Sad I missed the camp, but saw this from the CBJ twitter and it made me happy. Can't wait for Opening Night.
Send that the next time you see someone making a Cbus has no hockey fans joke. I wanted to jump through the screen and punch someone if I saw the "Blue Jackets fans react to end of lockout (empty city street)" picture one more time.
“@RobMixer: To recap, here were today's #CBJ lines: 18-16-13, 17-42-15, 22-10-71, 24-38-40, 9-19-11. Pairs: 51-6, 7-21, 4-33, 20-58.”
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“@Aportzline: RT @skeezer1212: @Aportzline are you on record about if you think they should trade Nash, *Carter? / Not my place. Reporter, not columnist.”
Send that the next time you see someone making a Cbus has no hockey fans joke. I wanted to jump through the screen and punch someone if I saw the "Blue Jackets fans react to end of lockout (empty city street)" picture one more time.
Next year, we need to get about 100 of us to hold a giant banner facing the camera that says "**** off, Bruce Garrioch".
Last season down the stretch, Umberger,Brassard, and Atkinson showed chemistry so I'm assuming they're sticking with that. But mind you, the games they played great in were in meaningless games and I'm sure the other teams weren't playing hard against Columbus so those numbers could be misleading. If they switched the first line with the second line, would have a problem? You said Dorsett with those players might work but if Dorsett is on the first line, God help us all.
I'm not a fan of Dorsett or Umberger on the first line. That said, I'm even more convinced that we have THREE second lines. You can switch them all you want. When it comes for forwards, nobody in the top nine really stands out as better than everybody else. Not yet, anyway.
Only MacKenzie looked to be gassed during the middle of practice. Everybody else I saw looked to be in good shape.
Johansen was being thrown around like a rag doll in corner drills by JMFJ and Wiz. Those two came to camp ready to play - tomorrow!
I'm not a fan of Dorsett or Umberger on the first line. That said, I'm even more convinced that we have THREE second lines. You can switch them all you want. When it comes for forwards, nobody in the top nine really stands out as better than everybody else. Not yet, anyway.
Only MacKenzie looked to be gassed during the middle of practice. Everybody else I saw looked to be in good shape.
Johansen was being thrown around like a rag doll in corner drills by JMFJ and Wiz. Those two came to camp ready to play - tomorrow!
Johnson was strong in the dig the puck out of the corner drill. He has that low center of gravity and he aint moving. Moore looked good in the one on ones. Kid can skate and didn't looked like he missed a beat after concussion.
Had fun today. Good crowd. Lots of drills. Hate the lines but will withhold judgement until things settle down. Bob is smaller than I thought he would be and he looked nervous. Will be interesting how it all shakes out.
I came away less than impressed but that's probably because of the caliber of player we have at the moment and it was just the first practice.
The only one who sparked was Atkinson. Dubinsky, Foligno, Umberger, Johansen, and Anisimov didn't exactly look like world beaters. Our defense looked like they were ready to go, though which is good.
Mason looked better than Bobrovsky. That's less a positive about Mason and more a negative about Bobrovsky. I too noticed that Bobrovsky looked smaller than 6'2". He was playing pretty far back in his crease.
Granted it was only a few hours and they weren't going full out. We'll have to see. I did like what I saw from Brassard. He was good along the boards, his passes were crisp, and he was hustling. Gillies also looked good (better than Boll and Dorsett IMO).
A lot of guys came away surprised by the pace of the practice. Hopefully by this time next year they will be so used to working hard that it'll be "business as usual."
Dorse looked good as did brass. Mase looked a lot better than I thought he would. Bob didn't look bad for just getting off a plane from Russia. Gonna have to be a team of hard workers.
I came away less than impressed but that's probably because of the caliber of player we have at the moment and it was just the first practice.
The only one who sparked was Atkinson. Dubinsky, Foligno, Umberger, Johansen, and Anisimov didn't exactly look like world beaters. Our defense looked like they were ready to go, though which is good.
Mason looked better than Bobrovsky. That's less a positive about Mason and more a negative about Bobrovsky. I too noticed that Bobrovsky looked smaller than 6'2". He was playing pretty far back in his crease.
Granted it was only a few hours and they weren't going full out. We'll have to see. I did like what I saw from Brassard. He was good along the boards, his passes were crisp, and he was hustling. Gillies also looked good (better than Boll and Dorsett IMO).
A lot of guys came away surprised by the pace of the practice. Hopefully by this time next year they will be so used to working hard that it'll be "business as usual."
It's early. I give everyone a few days of doing drills together and understanding how each other plays again and the goalies will start to adjust and hopefully get into a rhythm.
One thing I'm noticing from watching the post-practice videos is that it appears that Dorse has finally grown eyebrows!! Our boy is growing up! *hopefully someone besides me has noticed this over the years
Anyway I'm psyched to see the boys back and it's great to see such a large turnout!
