Flyers Quick Hits: Pre-Camp Activites, Rookie Camp, and More

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The Philadelphia Flyers annual pre-camp golf tournament took place at Merion Golf Club on Monday. Most of the team is now in town before the start of NHL training camp next week. Players and team management participated. On Tuesday, Flyers governor Dan Hilferty and director of hockey operations Keith Jones will hold a state of the organization press conference in Voorhees. General manager Daniel Briere will speak next week on the state of the team heading into camp. The exact details for Briere’s availability are yet to be finalized.

The biggest thing Flyers players anticipate for the start of camp: a couple of brisk practices before the preseason opener in Elmont. They are also glad to see the end of the “rope test”. The new CBA banned mandatory preseason fitness/ skating tests. The rule doesn’t take effect until next year. However, the rope test was particular to former head coach John Tortorella. New head coach Rick Tocchet is a fitness fanatic himself but doesn’t use the rope test.

Another change from the Tortorella years: Tocchet won’t have three daily scrimmages. Tortorella was fond of making much of the last double-scrimmage group dress the next day in preseason opener. The coach himself typically delegated most of the preseason games to divide bench coaching duties. That was not lost on his players. They’d just scrimmaged several times in a couple days. Their head coach, meanwhile, had the assistants coach all the preseason games until near the end.

O&B Puckcast: Camp Preview Edition

On Monday, I was a guest on the pre-camp edition of the O&B Puckcast. Special thanks to Isaiah, Chef B, and Dan Silver for having me on the show. We covered a wide array of Flyers and NHL topics during the hour-long podcast.