With three games in four days coming up between Wednesday and Saturday, the Flyers opened training camp today in front of a huge crowd (estimated at about 2,000 people) at the SkateZone in Voorhees.

It's tough to stay which individual players stood out, because head coach John Stevens has not been running formal scrimmages, breaking the players into small groups. Some of the notable on-ice happenings today:

* James van Riemsdyk practiced on a line with Daniel Briere and Claude Giroux. Stevens downplayed the significance of the arrangement, saying that he wants to look at a variety of line combinations and he still views Briere and Giroux as one of his "pairs". Nevertheless, the team clearly wants to see what JVR can do playing with small, skilled linemates.

* Chris Pronger was paired with Matt Carle, and Kimmo Timonen with Braydon Coburn. Stevens indicated that he'd like to try out these pairings as his top four, at least in the early going.

* There were no apparent problems with Simon Gagne's groin today.

* Stevens singled out Mika Pyörälä as one of the new faces who impressed him today with his grasp on the drills they performed.

* To a man, everyone said that they were glad the games start on Wednesday, and they're not bothered at all by the tightly packed early preseason schedule. Said Ian Laperriere, "I love it. Nowadays, everyone has to come to camp in shape -- if they don't, they won't be here too long. So I think it's a good thing that we start playing games soon."

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