1) I am still addicted to hockey. I got up early on both my days off to sit in rush hour traffic to go watch our damn rookies do speed drills. Not much gets me out of bed early on my day off!
2) New Jersey is weird (sorry Schnookie and Pookie). I guess I have lived in PA so long now that the way other states are set up just seems wrong somehow. I am not going to make fun of the whole jughandle/u-turn thing, because I am sure it is a great system once you get used to it. Seeing strip mall after strip mall is more disturbing. Sure we have strip malls here in PA, but not nearly as many as NJ. Lastly, I used my GPS to try and find a Starbucks and a Barnes and Noble (I am soooooo suburban, I know) and both times it led me to a place that was not my destination. For the Starbucks, my GPS was yelling "your destination is on the left" but what was on my left was a huge field . No coffee beans in sight! Oh well. And there has to be something wrong about a state that won't let its residents pump their own gas...49 other states get by just fine!
3) You should know that I am very shy and I hate crowds...concerts annoy me, movies that aren't a matinee are too crowded. I hate to be around people, and I would never start a conversation with anyone anywhere anytime. However, that all goes out the window at the rink. I start conversations with strangers, get email addresses and make new friends. It is a very shocking thing for me, but I love it. I love being at the rink around hockey people.
Oh, I guess I should tell you about the boys as well. And yes, many of these guys were boys, barely legal. I even saw one prospect's mom there keeping a watchful eye on her son.
First of all, I mostly saw group B and their drills. I only got to see group A for about an hour. Based on that hour however, group A seemed slightly more developed. Not sure if that was random or not, but group A did in fact win the Friday scrimmage.
Secondly, performance in the drills wasn't necessarily an indicator of how well they played in the scrimmage (I do realize that contradicts what I just said above). Excellent personal performance in the drills did not mean they rocked it in the scrimmage. For example, Patrick Maroon seemed okay in the drills, his speed was decent but he seemed a bit awkward on his skates. In the scrimmage however, he was fantastic. Stayed with the puck and had some decent plays, in spite of the fact that every time I looked, he was falling down (okay, just twice). So yes, he was a little awkward but it didn't affect him ultimately.
I am not going to give you a rundown on everyone (I will save that for the Flyers boards) but here are a few more notes:
- I hope Triston Grant was hungover, because he played like it. I wouldn't let him make the Phantoms with the way he played!
- Jordan Hart displayed some leadership qualities during the drills, and looked like he was having a good time...kept it fun for those around him.
- Parent, Ruzicka, and Potulny stood out overall from this camp.
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