As if the first period wasn’t bad enough for the Flyers (down 4-0 to the Bruins), Sean Couturier got hit in the head with a slap shot off the stick of Kimmo Timonen.

UPDATE: After the game, Paul Holmgren told reporters that the puck did, in fact, hit Couturier in the helmet, but he was taken to the hospital anyway.

Holmgren said Couturier passed initial tests, but will be checked for any damage to the skull and other consequences. He will not travel with the team to Denver today.

Randy Miller of the Courier Post posted video of Holmgren's media availability. Watch it here. The full transcript is after the jump.

Q: What's the latest you can tell us about Sean [Couturier]?

 

“Well we still don't know. He's at the hospital being evaluated. Fortunately, it [the puck] hit him in the helmet, but we thought it was best to just get him to the hospital and get checked.”

 

 

Q: What hospital is he at?

 

“I believe Pennsylvania [Hospital].”

 

 

Q: Did he lose consciousness at all?

 

“I don't think so, no.”

 

 

Q: On checking for a concussion

 

“Oh the little test thing they do, he did really well on it….whatever they do, whatever the test they do is, his scores were the same as they were in training camp. I think it's more, what they're checking for now, is just damage to the skull and obviously checking him out to see if there's any internal damage.”

 

 

Q: Is it scary just to see that though?

 

 

“Yeah. He turned his head in time where it didn’t hit him in the front part.  But you don't wanna see that with any player”

 

 

Q: It hit him kind of above the ear it looked like?

“Yeah, just in the back “

 

 

Q: At some point do you have to sit there and just shake your head with all these injuries, especially with a lot of them being head injuries one after another?

“Yeah we just gotta plow through it.  We played a good team today that kind of made us look bad, but we’ve gotta bounce back.”

 

 

Q: Will you call up a centerman?

“I don't know, I gotta count up the guys we got here. We do have some flexibility, Matt Read could play center…and obviously Schenn and Giroux are probably not options here for the near future, so, I'm not sure, we'll have to talk about that.”