As much as everyone loves the summer, the first day of school is exciting.
For most, it’s a reunion with friends. For some, it’s a chance to join a whole new social network. For all, it’s a time to challenge themselves.
That’s true for the first day of NHL training camps, too.
“Contrary to what guys may say, I kind of love the first day,” Utah Mammoth veteran defenseman Nate Schmidt said Thursday with his signature smile beaming out from under his mustache.
“You kind of feel like you went through (the offseason) together, you got through it.”
Here’s what stood out on the first day of Mammoth training camp.
Pace, pace, pace
Four and a half months’ worth of pent up energy released itself at the Mammoth Ice Center on Thursday. It was one of the highest-paced practiced in recent memory — and Utah is a notoriously quick team.
Head coach André Tourigny gave his thoughts.
“(Playing fast) has nothing to do with the way you skate. Playing fast is not playing with more speed. Everything has to be extremely fast,” he said.
“You go from one action to the other one without hesitation. It has to be a flow. It’s the way I press, the way my partner reads off my pressure and reacts. It has to be already in motion before the play happened because he reads it.”
Tourigny brought up the Stanley Cup champion Carolina Hurricanes as an example.
They aren’t the fastest team in terms of skating speed, “but they think fast and they play fast and they’re on you one after the other one. They bring you in deep water and you cannot breathe because they stay on, they stay on, they stay on,” he said.
“That’s, I think, a strength of our team.”
First look at lines
On Wednesday, Tourigny warned the public not to read into Thursday’s lines too much. He has a few new players and he’s experimenting to figure out where they and others fit best.
That said, the usual pairs remain the same, as they will throughout the rest of camp: Clayton Keller with Nick Schmaltz, Dylan Guenther with Logan Cooley and Jack McBain with Barrett Hayton.
Tourigny thought it would be wise to start Vincent Trocheck at center, his natural position. Trocheck will remain there for Friday as well, but the coach said the newcomer will skate on the wing on Saturday.
The defense pairings were like snowflakes: There were never two of the same. They switched with every repetition of each drill.
Sore, not injured
Schmidt and youngsters Tij Iginla and Caleb Desnoyers all sported blue non-contact jerseys Thursday, which serve as safety vests to prevent egregious contact.
“It looked good. It matches my eyes,” Schmidt joked when asked about it after practice. “You know, I just wanted to exercise some of my veteran (influence), you know, I don’t want to get hit the first few days.”
He followed it up with a more serious answer.
“No, it’s just a little little precautionary, just something that happened last week. Just being careful, just being smart,” he said before joking that he could use it to get out of his physical exam.
Youngsters Iginla and Desnoyers, meanwhile, both said after practice that they felt good and that their injuries won’t preclude them from competing in preseason games.
Max Pšenička left the first Rookie Faceoff game after taking a high stick in the first few minutes. He missed the second game but played in the third one. On Thursday, he skated in the second group with a full face shield.
An impressive newcomer
Despite the fact that Joshua Roy grew up four hours from Montreal, he wanted the Canadiens to trade him this summer. He wasn’t going to get the opportunity there that he needed to thrive as a full-time NHL player.
The Mammoth acquired him this summer in exchange for Maksymilian Szuber, a young defenseman in a similar situation. Both guys just want the chance to succeed.
Utah doesn’t exactly have roster spots to hand out in its forward group, so Roy will need to steal a spot from someone who might otherwise get it — and he made an excellent case for himself on the first day of camp.
The 23-year-old showcased incredibly high-level puck handling and passing skills in seemingly every drill. His head was on a swivel and he always seemed to know where to put the puck.
In one instance, for example, Roy carried the puck through the neutral zone on a rush drill. Shortly after crossing the blue line, the opposing defenseman stepped up to poke check him.
Without hesitation, Roy feathered a backhand saucer pass over the outstretched stick and perfectly onto the tape of line mate Ben McCartney, who immediately fired and scored.
As is the case with some of the prospects trying to make the team, there’s not necessarily a roster spot reserved with Roy’s name on it. If he doesn’t make it, the Mammoth risk losing him because he has to clear waivers before playing in the AHL. With that level of skill at his age, it wouldn’t be surprising to see a Vancouver Canucks type of team claim him.
Although this is undoubtedly reading into the situation too much, Roy should be encouraged by the fact that Tourigny mentioned his name alongside those of a few bona fide NHLers after practice on Thursday.
