One of my favourite things to watch every year is an NHL training camp up close.



They pile 60- or 70-plus players onto the ice and put them through two-a-day skates, a wringer designed to test their physical conditioning and weed out those who can’t keep up.



What always amazes me is the pace of the whole thing. Sure, some of them are cannon fodder. But even with three rosters on the ice — and two of them made up of players bound for the ECHL or AHL or junior — it’s a fast mass of humanity.



You realize watching a camp, up close (because they’re all in small arenas), that the line between the E and the A isn’t much. The line between the A and the NHL is even thinner — unless you’re watching with an NHL coach’s eye for the difference.



I saw my first NHL training camps when I was young, and the Canucks used to come skate in Kamloops at Riverside Coliseum every September. I’ll be lucky enough to attend my 10th with the Maple Leafs starting Thursday.



Here are some of the head-to-head matchups I’ll be looking out for this year:



5. McElhinney vs. Sparks in goal



I’m under no illusions (delusions?) here. Curtis McElhinney will start the season as Freddy Andersen’s backup, barring an injury.



But the interesting thing the Leafs did in the off-season with their No. 2 and 3 goalies is that they both got cheap two-year deals. And the second year of Sparks’ deal is a one-way salary, meaning he’ll make $700,000 even if he’s in the minors.



You don’t typically do that for a goalie who doesn’t have some sort of NHL future.



McElhinney was a nice story for the Leafs last year, coming off the waiver wire and winning them six games with a respectable .914 save percentage. But he’s 34 years old, has a rough style (rougher than James Reimer, who got killed for his technique in Toronto) and over the last four seasons has posted the 52nd best save percentage in the NHL.



He’s a lower-tier backup, someone you want starting, at most, 15 to 20 games a season.



What is Sparks? I don’t think we know yet. But his AHL save percentage (.922) is vastly superior to what McElhinney has posted in that league, and he’s 10 years younger. Sparks has had a hard time staying healthy, but there’s a scenario here where he outplays the older goaltender in camp and in preseason, putting the thought into Mike Babcock’s head early that maybe he deserves another shot.



We know from last season that Babcock can have backups on a short leash. I think that could happen here, if McElhinney struggles in his first few starts.



4. Kapanen vs. the field on the wing...