Training Camp 2010, Day 2

We managed to drop in to training camp again today for a bit, and have to say we are excited for this team already. The intensity was noticeable with these guys, and it's only the second day of camp. We don't remember guys battling this hard in training camp last year until... well, we don't really remember. But this seems to be a team of hard workers so far.

Again, there were 13 skaters on the ice, and we actually recognized a few today. (They stopped and stood right in front of us where we could see their faces.) It was good to see Tim Crowder back, and also Brett Parnham. There were three goalies on the ice today, so they took turns during the drills. (No word of who the 3rd goaltender is as of yet.)

When we arrived at Acord Ice Center, the team was already well into their practice, this time doing organized drills. The first one we watched was a 1-on-1 drill in front of the net - that's where we first noticed these guys were really going for it. There were quite a few good hard checks into the boards throughout practice, and they weren't afraid to shove each other around to get the job done.

This group also paid close attention to the explanations of the drills at the white board, and weren't afraid to ask questions if they didn't understand. They got it right more often than not. Perhaps it's because a lot of them were back from last season, but we checked our notes, and on October 14th last season (almost the end of camp) Coach Colley was still yelling at the team to go back and do it again until they got it right. Today we only saw one group that had to start over for doing a drill wrong. Either Colley is mellowing out, or this team gets it.

Practice went a little longer today than yesterday - they ended with a stretch at 11:00 am. Coach Colley told them, "good job today," and left the ice. Most of the guys were still hanging out on the ice getting to know each other and working on stuff when we left around 11:15 am. We would have stayed longer to see what they got up to, but we had to get back to our real jobs.

We may not make it out to practice tomorrow or Thursday, but after Tuesday even the calendar says W. T. F. We'll try to check in again this week, though, so stay tuned. Also, practices are free and open to the public, so if you can get away from your real jobs, drop by the Acord Ice Center and check out the Grizzlies.

*Pictures in today's post were taken at yesterday's practice (10/4/2010).

UPDATE: The third goalie in practice today must have been Dan Bellissimo. [Article from ECHL.com]

Training Camp 2010, Day 1

We made it down to the Acord Ice Center this morning in time to catch the tail end of the first Grizzlies practice of the 2010-2011 season. It was good to see live hockey again, even if it was just pre-season practice.

There were 13 players on the ice, plus 2 goaltenders when we got there. The Grizzlies did release their preliminary training camp roster, but we have to be honest - we have a hard time recognizing guys without numbers so we couldn't tell you who was there. Obviously, if you look at the roster, there weren't any spare players, but that doesn't mean other guys won't be joining camp throughout the week. (Abbotsford is still holding training camps this week.)

Coach Colley didn't start with anything too fancy that we saw. We figured he was mostly just interested in getting the guys on the ice for a workout and seeing who was in shape and who might need a little more gym time. He had the guys give the goaltenders a good practice, as most of what we saw were break-away type drills. It wasn't a long practice - it started at 10:00 am and by 10:50 am the Coach said they were finished for the day. (The previously-scheduled 3:15 pm practice was cancelled.) The players hung around for a while on the ice stretching and taking shots, and probably catching up after the off-season.

We took pictures, but we don't know if any of them turned out. If they did, we'll post a few later on when we can get them off our camera.

Pictures and Videos - Day 5

Angle from above - the team sets up for a play:

Some practice, and our excellent promotional phone conversation:

"How about you guys come over here."

Right before the face-off, Red Center bursts his teammates' bubble by telling them that in the real story, the little mermaid dies and turns into foam.

Watch out for the boards - they sneak up on you:

Did someone say pancakes?

Some nice defensive work by the forwards:

Coach Colley drops the puck:

Grey and green teams play a shift:

Good to see some fans getting out to watch practice:

That's all for today. Tune in this weekend for reports from the pre-season match in Logan. We're SO ready...

Go Grizzlies!

Training Camp, Day 5

The closer it gets to actual game time, the more the practices resemble hockey games. Today the coach had the guys divided into two teams and let them run power play scenarios. We actually heard him say "power play", so we figured that's what they're doing. It also stands to reason that they were working penalty kill as well, but we were kind of late getting there, and then had a phone call. (Us today = distracted)

What we did see was white team matched up against red team, and green team matched up against grey team in some actual shifts and game-like situations. We think it probably looked easier than it was because both teams knew what the other one was trying to accomplish as far as plays, but it was still fun to watch. We noticed that the team was working longer shifts than before. Once again, this is probably the coach trying to get them ready for real games. Some of the guys seemed more ready than others, but the team just got a few newbies yesterday. Plus some of the guys are back from last season, so they're more familiar with each other already.

For anyone wondering, there were still two goaltenders on the ice today. We haven't heard about any new signings yet, or anyone coming down from Abbotsford or Bridgeport, so we're assuming Dov Grumet-Morris is still practicing with the team for now. Goalies pretty much just look like big piles of moving equipment to us anyway - we can't tell who is who without a number.

We do have some pictures and video for later, so keep your eyes open for that. The team has a short practice tomorrow (10-11 am) at the Acord Ice Center before they take off to Logan for the game. We'll be at the practice tomorrow, but we probably won't be doing a write-up. Some of us are planning on going to Logan for the pre-season game though, so there will definitely be something coming up on that.

One more day.

Go Grizzlies!

Training Day 4 - Pictures and Videos

Since it was Skate in Front of the Camera Day at the rink, we got a few more shots of the players close up...

Adam Perry and Scott Thauwald wait their turn for drills.

Ryan Kinasewich and Scott Thauwald waiting for drills. Did Thauwald move?

Vladimir Nikiforov (Vladi - it's easier) and... a teammate in a red jersey whose name we don't know rest and wait to play. (Anyone recognize Red Jersey Guy? We couldn't see his number here.)

You can see this drill pretty well until Adam Perry and Tom May skate in front of the camera.

We don't know who this is, but the picture is kind of cool.

We don't know who this is either, but his fall is forever immortalized on our blog. Sorry, Dude.

"The net you're shooting at is that way. Go that way." (Hopefully they remember this instruction for when we yell this at them later in the season.)

Some practice for defense in both ends.

"Want to hit up the IHOP after practice?"
"Yeah, I could go for some pancakes."

Some defense passing drills. Or something.

Slapshot practice.

"So are you guys getting pancakes?"

Watch the red guys - in Irish dance, we call this a lead round. Sort of.

"Did he say 'again'?"

"Woah, did that go in?"

This was taken at yesterday's practice, but we just noticed this guy in the background. Is that Adrian Denny? Yo, Adrian!


We should be back tomorrow for day 5.

Hang in there - it's almost here!

Training Camp, Day 4

Back from another day of training camp, and things just keep picking up speed. Practices are taking on more and more intensity as the days go by, and we're seeing a lot more drills that look like game situations. We're glad. Now we kind of get what's going on.

Line combinations were a little different today than they have been the last three days, and it looks like we picked up a couple of new d-men. The Grizzlies should be announcing 2 players from Calgary this afternoon, so maybe that's them. And for those of you concerned about the plight of Dov Grumet-Morris showing up as being suspended on the ECHL website, that's true. He got an offer from a team in Europe that was too good to pass up. By suspending him, the Grizzlies retain his rights here if he decides to return. He was in practice today, but won't be allowed to play in the pre-season game this weekend if he's still in town. Guess the Grizz are in the market for a goalie. It's probably too much to hope The Beast would come back from Bridgeport... *sigh*

We got there late because our real jobs interfered with our schedule. We did get to see some length-of-ice passing drills and something that looked like play positioning before the team split into forwards and defense and started running more specific plays. When we left (to get back to our real jobs) the team was having a shootout practice. Or something.

It was fun to see the practice start taking the shape of a game. Rebounding and tenacity in front of the net was looking good in the drills we saw with offense and defense combined. The white team took four or five hacks at the puck in the same number of crazy rebounds on one play and finally put it in. Nice work, boys. They were doing a good job of getting the puck across the ice to each other, and there was a lot of hustle going north/south.

We got some pictures and video again, but for some reason it was Skate In Front of the Camera Day. Oh, and um... our batteries died again. We'll be hitting up the local Costco later.

Two days until the pre-season exhibition.

Go Grizzlies!

Pics and Videos - Day 3

Okay, it's late and we're tired, but we promised to give you some media from today's practice, so here we go...

We're not sure if this is shot blocking or what. Looks cool though.

Red team brings it...

Here's some video from red team - they're pretty fast.

Another red team video...

The team discusses whose turn it is to pick up the pucks.

A quick shot on goal - sorry, we don't know who that is.

Coach watches some of the play in front of the net.

We like this one just because of the snow.

Are they listening, or thinking about lunch?

Goalie snow = awesome.

Faster than... our camera! (Sorry, don't know who that is either.)

The purpose of this drill is to not fall down. Or something. We don't know what happens if you take out the cone.

Random red hat guy watches the practice with his cammo buddy. We weren't the only stalkers... er, fans today. Bonus.

In other news, we just heard via Twitter that former Grizzly Joel Rechlicz has returned to the Bridgeport Sound Tigers. We figure he'll be back in the NHL before the season is over, if only because he has a cool name.

We're hoping to make it back to the rink tomorrow for more pictures, videos, and news. Two more days until the first pre-season game in Logan.

Go Grizzlies!

Training Camp, Day 3

We're just back from day 3 of Grizzlies training camp, and are thawing out by the space heater in our cozy cubicle. (Please pardon any typos resulting from cold fingers.) As was the case yesterday, we're going to upload pictures and videos later on, but thought we'd do a quick report on a few things just in case you're super curious.



*Once again, we want to throw out the disclaimer that we know only enough about hockey to like it. We've never played hockey or coached hockey or anything like that, so if this makes no sense, we apologize... but not profusely.



If you were one of the 10 or so people watching practice today you saw some fun stuff. Things were definitely more intense than they were yesterday as the team tries to get in game shape for a pre-season game this weekend. There were some breakaway drills with skaters going one-on-one with the goalie coming in from the defensive zone, and then what looked like some 2-on-1 drills for the defense. The goaltenders were on the ball and there were some good saves, including a couple of pretty catches they made look easy. Bonus.



The team worked on bringing the puck up ice through the neutral zone (we think) and did some passing drills (we think). For some reason, if you are on the non-ice side of the glass, whatever the coach is yelling sounds like Charlie Brown's teacher. We're guessing the ice has a magical effect because the players all seem to get what's going on.



Back on the magical ice, the team played 3-on-3 in front of the goalie for a while, and really went at each other. That was fun to watch - almost like real hockey, only with the rest of the team kneeling on the ice.


Our personal opinion is so far, so good. It's early, but the team seems to be meshing well together and most of the guys look to be in good shape. There were a few getting winded during some of the skating drills, but since we couldn't see their numbers, we can't rat them out. Still waiting on some players from Calgary. We heard that the AHL is just starting to release their players, so we should see them trickling in soon.


We picked up an updated roster sheet at the Acord Ice Center, but it neglected to list players' numbers so we can't tell who everyone is, even if we could read the tiny number on the back of their helmet. Here's the list though:

Goaltenders

Van Buskirk, Parker

Grumet-Morris, Dov

(It's apparently a requirement to have two last names to play goalie for the Grizz.)

Forwards

Caria, Matt

Clark, Wes

Dale, Jason

Guthrie, Shea

Guiterrez, Moises

Kinasewich, Ryan

May, Tom

Nikiforov, Vladimir

Pavli, Mark

Perry, Adam

Sixsmith, James

Thauwald, Scott

Defensemen

Bartley, Victor

Clarke, Matt

Friesen, Dustin

Maxwell, Tim

Sellars, Luke

Stoflet, Evan

Pictures and video later.


Go Grizzlies!

Training Camp, Day 2

Just got back from Grizzlies training camp maybe 10 minutes ago. That was after a stop at Starbucks for a hot chocolate. Should have done that before hitting up an ICE RINK. Live and don't learn, that's us.

We may have some pictures and video later on, but our camera batteries died. Plus no uploading stuff at work. We'd complain, but having a job to pay for hockey tickets is kind of important.

The team was looking pretty good when we got there, although we got some weird glances probably based on the fact that there were only three people watching. Whatever. (We did our best to look official by taking notes and texting.) They seemed fast, and also like they knew what they were doing. A lot of these guys were on the team last season, so it's probably good for them to be practicing together again.

The team was divided into groups by jersey color - red, black, white, grey, and green. This helped when they were doing drills with certain numbers of guys. We watched what looked like some two-man breakaway practice, some cross-ice passing work in 4-0n-3 configuration, and something with six guys rushing end to end that made no sense. (So we've never played hockey.) Our best guess was man-to-man coverage. If we're wrong, correct us politely please.

It looked like the shortest three guys on the team got the red jerseys. We don't know if that was on purpose - like the other guys can't see them if they're not wearing bright colors or something - but red team was kicking butt as far as we could tell. We took names to help them out. (Numbers actually - more on that in the later post.)

Once we get our failed stalker selves home and upload pictures we'll get them posted. In the meantime, you can listen to the podcast here.

Go Grizzlies!