kelles

I'm finally going to do a real post on the Flyers Prospect Camp. And I need to write my first blog post about it too. I might wait till tomorrow for that since I'm going to camp again. I finally got the pictures uploaded to both Google so I can spam them on here but I also have them up on Facebook if you have me friended. Facebook is So much easier. I suppose I could just post the link to my photoalbum on Picassa but what fun is that? My period totally kicked my ass this week :( The cramps just about killed me. And I was so tired. About the only thing I've done since Wed is come home, cook dinner for my kids, and sleep. No much fun at all :(

Last night I totally freaked out but in a totally good way. I was playing on Twitter and one of the Philly bloggers I follow had reply to Ray Emery!!! So you know I had to follow him too. He looked for real and he has replies to Claude Giroux!!! I've been trying to get added to Claude's facebook so I could stalk him but in a non-threatening way for few months now so seeing Claude on Twitter made me WAY too happy. I am 99.9% sure Claude's is the real him. Because honestly? It's too boring to be a fake account. He's so damn adorable, he apologizes for being boring. <3 I swear it makes me love him so much. If you want to follow them it is RayEmery29 & CGiroux28. I swear knowing that Ray is telling Claude who to add in Twitter makes me want to write some oh so wrong but smoking hot Claude/Ray slash. Maybe someday. I'll add it to the list.


I went to my first Prospect Camp ever last Wedsnday with my daughter. It was great seeing so many of the guys I watched last year. Almost all my favourite Phantoms were there: Pat Maroon, Jon "can't wear his helmet" Matsumoto, Matt Clackson, Andreas Nodl, and Jon Kalinski were there along with Mike Ratchuk, Josh Beaulieu, Rob Bellamy, Garrett Klotz, David Laliberte, Michael-Lee Teslak (who was a Phantom last season when J-S Aubin was hurt) and of course the most hyped prospect JVR ( James van Riemsdy). Can you tell I'm not all that excited about him? I don't even know why!  I just don't like the top draft picks. It is not logical at all. But, I really don't like John Tavares, Sidney Crosby, and I really, really don't like JVR. Okay, so maybe Sid doesn't count. I like Patrick Kane but he is just SO dorky, how can you not like him? But, I really don't like JVR and as a Flyers fan I should be totally excited about him playing. I think part of it is that he didn't listen to Holmgren who told him to play in juniors and until this summer acted like he wasn't even sure he wanted to play in the NHL. I can understand him wanting to stay in school but he was the 2nd overall pick how can you not be dying to play in the NHL? The other guys picked the same year as him? Patrick Kane. I don't even have to say anything about him. Kyle Turris, Sam Gagner, Jakub Voracek.... All of those guys have played in the NHL. But, my favourite guys are the ones who make and were never supposed to. I know I talk a lot about Claude but he went undrafted by the OHL and QMJHL. Nobody wanted him. Because he was small? Pft, I think the OHL is looking pretty damn stupid now. Claude played better last year than a lot of his teammates from the WJC who were drafted ahead of him. He was a steal at 22. Okay. I'll shut up about him now. Then, there is Nicola Riopel. He was undrafted by the NHL the last two years but busted his ass and got better each year. Last year he was voted the player of the year in the QMJHL and won another award for lowest GAA. And my favourite Phantom Pat Maroon. A lot of scouts and coaches told him he wouldn't make it because he was too slow, out of shape, and fat. Two scouts from St. Louis worked with him because they saw something there. He lost weight, got in shape, and worked hard. He played a year in juniors with the London Knights unlike JVR and got real good. I watched him play a lot of games last year and he's impressed me a lot. He is HUGE, but has as the experts say, "great hands." That sounds so dirty. haha. Okay. I'll shut up now.

The best part of prospect camp was getting a chance to see the guys who were just drafted and the ones I never got a chance to see play.

A few thoughts?

Nicola Riopel. I was wrong. He shut out the "black" team during the scrimmage. He was as amazing as I thought he would be. Even though I'm sad about losing Scott Munroe and J-S Aubin this year (and possibly Ross, Syrvet, and Kane). I have a lot of hopes he'll make the Phantoms. He is a lot like Carey Price but in a good way :) I also love his mask. Wildcats! Rawr :D


Kevin Marshall. I love this kid a lot. I'm real excited about getting to see him play a few games when the Phantoms are in Scranton or Hershey. There is also talk he could make the Flyers as the 7th d-man. I think it will him or Ratchuk (unless Danny Syrvet resigns). Kevin is a shut-down d-man but can score too! Think Luca Sbisa but meaner. There was an interesting article on how he spent all of the off season training with Ian Laperriere. Hmm, and they could end up on the same team? No, I'm not going to write it. He's had an impressive camp so far, scored 2 goals during the scrimmage.

Pat Maroon. He looked great out on the ice so far. He trimmed down even more since last year and is skating better. He is impressing a lot of people at camp and that makes me so happy. With Knuble gone, he could make the team on the 3rd or 4th line. I would LOVE to see him steal JVR's spot.  I know I'm a bad Flyers fan.

Another thing I notice, with a few exceptions (Marc-Andre Bourdon & Kevin Marshall) the Phantoms guys played a lot harder than the college & juniors guys. You can tell they are really trying to make the Flyers. They were hitting hard for just a scrimmage. No fights my first day :( but I'm hoping for one tomorrow.


We took heaps of pictures.  About 1/3 were taken with Melissa's awesome Fuji camera that I got her for her b-day.  Most of  those pics came out amazing.  The rest were with the old camera but came out okay.  There are a whole lot of pics under the cut but I didn't even include all of them.  If you want to see the rest you can see them here.


( too many pictures :D )

Okay. I think I've spent all afternoon writing this post and the HTML code.  I really should be writing fic. Or reading.