Pronger is out; Lavy responds to Ruff

Flyers defenseman Chris Pronger will not play tonight in Game 5 against Buffalo at the Wells Fargo Center.

The series is tied at two games apiece.

The Flyers will be without their best defesneman and their leading scorer, Jeff Carter (36 goals in regular season), who is sidelined with a knee injury.

Pronger, who has not played since March 8 because of a broken right hand, took slap shots at practice for the first time since his injury. That seemed to indicate he would play Friday night.

After all the regulars left the ice, however, Pronger stayed on the ice for more than a half hour. Usually the players who stay for extra work do not play that night.

Carter (knee) and Andreas Nodl (facial injury) were not at practice and will not play Friday night. Rookie Ben Holmstrom will go into the lineup

These were the lines at the morning skate:

* * *

Peter Laviolette was amused by Buffalo coach Lindy Ruff's comments about the Flyers "whining." A smiling Laviolette said one of his assistants imitated Ruff and replaced the word "whining" with "winning."

* * *

Click HERE for video of Peter Laviolette's comments.

Get exclusive videos and analysis in our new app for iPhone and Android. Download it here.