Devastating update on Sean Couturier and James van Riemsdyk.

Today is not a good day for the Philadelphia Flyers or the Flyers fan base.

On Saturday, the Flyers announced that veteran forward Sean Couturier would be out for the next 3 to 4 months after undergoing back surgery, a huge loss for the Flyers this early on in the season. Couturier has of course been dealing with a major back issue since last season where he was limited to only 29 games.

There was some hope that he was on his way to recovery during training camp, however a number of setbacks changed that situation quite drastically and has now resulted in Couturier needing another major surgery.

Unfortunately for the Flyers the bad news did not stop there with the team announcing that veteran forward James van Riemsdyk would also be out of the lineup for the next 6 weeks after undergoing a surgical procedure of his own. In the case of van Riemsdyk it is his index finger that is the source of the issue, an issue which will now leave the Flyers without two of their most experienced forwards for quite some time.