Camp Update: Final Scrimmage Day

For the third and final time during training camp, the Flyers held a scrimmage at the Skate Zone in Voorhees. Thursday's scrimmage was different in structure from either of the previous two. Here's how it was conducted:

* 22-minute running clock in the first and second periods, 25-minute click in the third period.

* The first 12 minutes of the first and second period were played at 5-on-5, while the latter 10 minutes were exclusively set aside for special teams work. The entire third period was played at 4-on-4.

* Due to the heavy emphasis on special teams, Team Orange consisted mostly of players who receive power play time, while those who exclusively play on the penalty killing side of special teams (such as Scott Laughton, Michael Raffl, Nat Thompson and the defense pair of Robert Hägg and Justin Braun) were placed on Team Black.

* Goaltender Brian Elliott saw all the penalty killing time in goal, while Alex Lyon and Kirill Ustimenko split their duties. Ustimenko returned to the ice on Thursday after a one-day absence, as did Connor Bunnaman.

Sean Couturier remained off the ice on Thursday in order to be with his wife, Laurence, as they awaited the birth of their first child. Morgan Frost subbed for Couturier (for a second straight day) on the first power play unit. With eight forwards on Team Orange, combinations were juggled around throughout the even-strength portions of the scrimmage. Frost took the most shifts at five-on-five with Claude Giroux and Jakub Voracek but there were really no set combinations on Team Orange, whereas Team Black did have regular lines.

During the second period, Team Orange temporarily lost center Kevin Hayes when he left the ice after a collision in the offensive zone. While he was back in the locker room, Bunnaman temporarily switched sides from Back to Orange (so that both teams had 8 forwards, rather than 9 on Black and just 7 for Orange).

Elliott was exceptionally sharp in goal, as he has been for much of the week. Team Orange was blanked on its 10-minute power play in the first period before finally breaking through in the second period power play portion.

"I saw a real good Brian Elliott in the first period, made some real big saves. He was the difference, I thought in that period. Five-on-five and our power play had some real good looks. Brian was in top form today, so that's good to see," Flyers head coach Alain Vigneault said.

"We've only worked on our power play yesterday a little bit and today. It's one of the areas that we feel we've got with those four games we're going to have a good amount of time to get it back to where it was before, just like the penalty killing. It's a start. We have other areas that we felt were important for us to touch and feel that our guys have been progressing at a good, steady pace."

With the likes of Giroux, Voracek, Hayes, Travis Konecny, Joel Farabee, Frost, Nicolas Aube-Kubel, Ivan Provorov, Matt Niskanen, Travis Sanheim, and Shayne Gostisbehere all skated for Team Orange due to the power play emphasis of the day, the scrimmage wasn't really meant to be one where a score was kept.

Being competitors, however, Team Black relished its "underdog" role in the game. Their players on the bench banged their sticks on the boards when their side scored first (a breakaway goal for Andy Andreoff) and chirping the stacked Orange side. Officially, Team Orange "won", 6-3 (or 5-3, since there was, for a second straight game, a "mystery goal" that went up on the scoreboard but which no one seemed to see how it happened or who scored it).

"There's lots of competition. When you're PKing that much and the power play's getting a little frustrated. Then they score a couple, it's a little back and forth. I thought it was a good day for us. Just continue to grow our game and be able to play we want to. It gets a little heated when guys are going after each other and all that," Laughton said.

Regarding the team's penalty killers getting the better of the power play for about the first 13 of the 20 combined minutes, Laughton felt it's a little more common for the power play side to struggle in a training camp setting on the first or second day of special teams work.

"I think it's probably easier for us on the PK getting back into the swing of things, not moving the puck as much or anything like that. Guys are going to have to deal with the bad ice and things of that nature with the timing of when we're playing. Our PK looks good and we're playing hard. Guys are doing the right things or trying to. I really liked our practice today and I thought Moose was really good in net to help our PK," Laughton said.

Konecny concurred, saying, "Just a matter of getting back to being comfortable and getting used to each other and where we're going to be on the ice. Just going to keep working at it every day. The PK, they're doing well right now. It's easy to get frustrated when the power play's not going well, but if you look at it from the other side of the coin that means our PK right now is right where it should be and improving."

Hayes, who notched a hat trick in Tuesday's scrimmage, struck for two more goals in the third period on Thursday. The first came off a gorgeous centering pass from Sanheim, which Hayes potted from the low slot. The latter came off a quick shot release from the top of the circle. Also for the Orange side, Konecny scored on a breakaway, while Tyler Pitlick converted a breakaway earlier for the Team Black side. In the third period, Hayes and Voracek had a 2-on-0 breakaway but Voracek hit the post.

Giroux badly wanted a goal on this day (as he does in any competitive situation) but Elliott stoned him twice. Later, Elliott came up with a tough third period save on Aube-Kubel on a bang-bang chance created by Frost. Later, the goalie did not bite on a play where Frost cut in from the right circle, deked like he was moving to the left and then pulled the puck back to attempt to stuff it inside the near post. Everything was sealed off.

"I think Morgan has come here and he's worked hard. You can obviously tell there's good potential in the young man. By us utilizing this time when Sean's not there, to put him with two of our best players, he can show his skill even more. There's a lot of potential there. There's obviously a lot of work that needs to be done on his part to reach that maximum potential. He's on the right track. He's got a good work ethic and a good attitude. With us working with him and him working to become the best player he can be, I think we have a chance to have a real good player for us in the near future," Vigneault said.

Carter Hart did not participate in Thursday's scrimmage after leaving Tuesday's scrimmage in the first period and not practicing the next day. However, right after the scrimmage ended on the Flyers rink, Hart came out on the Phantoms rink to take reps. As usual, goaltender coach Kim Dillabaugh accompanied Hart during the session.

"The reason we didn't put him in practice basically today is because it was a scrimmage and he hadn't skated for the last two days. We felt that it was smart. In talking with Kim and Jim, we felt it was smarter to put him out on his own. Let him take a good number of shots and see how he feels. He came out and feels good. Everything should be good to go tomorrow," Vigneault said.

Several players who participated in the scrimmage, including Team Orange's Frost and Team Black's German Rubtsov and Carsen Twarynski also switched rinks to get in some extra practice time.

Friday will be an off-ice work day for the Flyers. Saturday will be the final on-ice practice of camp, and the announcement of the 31-player roster that will go to the Secure Zone (AKA "the Bubble") in Toronto will be announced the same day. On Sunday, the team leaves for Toronto.

Although the plan is for left wing Oskar Lindblom to join the team in Toronto, he will not go straight away. As soon as he received the diagnosis of being in remission from Ewing Sarcoma. Lindblom planned a late-July trip home to Sweden to visit his family. After that, he will report to the Bubble and begin to train with the team.

"Everybody's happy for him [for his new contract extension]. I talked to him yesterday, happy of course. As you guys heard, he's back home in Sweden right now, seeing his family and all his friends. He's really happy, that's all I can say. I'm happy for him, too," Hägg said.