During a media availability with Chuck Fletcher, the Flyers’ GM confirmed that Sean Couturier underwent “back revision” surgery.

According to Chuck Fletcher, this surgery provides clarity in an otherwise murky situation. I wrote previously on just how murky that situation was.

Doctors were unable to tell if the pain Couturier was experiencing was because of a new injury, or the old injury that the last surgery simply failed to repair. This second procedure was done with the intention of solving either problem, regardless of which it is.

We can only hope that the second surgery has significantly better results than the first did. When should we expect to see the results of such a procedure?

The expected recovery time of three to four months would push a targeted return date to January or February. I wouldn’t want the Flyers to meet that date.

Couturier’s future as a hockey player is far more important–both for him, and for the franchise–than rushing him back for the final quarter of the season.

A season that, if the usually foretelling expected goal share numbers indicate, will still end with the Flyers in the doldrum of the league by the time a return is possible.

For those curious, here’s a screenshot of how those numbers currently bare out with the bottom team at the top:

If the Flyers don’t fix that number and improve it by a drastic amount, their luck will run out far before February.

It is not at all prudent to put Sean Couturier into meaningless games after he just came off of a second back surgery.

So my hope and optimistic expectation is that next year will be a repeat of this year, albeit with better results. I expect Sean Couturier’s next return to be significantly more fruitful than this particular run at it.

We can only hope.

And besides, this team is overdue for some genuinely and unabashedly good fortune.