Brayden Schenn

Five Flyers forwards who had been playing in the AHL were at an informal practice Friday in Voorhees, and Wayne Simmonds also joined the team as it prepared for Sunday's opening of training camp. Brayden Schenn, who is expected to play on the Flyers' second line, was one of the players from the AHL Adirondack Phantoms who made his first appearance at the Voorhees rink this season. "It's been a long wait, but I'm excited to be here," said Schenn, who was reunited with his brother, Luke, a defenseman the Flyers acquired in the offseason.

In hockey-crazed Toronto, bruising defenseman Luke Schenn was regarded as a flop, a No. 1 draft pick who never lived up to his expectations. Now, the slate is clean. "Sometimes, it's nice to get a fresh start," Schenn said Wednesday after his first informal practice with his new Flyers teammates in Voorhees. "A change of scenery a little bit can maybe work out for the better. I'm excited to be here, and being familiar with some of the guys can only be a positive. " Schenn, 23, acquired in the June deal that sent winger James van Riemsdyk to the Maple Leafs, is reunited with his younger brother, Brayden, who is expected to play on the Flyers' second line.

After the 113-day NHL lockout ended in the wee hours Sunday morning, some fans suggested that Scot Beckenbaugh - the federal mediator who steered both sides to an agreement during a 16-hour meeting - should replace the league's commissioner, Gary Bettman, as the person who hands the Stanley Cup to the winning captain this June. Beckenbaugh will live in NHL lore, while Bettman and union boss Donald Fehr will forever be cast as villains because of the way they seemingly took the fans for granted during a laborious, contentious process that alienated millions.

GLENS FALLS, N.Y. - When Flyers general manager Paul Holmgren finally signed off on a long-rumored trade to bring Brayden Schenn's older brother, Luke, over from the Toronto Maple Leafs, Brayden was relaxing on a boat with friends on a lake in Saskatchewan. That was June 23. "The trade has sunk in," Brayden Schenn said Thursday. "But we haven't exactly had that first NHL game where we're on the same team, to get to share in that experience. " For now, as the NHL lockout reaches its 76th day on Friday, the Schenn brothers remain worlds apart.

GLENS FALLS, N.Y. - For Eric Wellwood, life in this picturesque, upstate New York hamlet hasn't been so pretty this fall. Wellwood, 22, played important minutes for the Flyers in 11 Stanley Cup playoff games last spring. For three straight games last week, he was relegated to the stands as a healthy scratch - the recipient of some tough love from Phantoms coach Terry Murray. "The fact that he played games last year, well, really, that's last year," Murray said. "You've got to come back and do it all over again this year.

In a way, the NHL lockout is being partially funded by Comcast, the Flyers' parent company. The NBC Sports Group, a subsidiary of Comcast, is paying the league about $180 million in rights fees this season, and a network spokesman said on Monday that the NHL will receive all of that money even if no games are played in 2012-13. There is an asterisk, however. If no games are played this season, the league will grant NBC a "free year at the back end of the agreement," said the NBC spokesman, who asked to remain anonymous.

The NHL lockout could not prevent the Flyers from opening the 2012-13 season with a riveting, 4-3 win over the visiting Boston Bruins on Thursday night. OK, it was a Strat-O-Matic simulated game, but it's all we've got. The NHL season, which was supposed to start Thursday, has gone dark as the owners and players are locked in an ugly labor dispute. In the simulated game, Brayden Schenn scored with 1 minute, 14 seconds left to key the comeback victory. Bruno Gervais (!), Danny Briere, and Wayne Simmonds also scored for the Flyers In real life, eight Flyers are playing in Europe, nine who spent time with the team last season are with the AHL Adirondack Phantoms, and a handful of others are training on their own - and maybe even playing some Strat-O-Matic hockey.

The stars seemed aligned for Flyers forward Brayden Schenn this season. He was healthy after an injury-plagued 2011-12 season and was ecstatic to be reunited with his older brother, Luke. In addition, he figured to have a carryover effect from a strong second half of his rookie year. The NHL lockout, however, has Schenn's projected breakout season on hold. Schenn, 21, is one of several Flyers who are in training camp with the AHL Adirondack Phantoms because of the lockout.

Driving from his home in Maine to South Jersey earlier this week, Terry Murray noted a strange coincidence involving the NHL's latest labor dispute. "Three times there's been a lockout - and all three times I've been with the Flyers when it happened," said Murray, who is getting ready to start his first year as head coach of Philadelphia's top minor-league affiliate, the Adirondack Phantoms. This lockout will benefit Murray and all the AHL teams, because they will have an influx of NHL talent.

Right winger Wayne Simmonds has agreed to a six-year contract extension with the Flyers, the team announced on Thursday morning. The deal is believed to be worth $4 million per season, according to a TSN.ca report. Simmonds, 23, scored a career-high 28 goals and added 21 assists while playing all 82 games in his first season with the Flyers. He came from the Los Angeles Kings with Brayden Schenn in June 2011 as part of the Mike Richards trade. The Scarborough, Ontario, native has 67 goals and 75 assists in 322 NHL games with the Flyers and Kings.