Nolan Patrick is ready to return as the Flyers will ‘find out a lot about our guys’ in the last 11 games

After missing two games because he took a teammate’s shot off his ear and the side of his head, Flyers center Nolan Patrick will resume his comeback season Thursday against the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden.

In Thursday’s 2-1 shootout win over the Penguins, Patrick — who missed all of last season because of a migraine disorder — absorbed friendly fire from defenseman Phil Myers and left the game, then missed subsequent losses to Washington and the Islanders.

“It was scary,” Patrick said after participating in the Flyers’ practice Tuesday in Voorhees. “I didn’t have any headache issues the last couple days, so that was nice.”

Patrick, 22, was asked what he was hoping to accomplish in the season’s final 11 games.

“Just try to keep improving and get closer to finding the top of my game,” he said. “Obviously it’s been a tough year up and down.”

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Patrick has four goals, four assists, and a minus-19 rating in 42 games.

Coming back from more than a year of inactivity has not been easy, and Patrick has appeared tentative at times, perhaps concerned about protecting his head.

Returning and playing “a tight schedule with a lot of games has probably been the toughest thing,” he said. “... Let’s see what we can do in the last 11 games here.”

The Flyers are 11 points behind Boston, which has one game in hand and holds the final East Division playoff spot.

“What I want us to do is be pros and do our jobs,” coach Alain Vigneault said of the final three weeks. “Coaches are going to get the team prepared for the opposition, and the players have to get themselves prepared to execute. We’re going to find out a lot about our guys in these last games.”

“You see the character in guys in tougher moments,” center Sean Couturier said. “It’s not easy right now, and we’ll see how guys respond.”

Myers said the Flyers “have to bring our A-game the rest of the year and not worry about the results. We just have to play hard, play well, play for the Philly culture here.”

Vigneault said there were a couple of young players the Flyers will probably take a look at, “and we’re going to use our time wisely.”

In addition to giving rookies Wade Allison and Tanner Laczynski playing time, the Flyers are expected to give center Jackson Cates and defenseman Cam York a look-see at some point this season. Cates practiced with the team Tuesday, and York is with the Phantoms. Laczynski is sidelined with a lower-body injury that does not appear to be serious.

“Right now, I want our guys to be in the present and focus on the Rangers,” Vigneault said.

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The Flyers are coming off Sunday’s 1-0 overtime loss to the visiting Islanders, a game they lost when a New York pass deflected off Travis Sanheim’s stick and past goalie Brian Elliott.

“I thought we played real hard last game and really believe we should have come out of the first two periods with a lead,” Vigneault said. “We had some grade-A chances, grade-A opportunities. Should have come out with a win. Didn’t. So let’s focus on doing the right things, playing the right way. We were very good defensively for most of the game except the three-on-three part at the end.”

While the defense has improved lately, the offense has dried up. The Flyers have averaged 2.1 goals over their last 17 games. They averaged 3.3 goals in their first 28 games.

Besides their offense, the Flyers have other areas they need to improve.

“We want to get off to good starts in games,” said Couturier, whose team has allowed the first goal in 13 of the last 15 games. “We want to compete hard. I think we want to be hard to play against; it feels some nights, it’s a little easy to play against us. I think we have to play like last game. We were tight defensively and didn’t give up a whole lot and waited for our chances and were patient.”