Flyers forward Derick Brassard cleared to return from lower-body strain after two weeks out

NEWARK, N.J. — Over the past two weeks, forward Derick Brassard was forced to watch six games of the Flyers’ free fall from the training table.

In a word, Brassard said not being able to help his struggling team was “brutal.”

» READ MORE: Flyers' players out of excuses following Alain Vigneault's firing

Now, after two weeks of recovering from a lower-body strain sustained against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Nov. 23, Brassard will rejoin the lineup on Wednesday night when the Flyers take on the New Jersey Devils.

“I know I’ve been out for a long time,” Brassard said. “Honestly, as a hockey player, you want to feel the puck every day. You want to be out there in every situation. Yeah, I’ll try to help out and bring some good energy, good passion out there, good emotion, and hopefully, we have a good game.”

In his last full game on Nov. 20 against the Boston Bruins, Brassard scored two goals — one on the power play — as a second-line center. Against the Devils, and for the first time this season, Brassard will skate on the left wing on the fourth line alongside center Patrick Brown and right winger Zack MacEwen.

“Mac has been playing pretty good,” Brassard said. “I liked his energy a lot the last few games. And he’s been a pretty good add for our team since we got him from Vancouver. And Browny was out for a while. I think it was his first game when we played Tampa. So we just got to get on the same page, bring some good energy.”

No, the Flyers couldn’t manage a win over the Colorado Avalanche and their high-powered offense on Monday night. However, interim coach Mike Yeo found a positive for the Flyers in their loss to the Avalanche: Winger Oskar Lindblom finally scored his first goal of the season.

“It was an important goal for that game, too, even though we didn’t come back,” Lindblom said. “And right away, G [Claude Giroux] got the 3-4 goal there. So it was a big goal, and it felt great, but now we have to keep going. I can’t stop now. I have to keep getting better.”

For the first time in 2021-22, Yeo moved Lindblom to the first line alongside center Sean Couturier and winger Travis Konecny. The trio played together for 26 games during the 2019-20 season.

“Two years ago, when [Lindblom] was having success, before he dealt with what he had to deal with, he was a guy that everybody wanted to play with because he played the game the right way,” Yeo said after the game, referring to Lindblom’s bout with bone cancer. “He managed the puck. He was strong on the puck. He didn’t throw it away needlessly. He was strong in position. He did all the little things. So that’s what I asked him to do.”

Lindblom’s goal in the first period, a one-timer at the front of the net off a feed from Konecny, marked his first since April 27, 2021. At the beginning of this season, Lindblom was primarily utilized on the third line at left wing. After he was bumped up to the second line on Nov. 12 against the Carolina Hurricanes, he was dropped down to the fourth line for the next game against the Dallas Stars and finished the night minus-3.

The following game against the Calgary Flames, Lindblom was a healthy scratch. Leading up to Vigneault’s firing, Lindblom fluctuated between the third and fourth lines. Now, Lindblom will have another opportunity to play with Couturier and Konecny on the first line against the Devils.

“I feel like we have good chemistry,” Lindblom said. “I know where they are on the ice. They’re easy to play with. And of course, they make good plays and give me opportunities to score out there.”

Goalie Carter Hart (.911 save percentage, 2.95 goals-against average) gets the start against the Devils. ... Player development coach Nick Schultz will be behind the bench to assist a shorthanded Yeo. Schultz played for Yeo when he coached the Minnesota Wild in 2011-12. Said Yeo: “To have a resource like Nick, a guy that I coached, a guy that I know knows the game very well, and also has experienced the development side of things and a real good person, real good personality, like last game, you saw Lappy [Ian Laperrière] on the bench. So this is a great resource for us.”