Sean Couturier to Miss the next Four Weeks

VOORHEES — The past two games were pretty good for Sean Couturier. Now the Flyers have to go back to life without their second-line center.

He missed three games before the All-Star break with a "lower-body injury" that he re-aggravated in Thursday night's win over the Nashville Predators. This time, the Flyers think he'll be out four weeks.

"Coots is a big loss to our team, but we’ve got a bunch of guys here that believe in what we’re doing," Flyers coach Dave Hakstol said. "Everybody’s gonna have to chip in and take a little bit of that slack. One guy’s not gonna step into that role and do it all. Everybody’s got to step in. we’re gonna keep doing what we’ve been doing, keep fighting and scratching and clawing and playing well."

Couturier, 23, has stepped into a bigger role after signing an extension last summer that will kick in next season. He's always been a defensive magician, usually tasked with shutting down opponent's top lines. He's also taken a step forward offensively. He has nine goals and 24 points in his first 40 games this season. His 0.6 point-per-game average is up from last year's 0.45. He's almost as tough to replace offensively as he is defensively.