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Michal Neuvirth to miss 7-10 days with a lower body injury; Anthony Stolarz called up to Flyers

UPDATE, 10:19 a.m. ET: The Flyers have recalled Anthony Stolarz to take Neuvirth’s place.

Stolarz played in Syracuse on Monday night in the AHL All-Star Game, so odds are we won’t see him playing in tonight’s game unless things get dire for Steve Mason. But with a crowded schedule over the next week and change, odds are high that Stolarz will make his NHL debut some time before he’s sent back down to Lehigh Valley. He’s posted a .915 save percentage in 29 games with the Phantoms this year.

Neuvirth has not officially been put on injured reserve as of this writing, but it seems likely that he will be shortly.

Stolarz will wear number 65 with the Flyers. He was recalled briefly on emergency conditions earlier this season, but was only on the roster for one game before being sent back to Lehigh Valley and didn’t play in that one game.

Original post below.

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The Flyers have gotten largely excellent goaltending this year when their two starters have been healthy, so since we’re generally not allowed to have nice things when it comes to goalies here in Philadelphia, today’s news may not come as much of a surprise:

Neuvirth left the ice early in yesterday’s practice and didn’t return, and Hextall declined to provide any follow-up information at that time on the goalie’s status. It’s unclear what’s wrong with Neuvirth, but it sounded like something was bugging him last week before the All-Star break. Reports from after the Boston game on Monday had him showing a bit of a limp after that game, so whether or not this is related to that is anyone’s guess (though he did still play on Wednesday in Washington).

Steve Mason himself was dealing with some injury problems last week, which forced the Flyers to recall Jason LaBarbera from Lehigh Valley on emergency conditions. We’ve received no update on his status, but it seems likely at this point that he’ll start tonight against Montreal.

With Anthony Stolarz having played last night in the AHL All-Star Game in Syracuse, odds are that LaBarbera will be called up again to back Mason up. Then again, with the Flyers set to face four games in the next six days including a difficult back-to-back this weekend against the Rangers and Capitals, it’s possible that the Flyers will look to call up the guy who’s outright been the better goalie this year, which would be Stolarz. We’ll see.

In any case, Neuvirth has been a revelation in the Flyers’ “backup” spot this year, as he’s posted a .933 save percentage in 21 appearances in net. Let’s hope he’s back out on the ice soon.

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