In practice, "he's only been able to skate at half speed, and he needs to take that next step," Holmgren said. "He seems very noncommittal about what he might do this season about coming back to the NHL. He told me, 'I want to see if I'm OK first.' "
Last season, the Flyers traded the 12-year veteran to Nashville for winger Scottie Upshall (who played last night for the first time this season), young defenseman Ryan Parent, and two draft picks.
"The way we see it," the tournament "is a first step for him coming back and playing," said Flyers president Peter Luukko, who did not meet with Forsberg.
"Forsberg keeps everything close to the vest," he said. "He's really coy about what his future is. He'll just see how he feels and go from there."
Upshall's return. Scottie Upshall says his fractured left wrist is completely healed, but there are things he still cannot do. He is wearing a soft cast.
"The range of motion with the soft cast does limit me," the winger said.
Upshall celebrated his return by scoring a power-play goal at 19 minutes, 32 seconds of the third period.
"It's really precautionary, to keep [the cast] on and move forward in the healing process," he said, adding that he was looking at two weeks with a soft cast and then just taping the wrist.
Goon squad? Flyers coach John Stevens addressed newspaper headlines in Montreal that characterized his players as "goons."
"It aggravates me because it totally fogs the good things we've done as a team this year," Stevens said. "Last year, we weren't a very good team. We were a lot of times too easy to play against, and now we're trying to right that ship by being a much more competitive team. . . .
