The last time Ray Emery was on the ice handling shots for more than five minutes was Feb. 27 during the Flyers 7-3 blowout loss to San Jose.
He tried last Monday and had to quit early because he groin pull was bothering him too much.
Emery returned to the net today for his first Flyers practice in more than 11 days and handled things well.
Not well enough to play, though. Steve Mason will start for the Flyers on Tuesday against the Devils.
“I felt good, I skated yesterday and today felt better than yesterday,” Emery said. “It’s on the right track.”
Flyers coach Craig Berube said Cal Heeter will remain here and backup Mason tomorrow.
I get the sense from Berube that he is not comfortable playing Heeter in a stretch run to the playoffs unless he absolutely has to.
Tomorrow will be Mason's 6th straight start and 12th in 13 games. To me, Mason needs a game off. He has not been sharp very early though he was sharp at the end against Toronto. I felt the previous game against Washington that Mason did not look sharp late in the game.
He is giving a lot of rebounds in the slot and not being able to push them into the corners.
Yes, the Flyers have several days between the Jersey game and the back-to-back, home-and-home encounter with Pittsburgh to rest Mason and Berube mentioned that as a reason not to worry about Mason's workload.
I still think Mason needed a game off and I would have liked to have seen him play against the Devils. But I fully understand the logic of collecting points in a key Metro Division game.
Bottom line is, Mason's GAA is rising and his save percentage is falling and I feel he needs a mental of not physical game break but we'll see.
After Sunday's game in Pittsburgh, the Flyers play 7 games over the final 15 days of March. Emery will get at least one start.
Assuming, he is fully healthy.
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