Colorado Avalanche: Impressions from Informal August Camp

Colorado Avalanche players and prospects are participating in some organized practices at the team training facility. Here are some impressions from one practice.

As I reported last week, some of the Colorado Avalanche prospects and veterans have taken to the ice at their practice facility at South Suburban Park and Recreation.

I went to the facility yesterday.  I thought it would be like the Captain’s Camp I saw last year during the Rookie Camp, which consisted of veteran players skating around and doing a few drills. To be honest, I thought I’d be lucky if I found that — I half expected nothing.

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I was pleasantly surprised to find that the informal practice the players were holding was actually pretty formal. In fact, I arrived about halfway through, and the players were just returning to the ice from a mini-break.

The first NHLer I saw was Colin Wilson. Shortly after that I caught sight of Sven Andrighetto, which was a pleasant surprise. I had heard he was heading back to Denver from his native Switzerland Monday night, so I didn’t think I’d find him on the ice already on Tuesday.

Next came Gabriel Bourque, which was another surprise. I actually expected Tyson Barrie as he said on the Marc Moser show he was returning from B.C. on Sunday.

As the prospects started filing in, I tried to identify who’s who. I tried most of the practice to find Conor Timmins, who’s reported to be wearing #18. Either he’s wearing a different number at the informal camp, or he never took the ice. (The player I half-thought looked like Timmins turned out to be Josh Dickinson.)

Sergei Boikov was in attendance. He disappeared off the face of the earth after suffering a shoulder injury last preseason. He looked really good on the ice.

About that time, a certain camera-shy defenseman made a ninja move onto the ice. I never saw Erik Johnson enter the ice, but the next thing I know he was in the corner with Wilson:

Sorry about the bad picture quality. I creeped on him to get better:

I don’t think I really succeeded. I got a good picture of Wilson, though:

Who’s that handsome young devil next to him? Why, that’s this year’s first-rounder, the very charming Martin Kaut. He even winked at me later in the practice, almost as if he heard me say he looks like a Three Musketeer.

In addition to Johnson, two-and-a-half more NHLers were at the informal camp. One is Semyon Varlamov. He looks completely recovered from his knee injury. The other is newbie Matt Calvert. The 28-year-old is so young-looking I spent half the time thinking he was one of the prospects.

Who’s the half? Dominic Toninato. A little rude to call him half an NHLer, but it’s also rather accurate. No shade to Dom — I’m hoping he makes the team.

Besides Boikov, Kaut and Dickinson, I also noted that Josh Anderson and Logan O’Connor were in attendance.

The drills the players participated in weren’t as formal as at a regular practice, though they did have a trainer on the ice. (That also caught me by surprise.) However, they did do one cool drill that I hope to see again in practice.

In this drill, there’s a player at each of the ice entrances from the bench. The trainer puts a puck at center ice. When he taps the ice, the players race to gain possession. The one who does so gets to take a shot at the goalie. The other one has to skate up and down the ice.

Here it is in action:

Kaut won that every time but once, as did Johnson. If I’m not mistaken, Calvert won it every single time. O’Connor had a good record, too.

Last year, it was said that Erik Johnson came to training camp in exceptional shape — better even than the coaching staff had wanted. Well, here’s a good indicator of why:

That’s Erik Johnson bag skating after a full practice. Granted the one time I took the video he only skated halfway up the ice. However, he was working on this for at least five minutes after practice — he was still doing it when I left.

Colorado Avalanche rookies and prospects will take to the ice at South Suburban formally next Friday, September 7, before they head off to the Rookie Showcase in Vegas. The rest of the NHLers will probably be participating in Captain’s Camp leading up to their reporting for medical son September 13.