Day 1 Training Camp Update

Training camp is officially underway at the Saddledome with on ice sessions starting Saturday morning.  Group A skated in the early session and consisted of mostly veterans with a few prospects mixed in.  The second group was the opposite with most prospects and a few vets sprinkled in.

Niklas Hagman was battling a flu bug, so he was the only one to sit out the early session.  Jon Rheault, Brett Sutter, TJ Brodie, Mikael Backlund and Cam Cunning were the five prospect players skating with the rest of the established guys.  Some may not even put Backlund and Sutter in that group of five, seeing as how they spent a chunk of last season with the Flames.

Line combinations and D pairings looked like this:

Tanguay-Jokinen-Iginla
Bourque-Stajan-Rheault
Glencross-Moss-Kotalik
Cunning-Conroy-Sutter
Ivanans-Backlund-Jackman

Bouwmeester-Staios
Giordano-Sarich
White-Regehr
Brodie-Pardy

Safe to assume the plan is to have Hagman take Rheault’s spot on that line with Bourque and Stajan, at least to start training camp.  Rheault is officially on the Group B roster, but skated in the early session with Hagman’s abscence.  Backlund left the ice after taking a high stick on a competition drill, however Head Coach Brent Sutter said it didn’t seem serious.

The trio everyone was talking about was indeed Jokinen, Iginla and Tanguay.  All seemed excited to be playing with eachother when talking in the locker room following practice.  During the offensive drills, that line seemed to be the crispest in terms of passing and executing, but remember, it is just day one of camp.