Training Camp Update – September 30th

 

A number of notes from Calgary Flames training camp on Thursday, as the team gets set for their sixth preseason game on Friday night in Edmonton.  Calgary has reassigned forward Greg Nemisz to Abbotsford of the American Hockey League, while reports suggest defenceman Staffan Kronwall has been placed on waivers.

The assignment of Nemisz leaves the Flames with 33 players in camp, including 20 forwards.  Nemisz wasn’t ready for the NHL game and he’ll have an opportunity to work on certain things with Jim Playfair in Abbotsford.  Nemisz needs to add size to his frame, along with adding a more assertive nature to his game, according to most observers.

As for Kronwall, the report came this morning from TSN’s Bob MacKenzie, and doesn’t surprise very much.  He never seemed to be in the plans for the big team right from the very start, as he was practicing with Group B to start training camp, which consisted of younger players who didn’t have a chance of cracking the Flames roster.  Teams have until 10 am Friday morning to claim Kronwall.

Both Olli Jokinen and Rene Bourque missed practice on Thursday for what the Flames called maintenance reasons, and both are listed day-to-day.

A couple interesting notes from Calgary’s 3-2 win over the Islanders in Saskatoon: I liked the trio of Hagman, Kotalik and Moss playing together, as they seemed to do a nice job cycling the puck.  It was a departure from what we’d seen for most of training camp, with Curtis Glencross on that line instead of Hagman.  Instead, Glencross played most of last night’s game with John Armstrong and Jon Rheault.

I also liked the play of Cory Sarich, who I thought was well positioned all night and asserted himself well physically.  We all know this is an important camp and preseason for him.  Adam Pardy played both Tuesday and Wednesday night, and you can tell he’s making an effort to be much more aggressive.  He’s been one of the more inconsistent players on the Flames blueline to this point.