prospect camp day 4&5: hilarity

the only facts coming out of my last two days at prospect camp are as follows:

1. kent is a pretty hilarious dude
2. jim playfair has a more ridiculous haircut than jamie mclennan.

these are indisputable, thank you very much, but the following items of note are entirely my opinion, substantiated only by my perception of what i watched on-ice over the past two afternoons.

- matt pelech looks awfully good. the problem being that i thought he looked awfully good last summer too, and then somehow he managed to look like a clown during training camp (most specifically in the oil country tournament last september). i would think he's pretty much where adam pardy was at this point a year ago, and seems poised to skate into a spot on the big club if/when there's an injured starter.... staffan kronvall, however, might have something to say about that....

- mitch wahl also looks awfully good. i wasn't counting, per se, but i'm guessing he netted well over 80% of his shots this afternoon. incredible potential on this guy, even if he is totally funny-looking.

- mikael backlund (get this !!) looks awfully good as well.... he absolutely KILLED the opposition in faceoff drills today, can skate very proficiently, has a good shot, and is dynamic as he approaches the crease. definite superstar potential.

- aaron marvin, while quite a few paces behind the above standouts, skated ahead and broke from the peleton today. it will be interesting to see how he develops.

- it was no surprise that grantham and jd watt were the first two guys to fall over (before the ice got choppy and started taking out superior players), and they both seemed to struggle with the skating drills (watt moreso, to be fair). i still think grantham has potential for growth, but i'm getting the feeling that watt may have hit his ceiling....

- once again, i'm impressed with the coaching style of ryan mcgill. from what i've seen in the past days, i think he's got the patience and understanding for teaching younger players....

- the guy behind me seemed to think that the sutterdome ice is better than any other ice. "it's different. smoother," he explained to his friends/family. i would suggest that the fact it's a pro rink, with pro icemakers/zamboni drivers etc. would make it better than your community rink, yes. but i'm guessing it's pretty much the same as every other pro rink with A/C. so, thanks for the update captain obvious. also ? you don't need to do play-by-play on drills. we can all see what the defensemen are doing, and we all know it's probably fairly challenging....

- the annoying dude i see every summer showed up today and literally sat directly behind kent and i for about 3 minutes; long enough to actually enjoy his inane commentary, but not long quite enough to drive me crazy.

- aulie's stick looks too short for him, and pelech's skates look too loose. no point really.

- irving's fivehole is still scary. joni ortio looks tired.

that's about all i've got. i don't "do" saturdays at prospect camp, so i guess i'm done for the year.... i look forward to seeing some of these kids line up with the big boys in september, and i presume that backlund, wahl, and pelech will be the first in line to help solve the flames' cap issues in the next couple of seasons.