Foot injuries to sideline Flyers Gagne 3 weeks & Carter 6

MIKE RICHARDS HAD a bad feeling.

The Flyers' captain is Jeff Carter's closest friend on the team. They sit next to each other in the dressing room. And when Richards watched Carter gingerly remove his right skate after the Flyers' 4-1 win over the New Jersey Devils on Tuesday night, he knew it was bad.

"I had a sense," Richards said. "It was disappointing. It's an unexpected, disappointing, bad-luck sort of thing. But you've got to play the cards that you're dealt."

With a 3-1 series lead in the Eastern Conference quarterfinals, on the brink of dispatching second-seeded New Jersey in five games, it seemed like the Flyers were dealt a pocket pair of aces.

But after X-rays were taken of Carter's and Simon Gagne's right feet, it's almost as if their aces were part of a misdeal. They've now been handed an off-suit two and six.

Both players will have foot surgery tomorrow to repair fractures sustained when they were hit in the right skate with shots in Game 4. Carter will have a plate inserted on the shaft of the metatarsal of his second toe; Gagne will have two screws surgically inserted in his right big toe.

The Flyers have been without Carter at times this season. They also have been without Gagne. But tonight, for the first time in a game all season, they will be without both players - two of their top six forwards - as they try to close out the Devils in Game 5.

Unless the Flyers reach the Stanley Cup finals, Carter's season is over, general manager Paul Holmgren said in a conference call yesterday. Gagne will miss approximately 3 weeks, putting his return somewhere around Game 6 or 7 of the second round - if the Flyers make it that far.

Carter and Gagne will be replaced in the lineup by Ville Leino and Adirondack Phantoms call-up David Laliberte.

Dr. Steven Raikin will perform both surgeries at the Riverview Surgery Center at the Navy Yard in Philadelphia.

Inside the dressing room at Voorhees, N.J., the mood was more like the Flyers were trailing, 3-1, in the series.

"We have a lot to be excited about," coach Peter Laviolette said. "I don't want to dwell on a couple guys who got dinged up. I want to focus on the fact that we're playing good hockey.

"We have an opportunity to go into New Jersey and close out a series. We have lots of good players in here to do it."

Ironically, Carter ended up scoring his second goal of the game - on a night when he broke out of an eight-game scoring slump - on the Chris Pronger shot that bounced off his foot and into the net.

Carter, who fractured the navicular bone in his other foot when he blocked a shot on March 21, was on crutches again yesterday. He will remain on them for 6 weeks. Carter was the Flyers' leading scorer in the regular season with 33 goals.

"It's tough. It seems like I just got off [the crutches]," he said. "It's definitely disappointing. I really felt like I was starting to get back into my groove and get some jump in my game. A setback like this is tough. That's hockey, I guess."

Gagne, who was not available for comment, fractured his toe when blocking two shots on two consecutive shifts in the second period.

Like Carter's surgery a few weeks ago, Gagne's screws will promote healing in that area and prevent against any recurring injury. Also similar to Carter's previous injury, Gagne will be able to skate within 2 weeks depending on his pain threshold.

Holmgren said both players explored every option - including cortisone shots to manage the pain - to try to remain in the lineup.

"We talked about a lot of things," Holmgren said. "When you're a hockey player, you want to play in the playoffs. I'm sure it's devastating to them. In their best interests long-term, this is the route we're going to go."

The Flyers could provide an extra week of rest for Gagne if they are able to win tonight. Round 2 would not resume until April 29 at the earliest, giving the Flyers some much-needed rest. A loss, though, would give the Devils renewed optimism - with their 2000 Eastern Conference finals comeback against the Flyers in the back of their minds.

"The rest, especially with the schedule we've had over the last 2 months, is obviously something that is needed," Richards said. "We have to be ready. We can't dwell on excuses or people in or out of the lineup. It's a great opportunity for people to step up in the playoffs and have some unlikely heroes.

"You don't want to look at it as saying you have three attempts to do it. You want to look at it as the same mind-set we've had the past couple of games."

Said Holmgren: "We haven't used injuries as an excuse all year. We certainly aren't going to start now."

For more news and analysis, read Frank Seravalli's blog, Frequent Flyers, at http://go.philly.com/frequentflyers.

The Flyers are 12-7 in Game 5 when leading a series, 3-1 . . . Phantoms forward Andreas Nodl accompanied the Flyers to Newark. Nodl is likely to participate in this morning's pregame skate but will join Riley Cote and Oskars Bartulis as a healthy scratch . . . The Flyers are 10-14 without Simon Gagne in the lineup this season and 3-5 without Jeff Carter . . . New Jersey is 1-7 in series when trailing 3-1 . . . Fans can watch tonight's Game 5 from the Wachovia Center's big screen; there is free admission and free parking.