Flyers Need More From Veteran Defender

The Philadelphia Flyers may be forced to sit a veteran defender for their next game.

The Philadelphia Flyers have a few problems, but dressing enough defensemen is not one of them.

They currently have eight healthy blueliners skating with the team: Travis Sanheim, Cam York, Nick Seeler, Sean Walker, Egor Zamula, Marc Staal, Rasmus Ristolainen and Louie Belpedio.

Because of this luxury they can afford to play defenders based on their performance in game rather than status or contract number. 

John Tortorella has spoken about playing whichever players are playing well, and since returning from injury Staal hasn't been the model of consistency.

At Flyers practice today Zamula took Staal's position on the team's third defense pairing. Unless the Flyers decide to ice an 11-7 lineup next game, I'd expect Staal to sit.

Hopefully taking a game off while being healthy will help him see what he needs to do in order to be a regular contributor in the lineup.

The best part of this situation is that the Flyers have the healthy personnel to dress for games. They don't need to expose Staal just to try to win.

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