Photo Credit: Rebecca McCormick
Finally, finally, finally the day Flyers fans have been craving for the past five or so months has arrived. The sounds of pucks hitting the ice, pucks hitting the post, and sticks banging on the ice is back in full force, Flyers Training Camp has officially opened for business.
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The youth infusion that the orange and black are currently undergoing this season has reinvigorated hope into a franchise that has lost Ryan Ellis for the season most likely, per Flyers’ General Manager Chuck Fletcher, Sean Couturier for an extended period of time, and Joel Farabee is also on the shelf. Some of these young great prospects in the farm system will make the team to travel and practice with the big club as John Tortorella said today, “I’m going to play the kids, I’m telling you that right now. I don’t care about the stature, we need to get a foundation underneath us here of where our kids are.”
Camp Torts takes a page out of Herb Brooks’s book: “Again” Skate, “Again” Skate, “Again” Skate
There were no line pairings or defensive pairings today. It was all about skating, and conditioning, as Wade Allison stated, “We were told to work hard, so let’s get it out of the way early.” Whereas, Tony DeAngelo said that the only jitters he had “My legs were nervous”, he said laughing after answering my question.
The top skaters of the day were Ethan Samson, Wyatte Wylie, Kevin Hayes, Ivan Provorov, JvR, Cam York, Wade Allison, and Nick Seeler.
Today was about conditioning, today it was to see who was a man and who needs help, today was Camp Torts a “Hard” camp as Wade Allison described it.
John Tortorella said that he hasn’t penciled Kevin Hayes as the first line Center to replace the injured Couturier:
Check out this skating drill that Torts ran today:
The unfortunate news were three things: Little fans in attendance, Ryan Ellis is out for the season most likely, and it is possibly career threatening, per Chuck Fletcher. Sean Couturier is also week to week, while seeking a second opinion today for his injury, plus there were very little fans in attendance today, less than 70 at the Flyers Skate Zone.
Torts with a message, “I will play the kids”:
Lastly, the Flyers new slogan is “Fueled by Philly”
