[getbak]

I went down to the Dome yesterday (and will go again today). Since there haven't been that many comments from people who were there, I'll give my quick run-down.

First of all, it's very tough to track any specific player during this sort of practice because there were multiple drills going on simultaneously, so you really have to focus if you want to follow a specific player.

It was a very different camp than the ones Hartley ran. There were no skating drills whatsoever. Everything they did was with a puck. Hartley had a lot of just skating drills, from what I remember.

They also didn't do a lot of line drills, so even though the Tkachuk-Bennett-Brouwer combo got some attention from the media, it wasn't like they were running together for the full hour. It was only a couple of drills, and even then, there was a lot of mixing.


In drills like this, it's really hard to follow the goalies, so I won't really comment on them at all. I will say, I liked the look of Rittich and Johnson's equipment. Nice use of the Flames' colours for both of them. There certainly won't be any confusion over who's in goal this year. While Elliott's gear is solid red, Johnson's is very bright white (he was wearing his white mask too, which made him look even whiter).


In the first session, Bennett and Tkachuk stood out. I didn't really notice Brouwer than much. It wasn't until they lined up for a five man drill with the aforementioned Tkachuk-Bennett-Brouwer combo that I really noticed him.

Jankowski and Klimchuk both looked solid. Mangiapane is fast.

At one point, they had a drill where the forwards were going forward and the defencemen were supposed to keep up with them going backwards, and Mangiapane just went around Kanzig like he was standing still. Kanzig matched up much better to Smith, speed-wise.

I don't remember who the forward was (it wasn't a particularly slow guy), but one time they did that drill and Gio was barely skating and he was keeping pace with the forward.


They spent a lot of time working on controlled break outs. There was one drill with only 4 guys, but it was two d-men back and one forward at about the faceoff dot and the other along the boards closer to the blueline. They did this a few different ways, but was always a D-to-D pass then up to one of the forwards, over to the other. At one point, Gulutzan stopped the drill and reminded the forward swinging back that he's there to give his d-man an outlet, he's not just there to be picking up speed into the neutral zone. Gulutzan kept reinforcing the idea that they need a controlled zone exit, not just a wild throw out of the zone. He said something to the effect of, "don't just throw it away and hope it goes out because if it doesn't, we're stuck playing in our zone for five minutes". Actually, I think he exact words were, "Don't be too horny to leave the zone." So, I'd say that's going to be a significant change in the system this year.


Most of the drills were 1-on-1 or 2-on-1, plus they did a lot of co-operative drills, so things like a 5-on-0 breakout. That didn't make it easy on the goalies.


The first group had most of the "sexy" guys in it.

As already mentioned, Chiasson was noticeable in the second group. At the end of the hour, they did a 1-on-1 drill where the player with the puck was trying to keep control and score and the other guy was trying to get the puck away. The drill started with Chiasson against Stajan, and I don't know if Stajan touched the puck during the 45 second drill.

Poirier and Shinkaruk both looked good in the second group. Lomberg has good speed.

Gulutzan spent a lot of time talking to Andersson in the second group. There were quite a few times you'd hear, "Rasmus..." then instructions on what he should be doing. It wasn't in a bad way, but he was definitely a focus.


In the third group, Engelland looked solid and Brodie is Brodie. Grigoriev caught my eye with his speed. He's very fast, but he's a small d-man (he's about the same size as Gaudreau), so it'll be interesting to see how he does in game action. There did seem to be a bit of a language barrier with him, so I'd guess his English isn't very good ... possibly non-existent.

Falkovsky also caught my eye, but not in a good way. He seemed to be completely gassed about 20 minutes into the session. Although, he did seem to catch a second wind later. Even though he spent last season in Ottawa, there also appeared to be a communication gap with him too. I'm not sure what the plan for him is this season. Because of his age, he could play in the ECHL or AHL. If he goes back to the OHL, he'd take up both an import and over-age spot, so that will be hard for him to fit.

Kylington is a quick skater. He had no problem keeping up with the forwards in the backward skating drill. Funny thing about that drill ... When the third group started it, Engelland was first to go and I was impressed at how well he was keeping up to the forward -- until I realized the forward was Bollig. He later matched up with Phillips, and that wasn't as even a competition.


In the third group, Frattin kept catching my eye. As did Hamilton (Freddie).

Higgins didn't really do much to impress me. Early in the session, he went to the bench and took the shot-blockers off his skates.