Day 2: Konecny Getting Back up to Speed

Back in September of 2019, Flyers right winger Travis Konency had a slightly belated start to training camp while his agent and Flyers general manager Chuck Fletcher hammered out an agreement on a new six-year contract that will run through the 2024-25 season.

Konecny didn't miss a beat. He paid immediate dividends as he led the Flyers in scoring during the 2019-20 regular season, and won the Toyota Cup for the most three-star selection points over the course of the campaign.

Then things came to an abrupt halt, due to the NHL's leaguewide stoppage due to the Covid-19 pandemic. As with the majority of players, there wasn't much Konecny was able to do in terms of keeping up his skating conditioning until Phase 3 (formal training camps) of the NHL's return-to-play plan drew near.

Now that camp is here, Konecny is excited to be back but realizes there will be a process involved to get game-ready for the round-robin (Aug 2) and the eventual start of the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals on Aug. 11.

"I was able to skate a couple weeks before I came back here. Then I skated here a little bit before the training camp. Definitely not as much as I would have gotten in during a regular summer. I did the best that I could do for what I was working with," Konecny said on Day 1.

On Day 2, Konecny remained on the same line he skated on during Monday's session. He skated with Kevin Hayes at center and Joel Farabee on their left wing. As expected, there was still some rust showing in most of the players on the ice. At one point, Konency was tempted to smash his stick on the glass but then thought better of it and simply tapped the glass.

However, as the Day 2 session progressed, things got smoother and the pacing picked up a bit. It was a productive overall session. For his part, Konecny is just happy to be back on the ice and back with his teammates, and knows the rest with come with repetition.

"Right now, I feel good. Health-wise, I am good. As far as on the ice, conditioning needs to get up I was fortunate that I was in a good spot and I was healthy for the whole process. That's kind of where I'm at. Good to be back," Konecny said.

"I think guys were pretty in sync. They know how fast we need to get back into things. We know there's not that big time period where you know you have that time to get where you need to go. You need to be sharp right away."

The fact that Covid-19 cases are significantly lower in Canada than in the United States has given the NHL an opportunity to identify two Canadian cities -- Toronto and Edmonton -- as the "hub cities" for the postseason. Getting players through Phase 3 healthy before traveling to Canada is the No. 1 objective in conjunction with getting teams hockey ready.

Konecny admits however, that even being in Canada during the self-quarantine (Phase 1) portion of the stoppage was not a safe harbor from concern about the viability of a return to play. It was only after Canada seemed to get the situation relatively under control that he was able to more fully turn his focus to completing the season.

"Looking at how bad things were getting, you start thinking about family and friends before hockey. So at that point, I wasn't sure where the season was going to go. Once things were starting to get under control and we were able to get back here, there's a lot of excitement going through the group chats. We're definitely excited to be here now," Konecny said on Monday.

"I think for the most part, being here, I've kind of accepted that [contracting Covid-19] is a possibility. There is a chance that you could definitely get it. There's no more possibility than being anywhere else. You are almost safer here because you are testing so often. There are definitely those false positives. I kind of expect those to pop up as well. We just do our best to stay safe and try to avoid that stuff as much as possible."

In terms of what life in the Secure Zone "bubble" will be like once the Flyers and the other participating Eastern Conference teams arrive in Toronto, the player concedes that he expects it feel strange for a while.

"I don't know. It's definitely going to be a different environment. I know the hockey world's very small. You end up knowing a majority of the guys, whether it's personally or a friend of a friend. It's definitely going to be a little different being around them all the time. I'm sure once you are on the ice, it will be back to normal. I'm going to stay away from the chirps as much as possible. I'll leave it to 'Laughts'," he said.