Flyers forward Noah Cates out 6-8 weeks with broken foot

Earlier on Tuesday, coach John Tortorella said that Noah Cates was “banged up” and will be out of the Flyers lineup for a significant amount of time. During his postgame presser, he let it slip that Cates broke his foot.

The Flyers announced that Cates will miss 6-8 weeks.

Cates hobbled to the bench after blocking a shot during the second period of Saturday’s 1-0 shootout win against the Islanders on Long Island. Tortorella said postgame he thought it was on a shot by Ryan Pulock that he broke his foot. Cates played through it and did not miss a shift across his 14 minutes, 12 seconds of ice time, including 1:50 while shorthanded.

“Definitely [expletive],” Joel Farabee told The Inquirer about the loss of Cates following Tuesday’s morning skate. “He’s a really good player for us, especially defensively. He lays his body on the line every game. He had a really strong game, I felt like, on the Island.

“Obviously blocked a few shots, that’s gonna put him out, but that’s just how he plays. He’ll never complain about anything. I’ve only heard positive things come from him, even when he’s hurt and playing. We’re going to miss him.”

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The forward has been shuffled up and down the lineup and across the forward positions. On Saturday, he played on the wing with Ryan Poehling and Farabee and finished with three shots on five attempts and two blocked shots.

After the game, Tortorella was impressed with Cates’ shift to a more offensive game.

”I think he took a chance and tried to make more offensive plays,” Tortorella said. “That’s the thing that’s been missing from Noah’s game. He’s very comfortable playing the defensive part of it; he did it all last year. We’re asking him to do more. I thought he made an attempt to do that today. He held on to pucks. There are certain pucks, just entering the blue line offensively where earlier in the year, he’s just throwing them in deep. He held on to it, made some plays.”

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Cates, 24, is not having a great week. He needed almost 30 stitches on his upper lip on Friday after getting hit by a Cam Atkinson clearing attempt. Cates has played in all 21 of the team’s games to this point in the season, registering one goal and four points. Tuesday against the Hurricanes will be the first game of his NHL career that he will miss.

“It’s tough, especially the last game, he’s a warrior and he plays a lot of hard minutes for us, and last game, I thought he really found his stride, too,” Poehling said. “We were connecting well — me, him, Beez played well together for the time being. But we’re definitely going to miss him defensively, and I think he was starting to produce offensively, too. He was finding a rhythm. So for us, it’s a big loss, but, at the end of the day, we’ve got to hold down the fort until he’s back.”

The Flyers’ power play is, fair to say, struggling. Entering Tuesday, the team is ranked 29th in the NHL (10.1%). Tortorella still isn’t panicking with the power play.

The plan, as of now, is to not change the foundation or switch to a different structure from the commonly used 1-3-1.

“I don’t think it’s the structure,” Tortorella said. “I think it’s just us reading plays quicker. First of all, we have to shoot the puck more. ... We’re not consistent there. But the biggest thing is when there’s open ice, when we’re moving east-west, and we get some open ice, I think we’ve got to be quicker on our next play. ... So I see that as a weakness in our power play, puck movement.”

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One change to the lineup will be the insertion of Garnet Hathaway on the second power-play unit with Cates out. The 6-foot-2 forward, who will be the net-front guy, does not have a power-play point in his 478 NHL games but did get some time on the man advantage with the Washington Capitals.

“I’d love to help the guys get a goal tonight,” Hathaway said. “Maybe it’s creating a little chaos, something that we haven’t shown throughout this year. But it’s just a matter of time.”

Bobby Brink will slot back into the lineup with Cates out. Brink was a healthy scratch Saturday on Long Island. ... The defensive pairings will remain the same with Egor Zamula scratched for his second straight game. ... Tuesday night’s game is the Flyers’ annual Hockey Fights Cancer Night. Youth hockey player Owen Micciche, 9, will be added to the roster and have his own stall in the locker room, take a rookie lap, and read the starting lineup. Diagnosed at 6 months old, scans over the summer revealed new tumors in his brain and spine. According to the Flyers website, getting back to hockey has been his biggest motivation.