Training Camp Day 1: What Went on

The Flyers had a full array of players -- all 30 skaters and four goaltenders on the Phase 3 roster were present and accounted for -- on the ice for the first day of formal training camp at the Skate Zone in Voorhees as Phase 3 on the NHL's return-to-play plan got underway on Monday. Players were divided into to two groups (A and B) on the ice.

As would be expected on the first day back after a four-month pause to the season, the pace was a bit slower than normal. There were rusty hands and less skating stamina on display at times during the series of skating, line rush, and breakout drills in both sessions. Monday was also the first day that, by league rule during the Covid-19 pandemic, head coach Alain Vigneault and his assistants were permitted to be back on the ice with the players during on-ice sessions.

Time is of the essence, though, not just for the Flyers but or all 24 teams participating in postseason play. There are just 13 days until the Flyers report to the Secure Zone in Toronto, 18 days until the team opens its round-robin segment with a meeting against the President's Trophy winning Boston Bruins and 27 days until Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals.

Here is some news, notes and quotes from Day 1 of practice.

VIGNEAULT GIVES CAMP PLAN OVERVIEW

In between the first and second sessions, Vigneault spoke remotely with the beat writers. The Flyers head coach laid out a rough sketch of the plan for camp. An outline:

* The second and third days of camp will also be conducted in a two-group format. On Day 1, there was less pre-practice discussion of what drills would take place during practice than there normally is. Correspondingly, there were more pauses for white-board diagramming than Vigneault typically prefers.

* Overall, the purpose of the early days is to get a baseline on where each camp participant is in terms of conditioning, timing, etc. Exactly 11 minutes into the Group A and Group B sessions, players took their first water break.

* After that, there will be more systems work brought into the mix as well as more demanding pacing.

* In the latter phases of camp, the team may engage in a couple of intrasquad scrimmages.

Vigneault said that his main goal is to get ready for Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals on Aug. 11.

* During the round-robin phase, the coaching staff plans to look at a wider array of personnel in different situations than he would during the regular season or come Game 1 of the playoffs. The goal will be to get work for players in order to be ready to contribute. The objective is to have the best (and most ready to play) group of players in the starting lineup for Game 1 of the playoffs.

"I liked what I saw from our players today, but I did tell them that we were going to go progressively. If you noticed today during practice we went to the board, we didn't pre-ice practice before today because we wanted to do this progressively. We're not quite sure what people had the opportunity to do during COVID. Some guys had gyms at home. Some guys were able to find ice time and etcetera. We're not quite sure where everyone is as far as conditioning-wise and as far as where they are with their timing on the ice and conditioning on the ice. What we want to do is we want to be real smart about this and we want to be scientific about this. I've sat down with Ozzy and Dan and Jimmy," Vigneault said.

"We sort of laid out what the science says and we're going to progress through different stages of things we need to do of skill and conditioning on the ice, technical and tactical things we need to do on the ice. We're going to put it all together. We have 30 days to be smart. We need to use the science we have available. That's what we are going to do. Once we got the dates about Phase 2 and when Phase 3 was going to start and Phase 4.

"As a staff, we got excited about the opportunity to come back and compete for the Stanley Cup. We've been talking almost every day for the last three weeks on a regular basis with the conditioning guys, with Jimmy and Sal, our athletic therapist guys about what we needed to do with our group, not knowing what everyone had available during COVID. We got a plan laid out. It's precise. I think it's science-based. I believe it's going to work."

GROUP A REPORT

With a handful of mask-wearing teammates from Group B standing behind the glass at the far side of the rink, the Group A segment of Monday's practice took the ice and began the first drills around 11 a.m. ET.

Goalie Alex Lyon was the first player out on the ice. Group A consisted of nine forwards, six defensemen, and two goalies. There were seven Black Aces recalls among the players on the ice.

FORWARDS: Sean Couturier, Claude Giroux,Jakub Voracek, James van Riemsdyk, Scott Laughton, Nicolas Aube-Kubel, Morgan Frost, Andy Andreoff, Nicolas Aube-Kubel.

DEFENSE: Ivan Provorov, Matt Niskanen, Robert Hägg, Justin Braun, Tyler Wotherspoon, Nate Prosser.

GOALIES: Carter Hart, Alex Lyon.

Session highlight: During a line-rush drill, Frost slid a cross-ice pass to Giroux, who fired a one-timer over Hart from near the left hash marks as the goalie moved across.

Matt Niskanen on Day 1: "I hope we just gradually get better and better. It's hard to replicate [game speed and conditions] in small groups or on your own. ..,Some guys had a lot access to skate, some guys not much at all. I think practice reps will get faster and cleaner as we go along."

Claude Giroux on Day 1: "You can practice as much as you want. When the games start, the speed is different. ... Everyone is starting from Point A. It's a unique situation. It's up to us to get back the momentum as much as we can."

GROUP B REPORT

There were the same numerical distribution of players -- nine forwards, six defensemen and two goalies -- in Group B as in Group A. Among these were various Black Aces who have been added to the 30-skater roster (goalies do not count against the limit, per return-to-play rules) for the postseason.

Veteran goalie Brian Elliott looked particularly good in this session, especially in light of it being the first day of camp. He came up with most of his saves cleanly. In the latter part of the session, he was momentarily shaken up after he took a shot off the mask. Elliott got up quickly and was fine afterwards.

Back in January, Shayne Gostisbehere underwent arthroscopic surgery on his left knee. After Monday's practice, he said that he is seven weeks removed from a similar procedure on his other knee. It was a nagging issue that stemmed from overcompensating from the original left knee issue and got to the point where it, too needed to taken care of via arthroscopic surgery to repair cartilige. He did not have much chance to skate until recently, but felt the first practice was a good start.

FORWARDS:Kevin Hayes, Travis Konecny, Michael Raffl, Derek Grant, Tyler, Pitlick, Nate Thompson, Joel Farabee, Connor Bunnaman, Carsen Twarynski

DEFENSE: Travis Sanheim, Phil Myers, Shayne Gostisbehere, Mark Friedman, Andy Welinski, Egor Zamula

GOALIES: Brian Elliott, Kirill Ustimenko

Session Highlight: It took a few tries to get the execution down, but it clicked nicely when Kevin Hayes shot at Elliott's skates, and the puck rebounded directly to Joel Farabee to stash in the net.

Shayne Gostisbehere on Day 1: "Obviously, my ultimate goal is to get back in the lineup, and contribute. .... I'm working my way back, just grinding along. I'm not going to feel sorry for myself. There's a lot going on in the world right now."

Travis Konecny on Day 1: "I skated here a little bit before training camp. Definitely not as much as I would do before a normal training camp, but I got in what I could. ...Right now, I feel good. Health wise, I feel good. On the ice, the conditioning's gotta get better. ... I think, honestly, guys were pretty in sync."

FLETCHER DISCUSSES PATRICK'S STATUS, ROSTER

In between the Group A and Group B sessions, Flyers general manager Chuck Fletcher gave an update on the status of center Nolan Patrick. The 21-year-old missed the entire regular season due to chronic migraine syndrome.

"Our focus is on getting him ready for the 2020-21 season. We want to be prudent and prioritize his health and safety in the long run. We have a short runway here before we jump right into playoff hockey," Fletcher said.

As with Vigneault, Fletcher said it was important not to overestimate the importance of the round-robin games ahead of the start of the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals. The Flyers, he said, would play to win and potentially reap the benefits of earning the 1st, 2nd or 3rd seed in the East, but not at the detriment of evaluating the potential starting lineup for the start of the playoffs as well as having game-ready depth players.

In terms of picking the extra skaters who were recalled to make up the 30-man skater limit, Fletcher said there were several other players who were considered for the final roster, including forwards David Kase, Isaac Ratcliffe an veteran Chris Stewart as well as defenseman Chris Bigras.

Among the group of players chosen, most (with the exceptions of Egor Zamula and Ustimenko) either saw some NHL action with the Flyers earlier this season or have previous NHL experience.

Fletcher noted that center Mikhail Vorobyev gave the organization advanced notice of his intention to return to Russia and play in the KHL next season. Thus, he was taken out of consideration for a roster spot. However, the organization is OK with Vorobyev's decision, as Fletcher noted that the objective is to do what's best for the player as well as for the team.

FRIEDMAN SIGNED

Shortly after the Group B players stepped on the ice, the Flyers announced that defenseman Mark Friedman, a prospective restricted free agent this off-season, has been re-signed to a two-year extension. The deal is a one-way contract with an average annual value of $725,000. The deal expires after the 2021-22 season.