DAY 1: Saturday morning 8 a.m. departure to Winnipeg. I got there around 10 a.m. and got pick up by their player's development guy, who drove us around town. After a short drive he dropped us at the hotel for a few hours and picked us up later to go see the arena. We got a tour of the facilities, while making sure that all our equipment was set. We had dinner that night with all the staff and Paul Maurice (head coach) as well as Kevin Cheveldayoff (general manager) gave us a nice welcoming speech and told us what they were expecting for the camp. After that dinner, I was able to meet the guys I play against before they dropped us off at the hotel. We had the night for ourselves.
Day 2: The next morning we had breakfast at the rink and did physical examination and physical testing till noon. We had doctor's appointment, dentist, blood work, jumps, sprints, push-ups, 300 yard shuttle test, etc. This lasted all morning, before we got to eat a quick bite before moving to their Iceplex for our first skate. We got there and all our equipment was already prepared. We did a quick activation and got on the ice. During that practice I had the chance to work one-on-one with their AHL goalie coach, Rick St. Croix, for a full 20 minutes. Then I switch to the other ice for the regular practice. It was nice to finally touch the ice and get rid of the butterflies. It was also good to see to pace and speed of the players and make some quick adjustments. After the practice, we had a quick circuit workout for about an hour. We primarily worked on recovery for the on-ice tests the next day. The rest of the day was ours.
Day 3: The day started with breakfast at the hotel and warm up at the rink, before we had on-ice testing with both the goalies coaches (AHL and NHL- Wade Flaherty). Theses consisted of crease movements – one was about speed and the other one was about endurance. It was very hard. Once the testing was done, we did a few more goalie drills before leaving the ice. Right after the testing, we headed to the gym for a quick circuit workout and stretch. Then we had a nice conference on media and how to manage interviews and social media. The conference was very constructive and gave us incites on what to do and what not to do during interviews and how to manage social media. After the conference, we had a few hours to ourselves before heading to the De Lucas restaurant, where we learned some cooking tips. We watched the chef make some pasta and after, in teams of four, we had a contest to see who could make the best pasta sauce. It was a lot of fun and surprisingly our sauce was absolutely delicious.
Day 4: Today, we once again had breakfast at the hotel and then goalies got to work with the AHL goalie coach again. We stepped on the ice for an hour, working on angles and doing a couple goalie drills with shots. Then we had a conference on sleep management that was covering almost every aspect of sleep and the impacts of good and bad sleep on our performances. We also talked about time change, which was very interesting since we deal with it all the time as we travel from time zones to time zones during the season. After this conference, we had our pre-game meal, and headed to the hotel for a few hours before coming back around 6 p.m. for the game. It was like a regular season game, we got to the rink early did a team dynamic to warm ourselves up and then got dressed to step on the ice for warm-up. During that game, I played in the second period and got absolutely bombarded. I received 20+ shots in 20 minutes, but it was so much fun. The game was fast and really high tempo. Players were making good plays and taking good shots, while the goalies were making the saves. We won that game 6-5 in overtime on a breakaway goal. After the game we got to cool down and eat before heading to bed.
Day 5: The day started with breakfast and warm up as usual, but we got a surprise when we arrived to the rink. Instead of having an hour skate with the AHL coaching staff in groups, we were going to practice in one big group with the NHL staff. We were going to do the first practice that they run at the main camp. The goalies of my group and I started the first half off the practice and probably did the best one since we received a lot of shots. Then we switched to the other sheet of ice to work with the AHL goalie coach. We worked on playing the puck and controlling bad-angle shots. Then we came back to the main sheet of ice for the end of practice conditioning. After the high pace and very intense practice, we all worked out in one big group doing our individual workouts – that way their strength and conditioning coaches were able to look at our summer workouts and tell us what to improve and what to work on. After, we went back to the hotel, before leaving for dinner. Once dinner was over, we headed to a game called Enigma, where you are locked in a room and have to find clues to solve an enigma before time runs out. As educated college students, we figured out the puzzle before the end and even got the third-best time. It was actually very fun to try to solve clues and work as a team towards the same goal. After that we went back to the hotel.
Day 6: We had a game in the morning where we played 4-on-4 for two periods and 3-on-3 for the last 10 minutes. I played half of the 4-on-4 and the entire 3-on-3 period and it went very well. Overall I am very satisfied with the way camp went performance wise. I got scored on a couple times but they were all goals that I couldn't do much on, and I made very good saves while moving well and being well positioned. After that last ice period we had our last workout – a little circuit workout – nothing too hard, focusing on recovery. Then we had a few hours to ourselves to go to the mall and walk around a little bit, getting to know the city. At night, they picked us up to go to Blink 182's concert with Simple Plan opening. We watched the concert in the team press box and had dinner there. It was an amazing night. They dropped us at the hotel for the night.
Day 7: We got on the plane and came back home.
To conclude, it was an amazing experience. You get to live and feel what it's like to be in the NHL and you realize that you are very close, while being so far away. It helps you analyse your game and what you need to work on to become a better player and maybe, one day, play with the best. Going to a camp like this, you realize that the smallest detail can make a huge difference and that the way you approach the game and the way you prepare off the ice is as important as the way your perform on the ice. The week was an eye opener on what my strengths really are and what I need to spend time improving this upcoming year. It really got me excited for this season to become a better goalie and help my team win more games.
