By Kevin Durso, Sports Talk Philly editor 
The Flyers are set to return to the ice from a four-day break on Thursday night against the Chicago Blackhawks.
All signs point to Radko Gudas returning to the lineup, marking one more injured player back for the Flyers. Forward Nolan Patrick and defensemen Andrew MacDonald and Sam Morin remain sidelined with injuries.
GM Ron Hextall provided an update on each on Thursday.
Patrick skated prior to the Flyers morning skate. He has been skating alone before the team's practices and is starting to near a return.
"He's making progress and it's a matter of ramping up a little bit everyday and hopefully things continue on the path they're going right now," Hextall said. "It's taken longer than we thought. Certainly than we hoped but he skated today everything went good, he worked out and things are good."
The hope is for Patrick to be able to make the trip with the Flyers next week as they face Minnesota and Winnipeg on the road. Patrick has been out since Oct. 24, when he suffered an upper-body injury against Anaheim. In nine games, he has one goal and two assists.
MacDonald is starting to get closer to returning as well. Hextall noted that progress has been good with the veteran defenseman.
"He's right on schedule," Hextall said, and he's at the front end of the [4-6 week timetable] is what we expect. We hope he's skating next week."
MacDonald suffered the lower-body injury in the Flyers win over Edmonton on Oct. 21. The team announced the next day that he would be out four-to-six weeks. The timeline for return has him on track to be back in the lineup possibly around Thanksgiving.
Sam Morin is also still a week away from returning, according to Hextall. The Flyers were prepared to call up Morin, but had to make a different move after learning of an injury to the 6'7" defender.
The Flyers host the Blackhawks on Thursday night and the Minnesota Wild on Saturday night before their two road games next week.
