One day after Philadelphia Flyers head coach John Tortorella held his vaunted rope skate test gauntlet, the lads in Orange and Black hit the ice and kept things business as usual.

Tortorella, who admittedly holds these tough skates to challenge his troops mentally, was impressed by the way the Flyers handled the battle of attrition heading into the third year of his tenure in Philadelphia.

“I just think they know. They just go and do it,” Tortorella said on Friday afternoon. “There’s no extra body language when they’re done. They know they have to do it. And I think our camp now, in three years, has grown into, ‘Let’s just get it done.’

“I just like the feel of the business-like attitude they’ve had.”

So far, so good for the Flyers. But what about the actual on-ice play of the three different training camp groups?

Training camp Team 1, which was headlined by Flyers captain Sean Couturier, Tyson Foerster, Travis Konecny, Rasmus Ristolainen, and Egor Zamula, won both of its scrimmages today, beating Team 3, 5-2, and Team 2, 4-3 in the shootout.

Zamula and Ristolainen currently project to reprise their roles as the third defense pairing from the 2023-24 season, which was ultimately derailed by Ristolainen’s season-ending triceps injury. Ristolainen looked fast, physical, and alert on the ice on Friday, and even scored a goal in his squadron’s defeat of Team 3.

Zamula, too, scored in that scrimmage, showing some agility and stickhandling skills as he received a puck on the blueline, danced to the bottom of the left circle, and rifled a laser of a shot to the far corner over the blocker of Cal Petersen.

It’s no secret that Ristolainen has played some very good hockey under Tortorella, and with another step forward in his development, Zamula can make that pairing a dangerous one for the Flyers.

“I think it’s really important that we get Risto to play more games in the regular season. He was the most improved player for me my first year,” Tortorella said of Ristolainen. “You guys are up his ass all the time about ‘He’s overpaid’, he’s this, that, the other thing. He was our most improved player my first year. We need him to play and stay healthy. I think he’s had a better summer conditioning-wise; the circumstance was just better for him to get better conditioning. And he looks good!”

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