from Brian Smith of PhiladelphiaFlyers.com,

Monday was one of those strange days where the most interesting thing to happen at Flyers practice had nothing to do with the game the next day.

As the practice wrapped up, Jake Voracek emerged from the locker room for his first skate with his teammates in three weeks. He received a hockey team’s version of a standing ovation, with a lot of hollering and sticks banging the ice. Fortunately nobody got carried away and stick-tapped him anywhere near the lower-body injury that’s kept him out of the lineup since late February.

“It was amazing,” Voracek said. “It felt really good. I’m not going to lie. It was a great feeling and I’m really happy the boys did something like that.”

However, it was just a first day back. Voracek disqualified himself from being ready for Detroit tomorrow, and didn’t sound optimistic about the Chicago game on Wednesday, saying he needs time to recover the conditioning he lost during his long layoff since he couldn’t skate at all.

“You’ve got to do everything in the gym,” he said. “Miss three weeks of skating, it’s hard to catch up on. That’s why I need a couple of practices. [I have] no idea about Chicago. I’m going to go day-by-day and see how I feel.”

continued