"It's scary, obviously, to see him clutching his eye," winger Scott Hartnell said. "Chris Pronger is one of the biggest warriors in the NHL."
Hartnell and Jaromir Jagr each scored their first two goals of the season as the Flyers ended a two-game losing streak with a 4-2 win over the Maple Leafs at the Wells Fargo Center on Monday. Jagr gave his trademark salute after each of his goals.
But Pronger's injury overshadowed the victory.
During the second period, Flyers general manager Paul Holmgren said Pronger would not return to the game. He gave no other comment at the time.
TSN reported that Pronger would see an eye specialist, but that the swelling needed to go down before an evaluation was made.
With Pronger, the Flyers are considered a Stanley Cup contender.
Without him, they might have to huff and puff to earn a playoff spot.
"You try to block it out as much as possible," center Danny Briere said. "Obviously, it is on the back of all of our minds and we wish him the best and that he will be OK. But once you are on the ice, you try not to think about it as much and just play the game."
Toronto took a 1-0 lead 6 minutes, 11 seconds into the game when Phil Kessel scored after the puck deflected off defenseman Matt Walker's skate and onto the center's stick in front of the net. It was Kessel's ninth goal, tops in the league.
Jagr tied it on a power-play breakaway with 3:38 left in the first period. The goal was set up by Claude Giroux.
Toronto's Jonas Gustavsson, who filled in for the injured James Reimer, was outstanding in the first 40 minutes, but the Flyers took a 2-1 lead when Hartnell scored from one knee after taking a feed from Briere, who was behind the net with a little more than four minutes left in the second.
The assist gave Briere his 600th career point.
"Those are milestones where you'll look back at the end of your career and appreciate it a lot more," said Briere, 34. "For now, that was a big goal. Toronto was all over us in the first half of the period, but we came back strong. We weathered the storm and did a much better job controlling the play and puck, taking shots on net the second half of the period."
Sergei Bobrovsky, meanwhile, was sharp in his second start of the season. Bobrovsky (2-0) made one of his best saves when he stopped Matt Frattin, who was ahead of the pack, with about 121/2 minutes left. A little more than a minute later, Hartnell, from the left circle, one-timed Claude Giroux's pass past Gustavsson to give the Flyers a 3-1 cushion.
Matt Read also took a stick to the face in the game. Read was hit by Joffrey Lupul's high stick in the opening period, and he appeared to spit some teeth onto the ice as he skated off. Lupul was given a double-minor penalty. While Lupul was in the penalty box, Jagr scored his 647th career goal.
Read later returned to action and played in all situations.
Toronto got to within 3-2 with 8:26 left as a pass deflected off David Steckel's glove and appeared to nick Bobrovsky's stick before trickling into the net.
But Jagr scored on another breakaway with 4:45 to go, increasing the lead to 4-2. Jagr was successful on two of his three breakaways in the game.
Contact staff writer Sam Carchidi at 215-854-5181, scarchidi@phillynews.com, or @BroadStBull on Twitter.
