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National Hockey League training camps have been underway for a week and exhibition games are now in full swing. Thank goodness the sports shows up here in Canada now have some real content to broadcast every day. By that, I mean highlights and actual games.
As someone who has been around the block a few times in this game, I get bored of everyone -- including people within the game -- talking endlessly about the potential all these young players showed in rookie camp practices. Discussing hypothetical line combinations and players who could be on the trading block months later also gets a little tiresome.
I have always welcomed the start of exhibition games, both as an NHL player and later as simply a fan. Before long, though, I'm ready for the real games -- the ones that count in the standings, with full NHL lineups -- to get going.
Last week, I talked about the way training camps have changed over the years. For the fun of it, I pulled out my Atlanta Flames training camp letter from 1979. We actually had it easier than
Jim Pappin and the 1962-63 Toronto Maple Leafs.
August 18, 1979
Dear Brad:
We are all looking forward to training camp, which starts here in Atlanta on Saturday, September 16. It is in your best interest to report in the best possible condition so as to demonstrate your early capabilities to our new coach, Al MacNeil.
Our headquarters this year will again be the RAMADA INN at I-75 and Dobbins Air Force Base exit in Marietta, Georgia.
All veteran players have the option of staying at the Ramada Inn or to remain at home. You must advise David Poile before September 10 as to your intentions in this regard. All other players should report to the hotel by 8:00 PM on Friday, September 15.
Players not domiciled in Atlanta have the option of driving their automobile to camp or flying. You may prefer to drive as there will be no time to return home prior to the start of the season. Whichever method you choose, we are responsible for your one-way airfare or the cash equivalent. You will be reimbursed upon your arrival.
If you decide to fly, on arrival to Atlanta airport you are requested to take the Northside Airport Express Bus to their terminal at the I-75 Windy Hill Road exit. On arrival there, telephone the Ramada Inn and tell them you are with the Flames. They will pick you up and transport you to the Inn. We will not be responsible for any taxi fares from the airport to the hotel.
Enclosed, please find a training camp itinerary, N.H.L. schedule and pre-season schedule. Also please bring some type of track or running shoe for calisthenics.
I look forward to seeing you at training camp.
Yours Truly,
Cliff Fletcher
Looking back that that letter, I chuckle about the calisthenics part. I also still have the camp itinerary the Flames enclosed.
That year, training camp lasted 26 days. During those 26 days, we played 10 exhibition games. In the itinerary, there was no mention of any scheduled dry land training or team calisthenics. I am not sure if I ever got to use my freebie pair of BAUER running shoes!
I think we can all agree that training camps have changed over the years. I’m not sure why they continue to call them “training camps” because every athlete trains 12 months a year now and they are in top shape when they arrive at camp.
The modern day training camp is basically a “practice” camp. They practice all the time. They practice special teams, breakouts, systems; it’s business right from the get go. I’m not insinuating that this wrong but I point it out simply because it is another example of how training camps have changed over the years.
The idea of training camp is still the same: players battling or competing for jobs and ice time. But how they go about battling and competing that has changed. And boy how has it changed! One of the drills that they always do at “practice camp” is simulated battle drills.
It was not that long ago that the coach didn’t care if you could protect the puck in a simulated environment. He just wanted to know if you had the guts to go into the corner and get the puck!
Training camps from past years were tough and very competitive. What we lacked in off-ice training and conditioning, was made up for in the competition that took place on the ice and even off the ice.
It was not uncommon back in the 1970s, for example, for players competing for an enforcer job on the team to square off a time or two in intra-squad games and then under the stands afterward or even back at the hotel to establish who was truly the toughest guy at camp. It was rarely personal. That's just the nature of they competed. Survival of the fittest.
For the first few days of camp, there was no practicing – just intra-squad games. These intra-quad games raised the definition of “competing for jobs” to a whole new level!
The training camp roster was divided into 4 teams and for a lot of players they looked at the team lists in a much different way than you would imagine. They were not looking at who they were paired with but rather what team where the tough guys were assigned.
The intra-squad games were fast paced, action packed and very competitive! Yes there were fights – a lot of them, and not just among the enforcers. There were some big hits; in fact most of the games were very physical.
But the most noticeable thing about these games was the competitiveness, it was everywhere. You competed everywhere on the ice - in front of the net, you battled in the corners, at the blue lines and you battled along the boards. As I said before, some of the tough guys even battled off the ice.
As a defenseman, there was no way I was going to let a forward stand in front of the net. I knew I was expected to clear him out -- and by any means necessary! In the meantime, the forward battled just as hard to stay there.
Here is the scenario I found myself in at my first training camp in Atlanta: Two of the veteran forwards on the team were Ken Houston and Willi Plett. These guys could play but they were also two of the toughest guys in the league! Both of them were right wingers and not on my intrasquad team. I was a left defenseman, so that meant that I would face them all the time.
Do you think that it was an accident that we were on opposite teams? Of course not. The coaches wanted to see how I played against them, and knew they weren't going to let up because I was a first-round Draft pick. If anything, they were all the more determined to test the rookie at his first camp.
What do you think the GM, coaches and scouts were watching for at camp? They weren't watching me for my skating and my breakout passes. They wanted first and foremost to see how I did when one of these big guys crashed the front of the net. I had reputation of being a big strong, tough defenseman, so I knew before I even stepped on the ice that my new teammates Ken and Willi were going to see what I would do.
Everyone was watching -- both the “brass” and my new teammates -- to see how I would compete. I don’t think that anyone at that camp gave a rat’s ass about my positioning, whether my head was on a swivel or if my skates were pointing up ice. I know for damn sure they weren't up there debating hockey analytics because the only thing they wanted to analyze was what they could plainly see with their own eyes.
The Flames cared about was whether or not I competed against Plett and Houston. No more and no less. Did I meekly give them space after they jostled me? Did look them in the eye and stand my ground? Did I get pushed around or hold my own?
It was a scary time, a nerve wracking time for me because it did not stop. It was shift after shift, day after day, game after game. The competition factor never let up.
The wrap meetings amongst the hockey brass at the end of past training camps were much, much shorter than today's. The conversation was simple. The two questions asked were, “Can he play?” and “Does he have guts?”
If the answer was negative, someone would invariably combine those same two questions into a seven-wprd statement “Chicken, can’t play. Get rid of him," and that basically would be the end of the discussion. If a player cannot compete -- regardless of his skill level -- he cannot play successfully in the NHL.
I am sorry if that is not PC nowadays, but it's still true: Unless someone competes day in and day out, all the dipsy doodling in the world and fancy charts to show how much "better he makes his linemates" become worthless when the chips are down. This thought process, I think, is over looked far too often nowadays at all levels. In today's hockey, so-called “skilled” players are given far too many opportunities to make it, whether or not they’ve proved they are a competitor.
Anyhow I passed the test. I was accepted not only by the coaches and management but my new teammates as well. I made the team and after my second season I was named captain. I really think that being named captain had a lot to do with those first few intrasquad games where I competed and I competed hard and I earned the respect of the organization.
I had won the battles within the battles.
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