An interesting week for concussions as they pertain to the Flyers:
1) Mark Alt gets one in Virginia during a rookie game against the Washington Caps rooks but is fine two days later and goes through rest of camp without a hitch;
2) Chris Pronger confirms that while he may look and seem better, he is still dogged by headaches and balance issues if he does anything on the ice other than move in straight lines with his kids;
3) Marc-Andre Bourdon is listed as day-to-day but admits he has been having a recurrence of post-concussion syndrome since August. Then club chairman Ed Snider announces during his annual pre-season presser that Bourdon will go on LTIR this Oct. with Pronger.
The best thing so far in camp from a health standpoint is that defenseman Andrej Meszaros really appears like his old self on the ice.
I still believe that if he has a strong pre-season, the Flyers will attempt to trade him. No one is going to take a chance on Meszaros unless they are certain he is fully recovered from his left shoulder woes that had bothered him in separate incidents for a long time.
As much as I sympathize with Simon Gagne and can fully understand how he might feel slighted by the organization, I also think he made a very bad tactical error by telling this agent this summer to wait on the Flyers instead of doing the prudent thing and try to find a contract somewhere, then go back to the Flyers for a commitment.
Gagne learned a very painful lesson very late in his career - hockey is a business. Just because he was here a decade, just because he was immensely popular with fans, doesn't carry weight when it comes to roster spots and salary cap space.
What I am hearing on the side right now is that the Flyers staff is very impressed with Austrian winger Michael Raffl. In fact, more impressed with him than Scott Laughton and Tye McGinn at this point.
It would be a bit unusual for a European skater to play for the Flyers in his first year - regardless of age _ without playing in NOrth America for a least a half season but the Flyers feel if Raffl shows he belongs here, then he stays here.
Finally, this was one of the strangest camps I've ever encountered. While one group of players were on the ice, the previous group was coming one-by-one to a designated interview area in the bowels of Wells Fargo Center.
So you had to make a choice. Watch the other group practice or miss your only chance to interview players. As such, the media saw the first group every day and that was it. Rest of the time, we were interviewing or waiting for players.
Things will be a lot different when the Flyers cut down from 60+ players to a manageable number next week.
For more hockey, including Bourdon's comments on his current rehab, check out CSNPhilly.com:
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