Training Days

June 9th seems so far away at times - especially since I had to endure a horrendous summer of Cubs baseball which made me miss hockey even more. But finally, the party's over, the hangover cure has been ingested and we're on the cusp of the 2010-11 NHL season. With the Chicago Blackhawks as your defending Stanley Cup champions, of course.

Training Camps used to be several weeks long, but with the playoffs running into June, preseason games and now these "Premiere" games in Europe (WTF NHL - do we really need games in Sweden, Finland *and* Prague?), camps are now merely days. That doesn't leave time for players on the bubble to make the big time a lot of opportunities to make an impression, so these camps are much more intense that they probably were a few years ago.


This past Saturday was the Hawks' 3rd Annual Training Camp Festival. Outside they had 5K and 10K runs and rollerblading races, a street hockey tournament and a bags tournament. Or as they like to call it around here, cornhole (insert off-color joke). That's all nice and stuff, but all I really gave a damn about was the actual training camp inside the United Center. I think they got all of the important festivities in before it rained cats and dogs in the late morning. Apparently there was even a tornado warning for a short time - who knew? Those of us in the UC certainly didn't. But hey, if I'm going to bite the big one in a storm, why not go out in style with the Stanley Cup and the best hockey players in the world nearby.

The doors opened to the UC at 8, so I dragged my ass up at 6:15 on a *Saturday* to get down there. Only for hockey. The tickets were general admission, although they divided it by level. I had scored 100 level tickets, which I figured would be my only opportunity to watch hockey from that close without robbing a bank. I arrived at 7:45, only to see a line a block long, waiting to get in. Thankfully, I ran into some of my friends from the SCH blog and cut. I know, "no cuts, no buts, no coconuts" but bite me - it's hockey dammit. We sat six rows from the glass right between the blue line and the face off dot. It was pretty sweet.

After about an hour, they brought the Stanley Cup to centre ice amidst much pomp and circumstance. I mean literally - they had a spotlight on it which gave it an ethereal glow (see photo above), and played highlights on the scoreboard set to choral music. I half expected Jesus Christ himself to come off the bench and skate around the ice hoisting it.  But hey, most people didn't have an opportunity to molest the Cup as I did this summer, so it was a nice chance for folks to get pictures and bask in all of its glory.

Finally it was time for the actual players to come out. Coach Q and his mustache first conducted a half hour practice which consisted of a lot of backward skating and Q yelling "move your feet!" quite often - he was mic'ed. Afterward, the players were divided into three squads - red, white and black. Each squad had a mix of the core players and the guys destined to be either in the AHL or ECHL all season. They split up the Hawks' three dynamic couples - Toews & Kane, Keith & Seabrook and Hossa & Kopecky (LOL). They played two scrimmages consisting of two twenty minute periods. The first scrimmage pitted red vs. white, the second, red vs. black. At the end of each scrimmage they did a shootout. I missed the first one as I had to go to three different concession stands to find one that had pretzels ready. Jesus, people! After the last scrimmage they had another short practice ("skate, skate, skate!") and that was it.

I won't sit here and analyze the players - there are many other sites that can fulfill that need since I am not a good judge of talent. Besides I was too busy snapping almost 900 pictures to really sit there and over analyze everything. But I will give out my own silly awards based on the 4 hours of hockey I watched.

The Somebody Forget To Tell Him This Was A Practice Award
Jonathan Toews. I saw him get upset at himself several times, was flying around the ice, and he scored two goals. One was on a penalty shot as Hjalmarsson took him down in the corner. Tazer was PISSED and was screaming at Toftbo all the way to the bench. I guess they don't call him Captain Serious for nothing. Above is a Toews Face for your enjoyment.

The Greatest Height Disparity Award

The 10 inches between John Scott (6'8") and Patrick Kane (5'10"). The two next to each other in that photo is comical. Scott looked like he was skating on stilts. He also crushed a bunch of players on the boards. 

The OMFG Award

The sick behind the back pass from Jeremy Morin to Brandon Pirri resulting in a Pirri goal. It was jaw dropping and happened right in front of me.

The Squee Award
The scoreboard video featuring Patrick Sharp's basset hound Shooter. They tried to get him to eat Milkbones out of the Stanley Cup. Shooter said no.

The Players to Watch Awards
Igor Makarov & Jeremy Morin. Makarov scored two goals (after potting four in last week's rookie tournament in Toronto), and Morin gets it for the aforementioned sick pass.

The Pass Me A Kleenex Award
(tie) Scoreboard videos of Brian Campbell bringing the Stanley Cup to his grandparents (his grandma cried) and Troy Brouwer taking the Cup to his dad who had a serious stroke just prior to the playoffs. Above is TBrouw showing off the Stanley Cup he made when he was nine next to the real deal.

Best Dancer
Marty Turco. WHY ARE YOUR PADS NOT SPARKLY?!?

Best Prepared For An Impending Flood
Stan Mikita. Yes, he is holding the Stanley Cup on a zamboni which is awesome. No, I don't know why he is wearing his grandson's jeans.

Best Toews Face By A Player Not Named Jonathan Toews
Patrick Kane *snort*

The Hawks' first preseason game is Wednesday (!!!!1!!) vs. Tampa Bay in Winnipeg. It's gonna be televised locally - w00t! I may catch a preseason game if I have the chance, but I do have tickets to six games this year including the banner raising home opener. Don't ask me how much that cost me - that'll be a topic in an upcoming post.

Psst - if you want to see the rest of my Training Camp pictures, check out Flickr. Toodles!