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Flyers Notes: Gagne looking forward to Game 5 return

Simon Gagne is making progress. He can now lift weights using the heel of his broken right foot, and he is riding an exercise bike and able to walk with a protective boot.

"It's getting better every day," Simon Gagne said of his broken foot. (Yong Kim/Staff file photo)
"It's getting better every day," Simon Gagne said of his broken foot. (Yong Kim/Staff file photo)Read more

Simon Gagne is making progress. He can now lift weights using the heel of his broken right foot, and he is riding an exercise bike and able to walk with a protective boot.

But the veteran left winger, whose presence the Flyers miss dearly in the Eastern Conference semifinals against the Boston Bruins, won't be able to resume skating until Friday at the earliest.

That means the best-case scenario would be for Gagne to return to the lineup Monday in Boston, if Game 5 is necessary.

"It's getting better every day," Gagne said after working out at the Skate Zone in Voorhees. "I'm going to meet with the doctor on Friday, and from there, hopefully, I'll get the OK to start skating. I'm going to try my best to get back into the series. I'm confident it's going to be OK to start skating this weekend."

Gagne said he wasn't sure how many skating days he would need before he could return to the lineup.

That bite

Flyers winger Dan Carcillo said his finger, which he accused Marc Savard of biting in Monday's 3-2 loss to Boston, was feeling better.

After Monday's game, Carcillo called Savard "cowardly," but he tried to downplay the incident on Tuesday.

Sort of.

"I'm not really making a big deal of it," Carcillo said. "It was last game, and it's over, and, hopefully, I get matched against his line" on Wednesday.

At the Bruins' practice Wednesday, Boston coach Claude Julien sounded annoyed with Carcillo.

"When you watch replays, everybody's seen how he embellishes," Julien said. "It's hard to believe a guy when you see stuff that he does."

"No comment on that," Carcillo said.

Lineup shuffle

Coach Peter Laviolette, trying to find the right mix, used 11 different line combinations in the first period of Game 2. Laviolette used primarily three lines in the game because the Flyers were frequently behind and didn't have the luxury of going with their fourth (checking) unit.

In the latter stages, he went mostly with Mike Richards centering Carcillo and Scott Hartnell; Danny Briere centering Ville Leino (two assists) and Claude Giroux; and Darroll Powe centering James van Riemsdyk and Arron Asham.

Anniversary

Tuesday marked the 10th anniversary of the Flyers' 2-1 five-overtime win in Pittsburgh in Game 4 of the conference semifinals.

Brian Boucher was the Flyers' goalie in that historic game, won on a goal by Keith Primeau.

"It was a crazy, crazy game. I still can hear that sound when Primeau took the shot and hit that back bar. It was like a clunk I'll never forget," Boucher said. "And, thankfully, it ended then because I don't know how many more I had in the tank."

Breakaways

Playing against 6-foot-9 defenseman Zdeno Chara, Richards is "taking a beating, but he's getting results - and that's the kind of attitude we have to have," Briere said. Briere and Richards are the only Flyers forwards to score in this series; each has two goals. . . . Richards on Chara: "He has a great stick, and obviously it's long enough. It's probably bigger than me. He's always in the right position. It's always stick-on-puck." . . . About 500 tickets remain for each of the next two games and are available at www.philadelphiaflyers.com or by calling 1-800-298-4200.