The camaraderie was thick last night at the Princess Lodge. The players were all dressed for success and you can tell they are all excited to hit the season rolling. Coach said it best, "In a thousand mile journey, it all starts from step one". That step one starts this afternoon with the Blue/Gold game.
Last night, I had the pleasure of Carlo Finucci's company at our table, who has really been working his tail off training and conditioning. I'm really happy for him, he's get some great puck handling skills, and that conditioning will definitely help with his speed. Judging by the video that was played, displaying their pre-season activities (I'll see if I can get my hands on it for those who didn't attend), the guys have really been training hard all the way around. As coach said, guys are really competing for time on the ice top to bottom and lines are still somewhat in limbo. This afternoon at the Blue/Gold game will be the first chance to see which players fit in to which lines, and see which players have some good chemistry with each other.
The competitions will be very interesting as well. After seeing practice this week, the fastest skater is going to be a very exciting competition to watch. Of course, they are just fun little competitions, no real impact other than bragging rights. Will Ronnie Meyers keep his fastest skater title? We'll find out this afternoon.
The biggest announcement from last night was the captain's announcement. All 3 of this year's captains are seniors. Forward Derek Klassen and defenseman Bryant Molle are both alternates (yes, I'm a purist, I don't like to call them assistants), and forward Kevin Petovello, who served as an alternate last year will don the C for the 2010-11 season.
Now I don't know about you, but I'm excited to get things going. This evening, at 5:00PM will be the puck drop at the Blue/Gold game. Doors open at 4:00, and since the Patty is less than half the size of the Carlson Center, I highly suggest showing up earlier rather than later. If you can't make it, be sure to follow me on Twitter for updates.
2 comments:
Thank goodness to the end of the off-season.
I think our depth and competition for playing time will be a challenge for Dallas this year, but also the strength of our team. But it's the kind of challenge he's fortunate to have to deal with.
If young Mr. Finucci improved half as much from last year as he did from his freshman to his sophomore year, then he is going to make it really tough on the Coach to keep him off the top line. I was very impressed with his improvement last year.
I don't envy the Coache's job. Up and down the lineup he's got good kids, hard workers on and off the ice, and each with his own skill set. There are a lot of pieces to the puzzle here. Just hope they all fit together.
Go Nooks!
I'm stoked to get this underway. Between INCH having us #8 nationally and some other publications and sites having us as a top-3 CCHA team it seems like the outside world is starting to take notice of our little CCHA hinterland. As you say mmf, it's just a matter of piecing the puzzle together. We have the talent and experience to do something special this year. It should be fun.
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