Thoughts After Camp

(Head Coach John Marks)

The hockey season was dropped upon us over the weekend whether we wanted it to be or not. With temperatures hovering around 30 degrees on Friday 65 or so brave souls stood in line at the registration table and signed up for training camp. And when the two and a half exhausting days filled with 10 mini-games was over, I for one was pretty impressed.

(Mini-game coach Harry Mahesh smiling for the camera)

Trying to get a handle on how this season might go is a little hard to determine. In the past (especially last season) there was a boat load of optimism that didn’t really seem to pan out. And even though a great crop of 20 year olds are gone there is a new group at the core of this team the positive vibes surrounding camp this weekend are there, but in a little different way.

(a very tired referee....nice job Beattie)

The camp started off on Friday with a meeting with all the players, parents, and the coaching staff. And first year Flyers Head Coach John Marks took control of the situation right away. Although this was Coach Marks’ first Flyers training camp this is by no means the first time he has done this. When he began to speak you could get a sense right away that this is a man who knows what he is going to say, knows what he is talking about, and demands respect and attention when he is saying it.

(Ernie Sutherland, Ed Belfour, and John Marks)

The message was simple. You will work for what you get. Marks’ message right from the beginning of his career here in Winkler has been the same. You will have to earn everything that you get. There will be no freebies or undeserved ice time or any people just along for the ride. He relayed that message to the guys before they even hit the ice and almost immediately, it began to sink in.

Even though 13 of the 60 plus players had been here before, they were all brand new in the eyes of the Flyers new coach. There were some instances where some of the veterans seemed to take a few shifts off or didn’t chase down a puck the way they should but overall it was probably the best camp that I have seen. The vets played well, and some of the new recruits were very surprising.

I know its only been three days but for what its worth I think things are looking pretty darn good.

We should get a better look on Tuesday night during the inter-squad game and even more during the first few pre-season games this week as they cut some of the younger and weaker players on Sunday and we should get a better idea of what we have here when they start playing against players that are all on the same playing field.

Well that is a little of what I saw this weekend. Why don’t you let me know what you saw.

Post a comment and let me know what you think.

New Season Is Here

Training camp for the Winkler Flyers begins tonight at the Winkler Recreation Complex.

I hope you enjoyed the four part Flyer training camp preivew on http://www.winklerflyers.com/ that has taken place over the past number of weeks. If you haven't had a chance to read it I encourage you to check it out.

The first blog of the season will be posted on Monday with a bit of a training camp re-cap and I will (time permitting) trying to have a weekly update throughout the season.

I will be writing about my thoughts and I encourage you to do the same.

Let me know what you think about the first three days of camp by posting a comment here.

Thanks and Go Flyers!