Prospect Camp a BLAST, GO NUCKS, ROAST THE DUCKS!

Good day to all. Fired up for the Nucks game tonight as it's as close to a must win without actually being one, down 2 games to 1. The Canucks need more traffic in front of Giguere. He has had it much too easy compared to Lunongo. Anyone watching has to agree with this one- Nucks need to be more physical! Roast those Ducks!

Canucks prayer- I've had this emailed to me about 15 times over the last week.

GO CANUCKS GO!


Our Father, who art in GM Place

Hockey be thy name.

Thy will be done, the cup be won

On ice, as well as in the stands.

Give us this day, our hockey sticks,

And forgive us our penalties,

As we forgive those who cross-check against us,

Lead us not into elimination,

But deliver us to victory.

In the name of the fans, Lord Stanley,

In the name of the Canucks, Amen

GO CANUCKS GO!

I had a blast coaching "Team Yellow" at the Bulldogs prospect camp. After getting BLOWN OUT in our first game we came back and had two solid wins to finish the mini-tourny at 2 and 1. So does that give me the coaching title of the weekend? I'm not sure what the other teams finished at. Don't worry, I won't be getting into coaching any time soon as I would be WAY over my head. I will say this though- I can see WHY those that coach love it. I stressed several things to my players- protect our goalies. work hard. be physical. The boys didn't really do ANY of that in game one. Our goalies were abused, we were a little lazy, we didn't hit much, and we didn't seem to care. Games 2 and 3 were a much different story. Right from the very beginning our goalies were bumped, and INSTANTLY my players reacted in turn to let the opposition KNOW that such treatment would not be allowed without response. And it make a big difference. Eddy Dyson and Jeff Carey played fantastic from this point on in net, and played a huge part in winning our two final games. We came together as a team, if that's possible in a span of two days and three games. The emotion came out in the guys and it was gratifying for me to see. It was just prospect camp, but I am very competitive and wanted to win. The players seemed to feed of that.

I was impressed with more than a few players on my team, and those throughout the camp. It's hard to tell what players would be Junior A players, but there was plenty of potential there.

A final thank you goes out to one of my goalies Jeff Carey. I got to work Monday morning to get a message on my voicemail saying "Hammer, I just wanted to call you to thank you for coaching us this weekend. I had a lot of fun, I appreciated you coaching us" Class act from a class kid in my books. Jeffy- if you are reading this- THANKS. It meant alot and I'm glad you had fun. It was funny in the dressing room in intermission in one of the two final games when Jeff said "I've never had a coach who stressed protecting the goalies, and the net so much" I said "I guess it takes a former goalie to know it's importance" Again- I think this was a mini turning point in our weekend. Our players stepped up from the first minute of the second game and sent the message of protecting the net and the goalies, and the goalies stepped up and played AMAZING.

I'll stick to broadcasting. It sure was fun though!

YELLOW FEVER!

Go Nucks, Believe in Blue, EH?

Hammer