Flyers' Mason expected to miss 2 weeks; Zepp recalled

Flyers goalie Steve Mason will miss about two weeks, and the team recalled Rob Zepp from the Phantoms, GM Ron Hextall announced on Sunday.

Mason is expected to miss six games, and probably won't play again until after the all-star break.Hextall said this was a new injury, "independent" of other ailments that recently bothered Mason.

The 6-foot-4 goalie will probably miss games against Tampa Bay, Washington, Vancouver, Buffalo, the Islanders and Pittsburgh. If Hextall's timeline is correct, Mason would return Jan. 27 against visiting Arizona.

Mason, who took the league's sixth-best save percentage (.933) in even-strength situations into the game, suffered an apparent injury to his right knee in the opening period of the Flyers' 3-1 loss to Boston on Saturday.

Hextall said the injury wasn't chronic, and that "it shouldn't affect him again."

Zepp, 33, is 11-5-4 with a 2.57 GAA and .921 save percentage with Lehigh Valley. He scored a 4-3 OT win as the Flyers defeated Winnipeg in his first and only NHL appearance on Dec. 21.

Zepp became the oldest NHL goalie to win his debut since 1926.

"You never know how much of a setback this is until the guys replacing him play," Hextall said in a conference call with reporters. "Obviously, it's not what we want. It's a tough break for the hockey club, but it is what it is, and we're going to deal with it. In the end, Ray is a capable guy, and we brought Rob in for a reason _ and this is the reason. Hopefully, it'll be a couple weeks and we get through the period without Mase."

Mason has been bothered by back and leg injuries recently. He collapsed to the ice on his back and left the game with 12:53 left in the first period and was replaced by Ray Emery.

The 26-year-old goalie made a routine right-pad save on Craig Cunningham's long shot, then fell to the ice. He tried to push off on his right leg, but was unable to do so.

Earlier in the week, Mason said he "tweaked" an injury _ believed to be his right knee, which supposedly had a clean MRI on Wednesday _ in Thursday's 3-2 overtime win over Washington. He said he felt better at practice Friday.

Hextall said he had no regrets about playing Mason on Saturday because he was cleared by the medical staff _ and there was no way to forsee a new injury.

Mason has an 8-12-6 record with a 2.46 goals-against-average and .920 save percentage.

The Flyers are closer to the NHL's worst record (10 points away) than they are the Eastern Conference's last playoff spot (11 points).

Follow Sam Carchidi on Twitter @BroadStBull.