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

i'm so souray...

if you don't like spending almost 9 minutes sitting through painfully uncomfortable interviews, then i don't recommend watching this. on the other hand, if you have any interest in watching the pride of the edmonton oilers, sheldon souray, dodge ridiculous questions/insinuations/flirtations, i urge you to find the time.

it's an oldy but a goody (i may have posted it previously but can't be bothered to look back that far).

who's comin ???

(from calgaryflames.com)


Calgary, AB - The Calgary Flames will be hosting their annual development camp for prospects beginning on Monday, July 16th at the Don Hartman North East Sportsplex.

The purpose of the camp is to enhance each player’s development process through direction on conditioning, power skating sessions and familiarity with the Flames organization.

All on-ice sessions are open to the public.

On-ice sessions begin around 9 a.m. MT Tuesday through Saturday and end at 3 p.m. MT Monday's goalie session begins at 1:30 p.m. MT

Players Attending the Professional Development Camp:

Goaltenders
Leland Irving
Matt Keetley
Kevin Lalande
James Spratt

Defencemen
Keith Aulie
Gord Baldwin
Brad Cole
Per Jonsson
John Negrin
Brett Palin
Adam Pardy
Matt Pelech
Tim Ramholt

Forwards
John Armstrong
Dustin Boyd
Hugo Carpentier
Kris Chucko
Derek Couture
Adam Cracknell
Cam Cunning
Devin Didiomete
Ryan Donally
Jordan Fulton
Aaron Marvin
Brandon Prust
Jusso Puustinen
Mikey Renaud
Dan Ryder
Aki Seitsonen
CJ Severyn
Brett Sutter
Andrei Taratukhin
David Van Der Gulik
JD Watt

SUTTER DRAMA ALERT

WTF ???!?!??!

okay, if this is pure rumour then no biggie. but word coming out of red deer is that brent sutter is gonna step down (as coach/GM, presumeably) and take the head coaching job with the devils.

WHAT ?
COME AGAIN ??!?!

listen, in the past month i've really come to terms with keenan being the flames bench boss, but BRENT SUTTER ??!?! he could be one of the best coaches in the world, currently.

HOLY CRAPPERS !!!!!

baby flames logo

has anybody noticed this yet ? it was announced about three weeks ago, but DAYUM is that an ugly logo for the quad city flames... i mean, i presumed it would be a flaming Q (if you will) but i didn't expect the Q AND the C. i also didn't expect it to look so... half-assed and just kinda plunked down together (can't you interlock SOMETHING, logo guys ??? or make something kindof semi-transparent ????)... oh, and i CERTAINLY didn't expect them to be in the cup-era 80's red and gold. i figured the new-look sexy black flames would stay on (which, of course, makes me slightly afraid of what the new big club jerseys will look like)...





kinda makes you wish you got an omaha jersey, dunnit ?....


(note: on the flames forums, somebody wrote "The Q looks like a flaming O with a kickstand" which makes me giggle)

jersey numbers: the fight is on !!!

When Owen Nolan arrived in Toronto in 2003, Nik Antropov (in the midst of his first full year in the bigs) politely and appropriately gave up the #11 to the former Sharks captain. Nolan has worn the double-ones on every jersey he's ever donned in professional hockey: the Nordiques/Avalanche, the Sharks, the Leafs, the Desert Dogs, and each time he's played for Canada including the gold medal winning Olympic team in 2002.

Regardless of his playing history, or Antropov’s youthful gesture, it will be interesting to see if Nolan skates into this year’s training camp with #11 on the backside of his flaming C.

There is definitely a code when it comes to jersey numbers, whether written or not. Teams will occasionally retire jersey numbers of extraordinary players (and Mike Vernon), and no future player on that team will wear it again; exceptional circumstances, such as "unretiring" a number for the son of said player, notwithstanding. In 1999 the NHL retired Wayne Gretzky's #99 league-wide, an honour bestowed only upon one other figure in sporting history: baseball legend Jackie Robinson. The other, unspoken, rule is exemplified by Antropov’s 2003 courtesy; a player with seniority should be given the jersey number he is known for.

Stephane Yelle is a well respected and veteran NHLer, who has worn an "A" for the last few years and #11 for the entirety of his tenure in Calgary. My initial feeling on this subject was that Sandbox would keep his current jersey and Nolan would swallow some pride and select a new number for the first time when he steps on the ice at the Saddledome in September. On second glance, however, it seems that Yelle sported #26 for his first six years in the NHL (with the Avalanche). The reason ? Owen Nolan had already been wearing #11 the four previous years for that franchise. Sure, Nolan and Yelle only laced up their skates together for about 9 games but, as a rookie, Yelle must have had a lot of respect and admiration for a teammate and similar-style player like Nolan. While I am at a loss to find a reason behind Yelle choosing #11 when he arrived in Calgary (aside from the fact that Petrovicky was already wearing #26, prompting a change), it's reasonable to think that the gentlemanly forward will give #11 back to Nolan next season. Complicating the situation, of course, is that fact that #26 is unavailable since Marcus Nilson has been wearing it for years…

Personally, I think Yelle should take #21, so the exact same situation doesn’t occur between Flames newbie Corey Sarich and sophomoric benchwarmer David Hale…



[as a p.s, i would like to point out that this site has some really interesting and useless information on oddball jerseys ---like triple digit jerseys and players who wore #0.]

scandies

välkommen åt calgary, anders eriksson !!! vi hoppas du älska den flames.
spela hård !
slå till !
slå till !
slå till !!

buh-bye

ciao, lord byron. i'd wish you well, but you're playing for the canucks now. so i just can't.

buh-bye, brad stuart. sorry you weren't in calgary long enough to develop a good nickname. hope you find a nice pad in west hollywood and enjoy being a californian again. too bad you're about as far away from SJ as you were when you were here.

see ya, hammer. have fun on strombo's team. i hope you go back to wearing #44...

tony A ? big Mac ? you guys gonna sign somewhere or retire, or what ?
xx

O-NO, the refresher course

darryl sutter has been a busy bee these last couple weeks. signs keenan, trades for/signs aucoin, signs sarich, tentatively signs both iggy and reggie. and how he's signed owen nolan ?????

when the leafs traded a young alyn mccauley (and a first rounder: the last of the bad pat quinn "fuck the future" trades) for the aging forward, just before the trade deadline in 2003, everyone around me in toronto was excited. i thought giving up on mccauley was a mistake (though it may not have been, as he's sortof dropped off the face of the map mogilny-styles), but nolan proved to be fairly valuable that first season at almost a point-per-game to finish off the year.

the following season, nolan put up average-to-good numbers before going out with a knee injury which was aggravated, he says, due to mis-diagnosis by the leafs med staff, which led to a premature return to the ice. the lockout year and the season that followed (04-06) were spent healing: multiple surgeries and constant rehabbing. last year he returned to the ice and quietly played 76 games under the radar with the coyotes.

i'll be honest. i didn't even know he suited up.

his numbers demonstrate that he returned to late-career form last year; other than a couple of exceptional seasons with the sharks, he's pretty consistantly averaged in the 50 point range with an even +/-. i presume he'll get amonte-like minutes (which means he'll be on the ice for the end of every game), but will hopefully perform better. the jury's still out.

duncan surmised the 07/08 flames lineup in per-shift form, and here's my take:

tanguay-lombardi-iginla
huselius-langkow-nolan
moss-conroy-taratukhin/boyd/prust/vandergulik
nilson-yelle-primeau

phaneuf-aucoin
regehr-sarich
giordano-warrener

kiprusoff
mcelhinney


i have to admit, though, that i would really like to see a moss/lombardi/boyd line (MLB line ???) akin to the ducks PPG line.

dave is predicting a trade based on the wealth of riches at the centre position, and i tend to agree. i think the most likely roster player is conroy, and/or one of our quad city pals (taratukhin, boyd, dan ryder, brett sutter, hugo carpentier, carsyn germyn and aki seitsonen are all listed as centres). we also have a lot of depth in goal, if you consider mcelhinney as imminent, and keetley and irving poised for an NHL gig in the not-too-distant future. ie: keetley's tradebait.

in other news, it looks like regehr's five-year deal (and i would imagine iggy's as well) includes a no-movment clause. i would like to call this the "ference rule." ference signed a 3 year deal at less than market value due to "hometown discount." well, his pals all know he got fucked over in this one, so i would image both reggie and iggy will only take a paycut if they know they're in charge. sutter has historically balked at such clauses, but i'm sure he knows it's the only way to go.

okay, i should get going on my day.
:)

shock & awe

not sure if i'm more surprised that ryan smith went to the avs, that briere went to the flyers (oh, god, the flyers are STACKED), kariya to the blues (congrats, jase), or that my rangers signed gomez AND drury... holy shit. busy day.

leafs picked up an aging forward in jason blake. shocker. way to switch it up, jfj.

iggy looks to be inked for five. rock n' roll... cory sarich ? meh. whatevs. our blueline looks better every day.