Ladies and gents, the 2014-15 Calgary Flames main camp has begun.

Intrepid boy reporter Ryan Pike is down at Winsport all day, checking out both scrimmages and seeing what there is to see. He may also get lunch, he’s not sure yet.

Anyhow, keep your eyes here all day as we’ll have updates on Day 1.

SCRIMMAGE: McDONALD vs. NIEUWENDYK

Camp kicks off with the 10am scrimmage on Arena B (Joan Snyder Arena) featuring Group A (McDonald) and Group B (Nieuwendyk). McDonald has Bennett and Gaudreau today.

Setoguchi opened the scoring for McDonald, putting a rebound past a sprawling Doug Carr. Nieuwendyk tied it up via a goal from either Monahan or Hudler. Nieuwendyk solidified their win off a nice passing play from Raymond and Hudler, with Hudler scoring on Mason McDonald.

Mason McDonald split time, playing the first half of the game for Team McDonald and the second half for Team Nieuwendyk. Carr played the first half for Nieuwendyk and Brad Thiessen played the second half for McDonald.

SCRIMMAGE: McDONALD vs. VERNON

A lower-scoring battle full of checking and intensity. The lower goal totals may be because Hiller and Ortio were in the nets to start. Brodie scored the game’s first goal off a wrister from the point on Ortio. Baertschi scored to tie the game for Team Vernon, and Matt Stajan scored on a nice individual effort by Garnet Hathaway to give Vernon a 2-1 win.

The goalies rotated again:

TAKE-AWAYS

Well, everyone was present and accounted for at Winsport. Backlund, Potter, Wotherspoon, Poirier, Gillies and Bennett weren’t with their main groups, and Ramo practiced but didn’t scrimmage, so things got shuffled around a bit. But everyone was at the building and none of the injuries appear to be anything worth worrying about, at least based on the information from Coach Hartley.

I keep coming away impressed with Garnet Hathaway, who had an excellent Young Stars tournament. I also thought Raymond was really good today. Beyond that, a few other guys stood out, but I was focused more on broad strokes than specific guys and with 63 guys in camp, it’s hard to keep track of ’em all.

Generally, it appears that defense pairings are Giordano-Brodie, Smid-Wideman and Russell-Engelland, at least right now. That will obviously change. Beyond that, pairings and lines varied a lot – Gaudreau probably played with 6 different guys – so I take zero stock in them until pre-season games start.

And if you want to get player autographs, the Winsport section of training camp is a gold-mine, between the players being accessible and everyone being in one place at the same time.





