Jamie Drysdale darted off the ice midway through the second period yesterday after receiving a thunderous hit from Penguins forward Jansen Harkins. It was a clean hit, but Harkins caught Drysdale with his head down scrambling for a puck in the neutral zone. He exited the game with his left shoulder dangling awkwardly at his side — the same shoulder he injured last season that cost him an entire season.
We’re now awaiting details regarding severity and timeline. The Flyers are certainly hoping it’s not another torn labrum, which would likely shelve Drysdale four to six months. The coaching staff has been working hard to assimilate the young defenseman into their system, and another significant injury would only serve to stunt his development further.
After practice had just about wrapped up last Monday in Voorhees, Jamie Drysdale and assistant coach Brad Shaw were among the remaining few yet to skate off.
Drysdale had been given an earful twice in the session by head coach John Tortorella, once after a mistake in drills and again during an impassioned center-ice meeting where he challenged the team’s best players to be better. Shaw and Drysdale stood on the faceoff dot to Cal Petersen’s left and chatted alone for several minutes while a small rotation of Flyers took part in shootout attempts.
It shouldn’t be much of a surprise to see them together. After all, Drysdale is the newest member of the Flyers’ blue line and has credited Shaw for making his transition from the Anaheim Ducks to Philadelphia as smooth as it could reasonably be.
“Shaw’s an incredible hockey mind, so I was looking forward to working with him out of the gate,” Drysdale said. “It’s pretty easy to learn from him, to be honest. He doesn’t over complicate anything; he makes it very simple, very plain. I think that’s something that’s easy to learn from, and I’m just going to continue to do that and pick his brain and see what goes on.”
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