flames prospect camp day 1

on my way home from the don hartman arena/NE sportsplex decided i would write this post in order of interest/importance, but i think now that it makes more sense to go chronologically.

first off, it's apparently been a helluva long time since i've driven mcknight blvd eastbound past barlow.... like... since when is 36th street north from there called métis trail (and since when does 36th street count as a TRAIL, in the vein of deerfoot, sarcee, shaganappi or blackfoot ??!?!). but i digress...

i arrived early and decided to read my recently acquired copy of "the nerve" magazine, which has pride tiger on the cover. this is only pertinent because i think jamie mclennan would really dig pride tiger, and i was pleasantly surprised to him walk through the arena's concourse area while i was reading about them... he was carrying a bunch of sticks with the equipment manager (??), and although i didn't see him after that, i'm kinda hopeful that our noodles (aka: "chopper") might have a future on the calgary flames coaching staff... y'know, cause he seems like such a great dude. kevin lalande also passed by and i'm devastated to say that the guy wears white tube socks with flipflops...

minutes after entering the viewing area rinkside, some corporate flames guy came through and handed out roster sheets. at least, i thought he was only handing out roster sheets (since that's all he offered to me) until i looked around and realized that all of the 11-or-so other people (read: male spectators/media) had recieved 12-page photocopied and stapled booklets, with a really nice colour-copied cover that reads "2007 Calgary Flames Development Camp July 16-22, 2007." it's got specific camp times & info, prospect photos & stats, lineup info by group, # & alphabetically, big club stats & coaching stats and a flames season schedule... i know this because i went over and very politely asked for the complete package, as opposed to the "chick page." [okay, i didn't really vocalize that, but HELL if i didn't want to....] suffice it to say i'm still pissed off about it... and people WONDER why women are so effin' disinterested in hockey, when we get treated like puck bunnies.... *sigh*

moving on...

the goalies took the ice first: keetley, irving, lalonde & james spratt. they did a few drills with david marcoux before the 7 skaters came out of the dressing room: taratukhin, ramholt, seitsonen, cracknell, carpentier, puustinen and david "post" van der gulik. i spent most of the day watching the ice's north end, where tukhs, ramholt & VDG were taking shots, mostly because they seem to be the most likely of the attendees to make the big club, but also because they seemed to be having the most fun. i suppose i could do some research to find out for sure, but i wouldn't be surprised if VDG & tukhs played on the same line last year. they seemed to have a good sense of each other and celebrated the more hard-earned goals with raised sticks and huge smiles....

taratukhin, from the hour and a half i watched him play today, will definitely contend for a big-flames roster spot next year. in rookie camp last year, my biggest beef with the guy was his skating ability --which looks to have improved significantly in the past ten months. he also seems much more comfortable on the ice; he's got the patience of huselius and the finesse of a guy like forsberg. the dude loves the deke... once the main practice was done, and marcoux was chatting with the goalies in the corner, taratukhin & ramholt ran a few of their own drills --one of which involved ramholt (a defenseman) shooting the long bomb from behind the icing line, to taratukhin who would take the pass onside skating full tilt... he was pretty much the last guy off the ice, staying behind to flick all the pucks back into the bucket...

the goalies weren't bad, either. i was really surprised by keetley, as he seemed the most advanced and has a lightning fast, kipper-like glove hand. all around, he seemed more solid today than our leland, who was sporting new red-and-white pads. don't get me wrong, irv looked very comfortable and was quite vocal --and maybe it was an off day for him (or maybe taratukhin's just got a mad good shot)-- but he looked like he might have some blocker side weakness and a gaping five-hole.... buuuuuuut he's come a long way from his nerdy draft pics, and looks like he's gonna be a stunner... [hey, i can love the sport of hockey and still note the guy's potential to be a looker, can't i ???]. spratt and lalonde showed some decent skill as well.

that's it for today, kiddies. kyle ? mg ? i think you guys should show tomorrow just for a bit. the rest of the week looks like this:
group A 9am & 12:30pm
group B 11am & 3:15pm
goalies 8:30 & 10:30.
no idea when i'll go, but probably 1130 or noonish (since it's totally unlikely i'll be up for 9).

GROUP A: tukhs, seitsonen, cracknell, carpentier, sutter, lalande etc.
GROUP B: boyd, chuko, ryder, VDG, prust, ramholt, irv, keets etc.


l-r: puustinen, carpentier, seitsonen, irving, lalande, taratukhin, spratt, ramholt