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Scenes from practice: Flames youngsters prepare for NextGen Battle of Alberta

Photo credit: Sergei Belski-USA TODAY Sports
Calgary Flames prospects training camp continued on Sunday afternoon at the historic Scotiabank Saddledome, with the second day of on-ice action.
As Wranglers bench boss Brent Sutter put the kids through their paces ahead of Monday night’s NextGen Showcase against the Edmonton Oilers’ prospects, here’s what we saw at the ‘Dome.
Our general impressions
The three goalies in this main group – Arsenii Sergeev, Kirill Zarubin and Owen Say on Sunday – were out early with a couple goalie coaches and six skaters – Kyle Walker, Abram Wiebe, Kent Anderson, Andrew Basha, Matvei Gridin and Carter Wilkie – to put the goalies through their paces.
Once everyone got onto the ice, the day’s activities seemed to scaffold on Saturday’s in terms of both the content and pace of the drills. Things maintained a very high pace, and drills were more unit or line/pairing-based than they were on the first day.
For an example: there was one drill where one forward dumped in the puck into the offensive zone against a full five-man unit and had to try to retrieve it. That was followed by a three-man unit doing the same. That was followed by a five-man unit doing the same. We also saw battle drills where a forward trio had to battle with a defensive pair for puck possession; the D pairing “won” the drill by clearing the puck past the top of the circles, then forward group “won” by getting a clean shot on net. Puck possession, pace and details were the focus.
At times on Saturday it seemed like the pace got some players on their heels a bit, but everyone seemed really up for the challenge on Sunday and the energy seemed really high – even late in the session.
An attempt at identifying lines and pairings
Because Sunday had much more of a lines and pairings focus to its drills, we have a stronger idea of how units look – and could look together for Monday’s game.
Matvei Gridin – Tyson Gross – Aydar Suniev
Simon Katolicky – Riley Boychuk – Joe Iginla
Chase Harrington – Jonathan Castagna – Andrew Basha
Ryder Boulton – Will Dineen – Quinn Olson
(Carter Wilkie rotated in on the fourth line)
Simon Katolicky – Riley Boychuk – Joe Iginla
Chase Harrington – Jonathan Castagna – Andrew Basha
Ryder Boulton – Will Dineen – Quinn Olson
(Carter Wilkie rotated in on the fourth line)
Abram Wiebe – Kent Anderson
Axel Hurtig – Jakob Leander
Mace’o Phillips – Bode Laylin
(Kyle Walker rotated in on various pairs)
Axel Hurtig – Jakob Leander
Mace’o Phillips – Bode Laylin
(Kyle Walker rotated in on various pairs)
Arsenii Sergeev, Kirill Zarubin and Owen Say rotated in net. (Semyon Konopsky joined them for a goalie session after the main group.)
The Flames have a morning skate on Monday morning and then face Edmonton on Monday evening at the ‘Dome. It’s a 6 p.m. MT start and streamed on the Flames’ website and app.
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