On Ice Activity Begins in 3...2...1!

This morning begins the first on ice training for the 2011/12 Blackhawks at Johnny's Ice House, with the first session of the Prospect Camp. Stanimal addressed this year's camp with the press and stressed that this years camp would be a little different, from past camps. They are going to cater more to the actual Blackhawks players, rather than trying to find hidden free agents. This makes sense, if they want to build the system up like they say, and get these young players ready for the NHL. If you noticed, the recent young players have not progressed like like the current players did, when they were prospects. You had Toews, Kane, Keith, Seabrook, Hjalmarsson, and Bolland all come up through the system and thrive at a young age. Even former players like Byfuglien, Versteeg, Wisniewski, Burish, and Eager played major minutes as youngsters. Part of the latest lull is directly because of the previous players success, but some of it is because the young players haven't been prepared. You'll have one or two players sneak through, like Three Times-A-Leddy, and Agent Smith, but players have hit a roadblock in Rockford lately, and it's not from IDOT construction. Players like Morin, Makarov, Beach, Pirri, and Lalonde should be pounding on the UC locker room door. Either it means they aren't prepared, or they aren't the talent that they were thought to be. I'm going with the first choice. So, in a nutshell, it's nice to see Stanimal notice this and make a change. Kudos to him, because god knows we have been hard on him.

As far as the camp goes, this should be interesting, and I'm hoping to make it out to one of the practices, this weekend. If you'd like to see the full roster of players, you can CLICK THIS LINK. Some fan favorites to watch are hometown boys Alex and Terry Broadhurst, Luke Sandler, and Paul Phillips. Everyone loves to see a hometown boy make it big. Some prospects to watch are new draftees Mark McNeill, Phillip Danault, Brandon Saad, and Klas Dahlbeck. As well as past picks and prospects Rob Flick, Byron Froese, David Gilbert, Jimmy and Kevin Hayes, and Ludvig Rensfeldt.

The main guys I'm looking forward to seeing are huge defenseman Stephen Johns, defenseman Dylan Olsen, and winger Brandon Saad. These defensemen are suppose to step up in the near future and take the spot of O'Donnell and maybe even Hjalmarsson. Johns is a BIG boy at 6'4" and 220, so he could definitely take that O'Donnell spot, and Dylan Olsen is suppose to be the next Brent Seabrook type player. Saad was called a wild card, but he might just be the next EXCITING Blackhawks player with personality. Just something that strikes me as interesting about this kid. I'm stoked to hopefully get out and see these guys skate in person.



On a side note, for all those looking to get their new players jerseys, it was announced that Brunette will wear Rich Sutter's old #15, Carbomb will wear lucky #13 (or unlucky if you associate it with Zhamnov), Mayers will do Adam Creighton proud and don his former #22, Rosty Olesz will wear the ever popular #85, The Matador will take Stevie Konroyds old #5, and O.D. will wear Bob Murray's old #6. Run out and get your Rosty Olesz jersey, while they last, folks!