Day One, Part Two

Now that it is officially Tuesday, I finally have some time to talk a bit more about the first day of training camp.

It's obviously early to tell anything like this, but coach was most impressed today by his goaltenders, as I talk a bit more about in my story that runs tomorrow (Well, today). Here's a leftover quote about that:

"The thing about it is the other kids played really well. I was really surprised with all three goaltenders. It’s only the first day, mind you, and the guys maybe don’t have their shooting eyes yet, but they look quick, they seemed like they were square to the shooters all the time, and I was pretty impressed.

"I was pleasantly surprised, well not surprised; I was pleased with my goalies. I knew they were pretty goalies coming in here; I just hope that what they (scouts) tell me and what they say about them is true. Today, it was true."

One player who surprised me was forward Erick Lizon. He's known mostly for being a fighter, so I wasn't sure what to expect from him, but the guy definitely skated his butt off today. And he is quite tall.

Meanwhile, after I spent about an hour of practice this morning putting names to faces for the new guys, the Bucks have posted some roster numbers online.

Obviously the lines are going to change up a lot before the season actually begins, but here's a list of the forwards who were grouped up for today:

Red Jerseys: Jeff Bes, Jason Dixon, Shaun Norrie.

Yellow Jerseys: Igor Agarunov, Kevin Hurley, Bobby Russell.

Green Jerseys: Alex Goupil, Brett Hopfe, Michael Richard.

Blue Jerseys: Matt Summers, Erick Lizon, Ryan Fuller, Joey Moggach.

Here are some of coach's thoughts about the afternoon session:

"It's the first day, and we haven't been skating for probably about a week. We had a good skate this morning; it wasn't very hard, it wasn't one of those practices you had to put your thinking cap on. It was an easy practice, easy drills. This afternoon, we went out and did some shooting, some passing, warmed the goalies up to give them some work, then we went into some systems that we use.

"We don't have a whole lot of time to get this done before the exhibition games; I want to give these kids the best opportunity I can to make sure they're ready to play and give themselves the opportunity to make this team, so I went ahead and did that. Tomorrow will be kind of the same situation. We'll run over different scenarios tomorrow morning, then even tomorrow afternoon we'll go over some different ones.

"I thought some guys in the morning did really well, then in the afternoon didn't stand out as much. And I thought some guys that didn't do too much in the morning really stood out in the afternoon. I really don't put a whole lot of emphasis on the first day. Second, third, fourth day is when I really start to maybe nitpick more."

And here are some thoughts from team captain Serge Dube:

"It's first day, so it's tough to judge. This morning was more just to get your feet under you, feel the puck, feel your skates on the ice. A lot of guys haven't been skating just from the road trip down to Laredo and the lack of ice time. It was more of just getting used to what you have done before.

"This afternoon was a little bit more systems and working a lot on our passing. It seems like guys still aren't all that comfortable. But we're tearing up the ice pretty well, so it's a good thing. The guys are working really hard, and when you work really hard, good things are going to come. We just have to work hard and really concentrate on the little things."

The attitude has been great, though the guys were obviously a bit worn out by the end of the second practice. So far, it's been fun to watch new dynamics develop and get a feel for how the new guys play.

I guess that will about do it until tomorrow...