[Jlg-28]

by Kevin Kurz, philadelphiaflyers.com

Although they have only been in training camp for a week now, the Flyers are excited to begin game play on Friday night, with a 7:00 faceoff set at the Wachovia Center against the Stanley Cup Champion New Jersey Devils.

For the first preseason game, the Flyers roster will surprisingly feature many of the regulars from last season. In fact, the only players who are scheduled to suit up for the Flyers that have no NHL experience are rookie defensemen Jeff Woywitka and Joni Pitkanen, both of whom have a good chance of making the team.

Robert Esche will get the start in goal, while Jeff Hackett will play on Saturday.

?I?m very excited to start up,? said Esche. ?We?ve worked hard in training camp, and I think tomorrow is going to be a good measuring stick on that.?

The Flyers will face the Devils in four of their first five exhibition games, including three in a row next week. They will face Washington and the New York Islanders two times apiece, and will end with a game against the Phantoms at the Wachovia Spectrum on October 3.

Flyers forward Tony Amonte just wants to get one game out of the way before looking ahead to any others.

?It?s always good to get out there and just get the first game under your belt,? said Amonte.

Head Coach Ken Hitchcock also has some evaluating to do for open roster spots, and is interested to see how his team performs in some real game action.

?The first thing you want to see is organization. You want to see the things that you?ve worked on since Day One of training camp,? said Hitchcock. ?You want to see what you put in place actually looks like it?s organized on the ice. You don?t want to all of a sudden play for real and it?s chaos, so you come back the next morning thinking you have to work on 25 different things.

?We?ve broken down everything, and then we?ve built up every drill so it?s like a game-like situation.?

FLYERS NOTES

The Flyers' 2003 first round draft choices Jeff Carter and Mike Richards are scheduled to play in the Flyers? second preseason game on Saturday against Washington in London, Ontario (7:30 start). ? Mike Siklenka, who played in one game for the Flyers last season, is also scheduled to play on Saturday. Other players that will make their preseason debuts on Saturday are Todd Fedoruk, Chris Therien, Claude Lapointe, Radovan Somik, Eric Weinrich and Dennis Seidenberg.