After the first few days of camp, a high-energy and high-intensive pace has been well evident. This Flyers team knows it has something to prove after a season in which they fell apart down the stretch. Chuck Fletcher took charge and went out on a mission this off-season.
Now the coaching staff and players must show that the moves he made pushed this team back in the right direction. As each day of camp has gone on, there has been a clear theme in what Alain Vigneault has been working on. With such high-intensity shown from his players, he made a slight tweak in their training schedule.
After working on more offensive zone type drills, Vigneault decided to give the team the day off on Monday instead of their regularly scheduled Wednesday off. They’ll work on special teams later this afternoon and scrimmage as per their normal schedule. Monday’s drills will be moved to Wednesday, allowing the players to rest before they open the preseason on Tuesday.
A few players may end up having to rest more than others, though. Tanner Laczynski was absent from the Group A session as he tweaked something on his other hip. Vigneault did not believed it was related to his previous injury, but didn’t want to commit to that answer. Linus Hogberg left his Group B session earlier following an injury to his oblique. He was off to get an MRI after his departure.
During some of this, Dave Scott, Governor of the Flyers, took to the podium to address this past offseason and what he’s looking forward to with this new group. He opened up his press conference by first praising Fletcher for what he was able to do.
"”I challenged our whole organization, ‘what could we do to really make this team better?’ I think everybody took it to heart and just really want to recognize Chuck and the staff because it’s not an easy task. In this cap world that we live in, and the fact that this year, it’s a flat cap. You have the hand you’re dealt. We’re all in the same boat there, but I think we accomplished a lot of our goals. We’ve got depth. We’ve got experience. We’ve got leadership, on and off the ice. Couldn’t be happier about that.”"
Scott didn’t want to necessarily address what would happen if these moves didn’t pay off during the season. But he did mention that making the postseason is the goal. With a new group of faces in the room, it will take time for this group to gel. Something Scott is thankful in having six preseason games for.
After a tough season, the Flyers could’ve used COVID and the condensed scheduled as a reason for their demise. They were hit hard from that and lost numerous key players to protocol. Their franchise goaltender was having a tough time adjusting as well. They could’ve easily kept this team relatively the same and hoped they returned to their 2019-20 play.
While it was talked about within management, it was a factor for every team in the league. And plenty of teams were able to figure out a way to get through. So that wasn’t used as an excuse for how the team ended up performing.
The group that the Flyers have now is a well balanced mix of veteran leadership and youth that has started to break out. It is a team that has been built for not just this season, but the future in general. The extensions to Sean Couturier and Joel Farabee further show that the Flyers are not just looking to win right now. They want to sustain a winning culture.
"“I think we’re built really for a long successful future. You look at that pipeline all the time. You have to really in a cap world and figure out which contracts are coming up. You got to keep the funnel full…We’re well positioned.”"
There will be no predictions or crystal ball for what’s to come for this team. It’s too early for that anyway. But this team came one game away from the Eastern Conference Finals two seasons ago. A lot of faces have changed since then but the goal remains the same. Get into the playoffs and anything can happen after that.