Ashlyn Sullivan reports from Flyers media day, where players are ready to turn the page after narrowly missing the playoffs last season.
VOORHEES, N.J. — Nick Seeler missed a fourth straight practice Tuesday after taking a puck to the peroneal nerve in his right leg a week ago.
The Flyers are considering him day to day and his status for the team's regular-season opener Friday on the road against the Canucks appears uncertain (10 p.m. ET/NBCSP).
Seeler's absence from the Flyers' last two practices to start this week became concerning considering the team had off over the weekend. The defenseman was actually able to practice a day after suffering the injury against the Bruins in the second period when he cut off a pass with a full-out slide. But has been out since that practice.
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"It was like a harmless play, but it hit that peroneal nerve," Seeler said last Wednesday. "It just went numb, so I couldn't feel the foot or the leg. ... I got up and I'm like, 'What the heck just happened? I can't feel my leg.'"
The 31-year-old is still dealing with some numbness and effects from the play. Last Friday, he took the ice briefly to test the injury but didn't stay for practice.
"It's sure taking a lot longer than we thought," Flyers assistant coach Brad Shaw said Tuesday. "Most of those, you get the sensation back and you get your feeling back in minutes or hours at the most. And it has been a few days now."
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If Seeler is unable to play Friday, Erik Johnson is expected to slot into the lineup. The 36-year-old veteran is the only extra defenseman currently on the Flyers' roster. Before the opener, the team is scheduled to have one more practice, which will be Thursday in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Seeler is an important piece to the club's back end. He's a second-pair guy alongside Jamie Drysdale and arguably the Flyers' truest defender. The team struggled last season when he went down in March.
"We're just playing it as sort of a day-to-day thing and we'll see," Shaw said. "It's just tough, we don't want to put him on the ice when he can't control ... just doesn't have a real good sense of where that edge is, so it becomes dangerous. We'll be smart about it. Hopefully he's ready to go, but we'll deal with it day to day."
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