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Briere, Grossmann will miss time; Lavy fined

It turns out center Danny Briere and defenseman Nick Grossmann were injured more seriously than the Flyers first believed.

Both will miss games this week but are expected to be ready for the playoffs.

Both were injured in collisions with Pittsburgh's Joe Vitale in the Flyers' 6-4 win on Sunday.

After Sunday's game, the Flyers said Briere was "fine" and that Grossmann was day-to-day with an apparent knee injury.

On Monday, they said Grossmann would miss seven to 10 days, That means he is out for the regular season, which ends Saturday. GM Paul Holmgren said Briere was out indefinitely with an upper-back contusion.

The Flyers play in Pittsburgh on Saturday. Think Vitale will be looking over his shoulder?

 Lavy fined. Flyers coach Peter Laviolette was fined $10,000 by the NHL for actions late in Sunday's game in Pittsburgh. He broke a stick and screamed at Penguins coaches.

Penguins assistant Tony Granato was fined $2,500.

Bryz, Simmonds honored. The NHL announced that winger Wayne Simmonds was named the league's player of the week, and goalie Ilya Bryzgalov was selected the player of the month.

Bryzgalov was 10-2-1 with a 1.43 GAA and .947 save percentage in March, and he set a franchise record with a scoreless streak that reached 249:43, the second-longest in the NHL since 1967-68.

Simmonds scored in four straight games, totaling five goals. He has a career-high 27 goals.

He is looking forward to an almost-certain playoff matchup with Pittsburgh in the first round.

"Yeah, definitely. It's fun hockey; it's like old-school hockey," he said. "You come to the rink, you battle everyday, you know there's going to be fights, you know you're gonna get hit and you know you're going to have to hit back and that's the type of hockey that we like to play. So I think that suits our team well."

Simmonds was in a late brawl after Vitale hit Briere. He fought Penguins enforcer Deryk  Engelland despite injuring his eye the previous afternoon.

"It wasn't ideal for me to fight in that situation, but Danny took a solid hit there and obviously I'm going to go to my player's defense," he said. "That's the type of player I am. It doesn't matter if I have stitches in my eyes, I have to go in there and stand up for my teammate."

Next: Rangers. The Flyers will host the Rangers Tuesday and try to salavage a win in the season series. New York is 5-0 and has outscored the Flyers, 19-8, including a 10-3 advantage in the third period.

The Rangers will try for their first sweep against the Flyers since 1971-72. Over the last two years, they have won seven straight over the Flyers,

New York's magic number to clinch the East's top seed is one point.

Follow Sam Carchidi on Twitter @BroadStBull.