Jake Voracek's return from injury will have to wait at least one more game. The Flyers forward joined the team at practice late on Monday, but completely ruled out a return for Tuesday night's game against Detroit.
"Not a chance. I have to get a couple skates in and practice with the team first before I can get in a game," Voracek said. "No to tomorrow but hopefully I'm going to get better during the week. I want to go day-to-day and see how I feel. It was good to get that first skate and kind of see how I feel. I'll go from there."
But given his teammates recent play, Voracek isn't worried about the way the team will conduct themselves on Tuesday night, even if he isn't able to join them on the ice.
Tuesday's game is the biggest of the season for the Flyers, and while they all have been big of late, facing the Red Wings would certainly be easier if the Flyers had the benefit of Voracek taking the ice. Voracek, who has missed seven games, likes what he has seen from afar.
"The boys make it easy on me. It's fun to watch them," Voracek said. "The last seven games I've been out, they've played incredible hockey. It's fun to watch them and they're doing a very good job."
Voracek has taken in a few games from the press box and certainly has a new appreciation for the different perspective you get from up top.
"It's interesting to watch from up there," Voracek said. "You see some things you don't see on the ice. Now I know why you guys are so smart."
Voracek's little quip about the media aside, he did look into the playoff race and offer some interesting insight. The Flyers are chasing the Detroit Red Wings — who they by three points — and the Pittsburgh Penguins — by four points — but have carried a 5-1-1 record in the seven games without Voracek into Tuesday's game against Detroit.
Voracek believes that because of the Flyers recent hot streak, the pressure falls on the teams they are chasing to keep winning too.
"I would say we are the hottest team out of three," Voracek said. "We are very good and I'm pretty positive they know that we are playing well. The way we are confident right now, we don't have to be worried about it.
"The way we're playing, they've got to be more worried about not making the playoffs than us because they way we play, everybody knows how good we play right now and everybody watches the games."
The Flyers travel to Chicago on Wednesday right after the Detroit game, so Voracek's status for Wednesday is about as good as it is for Tuesday. At the very least, it sounds like Voracek will be ready to face the Penguins on Saturday, quite the game to make a return.
Kevin Durso is managing editor for Flyerdelphia. Follow him on Twitter @Kevin_Durso.
