Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Meszaros to Undergo Back Surgery

The regular season for Andrej Meszaros has officially ended and now his availability for the playoffs in definitely in question, as the Flyers have announced that one of their key defensemen will have to undergo back surgery this week to remove some disc fragments in his back and it will keep him out for the next 6-to-8 weeks for recovery. With three weeks left in the regular season, that would mean he would miss about a month of the playoffs, assuming that the Flyers can put together a long run this Spring.

Meszaros will leave a sizeable hole in the Flyers defense down the stretch and into the playoffs, as he has been able to contribute 7 goals and 18 assists this season for the Flyers, which going into the week was good enough for 278th in pool scoring, which isn't bad for a defenseman. Meszaros had to eat up a lot of time with the injury situation on the blueline for the Flyers and now he is just adding to it.  The team will have to find a way to work around this, but they did acquire some depth at the deadline, so it will now be put to the test at the very least.

ImplicationsThis makes for a poor finish to the season for Jani K., who goes into Tuesday night's action in 10th spot. As it was announced on the weekend, it looks like those in the top 10 are safe for the last three weeks, so I don't see Jani dropping out with the loss of a defenseman, but 10th may be as high as he goes this year.

Meszaros was not included on the playoff pool for the Flyers, so there won't be an extra land mine to avoid when selecting your team, which is a positive.

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