Chris Pronger Returns Following Scary Eye Injury

By Alexander Monaghan
Editor-in-chief

Chris Pronger will play tonight as noted by multiple Philadelphia media outlets. Somehow his eye failed to pop out of his socket following this gruesome event:

Nevertheless, Pronger is expected to return with the lines looking something like this. Before we tell you to set your respective lineups accordingly, let’s look at some tidbits while he was out:

Pronger missed only six games due to this infliction. The last guy to go down with an eye injury was Manny Malhotra, who missed 10 regular season games before missing 19 postseason games. It also should be noted that Malhotra was not immediately available to the team during the preseason as he suffered a minor setback. A similar situation may happen to the Flyers’ captain even though he remains one tough cookie.
Without Pronger, the team lost their initial two games 5-1 and 9-8 — a minus-5 goal differential. They then went 3-0-1 over their next four with a plus-11 goal differential. In other words, his impact will be positive but this team is already rolling on all cylinders.
Prior to the injury he appeared fully recovered from his littany of ailments, on pace to out-hit, out-shoot, out-score, out-produce, etc. his totals of last season. He looked back to his dominant levels. and should continue rolling out the counting stats should that wonky, old eye of his work.
As Dan Murphy of Sportsnet, via Twitter, reported, Pronger will wear a visor for the first time since May of 1993. You can probably liken it to a dog trying to take off a protective cone.

For other analysis, we take a look at friend David Strehle of NHLhotstove.com’s thoughts. From NHLhotstove.com:

While the visor issue is unclear, one thing that is crystal clear, though, is what he believes the team needs to do to continue to be successful.
“I think our attention to detail in our own zone, and making sure we do all the little things that allow you to win hockey games,” he said about his team’s play. “We need to get back to that.”
The Flyers have done a much better job in their own zone since the atrocious defensive effort against Winnipeg, posting a 3-0-1 record in the four games since. In those four contests, Philly yielded just eight goals.

Now set your lineups accordingly.