The Predators will use at least 18 young players in rookie scrimmages against Atlanta today and Tuesday.
Goalies: Mark Dekanich, Chet Pickard and Jeremy Smith.
Defensemen: Jonathon Blum, Robert Dietrich, Cody Franson, Teemu Laakso and Mark Matheson.
Forwards: Brandon Buck, Ryan Jones, Ryan Maki, Ian McKenzie, Mark Santorelli, Mike Santorelli, Nick Spaling, Andreas Thuresson, Stephen Werner and Kelsey Wilson.
Monday, September 22, 2008
And Nashville's roster
From the Tennessean, the second best paper for Predators coverage:
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Kowalski invited to Norfolk training camp
Since I had someone come up to me at Thrashers training camp yesterday and ask what was up with Gladiators goaltender Craig Kowalski, I know there's a chunk of the readership who will want to hear about this.
He's been invited to Norfolk Admirals training camp. He is still officially without a contract for the season.
He's been invited to Norfolk Admirals training camp. He is still officially without a contract for the season.
NORFOLK, VA – Twenty-four players will report to Norfolk Scope on Monday morning, September 22, as 2008-09 Norfolk Admirals training camp begins.
..
Goaltenders Nick Boucher, Craig Kowalski and Mike McKenna complete Monday’s roster.
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Training camp, Day 2 with photos
Some photos and tidbits from today. I'll try to work everything into one post.
Riley Holzapfel. You'd be smiling too if you were on a line with Ilya Kovalchuk.
Speaking of which, I tried to get a photo of Holzapfel, Stoesz and Kovalchuk together, but failed. The best I could do is just Stoesz and Kovy in silhouette. I was able to watch Stoesz a bit today, he does look much smoother in his skating. He's relaxed enough to joke around on the ice too. One time he pretended to still dribble a puck after Exelby had tipped it very neatly off his stick.
Paquette, on the other hand, looks choppy in his stride. I interviewed him afterward -- his English is better than expected. Fine really. One funny thing was when I asked about the injury at Traverse City just to clarify. He pointed at his butt and said, "let's say legs."
In case you wondered what language Kovy was swearing in these days, it's definitely English. He was raring to go in a drill against Enstrom, lost control of the puck, and swore rather loudly.
Jordan LaVallee.
Brett Sterling chatting up Grant Stevenson.
A tete-a-tete between Kulda and Oystrick. Kulda is back to his original stick, by the way. The Modry one didn't work out. An equipment rep was around after practice today. Machacek was talking sticks, Thorburn was talking skates.
Valabik and Crabb chat while stretching. Valabik has the same spot in the main locker room that he had at the end of last season. That certainly bodes well for him. Those lower on the totem pole are in an auxilliary locker room down the hall.
Crabb must have said something funny as he got up, since he left Valabik laughing.
I chatted with Crabb today for a bit myself . Since he's an Alaskan, I asked him what he knew about Sarah Palin. He didn't know much more than the rest of us. He said his parents have a cabin on a lake in the little town of Wassila that Palin was mayor of. A lot of fishing happens there.
Lastly, Toby Enstrom. Still no Zach Bogosian today.
Other items:
Junior Lessard's hair is red, red, red. He was icing his left thigh after practice.
Paul Postma will play in the rookie games in Nashville, then has a flight back to Calgary scheduled for Wednesday. He's supposed to arrive at 4:45 and his Hitmen (WHL) have a game at 7:00. If all goes well, he'll be playing in it. They really need him since one of his fellow defensemen asked for a trade and that's still pending. He should get an absolute ton of ice time this year.
Ondrej Pavelec is very close to changing his number to #31. The #33 he's been wearing was a number that was given to him at his first camp with the Thrashers. He talked about changing it last year, but didn't bother because he was going back down to Chicago soon. This week he's talked to the equipment managers about making the change, but needs to decide for sure. He likes #31, especially because he was born on Aug. 31, but also talked today about the possibility of #34 (because it sounds good). Bottom line, I asked, do you think there will be a #31 jersey in your locker in your first preseason game? "I think so," he said as he tried on some new skates. There too, he's debating -- CCMs or Bauers -- but "probably CCM," he said.
Stats of the day: The practice ice temperature is set at 17 degrees, the rink air temperature at 50 degrees, and the humidity at 40 percent. All of this information from Al Blevins, rink manager.
"Weigh out!" is strength and conditioning coach Ray Bear's reminder as players scatter for the day. In other industries, if they weighed you upon leaving, it would be because they thought you were stealing things.
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Riley Holzapfel. You'd be smiling too if you were on a line with Ilya Kovalchuk.
Speaking of which, I tried to get a photo of Holzapfel, Stoesz and Kovalchuk together, but failed. The best I could do is just Stoesz and Kovy in silhouette. I was able to watch Stoesz a bit today, he does look much smoother in his skating. He's relaxed enough to joke around on the ice too. One time he pretended to still dribble a puck after Exelby had tipped it very neatly off his stick.Paquette, on the other hand, looks choppy in his stride. I interviewed him afterward -- his English is better than expected. Fine really. One funny thing was when I asked about the injury at Traverse City just to clarify. He pointed at his butt and said, "let's say legs."
In case you wondered what language Kovy was swearing in these days, it's definitely English. He was raring to go in a drill against Enstrom, lost control of the puck, and swore rather loudly.
Jordan LaVallee.
Brett Sterling chatting up Grant Stevenson.
A tete-a-tete between Kulda and Oystrick. Kulda is back to his original stick, by the way. The Modry one didn't work out. An equipment rep was around after practice today. Machacek was talking sticks, Thorburn was talking skates.
Valabik and Crabb chat while stretching. Valabik has the same spot in the main locker room that he had at the end of last season. That certainly bodes well for him. Those lower on the totem pole are in an auxilliary locker room down the hall.
Crabb must have said something funny as he got up, since he left Valabik laughing.I chatted with Crabb today for a bit myself . Since he's an Alaskan, I asked him what he knew about Sarah Palin. He didn't know much more than the rest of us. He said his parents have a cabin on a lake in the little town of Wassila that Palin was mayor of. A lot of fishing happens there.
Lastly, Toby Enstrom. Still no Zach Bogosian today.Other items:
Junior Lessard's hair is red, red, red. He was icing his left thigh after practice.
Paul Postma will play in the rookie games in Nashville, then has a flight back to Calgary scheduled for Wednesday. He's supposed to arrive at 4:45 and his Hitmen (WHL) have a game at 7:00. If all goes well, he'll be playing in it. They really need him since one of his fellow defensemen asked for a trade and that's still pending. He should get an absolute ton of ice time this year.
Ondrej Pavelec is very close to changing his number to #31. The #33 he's been wearing was a number that was given to him at his first camp with the Thrashers. He talked about changing it last year, but didn't bother because he was going back down to Chicago soon. This week he's talked to the equipment managers about making the change, but needs to decide for sure. He likes #31, especially because he was born on Aug. 31, but also talked today about the possibility of #34 (because it sounds good). Bottom line, I asked, do you think there will be a #31 jersey in your locker in your first preseason game? "I think so," he said as he tried on some new skates. There too, he's debating -- CCMs or Bauers -- but "probably CCM," he said.
Stats of the day: The practice ice temperature is set at 17 degrees, the rink air temperature at 50 degrees, and the humidity at 40 percent. All of this information from Al Blevins, rink manager.
"Weigh out!" is strength and conditioning coach Ray Bear's reminder as players scatter for the day. In other industries, if they weighed you upon leaving, it would be because they thought you were stealing things.
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Nashville prospects game roster
Sixteen skaters and two goaltenders will make the trip to Nashville for the first of what may become annual rookie games with the Nashville Predators. The teams will square off Monday night and Tuesday at noon.
It sounds like the Thrashers may have the younger of the two rosters. John Anderson said he thought that Nashville had several Milwaukee (AHL) guys on their roster. For the Thrashers, only Grant Lewis and Scott Lehman played the majority of the season's games in the AHL. Chad Painchaud, Scott Lehman and Dan Turple are all second-year pros. Note no Zach Bogosian, who is out with a hip flexor injury suffered at Traverse City. He has yet to skate in main camp.
Please remember good netiquite if you copy and paste the list -- if it's good enough to copy, it's good enough to cite your source.
Forwards (10)
Matt Anderson
Angelo Esposito
Riley Holzapfel
Rylan Kaip
Spencer Machacek
Chad Painchaud
Danick Paquette
Tomas Pospisil
Matt Siddall
Myles Stoesz
Defensemen (6)
Chad Denny
Arturs Kulda
Scott Lehman
Grant Lewis
Scott Marchesi
Paul Postma
Goaltenders (2)
Chris Carrozzi
Dan Turple
It sounds like the Thrashers may have the younger of the two rosters. John Anderson said he thought that Nashville had several Milwaukee (AHL) guys on their roster. For the Thrashers, only Grant Lewis and Scott Lehman played the majority of the season's games in the AHL. Chad Painchaud, Scott Lehman and Dan Turple are all second-year pros. Note no Zach Bogosian, who is out with a hip flexor injury suffered at Traverse City. He has yet to skate in main camp.
Please remember good netiquite if you copy and paste the list -- if it's good enough to copy, it's good enough to cite your source.
Forwards (10)
Matt Anderson
Angelo Esposito
Riley Holzapfel
Rylan Kaip
Spencer Machacek
Chad Painchaud
Danick Paquette
Tomas Pospisil
Matt Siddall
Myles Stoesz
Defensemen (6)
Chad Denny
Arturs Kulda
Scott Lehman
Grant Lewis
Scott Marchesi
Paul Postma
Goaltenders (2)
Chris Carrozzi
Dan Turple
Saturday, September 20, 2008
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.
.
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.
.
Stoesz wins the line lottery at Thrashers training camp
The forward lines on the first day of training camp were a jumble of veterans and prospects. Coach John Anderson laughed at the suggestion that he drew names out of a hat, but said it wasn't far from what happened. Maybe Anderson thought Ilya Kovalchuk needed some protection in camp, or maybe it was just good luck, but tough guy Myles Stoesz ended up on Kovalchuk's right wing (Riley Holzapfel at center).
Stoesz and Kovalchuk actually have more in common now than ever before. Kovalchuk had some teeth knocked out recently, making him look a lot like Stoesz, who's had some of his bottom ones gone for a full year. One might assume that this commonality would give Stoesz an opening to chirp Kovalchuk a bit. But they aren't on chirping terms just yet, apparently. I asked Stoesz if he said anything to Kovalchuk about it. "No, definitely not," he laughed.
Stoesz said he was nervous early on today, but not nearly as nervous as last year. "On one drill I messed up a pass that Holzapfel gave to me and kind of dumped it into the corner and then Kovalchuk gave me a tap on the pads and said 'good job, keep going' that kind of thing, so that was nice to hear. That just totally calmed me down. At first I was scared that if I screwed up, he was going to yell at me or whatever."
On playing with Kovalchuk: "He's one of the top guys in the NHL, so to play with him even for a practice, it was a heck of an experience. A lot of fun just to watch him, the way he does things. He does everything at full tempo and even in practice he pumps his fist when he scores -- I love that. He's got passion for the game it seems. It's good to learn from that."
Stoesz plays an up and down grinding game, so the finesse plays from Kovalchuk were not something he was used to. "It's amazing. Any pass from him is good," he said. "Times when I'd be out and down, he finds a way to pull it through and dish you a puck and then you score."
Stoesz worked with a skating coach all summer in Winnipeg. Did he think his improved skating showed in camp? "I feel better, I feel like I can keep up better out there," he said. "I hope it shows. I haven't really heard anything."
In physical testing, Stoesz got a 62 on the important VO2 max test, which measures cardio fitness. This put him middle of the pack. That's an improvement over previous years, but he thinks the difference for him isn't so much a product of better conditioning. "It gets to me in my head," he said. "I psych myself up before I go there and just kind of fall off. That test is all mental. You've got to find the inner strength to push through."
His best fitness event is the pushups. Jimmy Slater was the winner this year with 98 in a minute. Stoesz had 75. "I did 82 in the summer but the guy counting was kind of stingy with a couple of them," he said with a smile. "There's some controversy there -- some guys are mad. He didn't count probably half of them."
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Stoesz and Kovalchuk actually have more in common now than ever before. Kovalchuk had some teeth knocked out recently, making him look a lot like Stoesz, who's had some of his bottom ones gone for a full year. One might assume that this commonality would give Stoesz an opening to chirp Kovalchuk a bit. But they aren't on chirping terms just yet, apparently. I asked Stoesz if he said anything to Kovalchuk about it. "No, definitely not," he laughed.
Stoesz said he was nervous early on today, but not nearly as nervous as last year. "On one drill I messed up a pass that Holzapfel gave to me and kind of dumped it into the corner and then Kovalchuk gave me a tap on the pads and said 'good job, keep going' that kind of thing, so that was nice to hear. That just totally calmed me down. At first I was scared that if I screwed up, he was going to yell at me or whatever."
On playing with Kovalchuk: "He's one of the top guys in the NHL, so to play with him even for a practice, it was a heck of an experience. A lot of fun just to watch him, the way he does things. He does everything at full tempo and even in practice he pumps his fist when he scores -- I love that. He's got passion for the game it seems. It's good to learn from that."
Stoesz plays an up and down grinding game, so the finesse plays from Kovalchuk were not something he was used to. "It's amazing. Any pass from him is good," he said. "Times when I'd be out and down, he finds a way to pull it through and dish you a puck and then you score."
Stoesz worked with a skating coach all summer in Winnipeg. Did he think his improved skating showed in camp? "I feel better, I feel like I can keep up better out there," he said. "I hope it shows. I haven't really heard anything."
In physical testing, Stoesz got a 62 on the important VO2 max test, which measures cardio fitness. This put him middle of the pack. That's an improvement over previous years, but he thinks the difference for him isn't so much a product of better conditioning. "It gets to me in my head," he said. "I psych myself up before I go there and just kind of fall off. That test is all mental. You've got to find the inner strength to push through."
His best fitness event is the pushups. Jimmy Slater was the winner this year with 98 in a minute. Stoesz had 75. "I did 82 in the summer but the guy counting was kind of stingy with a couple of them," he said with a smile. "There's some controversy there -- some guys are mad. He didn't count probably half of them."
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Training camp photos, Day 1
Just a few shots from today.
Kulda at the net with Matt Anderson. Anderson got into a lot of my shots somehow. He snuck his way into camp as well, taking both in the injured Carter Bancks' invitee roster spot and number #65. Anderson, who's from New York, got the call to come at about 5pm last night, his flight was at 10pm and he got into the hotel about 3am. And looked none the worse for it, said he felt fine. He might have had more adrenaline going than most.
Myles Stoesz with a zombie goalie. No, that's Dan Turple. Stoesz played on a line with Kovalchuk today, which I'll have more on later.
Paul Postma in front of Johan Hedberg.
Nathan Oystrick and Matt Anderson. It will be interesting to see if the 2008-09 version of Oystrick plays better in the preseason games. John Anderson said he worked out all summer in Chicago with Wendall Young. "I'm really proud of how he's turned his body around. It was amazing. Hopefully it relates to something that's going to happen on the ice."
New Wolves head coach Don Granato with Bryan Little, Scott Lehman and again, Matt Anderson. Lehman, laughing, is looking at Chris Carrozzi -- the goalies had to make a long outlet pass on this one. Some were better than others.
Granato with Kari Lehtonen.
Jason "Smurf" Christie, Granato's new assistant.
Danick Paquette and Chad Denny.
Kulda at the net with Matt Anderson. Anderson got into a lot of my shots somehow. He snuck his way into camp as well, taking both in the injured Carter Bancks' invitee roster spot and number #65. Anderson, who's from New York, got the call to come at about 5pm last night, his flight was at 10pm and he got into the hotel about 3am. And looked none the worse for it, said he felt fine. He might have had more adrenaline going than most.
Myles Stoesz with a zombie goalie. No, that's Dan Turple. Stoesz played on a line with Kovalchuk today, which I'll have more on later.
Paul Postma in front of Johan Hedberg.
Nathan Oystrick and Matt Anderson. It will be interesting to see if the 2008-09 version of Oystrick plays better in the preseason games. John Anderson said he worked out all summer in Chicago with Wendall Young. "I'm really proud of how he's turned his body around. It was amazing. Hopefully it relates to something that's going to happen on the ice."
New Wolves head coach Don Granato with Bryan Little, Scott Lehman and again, Matt Anderson. Lehman, laughing, is looking at Chris Carrozzi -- the goalies had to make a long outlet pass on this one. Some were better than others.
Granato with Kari Lehtonen.
Jason "Smurf" Christie, Granato's new assistant.
Danick Paquette and Chad Denny.
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