As shortened training camp nears, Flyers gear for a ‘lot of battling’ to prepare for 56-game season

The Flyers continue to train on their own at the team’s Voorhees practice facility as the official start of training camp nears.

Players will have fitness and medical tests on Jan. 3; the next day, they will begin on-ice training, kicking off their abbreviated training camp.

This camp will be similar to the one the players experienced before the 2019-20 postseason began in August.

“That was a little taste of what this camp will be like,” left winger James van Riemsdyk said last week.

After nearly five months off because of the pandemic, the Flyers returned for a mini-camp and then swept the three-game round-robin tournament, which started Aug. 2, to take the Eastern Conference’s top seed. But they were somewhat flat in the playoffs, beating Montreal in six games and losing to the Islanders in seven games.

During this camp, there will not be any exhibition games, and the Flyers will open the season on Jan. 13 by hosting Pittsburgh.

“I think with the way a lot of guys train now and stay pretty sharp for most of the year, that time to transition into playing games can be abbreviated to get back up to the speed and level we want to be at,” van Riemsdyk said. “Ultimately, all the teams are in the same boat. We’ll make the best of it and go from there.”

With a 56-game schedule, a strong start is imperative, center Kevin Hayes said.

“It’s very important for the guys on our team to show up to camp in shape and ready to go,” he said. “I know in the past, the first 10 games is kind of a walk in the park. It’s still tough NHL games, but everyone kind of knows, ‘Oh, he’s not playing very good, but he’ll figure it out come Week 5 or something.’ That’s not the case right now.”

Hayes said, “Everybody needs to be at the top of their game. I know the coaches are working hard. We’re going to have a lot of meetings and a lot of film. There’s going to be a lot of battling in that shortened 10-day camp.”

Team USA, which includes Flyers prospects Cam York and Bobby Brink, rebounded from a loss to Russia and walloped Austria, 11-0, in the World Junior Championship on Saturday night in Edmonton.

“I was very happy with the response,” said Nate Leaman, Team USA’s coach. “We know we left something on the table” in Friday’s 5-3 loss (with an empty-net goal) to Russia, “and they weren’t happy about it all day.”

Matthew Boldy, drafted by Minnesota in the first round (12th overall) in 2019, had a hat trick for the Americans, who outshot Austria by a (gulp) 73-10 margin. Trevor Zegras, an Anaheim Ducks prospect, had two goals and two assists.

Brink (plus-2), Cole Caufield, Henry Thrun, and Landon Slaggert were the only four skaters on Team USA who didn’t collect a point. York, the team’s captain, had an assist and was plus-1.

In the loss to Russia, York was named his team’s player of the game as he had a goal and an assists but was minus-2. Brink had an assist.

Team USA meets the Czech Republic on Tuesday at 2 p.m. (NHL Network). Sweden, whose lineup includes Flyers prospect Emil Andrae, scored a 7-1 win over the Czechs on Saturday. Andrae was plus-1 in 6 minutes, 30 seconds.