Activated from injured reserve, Flyers winger James van Riemsdyk will play vs. Capitals

On Tuesday, one day before the Flyers’ home game against the Washington Capitals, winger James van Riemsdyk connected with his younger brother, Capitals defenseman Trevor van Riemsdyk. The elder van Riemsdyk brother played it “coy” with his sibling about the state of his surgically repaired left index finger, not wanting to — literally — show his hand about a potential return to the Flyers’ lineup.

But coach John Tortorella made the big reveal for him on Wednesday morning, confirming that van Riemsdyk will return to game action for the first time in roughly six weeks since breaking his finger against the San Jose Sharks on Oct. 23. General manager Chuck Fletcher made the decision official by activating him from injured reserve.

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“His strength of his game is power play,” Tortorella said. “Underneath-the-hash-marks offense. He’s a veteran guy who I thought was playing really good before he got hurt. So it’ll give us a boost.”

Before exiting the lineup, van Riemsdyk ranked third on the team in points through six games with five (two goals, three assists). Both goals and an assist came on the power play, where he has been a fixture at the front of the net.

Tortorella said van Riemsdyk won’t have any limitations in his first game back, and he will jump back in at five-on-five and on the power play. Because of the location of the injury, van Riemsdyk has been able to maintain his conditioning since his Oct. 28 surgery. Before joining the team for practices and morning skates this week, van Riemsdyk took part in plenty of rehab skates with skills coach Angelo Ricci.

“It’s kind of weird, this sort of injury, where you where you feel fine,” van Riemsdyk said. “It’s obviously just a small piece, but big impact on what you can and can’t do. It’s definitely a long road and progression to get to this point to be back with the team.”

This type of injury isn’t foreign to van Riemsdyk. One week before the 2019-20 season came to an abrupt end at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, van Riemsdyk sustained a fracture to his right index finger. There’s a big difference in how van Riemsdyk uses his left hand (which holds the bottom of the stick) compared to his right (which holds the top), but he still was able to draw from that experience when figuring out how to manage his latest injury and what sort of added protection he should wear.

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“You just try to play around with different things and hopefully find something that makes you a little more comfortable and ... just able to do the things that you need to do,” van Riemsdyk said. “So it’s a fine line. Obviously, you want to be protected, but you have to be able to function out there, too.”

However, last time around, van Riemsdyk had about five months to recover before the season resumed with the modified playoffs. This time, van Riemsdyk is set to return after a relatively brief layoff.

Van Riemsdyk understands he might not be completely back to his old self immediately, but he’s looking forward to helping the team as best he can offensively. In the last 20 games without van Riemsdyk, the Flyers rank 29th in the league in goals with 47. The Flyers went just 5-10-5 during that stretch (4-2 before it). But beyond putting up points, a young Flyers team will eagerly welcome back one of its veteran leaders and most experienced players.

“I think as far as being one of the older guys, it’s about doing the right things, managing the game right,” van Riemsdyk said. “Making good decisions and setting a good example in that way, too. There are different times and places that you want to maybe look for certain plays, and other times when you want to live to fight another day. And I think that mental side of the game has always been a strength of mine as far as just reading the game in that sense.”

Goalie Carter Hart (8-7-4, .911 save percentage) will make his fifth consecutive start on Wednesday. ... Forward Max Willman will come out of the lineup with van Riemsdyk making his return. ... Tortorella anticipates sending defenseman Egor Zamula down to the Lehigh Valley Phantoms during their four-game road trip that starts Friday with a visit to the Vegas Golden Knights. “I think we need to develop him and there’s a couple other D down there that we want to [develop],” Tortorella said. “But when we went down this road here, where we’re just coming up empty, you also owe it to your team, too, sometimes that you’re trying to win some games here also to try to get off the schneid. So it switched a little bit.”