There was not too much morning activity going on today at the SkateZone in Voorhees on the first official day of full training camp. Some notes from the day:
* Matt Carle skated on his own this morning, while Johan Backlund worked with goaltending coach Jeff Reese at the other end of the ice. Backlund, who is still recovering from off-season hip surgery, did not do any splits in net. He worked on lateral movement from post-to-post, cuts, turns, and standing up and going to his knees.
* Chris Pronger skated on his own a little after noon today. He is testing out his mobility with a knee brace.
* According to Derian Hatcher, it's "no contest" that Erik Gustafsson is the most skilled and polished of the defense prospects who attended the rookie camp earlier in the week.
* At 3 PM, the Flyers unveiled their new road jerseys (as expected, they are identical to the Winter Classic jersey) in a ceremony attended by Peter Luukko, Paul Holmgren, Peter Laviolette and hosted by Steve Coates. Lauren Hart sang an a capella version of the Star Spangled banner, Luukko and an exec from VirtuaHealth spoke and then Flyers captain Mike Richards modeled the new jersey.
* Afterward, Richards (who ran a little late arriving at the complex) was whisked upstairs to the press room for a short media availability session that was originally scheduled ahead of the event. It was a pretty standard preseason question-and-answer session. Richards, who feuded with members of the local media last season, quipped that "I'm excited to be back, especially to talk to you guys." He confessed that he was both physically and mentally exhausted by the end of long season last year and enjoyed the time away from thinking about hockey. Richards refused to bite on a question about his thoughts on the large number of veteran players who were working out in Voorhees well ahead of camp.
* Peter Laviolette has a team meeting scheduled for early this evening in which he will discuss training camp goals and expectations. He will be keeping most of the same system as last season, with a few new elements now that he has a full season to implement them. The number one expectation, as Richards noted, is that players focus on conditioning because he intends to maintain an aggressive version of the left-wing lock.
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This week's
Across the Pond at NHL.com takes an in-depth look at the partnership arrangement between the Boston Bruins and the SM-Liiga's JYP Jyväskylä.
Today's
Daily Drop at Versus.com looks at a question that I plan to explore in greater depth in the near future: Is there still a role for smaller goalies in the NHL?
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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