By Barbara Harrison
The Flyers will open their home season tonight against the Anaheim Ducks.
But they will do it without Michael Raffl.
He suffered an abdominal pull in Tuesday’s 7-4 loss to Chicago, and GM Ron Hextall said Raffl will miss the next 10-14 days with the ailment.
Raffl, 28, had one goal through the first three games of the season, and opened the year on the club’s top line next to Claude Giroux and Wayne Simmonds. The Austrian winger has been a good goalscorer for the Flyers over the last two campaigns, netting 13 goals last year and a career-best 21 during the ’14-15 campaign.
Brayden Schenn, who is set to return from his suspension, could plug the lineup hole left by Raffl’s injury.
It’s also possible Nick Cousins could be back for the Ducks’ game.
Cousins was dropped from the Blackhawks game so the club could give KHL free agent signing Roman Lyubimov his NHL debut, and the Russian received just over 10 minutes of ice time.
As for Raffl, the 10-14 day recovery window means he’ll likely miss five games — Anaheim, Carolina, Montreal, Buffalo, Arizona — but could be back in time for a big tilt on Saturday, Oct. 29, when the Flyers take on their bitter rivals, the Pittsburgh Penguins.
