Here's how: Goaltender Michal Neuvirth, missing from the team since tweaking a "lower body injury'' back on Sept. 21, will start a regular-season game for the first time in almost seven months when he faces the Islanders on Saturday at the Wells Fargo Center.
That's not the desperate part. The desperate part is that they need him to be the game-changer some of his past individual performances have suggested he could be, not the china doll who has endangered his future as an NHL goaltender.
"We don't need a goaltender to go in and necessarily be the spark,'' Flyers coach Dave Hakstol said after Friday's practice at SkateZone in Voorhees.