Prepping for camp

From The Daily News of Thurdsay, Aug. 16, 2007:
If there is to be a theme to the Kamloops Blazers’ training camp, it sounds
as though it will have to do with “sense of purpose.”
Dean Clark, the WHL team’s general manager and head coach, said Tuesday that
fans should be excited to get a look at young talent like forwards Jimmy
Bubnick and Shayne Wiebe and defenceman Mark Schneider.
As well, Clark said, “Hopefully, fans will notice the sense of purpose with
our veterans. I think that will be very evident.”
Veteran defenceman Ryan Bender, Clark said, already is wearing his game
face.
The three-day rookie camp opens Aug. 23 at the Interior Savings Centre.
However, main camp, which starts Aug. 26, will be held at Memorial Arena
with The ATM occupied by INXS.
The Blazers’ Blue-White game will be played in The ATM on Aug. 29, 7 p.m.
The Blazers are coming off a winter in which they went 40-26-4-2, the first
time they have won 40 regular-season games since 1998-99. However, a season
of promise fizzled when they lost a first-round playoff series to the Prince
George Cougars, losing four one-goal games, three of them in overtime.
The goal this season, as it always is, will be to improve.
“I don’t know if we put any pressure on ourselves,” Clark explained. “We
want to get better and that is something that we’ve already talked about
with some of the guys who are here.
“We already have 12 guys here and they are here with a little bit of a
mission.”
The pressure isn’t any different, Clark said, than any other season.
“Pressure? We want to be as successful as we can be every season,” he said.
“That pressure is always there. I don’t see it as pressure. I see it as us
going out and achieving really good things.
“We had a pretty good regular season and we expect that again. Where we need
to get better is in the postseason and we know that . . .”
While much of the hockey community has been abuzz about the Blazers’ off-ice
situation, it has been business as usual for Clark and his staff as they put
together training camp.
“As far as training camp, it’s been fine; we just march ahead,” Clark said.
“The hardest thing for us has been ticket sales and that type of stuff
because everyone is sitting back and waiting to see what’s going to happen.
Once (River City Hockey Inc.) delivered their letter on July 18 — bang! —
there’s been nothing going on.”
Clark said he spoke with management at Radio NL, which carries Blazers
regular-season and playoff games.
“Things were going really well to that point, too,” he said, referring to ad
sales. “But nothing’s happened since then.”
Of particular interest during training camp will be the 20-year-old
situation. When main camp opens Aug. 26, five veterans — goaltender Dustin
Butler, defencemen Ryan White and Bender, and forwards Brady Mason and Brock
Nixon — will be competing for three spots.
“It will play itself out,” Clark said. “The five guys deserve to be here.
They have worked very hard for the organization and it will play out the way
it’s going to play out.”
Going into camp, Butler and James Priestner, 16, are one-two on the
goaltending depth chart.
Clark is waiting to hear from Jason Sands, an Ontarian who is a product of
the California Wave bantam AAA team and was in the Blazers’ camp two years
ago. Sands, 18, backed up a bit with Kelowna when the Rockets ran into
injury trouble late last season.
“He is in Ontario,” Clark said, “but said he was going to go to college in
Kelowna. I suggested he come to Kamloops, try to make our hockey team and go
to school here.
“He’s a smaller guy but he was good in our camp two years ago.”
On defence, one newcomer who has a shot at cracking the lineup is Darcy
Huisman, 18, of Smithers. He spent last season with the BCHL’s Prince George
Spruce Kings, the runners-up at the Royal Bank Cup, the Canadian junior A
championship.
“He’s got some ability,” Clark said. “He plays with his head up and makes
good decisions. He’d be an Aaron Keller-type player.”
Clark is especially looking forward to this camp because his staff —
including assistants Shayne Zulyniak and Andrew Milne, and trainer Colin
Robinson — has been a unit for one year and the 40 victories from last
season show that they did have some success, something that makes teaching
that much easier.
“It’s better for everybody involved, knowing that we’ve been through a camp
together,” Clark said. “Going ahead with this one and knowing where we have
to get to, it’s a lot easier. We know the direction we’re going, we know the
page we’re on and that makes it easier for the players and it makes it easer
for us to take care of business.”
Clark also said that there will be renewed focus on the defensive side of
the game.
“We wanted to go out last season and be a more offensive team and be more
entertaining, and we feel we did that,” he said. “But we still gave up a lot
of goals and if you’re going to win you have to be able to defend. That has
to be a focus for us.”
JUST NOTES: The Blazers will open with about 80 players in their rookie
camp. When they open main camp, they’ll have about 60 bodies on hand. . . .
They leave for Edmonton on Aug. 31 where they will take part in the Oil
Kings’ preseason tournament which is to be played at the Servus Credit Union
Place in St. Albert. The Blazers’ open against the Regina Pats on Sept. 1.