It was the Kirill & Kirill show today at the Coliseum in the hallway by the locker room. I had no idea that Kiril Petrov spoke no English. But that wasn’t a problem because Kirill Kabanov speaks better English than some American teens.
Training camp today was broken up into the two groups and a gaggle of goalies. I arrived at 11 am, so I was somewhat late for the first group. But I was really there for other reasons – first and foremost to get out of the 101 degree heat. There was a gaggle of reporters there all watching the kids. It’s always funny to hear the men in the room say things like “Geeze, they can’t even SHAVE yet.”
Yep. They’re young. They’re excited and they’re a little nervous. You could tell which prospects were first timers and those who were returning. There was a definite comfort level difference. Unless you were looking at Kirill Kabanov. He seems to be comfortable no matter where you plop him.
It was great to see both John Tavares and Josh Bailey there. They both aren’t very far removed from their own first prospect camps. I’m sure that made the likes of Nino Niederreiter a little more comfortable. Especially after he left the dressing room and was followed like a rock star down the tunnel with cameras snapping wildly behind him.
The name plate on the back of his jersey spans from shoulder to shoulder and then some. But there were also a few others with the same situation. DiBenedetto, Rakhshani and Klementyev, names with many consonants stretched across colorful jerseys. Some we will see again, others we will only see at these camps.
On one end of the ice, the pair of Kirills was running through one legged skate drills. At that time, I had no idea that Kirill Petrov does not speak English. Kabonov must be translating all of the coach’s instructions to him. I started to wonder if he would change the instructions just enough to make Petrov look bad. Nah…
Matt Martin was chirping at Casey Cizikas as they were waiting to get on the ice. It sounded as if they are very familiar with each other. It also sounded as if Martin was looking forward to getting a piece of Casey out on the ice. We’ll see at the scrimmage.
The amazing amount of Long Island talent that was invited to camp was probably for a few reasons. First, bodies and second a better taste of Long Island and the idea that we DO have a hockey program here on the Island.
The Islanders were kind enough to give everyone a printed player guide for the camp. This way we can spell their names correctly. But looking at it I can tell you that Rhett Rakhshani, the Right Wing from Huntington Beach CA, has and ENTIRE PAGE of awards and honors. He was selected 100th overall in the 6th round of the 2006 Draft. He played five games with Bridgeport last season. That was after playing 41 games with the University of Denver and scoring 21 goals and 29 assists for 50 points.
Scott Gordon and Scott Allen were their usual reserved selves on the ice while Sound Tigers coach Jack Capuano was his usual, smiling and gum chewing self.
The scruffiest man on the ice has to be Robin Figren who could body double for the Geico cave man. Just kidding… sort of.
Charles Wang stopped by for a few hours to check out the future of his team. He watched from the stands in the company of GM Garth Snow and then went down to the ice to say hello to John Tavares and Calvin deHaan (I hope that was deHaan).
Anders Nilsson and Mikko Koskinen are a matched pair of 6’5” goalies, according to the stat sheets. But for some reason, Mikko still looks bigger. It made me giggle overhearing one of the reporters say “What’s his style? Standing.”
All in all, it seemed like a good day at the rink. Sadly later that afternoon it was marred by the news that Assistant GM Ryan Jankowski’s contract would not be renewed. His name is in the player guide and he was just interviewed about the 2010 draftees on ITV. His contract expired. That is an accurate detail. I guess the rest happened just as fast as the coach turning back into a pumpkin in Cinderella.
You can play circle the errors in the post. There are plenty. I wrote this way too late for and don't have time to fix it this morning or to post the videos until tomorrow. It’s too damn late.
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