Here is a report on the Camp from The Hoser. Things look good!

Habtastic


"ALSO in the news, the Habs hosted their rookie development camp this week. From what I've heard from guys who were there, there were a lot of VERY impressive guys. From what I've seen on the HFBoards, Carle and Fischer are both looking like very capable NHL blueliners in the very near future, whereas White and Maxwell (And Cepek, I guess) are looking very much like projects. Also, I've heard a lot of good about Matt D'Agnostini, who impressed people with his overall game, and Ryan O'Byrne, who's 6'5" 225 pounds and still as smooth a skater as you'll find for his age.

Latendresse was injured for most of the camp (Ankle pull or something), but he was playing the Day 6 scrimmage and was without a doubt the most dominant player. He had 3 goals and 2 assists, break away after break away, 'accidentally' leveled Fischer with a crushing hit, he was everyhwhere. He had a lot of chemistry with the also-impressive Mathiue Aubin.

Also impressive in the scrim was Sergei Kostitsyn, who wasn't so hot earlier on in the camp but showed his hockey sense and wrist shot very well in the 4-on-4 scrim. I heard one of the guys who was there say that he took a puck from center ice and wristed it into the top corner - and than did it again into the same corner. That's pretty scary, especially since big brother Andrei has a supposedly more dangerous one.

Another guy who looked good was Juraj Mikus, who scored a Forsbergian goal in the shootout, and displayed awesome hands and great speed all around the rink.

Guys like Chipchura and Korpikari and O'Byrne really didn't stand out that much in a scrim like this because it wasn't their kind of thing - not much physical contact, and no real defensive play or forechecking to speak of.

I hear Price was impressive, stopping a whole bunch of breakaways and letting in no sofites, but Lacasse looked very uncomfortable out there.

That's all I got for today!"

# posted by The Hoser