Goalie camp; Havlat gone Wild

So, I've had a little surprise bit of fun and learning this week on the goaltending front. I've been heading out to SLICE to watch a goalie camp going on there each night this week and luckily, the main instructor is quite loud so I've been able to pick up some good stuff and, delightfully, not actually have to do the sweaty work. (Don't worry, my time will come.)

And work it is... these kids are working their tails off and seem to be pretty coachable. Unlike some people who are of an age where being told what to do just pisses them off. *looks around innocently* I'm happy to sit in the stands, enjoy the frosty air, and take a lot of mental notes. Plus, even the littlest of the kids out there would make me look like an idiot. I spend enough time doing that already.

I'm picking up some good stuff though. Things I hadn't really thought about because I'm still so in a place where even the basics of the position are really challenging. Like stick position when dealing with passes out from the corners to the front of the net.

Tuesday, I had to laugh because one of the things the instructor pointed out was to not "admire" your rebounds into the corners. I'm SO guilty of that. Like, I'm still so amazed when I actually get in front of a puck that unless the next danger is really on top of me, I do tend to just watch it go and not follow it and get re-set.

Amazing the number of little details are involved in playing goal well. I'm so busy with the low-hanging fruit still, I can't even absorb some of it in a useful way.

Here's the thing about goaltending. People who don't know the position think that getting hit with the puck is the sickest, craziest, hardest part of the job. I'm here to tell ya, for me, it's the LEAST hard part of the job. In fact, it's my favorite part of it! Means I made the save if it's hitting me that hard. Pain goes away. Goals don't. The worst pain is the crick in your neck as you watch the puck go in your net.

The hard part, at least physically, is the movement. There's so much leg and core strength you have to have (and I don't have yet) that is critical to movement in the crease. And I think one of the best things I'm coming away from this camp with is big time motivation to build that strength. In fact, I'd say that is my #1 training priority, above all else.

Which is awesome because when I look at how much I need to learn, it overwhelms me to the point where I end up doing nothing at all. Kinda like when you're $100k in debt... what's another grand? So, gaining some clarity around my training priorities has been a tremendous benefit.

As a result, I've ramped up my off-ice work and hope to get it even more focused over the next couple of weeks as I figure out the best ways to kick my own ass. Which also means I'm not sleeping well because I'm so sore all the time. But it's a good sore (except for my stupid motherfucking knee that feels like it's on fire when I wake up in the morning).

Found an amazing collection of strength training exercises here, grouped by sport (including hockey!) or by muscle group.

Anyway, one more night of goalie camp tonight, but before that... more squats, lunges, and abs!

Did I mention Brusty's one of the instructors? What a sight for sore eyes. And hey, it's totally not stalking if you're invited!

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Free Agency opened up yesterday. Were you aware of this? Apparently it's kind of a big deal. :)

Anyway, Gaborik is now a Ranger, which will be fun to watch. Marty Havlat was dissed (and is tres bitter about it) by Chicago, so he signed with the Wild last night. That'll show 'em, Marty! It's one gimpy sniper for another, but I already like Havlat better than I ever liked Gaby. Nothing aloof about a guy who tweets his displeasure at the way his former team treated him. Bring it, bitches! Can't wait to play Chicago next season...

And maybe, being a fellow Czech, he'll be a good example for Cracksquirrel. Oh, who am I kidding?

I'm also pretty excited about the Wild signing Greg Zanon from Nashville. Apparently he's a shot blocking FREAK, which is totally the way to my goalie-lovin' heart. And we didn't have to give up Ryan Jones to get him! Go Fletch go!

Hopefully some moves to benefit glorious hockey team Houston Aeros will come in the next few days. I see that the Ottawa organization has already started picking up some free agent help for the farm, so I'm getting antsy on that front. Shocker, I know.

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Aeros gameday

The Aeros have been off since last Sunday's game so they should be nice and rested to face the Worcester Sharks tonight and Hamilton Bulldogs tomorrow.

The "Awkward Face-Off Award" goes to Steve Valette today as he played for Worcester the past two seasons. Seems like every game lately, one of the Aeros is up against his former team.

Shipley took some time in his blog today to throw some props to Erik Reitz for his solid play after a rocky start on the Wild blue line, and says that (finally!) guys are coming up from Houston and making significant contributions.

I noticed that Petr Kalus has joined on with the KHL's HC MVD in Balashikha. BTW, his name looks like this in Russian: Петр Калус . He's played 3 games with no points and 2 PIM.

More tonight...

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Kalus made the right move

Russo put together a little article today addressing the Kalus exodus and judging by the quotes from Lynn and Riser, he made the right decision.

"He just wanted to go home," General Manager Doug Risebrough said. "Ultimately, his development is in more of his control now than it was in our control."

I'm just gonna take a stab at reading between the lines here: "We did everything we felt we could to develop Petr's talents, but he wasn't getting it, or maybe didn't want it. We brought the horse to water, but couldn't get it to drink."

Asked if he was disappointed, assistant GM Tom Lynn, who doubles as the Aeros' GM, said, "I haven't thought about it. It's probably not a high radar item."

Ouch.

But he's right. It might have been disappointing last season, but at this point, it was clear that he wasn't a good fit for this system and didn't ever seem to be fully on board after he was (apparently) healthy scratched a few times last season.

I suspected he'd bail after it became clear he wasn't on the short list for a call up to Minnesota. Can't blame him really. If your NHL chances are clearly shot for at least the next couple of years, you might as well play close to home.

Anyway, good luck to him. He was, if nothing else, pretty amusing. My favorite Kalus story was from when Coach Stalin was talking to him about how she plays hockey on a co-ed team. His eyes lit up when he asked her if she shares a locker room with the guys. He was clearly a fan of this concept. Heh.

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Wild Pre-season Line-up: Game 2

Ahh, more of my boys getting a shot tonight. Very exciting, though I feel pretty sure we're going to lose as the Chicago line-up is better offensively. But at least I get to listen tonight! Huzzah!

The lineup for tonight:

Nolan Irmen - Belanger - Veilleux
Gillies - Pouliot - Weller
Boogaard - Sheppard - Clutterbuck
Kalus - Koivu - Miettinen

Skoula - Zidlicky
Noreau - Johnsson
Bergeron - Reitz

Harding - Schaefer

A quote from Ryan Stanzle's blog regarding the travel plans for the game:

The team will depart from MSP at 2:30 p.m. for tonight's game, then return immediately afterward. Head Coach Jacques Lemaire said that the team is away from home so often during the season that, during the preseason, it's nice to give the guys a chance to stick around a little longer.

Cal Clutterbuck, though, is so fired up to be on this trip that he may just head to the airport right now.

Heh. I'm excited for him. Go Cal!

Very cool that Noreau is getting to play, too. It really is pretty amazing considering he was undrafted just a little over a year ago and now has a 3 year NHL contract and is playing his first NHL pre-season game tonight. Go Max!

Um, and just to be fair: Go Crack Squirrel!

Back after the game with any interesting stuff...

Update: Nolan is scratched so Irmen, who traveled as an emergency fill-in, is in. Very happy for him since the last game didn't go so well, with an ugly (and controversial) misconduct penalty that ended the game with only 3 minutes and change in TOI for him.

Post-Game Update: Nolan was purposely scratched to give Irmen another chance. Boy, that was nice of JL. And he did much better. JL expressed great pleasure with his performance tonight. He even got an assist on the first goal.

On the other hand, Reitzy... oh boy. He had a brutal game and got called out for it afterwards by Lemaire. He's in deep doodoo up there. I feel for the guy big time, but this is what I was afraid of for him. That he just wouldn't be able to think and act fast enough for the NHL game.

Kalus got himself a goal though it sounds like he got lucky. I'm sure they'll have highlights on Wild.com tomorrow, so we'll see.

Didn't hear anything good or bad about Clutterbuck, so I'm assuming he played a pretty conservative game. I did hear his name in the mix a few times. I dunno. Wish I could watch these games with my own eyes.

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Prospect Watch 2008: Petr "Crack Squirrel" Kalus

NHL.com sez:

Petr Kalus -- The 21-year-old is still trying to find his way after being acquired from Boston in the deal that sent goaltender Manny Fernandez to Boston. Kalus scored four times in nine games for the Bruins in 2006-07, but spent the entire 2007-08 season with Houston. He had just 18 points in 58 games for the Aeros after nearly making the Wild's roster in October.

"I think he lost some of his confidence in Houston," Thompson said. "We got him in the Fernandez trade, and he was pretty good in training camp. He was our last cut as a forward. His play was up-and-down in Houston."

Ms. Conduct sez:

That's not much of an opinion from TT as far as Kalus' prospects with the Wild or their expectations of him, is it? Really just a statement of fact there. Howzabout a little insight, Tommy?

Fine. I'll give some. Kalus is a frustrating enigma like Pouliot, but with some of the opposite problems. He's got a lot of talent, a lot of energy, and actually too much willingness to play physically. He's not a small guy, but he's not real big either, yet he plays like he's 6'4", 220 and ends up injured a lot as a result. I'm the last one to criticize a guy for playing physically, but when your body can't hold up to it AND you're offensively gifted, howzabout we leave the crushing blows to the beefier fellas and you just get the puck in the fucking net?

Kalus is talented, no doubt about it, but he's got a wild, undisciplined style, which might work on some teams, but will NOT work for Constantine and Lemaire. I just have visions of Lemaire with his hands around Kalus' neck a la Homer and Bart... though the reality is that he'd just get healthy scratched like Kalus occasionally was in Houston (to his obvious irritation if you talked to him about it).

In fact, when we played Providence this season (Kalus' former team), Shaver interviewed Scott Gordon (now the Islanders' coach) who basically said Kalus was a challenge from day one and when he finally started making strides, injuries set him back. Sounds familiar. Listen to it here. He starts talking about Kalus at about the midway point.

The St. Paul Pio-Press had a good article about Kalus during the Development Camp a few weeks ago, but unfortunately they charge for access to older articles. If anybody out there has Lexis-Nexis or something and can pull the content for me, e-mail it to me and I'll put it here. I believe it was published July 11.

The gist of it was that he had a bad year last year due to Coach Constantine basically breaking his game down in order to re-build it to work in this system. Kalus says he feels like he's matured, but that if he doesn't make the big club this year, when his contract runs out, he's gone. Fair enough, kid. Make it work! Holla atcha boy!

Honestly, I hope he finds his niche this season. He's a funny guy with a ton of crazy, crack squirrel energy and I like that about him, but want him to harness it.

Dr. Conduct sez:

I have a simple solution. Get the boy a Ritalin prescription!

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