Some in, some out

If the news on Tuesday – that almost all of the injured Flyers had returned to the ice for practice – was positive, then Wednesday must be considered mixed.

No, there weren't any new injuries to report. It just seems that both Ryan Parent (groin) and Ole-Kristian Tollefsen (concussion) are not 100-percent ready to return to the lineup in time for Thursday's game against the Ottawa Senators.

The good news, though, is that it looks like Danny Briere (quad) and James van Riemsdyk (broken & stitched pinkie) will be able to play on Thursday.

"They're all back on the ice, they're all participants at practice," Flyers coach John Stevens said. "We hope to get them all back this weekend at some point."

Briere hasn't played since he injured his quad (right above the knee) on Oct. 27 in Washington. The often complained about schedule gap has allowed Briere to miss just 4 games.

"I feel like I'm ready," Briere said. "I still have to get clearance from the doctor, but it seems like – in talking to the medical staff – like I'm OK to play."

Briere is scheduled to visit with Dr. Peter DeLuca on Wednesday afternoon for that final clearance.

Parent, on the other hand, said that he probably would not play on Thursday. He skated for the full hour again on Wednesday but wouldn't state exactly what is holding him back.

"We're hopeful to get [Parent] in this weekend," Stevens said, "but probably not [Thursday]."

Tollefsen would have been returning to the lineup just 5 days after sustaining a mild concussion. That's too soon. With Tollefsen and Parent out, that means Oskars Bartulis will likely make his NHL debut on Thursday.

Conversely, David Laliberte – one of the true good guys in the locker room – will likely be loaned back to Adirondack on Thursday. Laliberte provided a spark during his call-up, scoring his first NHL goal and chipping in with 3 points in 4 games.

"For me to be here, I'm really proud," Laliberte said. "I've just tried to keep working out and improve and tried to get better. When you play your first game, you don't know what to expect. Everything happened so quick. Now that I know that Briere is back, I've just tried to work hard. We'll see.

"I think I played 3 good games out of 4 and I wanted to make it hard for them [to send me down]."

Canadian media in town
It was interesting to see how Ray Emery reacted to some of the Canadian television cameras being in town for his first game against the team that he led to the Stanley Cup Finals in 2007.

Everyone associated with the Flyers has had nothing but good things to say about him but some of the Canadian media types are always fishing for some dirt.

I caught up with one of Emery's teammates from Ottawa, a close friend of his, so you can look for that in the Daily News on Thursday.

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