ladyneat's Blog

9/16/07 Flyers camp The links of course....

http://www.flickr.com/photos/neat1325/sets/721576020465
04581/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVuxUNcM1gc http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHcp_xthv6M http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgMw6QsG07w

(one more to come wasn't ready yet)

First I want to thank Hockey buzz’s own Steal your face off, the young man who was journalism major who went to Cardinal O’Hara (sorry I forgot your name I am bad like that), Chris and Bob for the wonderful company today. Camp was that much more fun for hanging out and talking to all of you. I left my house at 6:30 arrived about 7:40 I made awesome time with no traffic. There was already a line out the door for the meet the Flyers taping. The first group camp out about 8:10. The first thing I noticed was Nitty has new pads. Lots of the players look very trimmed down. They apparently have been working out very hard or it is the new jerseys. Boyd Kane was impressive in the first practice session. Grenier looks like he will be doing another tour with the Phantoms. There were quite a few names on the roster that I don’t recognize but they seemed to be doing very well. Such as Matt Stefanishion and Jon Matsumoto. The 1st Scrimmage started with a 30 min period of 5 on 5 and then a 15 min period of 4 on 4. The real referees again this time were from the AHL. The white team was the winning team in this contest 3-1. Not sure who had the black team goal the white team goals all on Houle were Hatcher, Kapanen, and Giroux. Biron also had new pads (see video). The 2nd practice started and I can say I was eager for it to start. I wanted to see more of my old favorites and what these new guys could do too. The main topic of the conversations around me was that size apparently does matter. Many people commented that they could not believe how small Timmonen was and when Briere came out him too. I felt both performed well so Size shouldn’t matter at all. Time ran over since they came out late Practice ran until 11:15. Got the first look at Boucher, back in O & B. The 2nd scrimmage started late 11:30 so I didn’t get to watch all of it. I saw the first white team goal which was scored by Denis Gautier. Then I went in to meet the Flyers. I will say this much the lobby area was again a three ring circus of things to do but this years camp and meet the flyers taping was super well organized. The line that was going when I came in was fully dispersed a little after 8 am. People could take time to watch camp and then go into the taping. I am a season ticket holder so I reserved my bracelet to get in earlier in the week. It gave me primo seats up front. I sat right behind people I know from the Flyers fan club. There was a ton of seats this year looked like a lot more then they had last year. The watchers for camp had the stands and standing room completely full so I think maybe 200+ people that were at the taping. They showed some of the history of the Flyers video while we were waiting. Michael Barkan and Jonesy hosted the show. Jim Jackson and Coatsey were the side reporters. They showed a video of the one CSN reported interviewing Ed Snider. Then Peter Lukko and Paul Holmgren came out and talked. The crowd was completely rowdy. They did several choruses of Let’s go Flyers through out the show. When John Stevens was out one person yelled out who is going to be captain. John’s answer was that we would know closer to the season start based on who stepped up to take the reigns on the team. Knuble came out and Coatsey poured water on him to demonstrate the new Jerseys I don’t think he told Knuble he was going to do that, Knuble was nothing but a good sport about it. Then Knuble, Briere and Gagne came out. The one comment from this section was that Gagne said that Briere was much more healthy then Forsberg was should be good times (then he tried to retracted stumble over his words) it was interesting. Then they had Scott Hartnell and Kimmo Timmonen come out and talk about them coming to Philly. There were appearances by Carter and Richards during this part. Then Lupul and Smith came out and had appearances by Kapanen and Scottie Upshall. Several females in the audience loudly expressed their love for Mr. Upshall. Then last but not least Nitty and Biron came out. I will say that this pairing looked the most awkward together for whatever reasons. Nitty even talked a lot. It was a good program and the players had lots to say I will let you watch it for yourselves. That is all. I can’t wait to see a more unified team and less people I don’t know.