Flyers call up Patrick Brown following his lengthy recovery from back surgery

BOSTON — If you have to undergo back surgery, the best time to do it is exactly when Patrick Brown did it.

At the end of the Flyers season in April, Brown finished a check and felt a pinch in his back. He was sore, but as a hockey player, it’s not abnormal to have back pain. Then, after a few weeks, it suddenly got “way worse.” He went to get it checked and was told he had to have surgery.

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“Best time to do it probably was right at the end of the season,” Brown said. “So I had the whole summer to recover. Took a little longer than I wanted to, but that’s kind of the nature of the beast.”

Now, Brown seems to be nearing the end of his recovery journey. There wasn’t really a turning point, but rather slow progression. Eventually, he went from a screaming pain in his back when he tried to get out of bed to some soreness when he picked his kids up to taking hits from Nicolas Deslauriers at practice.

The center joined the team for practice on Oct. 21 in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and has gradually worked his way back into things. The biggest sign he was almost ready came Monday when the Flyers loaned him to the Lehigh Valley Phantoms on a conditioning assignment.

Brown, 30, didn’t even play a game before the Flyers activated him from injured reserve, called him back up, and slotted him into the lineup. He said the Flyers’ plan was to send him down for two hard practices to make sure he was ready because the Flyers haven’t had a practice in 10 days.

“I thought it was a great idea: Go get two more hard practices in before they wanted to put me in a game,” Brown said.

At the morning skate on Thursday, Brown immediately slotted in on the fourth line and the penalty kill. His teammates were shoving him around, and he took it all with a smile. Brown, who scored four goals and tallied nine points in 44 games last season, will play right wing on the Flyers’ fourth line on Tuesday against the Boston Bruins.

In the weeks leading up to his return, Brown said they’ve been diligent in making sure he was stable enough to play. They’ve also made sure he’s in the right condition. He’s been working out, but no amount of riding the bike can replicate skating in an NHL game.

Through his rehab, Brown said he spent a lot of time with Sean Couturier, who recently underwent his second back surgery. Now that Brown is back playing, he said he’s still been checking in with Couturier.

“He’s been giving me updates,” Brown said. “And I think he’s doing well. He’s got a good mindset, and I think he’s going to come back even better.”

Coach John Tortorella walked into his news conference in Columbus, Ohio, on Tuesday morning looking like he’d dropped the gloves with Deslauriers. He had a cut across his cheek, a busted lip, and a potentially broken nose.

No hockey player did that to him, though. He received a kick in the face from one of his horses.

Tortorella and his wife, Christine, are passionate about helping animals and have rescued three horses. The two of them were feeding them and getting them ready for the night following Sunday’s game against the Dallas Stars.

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Then they brought out the treats. Tortorella was brushing Chevy’s underbelly when things got a little crazy. Chevy, according to Zack Bendler, from whom Tortorella got the rescue, is the horse that has Tortorella’s heart.

“The next thing I know, I’m on the ground,” Tortorella said. “Because the Appaloosa, Rose, who’s the boss, I think [she] wanted the treats by herself. She wanted everybody out of there. So I just kind of got in her way.”

That had never happened before, Tortorella said. Christine was trying to get Chevy out of the barn because Rose just kept kicking. Tortorella knows he’s lucky he took it to the face instead the side of the head. Because horses kick hard.

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“Google it,” Tortorella said. “Look how quick a horse comes in when she wants to start kicking.”

Carter Hart (6-2-3, .929 save percentage) will start in net for the Flyers against the Boston Bruins at TD Garden (7 p.m., NBCSP). “He’s going to have to be good tonight,” Tortorella said of Hart. The Bruins boast a league-best 14-2-0 record. ... With Brown back, newcomer Kieffer Bellows will come out of the lineup. ... The Flyers are in the midst of a four-game losing skid. No one, from the players to the coach, minced words about how important Thursday’s game is.