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Boy was it ugly today. The team as a whole just didn't seem all that focused on what was happening on the ice. Missed passes, guys falling down, flubbed shots, the works. Shane O'Brien even accidentally stumbled into Varly at one point, nonchalantly tapping a bewildered Varly's pads as if to say "haha, oops". It was that kind of day. Sticking with the format from the last couple days, I'll post my tweets from the event followed by a couple additional thoughts on specific players.
Varly first out, per usual. Huzzah. Its all happening
This whole goalie coach working with the goalies everyday is...foreign.
Goalies working on clearing pucks off the glass. Jiggy appears to be mastering the art of the delay of game penalty.
And the entire team streams onto the ice together. Training camp must be powerleveling their team unity.
See the Altitudes here doin some work. Hooray. Drills uneventful so far. Sloppy play from near everyone. VDG missed a pass entirely.
Hejda with a snipe that pleases the crowd. GG big man
Bordy took a pass and celebrated by immediately falling down in embarrassing fashion. I am amused.
Such a sloppy session so far.
O'Brien getting a talkin to from one of the coaches. Didn't catch which one. Shane just can't resist the tug of another mans skates
Barrie eats the ice in the body divet Bordy left earlier. This is quite the gong show so far.
Oh my god PA Parenteau. Oh my god you are fantastic sir
Duchene is still SPIN TO WIN
Kobasew running Landy....not what I wanted to see.
Scrimmage on. Dutchy, Parenteau, EJ played beautiful 3 man breakout up the ice to produce quality scoring chance. Love it.
O'Brien runs Duke at center ice, gives up odd man rush as result. The carpet is lava, Shane.
Hunwick stripped Sgarbossa clean and made a cute pass up the boards to streaking Parenteau.
Jones stops two rushes with great back checking. Dat puck possession
Elliott gets chance on offense, immediately turns it over. His TC spot is being wasted.
Stastnys outrageous hockey iq on full display as he combines with Sgarbossa and McGinn on the prettiest team goal of camp. Wow
The Stastny to Sgarbossa to McGinn goal ended the day's session.
Speaking of Paul Stastny, everyone's most vilified $6M man lit the place up today. He's been having a great camp alongside McGinn but I watched him very closely today and you can see how smart of a hockey player he is. He's almost always in the right position, rotates and talks to his teammates very well, and has the uncanny ability of creating scoring chances with his excellent vision and occasionally sublime passing skills. This is the Paul Stastny that everyone forgets is so great. I think he's going to lead us in scoring this year.
PA Parenteau is another guy who has put together a solid camp but really shined through the clouds today. He made a gorgeous spin move in front of a crowd to tuck a backhand home before Varly could close the pillows (Look, I miss Pierre McGuire okay). The play drew out the biggest showing of life from an otherwise docile crowd. Later during scrimmages, he repeatedly broke down the opposition's scoring chances with responsible defensive work that led to breakouts going the other way. He has vision, great hands, a sneaky shot, and plays a sound two-way game. Even without playing with John Tavares this year, I think Parenteau will do some damage to opposing teams, especially early if they dare sleep on him.
Ryan Wilson was the only defenseman worth any positive note today. This is honestly the best I have to say for our defense today. Just sloppy. Not saying everyone was bad, just that nobody stood out in a positive way. Not even Jan Hejda.
The last guy I'll give a bit of a glovetap to today is David Jones. The guy didn't do a lick on offense, even being replaced for several shifts on the Stastny line by Sgarbossa (who looked great on the wing for all of the 10 minutes they had him there), but his backchecking today was aggressive and at times downright ferocious. Twice his aggression stopped odd man rushes going the other way (where he was admittedly out of position and his guy all alone...nice communication, guys) and turned them into puck possession for his team. What happened next, his whole "OH GOD IT'S A PUCK WHAT NOW" routine caused him to cough it up right away but the positives still stood. If Jones can find ways to positively contribute in ways other than scoring goals, he's going to go a long way to prove the Avalanche right for all the faith they placed in him with that amusing contract.
There you go, c6. I made fun of somebody. Now Twigg can post that that .gif with the guy beating the dead horse. I love that .gif. Stupid horses. Until tomorrow, my friends.