Report: Flyers lose one of their top forwards in the second game of the season.

The season is not getting off to a good start for the Philadelphia Flyers.

The Flyers picked up a big win against the Las Vegas Golden Knights in their season opener this past Thursday but the second game of the season quickly brought some bad news for the Flyers. The Flyers were facing off against the Colorado Avalanche on Saturday night when quite suddenly recently signed forward James van Riemsdyk collapsed to the ice with an apparent injury. 

It was difficult to tell from the replay angle what exactly it is that happened to van Riemsdyk but he appeared to be favoring one of his legs or perhaps even his foot, although that is purely speculation at this time. We have no idea how long he may be out but the Flyers did confirm that van Riemsdyk was injured during the game, they also confirmed that the injury was of the lower body variety, and last but not least they also indicated that van Riemsdyk would not return to the contest due to the injury. 

James van Riemsdyk is a very important part of what the Flyers plan to do offensively this season and the organization's lack of scoring depth is likely why general manager Ron Hextall felt he had to go out and acquire van Riesmdyk during the summer of 2018. Hextall gave up a big chunk of cap space to acquire van Riemsdyk as well, the Flyers general manager coughed up a 5 year deal that pays van Riemsdyk an average annual value of $7 million per season and that comes with all the expectations that you would have for a player on that type of deal. 

It's too small of a sample size but early on van Riemsdyk appeared to be living up to those expectations, picking up a point in his first game back with the Flyers on Thursday night but that may have been derailed very early on indeed. It does not sound like the Flyers will be providing any additional updates this evening but they do play again on Tuesday against a tough San Jose Sharks squad so we should know more before the puck drops in that contest.

[pub]