The vibes are high as the Philadelphia Flyers kicked off their 2025 training camp Thursday, and for good reason. The atmosphere seems to be totally different.
Given the nature of the split-group methodology, there isn't an awful lot to come away with, especially from the first day.
New head coach Rick Tocchet, running his first training camp as the Flyers' bench boss, did offer some insight into his coaching philosophies, though, which will help us identify the things we need to look for during camp.
For example, Tocchet shared Thursday that he likes Scotty Bowman's method of running "pairs" in the forward lines.
"I think Scotty Bowman was a genius behind the bench. He was the pair guy. You have pairs and you can always rotate a guy in and out as the third guy," Tocchet said. "I do like having two guys that work well together. You can always put a third guy in one or two nights, then put another guy.
"We did it, actually, in Pittsburgh a little bit, and it creates energy. As a coach, you got to be careful that you're not doing it too much and pulling the plug all the time."
So, why is this important? For two reasons, actually.
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According to Moneypuck, there were 82 forward combinations that played 201 minutes or more together last season, and the Flyers accounted for only two of those.
Those lines were Tyson Foerster, Noah Cates, and Bobby Brink, and Travis Konecny, Sean Couturier, and Matvei Michkov.
Tocchet's Vancouver Canucks did not have a single trio play 201 or more minutes together, and many of the NHL's worst teams (Chicago, Calgary, Buffalo, Pittsburgh, Nashville, etc.) had two or fewer such combinations.
In simple terms: finding chemistry is important for finding success in the NHL. Shocker!
During Thursday's practice session, Tocchet enacted this philosophy across the two main groups, Group A and Group B.
Here are some forward line combinations that may pique your interest:
Nikita Grebenkin - Sean Couturier - Matvei Michkov
Alex Bump - Trevor Zegras - Travis Konecny
Denver Barkey - Christian Dvorak - Tyson Foerster
Foerster - Noah Cates - Bobby Brink
Owen Tippett - Jett Luchanko - Alexis Gendron
Obviously, some of these lines are incomplete due to the groupings of players, but we can identify a few "pairs" right away.
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Couturier and Michkov, Zegras and Konecny, Foerster and Dvorak, and Cates and Brink all stand out. Tippett and Luchanko make a lot of sense, assuming the latter makes the Flyers' NHL roster out of training camp as he did last year.
On defense, Cam York and Helge Grans were paired up, as were Nick Seeler and Jamie Drysdale. Travis Sanheim skated alongside Spencer Gill (placeholder for Rasmus Ristolainen?) while Egor Zamula and Emil Andrae worked with each other.
With the exception of Gill, this should be the Flyers' main defense group going forward.
When I look at players like Andrae and Grans, I recognize that Ristolainen is going to be out until November, most likely. At what point are the Flyers going to find a better time to get a look at these players?
Developing the young players appears to be a priority, so Grans and Andrae should get priority over veterans like Noah Juulsen and Dennis Gilbert, at least in training camp.
If they don't earn their places with the Flyers, that's another thing, but Tocchet's first day indicates he's giving the new guys and the young guys every opportunity to earn a place that suits them and their skills.
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It helps, too, that the first day included work on systems and practicing actual hockey rather than skating around in circles all day, hoping that professional athletes indeed showed up to work in shape.
The weekend and the preseason will tell us more, but it's an encouraging start for Tocchet's new-look, good-vibe Flyers in training camp.