Flyers Notes: Gostisbehere Out 3 Weeks, Kase Called Up

By Kevin Durso, Sports Talk Philly editor 

There were several pieces of news from the Flyers day off on Thursday, the first involving another injury on the blue line.

Defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere was unable to play in Wednesday's game against Washington after tweaking his knee late in Tuesday’s game against Carolina. He had an MRI on Wednesday morning and on Thursday is was announced that Gostisbehere will be out for approximately three weeks after having arthroscopic surgery on his left knee.

The injury timeline could actually play into the Flyers favor. The Flyers have six games in the next 12 days, then will have nine days off due to the All-Star break and league-mandated bye week. If the timeline holds, Gostisbehere could be eligible to return in time for the Flyers weekend back-to-back to close January and open February against the Pittsburgh Penguins and Colorado Avalanche.

With both Gostisbehere and Justin Braun now out with injury, this opens the door for regular playing time for Robert Hagg and Mark Friedman. Friedman was just called up on Wednesday and played in his second NHL game on Wednesday night against the Capitals. 

Gostisbehere has five goals and 12 points in 40 games this season.

In addition to the news on Gostisbehere, the Flyers announced that they have called up forward David Kase from the Phantoms and sent down forward Mikhail Vorobyev.

Vorobyev has one goal and three points in 20 games this season. Kase got a brief call-up in the week the Flyers learned of Oskar Lindblom’s diagnosis with Ewing’s sarcoma. He played in the three games on that road trip and the first two home games the following week, scoring his first NHL goal against Anaheim on Dec. 17.

The Flyers return to the ice on Saturday night to face the red-hot Tampa Bay Lightning at 7 p.m.