Sean Couterier, arguably the Philadelphia Flyers’ best two-way forward, will miss the next two weeks with an upper-body injury after taking a hard hit along the boards from Alex Ovechkin in the second period of Game One.
#Ovechkin knocks #Couturier out of the game in the 2nd period with this hit #CapsFlyers 1-0 pic.twitter.com/SvEWxGcF33
— meh Caps (@CapitalsHill) April 15, 2016
Couterier, AKA Coots, has been essential to the Flyers success this season. The club went 35-18-10 with him in the lineup, and a mere 6-9-4 when he was absent.
The 6’3”, 211 lbs. second-line center is a key member of the Flyers special teams. He’s a contributor on the power play and a vital penalty killer. Not to mention, this is a series that so far has been filled with penalties.
The 23-year-old is frequently assigned to defend opponents’ key offensive players. Most notably, Couterier shut down and got under the skin of the 2012 MVP, Evgeni Malkin, in the Flyers 4-2 series victory over the Penguins in the 2012 Eastern Conference Quarterfinals.
The Flyers second line of Raffl-Couterier-Schenn was expected to spend a lot of time matching up against the Capitals’ top line of Ovechkin-Backstrom-Oshie. Now the guys from Philly need a new strategy to slow down the Caps’ star trio.
Expect Scott Laughton, 21, who has been a healthy scratch for nine of the past 11 games and never played a postseason game, to be thrust into the lineup to replace Couterier.
