HOCKEY IS BACK!!!
Today was exciting seeing training camp take place. My camera broke and is being repaired but, thankfully I have good friends like Paul Mocey-Hanton. He let me take out his D300 so I could get some photos. Be sure to look him up. He’s a great photographer!
It was great seeing potential lines forming. It seemed like the Brown-Moller-Purcell line had a lot of chemistry. The Frolov-Handzus-Simmonds line looked just as energetic and aware of each other’s movement on the ice. I had to leave before I got a look at the group with Smyth-Kopitar-Williams. If those are the three top lines and they mesh as well as what I got a glimpse of then I think the Kings will be in good shape this year.
Ersberg and Zatkoff seemed to be battling hard for a spot on the team. Bernier, the most promising prospect the Kings have in net, didn’t seem ready today. He continuously got caught out of position and allowed his disappointment in himself get the better of him. He showed some great flares of awesomeness. However, they were far and few between. He barely challenged the shooters and it looked as though he was over thinking everything. I hope it is just something he sleeps off. I didn’t get to see Quick either. He was in the last group.
Watching Moller and Purcell was the most fun to me. The two of them were battling hard on the ice and showed a lot of passion. Purcell was hitting the back of the net a lot more often than I remember last year.
Actually, the most fun was watching Greene, Frolov, Moller, Brown, and Purcell show some personality and joy on the ice. They each had some really fun moments joking with each other. Watching Greene react to scoring a goal was well worth going down to Toyota Center today. Haha, I hope I get to see some more outbursts of excitement like that while I’m at games this season.
I’m heading out to the pre-season game tomorrow night against the Coyotes. I’ll be sure to update this post with more thoughts on how the Kings are looking going into the 09-10 season.
Enjoy the photos.
