Arena frenzy overshadows first day of training camp

In actual hockey news, the Calgary Flames opened the on-ice portion of their 2017-18 training camp earlier today. The 68 players in camp were split neatly into three groups and had roughly hour-long sessions where Glen Gulutzan and his staff put them through the paces.

Here are the main takeaways from the first day.

As a result of all the arena hubbub, we don’t have a complete picture of lines for all three groups right now. (Sorry.) But we do have a pretty decent idea regarding most of the big pieces in the Flames organization line-wise.

Partial forward lines (group in brackets)

Tkachuk – Backlund – Poirier [A]
Klimchuk – Hrivik – Frolik [A]
Monahan – Gaudreau – Ferland [B]
Mangiapane – Jankowski – Brouwer [B]
Versteeg – Bennett – Foo [C]

Partial defensive pairings (group in brackets)

Giordano – D. Hamilton
Brodie – Hamonic
Kulak – Stone
Valimaki – Andersson

We’ll endeavour to have more complete lines featuring the minor-leaguers and depth players after Saturday’s on-ice sessions.

Daniel Pribyl appeared to injure his right knee during Group A’s practice and had to be helped off the ice. Joel Lowry also left Group A’s skate early – he was gone before I arrived midway through – but it’s unclear if his absence was injury-related.

In happier news, Tyler Parsons was a full participant in Group A’s practice after sitting out the last two games in Penticton with a minor back injury.