Coach's Take on Stamp Camp

Here's what Guy Vestby had to say about the first 3 days of training camp.

"Anytime you can get a shootout victory in your intra-squad game, somebody's done their job right. We had some good staff here on the weekend and I put the responsibility on them to divide up the guys for the Black and Gold game. By the looks of the score (7-6) and the shots (42-40) they did a pretty good job. We saw some really good things, we may have expected some others, but overall we were pretty happy with the way things went."

On the four scraps between the 3rd period and overtime.

"You know, we expect kids to figure things out for themselves. If they want to come to camp and watch as their opportunity goes by, or if they want to actually show a little bit of a heart beat and try to make their mark. We've got a lot of veteran guys in camp, and some of our younger guys were maybe a little tentative in mixing it up and some of our vets were getting a little impatient because they couldn't find anybody to dance with. As it turned out I think it was okay, the game wasn't fight-filled, but a few things did happen and I think it pleased everybody."

Numbers?

"We're down to about 20 or 21 forwards, 9 or 10 'D', 3 or 4 goalies. We're heading into exhibition quick (TUE/WED vs OCN), so every day as things go by we'll make some small adjustments, and I'm sure there'll be some guys moving on and some guys coming in, so we'll take it day by day, but no, there's no day set that's specifically a cut-down day."

On defenseman Dylan Trowell from Saltcoats, former Yorkton Harvest.

"We had him in our spring camp this year and we were very impressed with him. We were very fortunate to get him to commit to our club, and we've committed to him, and Dylan came in here as a carded player and handled himself very well, looked very poised, and as we stand right now we've got 4 returning defensemen and with Dylan stepping in we're confident we can move forward. Anytime you can have someone come in with some confidence and kind of show they're almost a vet and get some games under their belt, they should peak a little sooner than the others, it was really nice to see."

On Chris Reimer's play.

"Chris Reimer's always had some good wheels. One of our evaluators was saying maybe we're a little weak on the right side, and I reminded him the yellow team had 5 goals by right wingers and one by a right 'D'. Chris Reimer's definitely an electric player. He was such an asset for us last year, he played on our first line, second line, third line, fourth line, wherever we asked him to. He's such an honest player, works hard, and we're looking for big things from Chris this year."

Goaltending situation with Josh Hohn, Evan Reiffersheid and Dustin Lehne battling for the #2 job behind Chris Ward.

"I said to all the guys in interviews last night, it's 'game on', because everyone gave up 3 goals. I know Chris Ward would have liked one back, and Josh Hohn, a local guy broke his stick trying to clear one and it cost him, but I don't think anyone was hanging their head, they all had some jump in their step still, so those are good things. We're going to let everything run it's course this week and give everyone an opportunity to try and get that spot behind Chris Ward."