Flyers dial up the intensity and physicality on eve of preseason opener: ‘This league has no mercy’

There is no clean slate for the Flyers in the eyes of John Tortorella.

Kind of.

“Usually when you say clean slate, are you still mad at that guy? I’m not that way,” the bench boss said. “It’s not a clean slate as far as the bank accounts you have with me, what [Owen Tippett] has done, what [Tyson Foerster] has done. I certainly have to see progression.”

Well, things did progress on Saturday — specifically in intensity, compete levels, and pace. They got ramped up so much that it seems a switch was flipped to high.

Garnet Hathaway agreed that part of his role is to set the tone, and he and Nic Deslauriers were, as expected, among the guys throwing the body around. Louie Belpedio traded pleasantries with a few guys, including Hunter McDonald, who has about 5 inches on him. And Nick Seeler had an animated word with the entire bench of the squad he was facing in his scrimmage. Tortorella wasn’t sure what sparked Seeler but said, “that’s good stuff for me.”

“Everyone’s competitive,” said Travis Konecny, who had his own in-your-face-moment with best bud Travis Sanheim on Friday. “It doesn’t matter if you’re on Team White or Team Black, that’s a team through the camp, and it’s just how everyone’s programmed. We’re all competitive. And it doesn’t help that we act like brothers, too.”

Although there is hitting and some scrums, Konecny said there still is respect among the group if you watch closely. There may not be low-to-high one-timers or guys getting put into situations where they could get injured. But, of course, Konecny does throw in some chirps — and this time, it was prized prospect Matvei Michkov on the receiving end.

“He’s going to fit in great,” Konecny said. “I was giving him a hard time today just because I’m sure the speed has picked up a little bit during camp. So we were just teasing him a little bit, and we’re going be there to help him out, but he’ll figure it out. You can tell, he’s going to be a good player.”

Michkov has some edge — which Konency likes — and intensity to his game. He’s not just a guy who can score. On the ice, he goes to the hard areas, sees the ice well, and shows a drive to be the best. Off the ice, he’s just as intense.

“Every day is better and better. Every day is a work progress,” Michkov said through Flyers consultant/translator Slava Kuznetsov about playing alongside Morgan Frost. “... Everybody’s under pressure with getting themselves out of the training into the games. But we are working together to get better.”

And how is he handling his first training camp with Tortorella, who not only has an infamous rope test to kick-start things but loves to run his players through bag skates at the end of each practice session.

“I like skating,” he said. “It’s always been my thing to skate, and the skating now makes more sense than skate later and should make us better throughout the camp and for the season. Hard in training, easy in the game.”

» READ MORE: Matvei Michkov continues to acclimate himself both on and off the ice: ‘He seems willing to work and learn’

That mentality is something everyone agrees on as the Flyers build their work ethic.

“When we start playing other teams, other organizations, this league has no mercy,” Hathaway said. “It doesn’t care how hard your camp was or how easy it was. Every team is trying to get two points, and the way we’re going to win games is our conditioning, our compete level.”

The Flyers will begin their preseason schedule on Sunday against the Capitals in Washington (3 p.m., NHL Network). Tippett, Frost, and Michkov, who have played as a line during scrimmages, will suit up.

“Frosty and I have good chemistry, playing together for a while now, and obviously with Michkov, there it’s going to be a lot of fun,” Tippett said. “You can tell how much skill he has and how he thinks the game. It’s just been a small sample size for Frosty and I, but the longer we skate together the better it will get.”

Also skating against the Capitals up front will be Bobby Brink, Olle Lycksell, Jett Luchanko — who also skated between Tippett and Michkov in scrimmages — Rodrigo Ābols, Noah Cates, Sawyer Boulton, Rhett Gardner, Joel Farabee, and Brendan Furry. Seeler, Emil Andrae, Helge Grans, Jamie Drysdale, Adam Ginning, and 18-year-old Spencer Gill will man the blue line with Carson Bjarnason and Ivan Fedotov in net.

A packed house was on hand for Saturday’s action at the Flyers Training Center; even Gritty was there. They saw the ramped-up action and got a chance to see the 19-year-old Michkov show off his tools.

“It’s an unbelievable feeling to see the fans already showing up,” he said through translation. “It helps actually to go through the hard training [because] we’re doing it for the fans, and it helps overall.”

And how about all the Michkov jerseys spotted in the crowd?

“I never saw that many jerseys [before] with my name,” he said.

» READ MORE: Six Flyers who need to have strong training camps

Samu Tuomaala did not skate again on Saturday. ... Former Edmonton Oilers coach Jay Woodcroft again was an observer at Flyers camp after watching on Friday. Woodcroft, who was fired in November, reached out to Tortorella and is using the time to learn and grow his craft. “It’s a coach trying to get better,” Tortorella said. “And I think in the coaching fraternity, I used to do it as a young coach myself, just reach out and try to see if I could just view a practice and maybe sit down and talk a little bit. So I think that’s just a young man who has no job right now trying to use his time correctly to try to be better. So I’m all-in on that.” ... Ian Lapperière will coach the Flyers’ first two preseason games, which includes a Monday matchup against the Canadiens in Montreal. “I think that’s fantastic,” Tortorella said. “A French Canadian going back home there and get on an NHL bench. ... I think it’s exciting for him. So it’s a great opportunity.”