, which was first noticed in the first leg of the six-game road trip that started in Nashville last Saturday. The Flyers will most likely call up a player from their AHL affiliate in Adirondack. GM Paul Holmgren has said who it would be, although he hinted that he might end up going with 12 healthy forwards and the call-up will most likely be a healthy scratch.
The Flyers have been able to cope with Lecavalier's loss so far, going 2-2-0 on their road trip but the brutal beatdown by the Dallas Stars Saturday night could hamper this team's momentum, especially since they have been hot of late. And the Chicago Blackhawks come up with no expectations that they're going to win that game, in my opinion. But without Lecavalier, this offense is going to get through some flukes. Lecavalier leads the team in power-play goals with five. He is tied with Matt Read for the team lead at nine goals. So, that's the bigger issue. If you don't have one of your leading scorers on the ice, you're going to go through some bad games offensively. Let's just hope that Steve Mason is able to stop some shots from the Flyers, because he'll probably not get a lot of help from the offense during the next 3-4 weeks.
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