Claude Giroux, skating with most of the Flyers today at Voorhees, still can't do anything with his injured right hand but is convinced things are otherwise going well.
He vowed today that when Oct. 2 rolls around, he will be on the Wells Fargo Center ice play against Toronto.
He suffered two tendon tears on Aug. 15 in a freak golf accident in Ottawa practicing for a tournament later that same day.
“I will be ready for the season, but I am not going to force it,” he said. “If I am healthy, I’m playing and I want to. I would like to get a game in to get the feel for a game first.”
For more on him, click on the link at the bottom at CSNPhilly.com.
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Everyone I encountered at the construction site of what was once called Skate Zone in Voorhees, pretty had the same reaction in recent weeks.
When we talked about how long an off-season it’s been, they began counting the months on their fingers.
Four, full months and some days added on. That’s how long it’s been.
It drove Peter Laviolette insane. You don’t to prepare for the off-season before May arrives. It’s usually, late May or June.
“It’s tough when you don’t get to do what you wanted and have to watch the playoffs,” Laviolette told me last weekend.
“It doesn’t have the same meaning on the outside as when you are inside and competing. I think I found late spring and early summer to be hard to handle. It wasn’t the plan, the goal or where we wanted to be.”
Things start anew on Friday with the rookie camp. The full camp opens Sept. 12 at Wells Fargo Center.
For those unaware … the entire training facility in Voorhees has undergone a massive renovation. For now, the only “usable” space – and it, too been cut in half - is the Phantoms side of the ice.
And their portion is still undergoing change, as well.
That’s where the rookies/prospects will be this week. The Flyers side is not ready and won’t be for a while, so they’ll train in Wells Fargo Center before heading to Lake Placid.
One of things I wonder about is how disruptive this is going to be to Lavy and his staff. They have no offices, no space at Skate Zone and they’re going to be running back and forth.
In the end, it will be worth it to have all these renovations, but given the hype, expectations, etc. falling on their shoulders, this can’t be an easy September for Laviolette and there are no guarantees the Skate Zone facility will be fully ready when they return from Lake Placid.
The good thing is, they have so many games after they get back, they don’t have to be practicing at Skate Zone. They can use Wells Fargo or the travel city rinks they’ll be in. So the schedule sorta helps them.
“It so happens that it comes at a time when we don’t have access to our [Skate Zone] building,” he said.
“But what you give up in the building to have this kind of return in the end is not that much. That part of camp turns out should work in our favor that way it is structured right now.”
The rookie practices begin 10:30 a.m. on Friday.
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