Travis Konecny back in Flyers’ lineup; Oskar Lindblom visits team after cancer diagnosis

One day after losing Joel Farabee to a three-game suspension, another right winger, Travis Konecny, was back in the Flyers’ lineup Tuesday against visiting Anaheim.

Konecny, sidelined for three games because of a concussion, couldn’t have returned at a better time.

The Flyers went 0-3 without Konecny, and their offense turned stale, scoring a total of five goals in that span.

“He brings energy and skill; he’s one of our top players,” captain Claude Giroux said after Tuesday’s morning skate.

Giroux’s goal in the 4-1 win over Anaheim tied him with Konecny and Oskar Lindblom for the team lead with 11. Konecny had an assist for his team-best 29th point.

Konecny was on a line with Sean Couturier and Giroux.

The other lines: Kevin Hayes centered James van Riemsdyk and Nic Aube-Kubel; Morgan Frost centered David Kase and Jake Voracek; and Misha Vorobyev centered Andy Andreoff and Chris Stewart.

Lindblom, who will have treatment for a rare bone cancer in the near future, visited with the players in the locker room before the morning skate.

“Kind of emotional to see him again," Giroux said.

“I felt it was important for him, and especially important for his teammates, to see him,” coach Alain Vigneault said. “He’s got a tremendous amount of support obviously from his family and from his extended family, the Flyers, their wives and the coaches and their wives and the great fans we have here in Philly and across the states that will support him. Hockey is a real strong and good community, and Oskar is a real good person. He’s going to be around and he’s going to be back as soon as he possibly can."

Vigneault said Lindblom “almost was tempted to skate this morning.”

Seeing him in the locker room “was the best thing that could happen to us," Vigneault said. “In the last week since we found out [his condition] in Denver, this was the best day internally in how we feel. To see him smiling [was uplifting].”

Vigneault said that with everything going on his life, Lindblom took the time to recently text Konecny to see how he was feeling when he battled his concussion. “That’s just the type of young man that we have — strong," Vigneault said. "He’s like the hockey community. He’s going to have a lot of support and he’s going to get through this.”

Andreoff was recalled from the Phantoms and Carsen Twarynski was sent back to Lehigh Valley. ... The Flyers originally said Tyler Pitlick had a concussion, but GM Chuck Fletcher said he might have been sinus-related issues. Pitlick is feeling a lot better and might be able to play Thursday or Saturday. … Scott Laughton (groin) will be sidelined at least through the holiday break, Fletcher said, adding that Michael Raffl (broken finger) might be able to return early in the Flyers’ post-Christmas road trip. … Nolan Patrick is still week to week.