First off, let's set one thing straight: we're not suggesting that Michael Leighton's back injury is career threatening or that it's going to plague him for the rest of his life or anything, much like the injury Ray Emery suffered a year ago will plague him for likely the rest of his life.

We are suggesting, however, that the Flyers don't have a strong reputation when it comes to disclosing injuries. In other words, they love to downplay this type of thing, and when it eventually comes out that things were much more serious than the team originally alluded to, well... we shouldn't be surprised.

Something is wrong with the way the Flyers have disclosed this recent back injury to Leighton. Ask any of the beat writers who have reported on the topic: they all have admitted publicly that something seems amiss here.

And they aren't wrong. It all began with the MRI results on Sunday night. As we mentioned, the Flyers have five doctors on staff. They can get a read on an MRI immediately, yet they chose to tell the media "we'll know more tomorrow."

If nothing was wrong according to the images, the Flyers would've just said "the MRI results look fine, there's nothing to worry about here." Instead, they decided they needed some more time.

So tomorrow is here. It's Monday, and the Flyers have updated the media on Leighton's condition. Things still seem fishy.

According to the various beat writers in Voorhees today, Paul Holmgren said that Leighton will likely be fine to resume on-ice workouts on Thursday after being re-evaluated. However, as Frank Seravalli points out in his blog this afternoon...

Coach Peter Laviolette received an injury update earlier in the day but declined to disclose it. He seemed much more grim about the information than Holmgren's announcement. [...]



On Monday, Holmgren initially told reporters that he had "no update" and then later made the seemingly benign announcement.

If nothing is seriously wrong with Leighton, then why would A) Laviolette choose not to say anything, B) Holmgren initially say there's nothing to report and C) then say that it's not a big deal?

Why wouldn't they just be straight with the media?

If you're going by the track record the Holmgren regime has set forth, the only conclusion that can be drawn is that something more serious is wrong here. Again, we come back to Emery.

He first went down to injury in November, finally going on the IR in early December after the Flyers let him play with an abdominal tear for just under a month. He was rushed back from surgery on that tear in just four weeks, when initial reports said he would be out six weeks after going under the knife.

Nevertheless, on January 9th, Emery made a rehab start in Adirondack. He returned to Philadelphia the next day and was held out of the lineup in favor of Leighton while he got back into the NHL rhythm. On the 17th, Emery officially took back the Flyers' crease against the Washington Capitals.

He would start the next eight games, which seemed a little odd considering he had just come off of major surgery. Nobody made too much noise about it, however, since Emery looked good in goal.

But after a shutout against Calgary on February 1st, he was scratched for the next game against Edmonton. Holmgren told the the Delco Times that Emery was "completely healthy" and that they only put him in the press box so that they could guarantee rest.

Emery would sit the next game against the Wild as well. As we wrote at the time...