Okay, so I don’t have a lot of experience blogging but I know Yann kept a blog last year so it can’t be that hard, right? If he can do it, then I know I can do it better (of course). But I hear he did well last year so we’ll see how I do. I don’t remember much of what he wrote because I only read a little bit but I remember there was a picture taken of me reading his blog from camp last year - weird how I can remember things like that. Canucks.com asked me to do daily updates of camp so here goes my first attempt.



Because I think I’m pretty good with computers and technology that I can catch on to this pretty easily. Everyone says it’s pretty easy so that helped ease my mind a bit. As far as the internet, I’m on Facebook a lot - maybe too much these days but it’s summer so I’m allowing myself to do that. I go on hockey sites a lot but a site that I use all the time is the Internet Movie Database or IMDB - much shorter and easier to say. I’m a big movie guy so whenever I want to rent a movie or go see one, I always check on IMDB to see the reviews and the ratings. The last movie I saw was an embarrassing one but actually I did see one on the plane on the way over to Vancouver, which was Green Zone with Matt Damon.

Coming into camp last year, I only knew Yann since we both played for Saint John and I didn’t really know what to expect. I was the youngest guy at camp last year so I was really nervous and I didn’t speak that much. I still had a really good time and it was really fun but I think this year, I can enjoy it even more. This year, I know a lot more guys from last year’s summer camp and even from training camp in September. I think just the comfort level is the biggest thing being in the room and knowing the staff and players lets me be comfortable to perform my best.

Today was everyone’s favourite thing at camp - the fitness test. And in case it didn’t come through in writing, I was being sarcastic. It’s good to get it over with the first day and it was tough. You’d think that it would be easier since I’ve already done it but it doesn’t get easier at all. The VO2 and the Wingate is always going to be hard - always. I wonder if the Grouse Grind is going to be easier the second time around.

To help the guys get comfortable, the trainers put together an ice breaker activity for us called So You Think You Can Dance Canucks. We were split up into seven groups of five and had to make a routine to the song Satisfaction by Benny Benassi - if anyone’s ever heard of that before (it’s before my time). It’s a tough song to dance to if you can’t dance. The trainers (Roger, Bryan, and Glenn) scored each group out of ten to determine the winning group. Kevin Connauton’s group won.

My group was Yann, Matt Fraser, Tayler Jordan, and Mats Froshaug. We were too busy goofing around so our dance was very individual and we didn’t have much of a team concept but I think our scores were okay. We finished in the middle of the pack. I think Roger liked the individual dancing - he was the nice judge (definitely not the Simon Cowell - does that give me brownie points?). Personally, I think I kind of dropped the ball on my dancing. I tried to break dance but it didn’t look natural. If there’s a second season of this, for sure when I come back next year, I’ll be a better dancer.

I’m not sure if I’m looking forward to the Grouse Grind but it is nice getting to the top because the view of Vancouver is amazing. I’m looking forward to going Dragon-boating, because I’ve never done that before. I’m also excited about going to a baseball game because I’m a big baseball fan so that’ll be cool to see in Vancouver. But for now, I need to get some rest before tomorrow.