SUNRISE, Fla. – After a seven-game absence for a left foot injury, center Vincent Lecavalier returned to the lineup and Flyers general manager Ron Hextall was one step closer to seeing his full roster.

He hasn’t seen it for a while. Last time was the season opener Oct. 8 in Boston. Through 12 games, the Flyers have lost 22 man games to injury. That’s not counting defensemen Kimmo Timonen and Chris Pronger or center Ryan White, who haven’t suited up this season at all.

“It’s tough, but going into the year, you have an idea where your team is and you hope the chemistry and things play out,” Hextall said. “I’d like to be a little bit ahead of where we are.”

There certainly were missed opportunities in the first part of the season when the Flyers took five games to find the win column.

“We gotta not shoot ourselves in the foot,” coach Craig Berube said. “I think we did that three games this year, we shot ourselves in the foot where there are victories in my opinion — or close to it with a point — and you’ve got to stop doing that. That’s important not to do that because at the end of the year it comes down to two points a lot of time, in and out of the playoffs or home-ice advantage.”

Before the Florida roadtrip, the Flyers had won two at home and return to Philly for a four-game homestand. Things seemed to have stabilized from an injury standpoint, at least for now. So where does Hextall see them now?

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