The other day, Jake Voracek joked that when the Flyers went 4-for-7 on the power play in a preseason game against Washington, captain Claude Giroux might have reason to fear for his job.

Wouldn't you know it, two days later there was No. 28 on the ice with his teammates, six days removed from the first practice of training camp when Giroux left about 10 minutes in. He was supposed to miss two weeks. Even his linemate was surprised.

"I had no idea," Voracek said. "I looked up and he was just there. That's a good sign that he's doing better because obviously he's a big part of this team."

The 18 skaters who are playing in Thursday's exhibition game against the New Jersey Devils took their morning practice and were eventually joined by a group that included Giroux. It was his second time skating since the injury, which is believed to be a groin pull. The team was off Wednesday, but Giroux was on the ice with assistant coach Ian Laperriere.

"That was a pretty tough practice today," said Giroux, who was on the ice for about 80 minutes. "Did some battle drills and I was able to…I thought I was good. It bothered me just a little bit, but I thought it was good."

Don't get too excited. He's not cleared to play just yet. He will, however, be joining his teammates for more practices in the near future.

"I don't have a time table," coach Craig Berube said. "He's just on the ice right now. We gotta see how he feels. We gotta make sure he's healthy. We're not going to put him in there and get a setback or anything like that, so we gotta be real sure."

Last year Giroux had offseason hand surgery after what the team said was a golf accident and missed all of the preseason except for the final tune-up game before the regular season. He may be on a similar course this year with the early-camp injury.

"Bad luck kind of follows me," Giroux said. "I was really frustrated. It's something you can't really control at that point. You work hard before camp and you're out there for four minutes. It's frustrating, but at the same time we have to play it by how I feel right now and I'm feeling better every day."

It remains unclear if Giroux will play in any of those games, but surely he'd like a warm-up before the season officially begins.

"The most important game is Game 1," Giroux said, in reference to the season opener against the Boston Bruins on Oct. 8. "My job right now is to make sure I'm ready for Game 1. If that means playing preseason or not or play a couple, I don't know. We'll see how I feel. The most important thing is to make sure for Game 1 in Boston I'm the healthiest I can be."

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