VOORHEES, N.J. — Ray Emery rejoined the Flyers for practice Monday, having been unavailable since Feb. 27 with a reported groin injury.

That’s a step toward a return. That’s not a return.

“Steve Mason,” said Craig Berube, “will play Tuesday.”

So Mason will face the visiting New Jersey Devils at 7 p.m., meaning he will have made every start since the Olympic break. With Emery still officially day-to-day, that will leave Calvin Heeter in uniform as the backup. It will also leave Emery in recuperation.

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“I have gradually felt better and better,” Emery said after practice at the Skate Zone. “I will just give my feedback back to (trainer) Jimmy (McCrossin) and to Coach (Craig Berube) and they will make decisions as a group like that.”

Emery is 7-9-1 with a 3.03 goals-against average, and he has played in just two games since January, including Feb. 27, in relief of Mason in a 7-3 loss at home to the San Jose Sharks. Emery, too, left that game early with the injury.

“With the help of the training staff, and with me knowing my body, and with the schedule the way it is with a lot of games coming up,” he said, “I just want to get back as soon as I can.”

After the Devils, the Flyers will play their final 17 games within 30 days, beginning with a Saturday visit from the Penguins. They will return the game Sunday in Pittsburgh.

Thus, Berube is going to require goaltending depth soon. He did reject the idea, though, that the importance of the upcoming games affected his decision to ride Mason, rather than give Heeter a start.

“I don’t think so,” Berube said. “I think Mace is fine. He is doing his job. It’s spread out enough. He can handle it. I don’t think it has anything to do with anything but that.”

Eventually, though, the Flyers will need Emery, with his big-league experience, as an alternative to Mason.

“When that time comes,” Berube said, “we’ll see about that.”

As for Monday, they were encouraged to have three goaltenders, Emery included, on the ice for practice.

“I wanted to come back as soon as possible,” Emery said, “and I have been working to do that.”

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Steve Downie, who was scratched from the Flyers’ Saturday game in Toronto with a flu, practiced Monday and is expected to play Tuesday.

“I am good to go,” he said. “I caught something there, a 24-hour thing or something. But I feel pretty good here.”

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Wayne Simmonds, along with Claude Giroux, had fun joining the Harlem Globetrotters act Sunday. Simmonds even showed that he could dunk.

Presented with a choice, Simmonds would have a more practical Wells Fargo Center desire.

“Scoring a game-winning goal,” he said, without hesitation. “It’s obviously nice to dunk, but my trade is a hockey player. So obviously, I have to say scoring a game-winning goal. But it was fun. All of those guys were great. To have a chance to go out there and play with the Globetrotters and the World All-Stars, after watching them play my entire life growing up, I thought was really cool.”

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Though the Flyers are in third place in the Metro and the Devils are in sixth, they still are separated only by four points.

“With the Devils, you have to be patient,” Berube said. “You have to be in position against those guys. They are a very stingy hockey team and they are going to check. And we need to do the same thing to them.”

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The Flyers will memorialize Fred Shero with a 1,300-pound bronze statue, to be unveiled 11 a.m. Saturday outside of Xfinity Live. The ceremony is open to the public.

Shero coached the Flyers to the Stanley Cup in 1974 and 1975 and joined the Hockey Hall of Fame last July.