Briere to miss two weeks after yet another surgery

5:10 PM UPDATE: Via a text from the Flyers..

Flyers center Danny Briere will be out for at least two weeks following surgery tomorrow.

The Flyers website elaborates more on the situation.

"Due to lingering discomfort in his groin/stomach areas, Danny (Briere) will have an exploratory surgical procedure done tomorrow (Thursday, January 22) by Dr. William Meyers (at Hahnemann University Hospital). Recovery time will be a minimum of two weeks," said Holmgren in making the announcement.

"I am very disappointed," said Briere. "It’s been frustrating not knowing what is going on, so we have decided to go in and check things out."
I guess this voids the suspicion I had this afternoon and Danny really did suffer a sever setback. A bad blow for this guy and the team, and it's getting to the point where we really have to question the Flyers medical staff more, I think. These sort of setbacks happen with our players a whole hell of a lot -- much more than the average NHL team, it seems.

Briere situation dicey; trade winds still strong

1:36 PM Original Post: Sam Carchidi's article in the Inqy today sheds some light on the subject.

"At this point, one game isn't going to change much." -- Danny Briere

"He doesn't feel 100 percent just yet." -- Paul Holmgren
Briere said he was "pretty close to 100 percent" and "confident for Wednesday" on Monday, noting that the games with the Phantoms over the weekend definitely helped him. When the news broke yesterday that Briere would not play tonight, Danny was asked if it was his groin or if it were the salary cap that was the sticking point.

"It's a little bit of both, to be honest." -- Danny Briere

Holmgren quickly shot that down. If there is any slice of a possibility that it's the cap and not his leg that's keeping him out, I'm concerned. If that is the case, which it seems like it is, I'd expect a trade coming shortly. It wouldn't make any sense for Briere to be held out of the lineup for cap reasons if a trade weren't on the table, because the solutions are so obvious. Homer said he's talked to Luca Sbisa and Claude Giroux about possible demotion, and Sbisa has been a healthy scratch in seven of the last 13 games. Demoting Sbisa, Giroux, and Kukkonen would put the Flyers under the cap.

As discussed the other day, Randy Jones has been mentioned in a lot of trade talk, and since this cap situation isn't being solved the easy way, I'm going to take a guess that Homer is trying to dump Jones. Just speculation of course, but I can see him using the all-star break as time to complete a deal before Briere would re-enter the lineup next Tuesday.