More notes on Day 1 of camp

A few more things before we turn the page to Sunday.

Grant Lewis weighed in at 205, up a dramatic 16 pounds since July at prospects camp. His body fat went down from 6.9 (already a good number) to 5.4% in that time, so you can tell what he put on was virtually all muscle. That's impressive. I asked if he felt different. "I actually feel much stronger and much better on the ice," he said. "I don't think I lost a step at all to be honest. Most of the weight I put on was muscle." The only thing bothering him right now is his broken toe.

Lewis said he's rooming with Rylan Kaip here at camp and they both have facial injuries. Standing right across from him, I didn't even notice the cut beneath Lewis' lip, but Kaip's right cheek has a 50-cent piece sized red spot on it, in addition to being all swelled up. He wore a full shield in practice today.

Spencer Machacek had a score of 67 on the VO2. That put him tied for fourth place in camp. Kozlov and another vet had 69, Armstrong had 68, and five guys had 67 including Machacek and Esposito. At camp, Machacek is rooming in the hotel with Riley Holzapfel. "Yeah we're buddies," Machacek said. "Western guys gotta stick together."

Chad Denny had a vertical leap of 31.5 inches, two inches farther than anyone else. "I was shocked, he's a pretty big guy," Anderson said. And Rylan Kaip led in pullups. "He has no arms, I don't know how he did it," Anderson said.

Artie Kulda is already changing things up after one day of camp. After practice he was at the stick rack doing some shopping. He settled on a stick in a Jaroslav Modry pattern. Kulda heated it up to take the end piece out and then walked it down to the equipment managers for more work.

Kozlov may or may not have been back to himself playing (Anderson said he's at 95%), but he sure was back to normal in the picking on teammates department. He's extremely sneaky about things and never cracks a smile, but I distinctly saw him punch Colby Armstrong while waiting in a drill line.

Bryan Little was very "zippy" today and very accurate with his shot. Looks very ready for the season. Joey Crabb does as well. Junior Lessard has a helluva shot -- he picked the very top corner against Hedberg on a tight angle. Saw a hard wrister out of him too. Mike Hoffman had a few moves.

Team building items: they had a team dinner last night in which they acknowledged the winners in each fitness event. They will have an event at an army base, and a pig roast at Todd Nelson's house. They will also do an exercise in the locker room where they talk about team strengths and weaknesses and what they can do to fix them -- making everyone feel a part of it.

Oh and if you're planning to go to Nashville Monday, be sure to find gas before you get there -- 85% of Nashville stations are out of gas. Filling up ahead is easier said than done though, since gas is pretty scarce in Atlanta right now too. I had an adventure getting some today.
.