Carter Hart Among Injured Flyers; Camp Notebook

This is starting to look like last season.

The Philadelphia Flyers are again decimated by injuries — and the season hasn’t even started.

In the summer, Joel Farabee and Bobby Brink were injured while working out. Sean Couturier re-injured his back recently, and Ryan Ellis, who played just four games last season because of a pelvic injury, has not made any progress. Ellis is expected to miss the entire 2022-23 season.

On Sunday, more bad news: Carter Hart and Artem Anisimov each have lower-body injuries, and Cam Atkinson has an upper-body problem. All are day to day, per GM Chuck Fletcher.

Of the three players, only Anisimov played in the Flyers’ 2-1 preseason win Saturday over visiting Boston. He may have been injured blocking a shot.

A year ago, the Flyers lost about 500 man-games because of injuries, their highest total since at least 2007-08, the first season that data was available..

They seem to be on a similar path in training camp.

PHN: Torts Explains Why He Referred to Flyers’ Locker Room as ‘Splintered’ 

New coach John Tortorella was talking in generalities and not referring to the latest injuries Sunday when he said: “Why can’t we be the best-conditioned team in the league? That’s something we can control.”

In other camp news:

• Tortorella had no update on Sean Couturier, who went to a back specialist Thursday. Tortorella said he just wants the trainers to tell him when Couturier is ready to go, and doesn’t want to hear percentages on how healthy he is.
• Jackson Cates, a center who looks much-improved from last season, had the only shootout goal Sunday as Team White defeated Team Orange, 2-1, in an afternoon intrasquad scrimmage. Theo Rochette (Orange) and Zayde Widsom (White) also scored. Cates had the late game-winner Saturday over Boston.
• In the morning scrimmage, Morgan Frost and James van Riemsdyk each had a goal and an assist, leading Team Orange past White, 3-1. Max Willman scored on a penalty shot for the winners.
• Tortorella said he “totally respects” how Wade Allison defended teammate Antoine Roussel by fighting Boston’s Connor Carrick on Saturday. But getting 17 minutes of penalties on the sequence threw him out of his rhythm, the coach said. He also said the 10-minute misconduct was undeserved.
• Torts saluted veteran defenseman Justin Braun, saying he’s not the fastest player out there, but that his teammates should take notice of how hard he works. “Not too many in this building try as much as he does,” Tortorella said.
• Hard-nosed right winger Hayden Hodgson, a late bloomer, believes his style fits with Tortorella’s. He was at his camp when Torts coached Columbus. I’ll have a story on his cool journey Monday.
• After a day off Monday, the Philadelphia Flyers play back-to-back to back preseason games Tuesday (in Buffalo) and Wednesday (vs. Washington).