Paul Holmgren transcript courtesy of the Flyers:


Q: Paul, can you tell us how this injury happened, and where and when?

“It’s been bothering Ray [Emery] probably since, I want to say, before mid-November, and it’s gotten progressively worse. The tests and the MRIs and everything that we had done showed the tear in his abdominal wall. We tried to approach it through rehab and through cortisone injections and stuff like that. It just wasn’t progressive to the point where [we] or Ray felt comfortable moving forward, so we decided to move ahead and get this surgery done.”



Q: Was there a specific game where he was injured?

“He can’t pin-point a specific game. I want to say it was certainly before we went out on the west coast where it started to bother him, and I think on that trip it continued to get worse and worse.”



Q: Is this at all similar to Simon Gagne’s injury?

“Well, I won’t know that for sure until tomorrow when the doctor gets in there. The actual way the doctor terms it, it sounds like it’s similar. But again, we won’t know until tomorrow.”



Q: Are you baffled at all of the groin/abdominal injuries this team has suffered?

“I’m not sure we’re alone though. I think it’s a league-wide thing. I think a lot of it is just the speed of the games since the lockout. Because of the new rules package, it’s a lot faster out there. In terms of goaltenders, it’s chaos in front of the net with shots coming from every angle, bodies coming at you. There’s a lot of things going on at a very high rate of speed.”



Q: Sometimes it takes longer for goalies to come back from these injuries…

“Well, I think that’s why right now, I think we’re going to say it’s probably going to be six weeks, assuming it’s a surgery like Simon or like some of the other guys have had. Those guys are players so we would put six weeks on it now, and I’ll know more tomorrow.”



Q: Are you confident you can get through this with just what you have now?

“You know, I’m kind of… I can go two ways on that. I’m anxious to see how Johan [Backlund] handles this, being here. He’s played very well for us in the American [Hockey] League. Everybody knows it’s his first year over here in North America, but at the same time, we always have to look to improve our club, so we’ll see how it goes.”



Q: Will Johan get a shot to play?

“Given the schedule, I would say he probably will at some point. We’re in a stretch now where we’re playing literally four games a week for the next two weeks, so it’s a difficult stretch.”



Q: Ray has really slumped in the last two weeks. Do you attribute that to the injury?

“Absolutely. I think just from watching Ray in practice, and you guys who follow the team on a regular basis know how hard he practices. Ray is a down young man today because he feels like he let his team down and everything like that. But, he’s been fighting through this and trying every which way to get through this. In my opinion, he couldn’t practice the way he normally practices, and I think his game suffered.”



Q: Are you going to wait to see how Johan plays or practices before you possibly look outside the organization?

“You never know until you stick a guy in how he’s going to do. It’s not like he’s a young kid, Johan, he’s 27 or 28 years old. If the coaches decide they’re going to play him, I have no problem with that. We have to find out at some point. Having said that, we’ll look around to see what’s available.”



Q: Is it a pretty frustrating time for the organization? It’s about as tough as it can get.

“Yeah, it’s no fun being around here right now, for any of us. The players certainly want to get out of this sooner rather than later. The one good thing about our sport, especially now, is we have games every other day. So, there’s always something to look forward to, and we’ll try to work to win the game tonight.”



Q: I see [David] Laliberte was called up. Was anybody sent down, or is he an extra guy?

“No, just extra guys right now.”



Q: Is it unfair to say these next 10 or 12 games could help make or break this season?

“That’s a good question, I don’t know. To me, I look at the standings, and this year more than in the past couple of years since the lockout, the bottom, other than maybe Carolina in our conference, the bottom teams on both sides are still fairly close to the teams that are in the top eight, the so-called playoff teams. We certainly can’t continue the way we’re going if we expect to make the playoffs. But, is it critical in the next five or 10 games, that might be a stretch.”



Q: During the course of this, can you move him from the IR to long-term?

“Yeah, you can do that whenever.”



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