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***Rangerjase*** · 01-28-2020, 09:36 AM

Training camp was finally coming to a close in a few short days. I had been feeling a little homesick lately - Detroit Falcons

has definitely not been feeling like home yet. For starters, I couldn’t find anywhere to get a nice Pastrami sandwich and a decent sour pickle. That was always my favorite post game/practice meal. You could easily find a good slice of Pizza, even though deep dish isn’t exactly “pizza”, more like some sort of soup or shepards pie, but there was nothing like that vinegary bite of a sour Pickle after a long practice to help with cramps and remind me of home. I had been talking to Toki, begging him to share where he gets his pickle juice from! But alas, Toki did not know me well enough to be willing to share that prized information (yet). And as we all know, where there are sour pickles, of course there is pastrami. And we need those meats! Grow strong like bull!

Like my hero Handzus, I had been training hard since 3am, working on my skating skills with an ice dancing coach. After being joined several hours later for some agility practice by a couple of the other guys, we were pretty winded from jumps, luxes, loops, twirls, and lifts. Coach blew the whistle and signaled for a break, so making our way over to the bench, we grabbed our water bottles for a quick refresher. Before I could even take a sip, I could smell it. The delightful aroma of vinegar, salt, pepper, spices, transporting my memories instantly to that corner deli back home where my dreams of pastrami and pickles lie in wait. The water cooler had been replaced with pickle juice! Some drink it to alleviate cramps, some drink it as a chaser for whiskey in a pickle back shot. As my teammates spat out their drinks in disgust, my eyes lit up wide as saucers. “Give me that jug!” I bellowed, ripping the top from the cooler and engorging myself on the delightful taste of what I presume to be the juices of kosher half-sour pickles.

From the corner of my eye I spotted Toki, who winked knowingly. My man had come through. I had earned his trust in practice, working hard enough and coming out of my comfort zone in our mixed doubles figure skating class. My flowing moves and powerful tosses had won him over, and was ready to reveal his sources, but his final test was seeing that I was truly the pickle connoisseur I claimed to be. Clearly, my reaction to the pickle juice was just what he wanted to see.

“Pickles are love, pickles are life. Love the juice, live the juice!”

trella · 01-28-2020, 02:24 PM

Training camp with the Carolina Kraken, Ambacas Cuddles’ new SMJHL team, was quite an experience to say the least. Meeting all the guys on the team was really fun and the Kraken are full of big personalities. These guys definitely know how to have a good time. One guy that really stood out to me was Michael Fitted. Fitted is going into his 4th season in the Juniors and he really has a lot of experience. Fitted showed up drunk every day to training camp. Dude showed up absolutely hammered I couldn’t believe he was still alive. I pray for that man’s liver. One day during a small sided scrimmage, the team was Fitted, Cuddles, and Dream. We played really well but ended up losing to a team of Fiddler, Rykov, and Pokrywka. Fitted was very upset by this and started going on a drunken rant about how the other team cheated and how Terry Bradshaw would lead our small sided team to the promised land. Guess Terry has my back!
@Fitted2106

Thanks to @karey and @JSS for the sigs!

Former USA Fed Head, Carolina Kraken Co-GM, Tampa Bay Barracuda GM

Fitted2106 · 01-28-2020, 02:41 PM

13/10 would recommend drunk terry practise or die! @"cpetrella"

KenitohMenara · 01-28-2020, 02:43 PM

As Santtu stepped out onto the ice for the first time in Anchorage, he was very nervous. It was the first time that Santtu had not only come to the United States but also had travelled alone. His family were thousands of miles away and he was trying hard to learn English and his new surroundings. His new team, clearly seeing Santtu’s plight, offered to help him out how they could. Max Brannagan and the coaches picked him up from the airport, they showed him around the practice facility and the arena, he met his teammates who were all very nice and understanding (some had a knowledge of sign language to try and communicate with Santtu which he was appreciative of) and the fans in the practice stands all cheered for him and welcomed him into Anchorage.

As his teammates took him around Anchorage, they wandered past a reindeer farm, which immediately made Santtu think of home and traditional Finnish cooking. He openly said:

“Mmm, Reindeer.” It was the first English words he spoke and as his teammates gave him a weird look, he replied…

“What?”

Chrisda19 · 01-28-2020, 03:03 PM

Personal Log Jan. 28th 2020 - Chris de Siren Left Wing Anchorage Armada

Week 1 Training Camp

Woke up this morning to loud banging in the next room. This hotel stay has been trying on my mind, but I'm staying sharp during this first week of changes for me. I've begun to work with the coaches and other rookies to help develop our skills. I found out my linemates moving forward so far this year will be Saloman and Braden, whom I'm excited to work with though Braden has this weird smell about him. I swear he always has some stash of Nacho's in his cubby at all times. We mesh well though which I'm excited about too! Even though we're the third line right now, I think we'll be able to be the best third line in the league. It'll take time, but we can do it! Exciting things ahead, week 2 should be great!

Signing off - Chris de Siren

jtam · 01-28-2020, 04:40 PM

It has been a rough couple of weeks moving here from Sweden. It is my first time living away from home and training camp has been super tough. I have been having a bit of trouble meeting new people, I am usually very shy. While in Sweden, I remember pulling a prank to push myself to open up and get to know my teammates better. I tried it in our locker room in Anaheim. That did not go well.

After practice one day I left the ice early and hid inside one of the equipment bags that was on the floor. I did it while I was in Sweden and I thought it would work here. The team left the ice, changed and…. Left. And I was still in the bag. I didn’t get out until the arena caretaker was locking the locker. Apparently the team knew I was in there. And left me in there. Joke’s on me!

*jeffie43* · 01-29-2020, 01:09 AM

NSFL PT - Affiliate

Nour is pretty hot ngl

MarlinManiac4 · 01-29-2020, 01:14 AM

The first day of training camp started pretty well. I met the rest of the team ans reconnected with some of the other rookies that had also played with me in the prospects tournament. Some good guys also selected to Colorado, including my friend and fellow Finn Huuveri. We had noticed before morning skate that the lockers opposite of ours belonged to Cerullo and Svenson, from rival countries Norway and Sweden respectively. We greeted each other although I noticed they both kind of smirked at us before we left to go out on to the ice. Next thing I know I see Huuveri take a dive straight on the ice. His blade guards were still on, and Svenson and Cerullo did not miss the opportunity to make a wise crack: " Maybe you should remove your blade guards first hotshot." After it happened again the next day, Huuveri and I realized that it must be those two messing with our skates. The scandanavian prank war was on! During practice that day I skated over to the bench and found Cerullo's Gatorade bottle and twisted the top enough so that appeared to still be connected, but was in fact quite loose. During a break in practice we all skated over to the bench to take a breather. Just as I thought, Cerullo went straight for his bottle of Gatorade to drink and the next thing he knows half the bottle has spilled all over his practice uniform, leaving a big red stain. Classic. I took the opportunity to make a wise crack of my own "its supposed to go in your mouth, Hotshot." Huuveri and I were dying of laughter as we fist bumped. Cerullo didn't quite see it the same way at first, but I think he came around later on in practice as it was all smiles for all of us. This year should be fun.

MartySertich · 01-29-2020, 10:28 AM

Training camp was a great way for me to get my feet wet with a new team as a rookie. I would be lying if I said that I wasn't a little intimated after the long drive (accompanied by a state of emergency snow storm) and ferry to Halifax, but the older players welcomed me with open arms as we got underway and hit the ice. I was mesmerized by the professional attitude carried out by the management of Halifax, after our first practice we were walking back to our apartments and one of the vets said "hey kid, where you going? The bars this way" . I knew I wanted to fit in right away so I tagged along and we got in one that night. The next day at practice coach knew we had been out so we were going to sweat out the booze, my fellow line-mate Rapid Eagle told me "if anyone hits me, I'm going to piss myself". I was there enticed to get our other line-mate Mr.Roach to hit him in 1 on 1 drills. Little did we know he was serious and practice ended up having to be cancelled because of the cleanup required! What a start to the season and can't wait to get the regular season started!

chirpchirp · 01-31-2020, 04:24 PM

Wow, training camp was tough. We went through five days of mostly suicides and skating drills, with very little hockey. Coach was constantly spouting out some of the worst rhymes I've ever heard. "Pooks, on that last suicide you were late, you've gotta skate!" and "Tambo, don't take shortcuts on your drills like that, or you're gonna get fat!" He was cracking himself up, and I think they lightened the mood a bit when we were all exhausted.

After the last day some of the vets decided to take us rookies on an outing to celebrate the completion of our first training camp in Anaheim. Us rookies didn't know where we were headed until we got close and saw the border.

[Image: dfhng.jpg]

I had never been to Disneyland before, so I was cool with it. I had heard there are some good rides and had been meaning to check it out since I had gotten to Anaheim. So we walk in to the park and we pass by Space Mountain, Star Tours, and some Pirates of the Caribbean ride before we get to this small ride with barely any line. I look up at the sign and see "it's a small world". Alright cool, so it's a boat ride, there's gotta be a steep hill at the end and we are all gonna get soaked in our new suits (mandatory dress for the rookies for the evening). There hadn't really been a ton of rookie hazing up to this point so I was waiting for it and this had to be it.

The vets had us rookies pile into the first boat and sent us off on the ride, telling us that they would be right behind us. As our boat started heading down into the tunnel I looked back and saw Strom handing the ride operator some money as the rest of them laughed and waved as we sailed off into the dark. That's when I started to hear the music....oh the music:

"It's a small world after all
It's a small world after all
It's a small world after all
It's a small, small world"

Over and over again. The same song just plays on repeat. There is no hill, there is no splash. The ride is 10 minutes long but it feels like an eternity. As we exit the tunnel and approach the end the vets are standing there laughing at us. Some of us start getting up as we get to the unloading area but the boat doesn't stop. The ride operator is laughing too. Oh no, not again. Ethan Price, who was sitting next to me tried to jump out of the moving boat but got pushed back in as the it continued on back into the dark tunnel. We ended up going through the ride FIVE times.

I still can't get the music out of my head. I've found myself singing it my head sometimes as I sit on the bench waiting for my next shift. Maybe I'll request that it becomes my goal song.

"It's a small world after all."

juke · 01-31-2020, 07:09 PM

Training camp was quite the experience this year. The vets on the team were really welcoming to the new guys, and there was only minimal hazing, so we were all heading into camp feeling at home and with confidence at an all time high. Steve fit right in so well he even ended up with an ‘A’ slapped on his jersey by the time camp was done. But no one, on our team or any other in the league, came into camp with as much confidence as Andrei.

From the minute he entered the locker room he made his demands known to coach. “Play me 1st line…put me on line with all passers…where’s Sergei?” were all common things to overhear him saying, as well as an explicit reluctance to practice his defense. But I think the best summary of Andrei was how much he loved the hitting drills. After all, other than scoring, checking was the thing he loved to do most.

The defensemen had to practice our breakout passes under heavy forechecking pressure, and I hadn’t seen Andrei skate that hard in camp up until that point. Every iteration of the drill he would fly down the ice, and as he crushed you into the boards (a half second too late I might add), he would gently whisper "Sergei" as he made contact.

The dude is a nut job. But in a good way. The best way. And despite the fact that he may have pooped in Steve’s pants, I’m still glad he’s on our team and not lined up against us as we make our way into the season.

Lyezech · 02-01-2020, 04:33 AM

ml002 · 02-01-2020, 05:10 AM

Axel had spent all his life in Europe honing his skills so the transition to the Midwest of the United States has been a big shift for him considering his still uneasy English and the jokers on the Scarecrows really have been taking advantage of it. In his first day of practice, his teammates managed to convince him that forechecking is called "getting balls deep" for the North American hockey players, which caused some strange looks to come his way when the team hosted an open practice for the community. The other major prank pulled on him was when Mega and Blitz was saying that all rookies are assigned veterans to do chores for. He spent a lot of time doing laundry for a equipment manager to tell him later that he can go home now, but thanks for saving him a bunch of time getting that stuff done for him.

Credit to Copenhagen, Wasty, FlappyGiraffe, InciteHysteria, and caltroit_red_flames
[Image: MM4nqx6.png]

Finetales · 02-01-2020, 11:48 AM

Hiroshi Ohira - Colorado Raptors rookie RW

Training camp at Colorado was fun, eventful, hard work, enlightening...all the usual buzzwords you might expect. It was clear that my speed, skating, and puck handling were my best qualities, which was a surprise to no one. That my defensive play was poor was also a surprise to no one, so much of the camp was spent developing those skills. Me being a new guy meant I had no idea what the standard training regimens were, and some of the vets took advantage of that on one particular day. Sure, there were some dirty plays when the coaches were looking the other way - that I could handle, even though I was sure it wasn't standard practice to egregiously slew foot your own teammate! But the real kicker was the time I spent between the pipes trying partly to block shots, but mostly not die. The goalies sure got a kick out of my flailing around. I was helpfully informed afterwards that putting forwards in net was not, in fact, standard practice. Shocking, right?!

(175 words)

Jeremy Icecreams · 02-01-2020, 12:54 PM

Training with the Knights has been a great experience, I feel like I've become a better player in the past few weeks than I did in the past few years. So far, I've been focusing on becoming much more defensively responsible, but pretty soon I'll begin a strength training program. My problems with cardio are becoming much more apparent now, though, as it seems like I'm constantly gassed on the ice. I guess I'll keep trying to plug the holes in my game as they come up and hope for the best.

After about a week of training with the Knights, I walked in to an argument over whether or not the players should be allowed to urinate in the team showers. I added in "It's not that big of a deal, I've been peeing in the sink for the past week". As a result I now I have to put my gear on in the janitor closet.

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