OK, I lied: Notes from the Island

One of the people I’d been trading voicemails with was Scott Pellerin, and we finally caught up with each other Saturday afternoon*. Got to ask him about a few of the things I’d wondered from way afar. “Rookie camp went well,” he said. “I was very happy with the effort, the attention to detail of the players. After that, it’s been good to have an NHL camp. … They’re doing very well.”

Right-side D? He hasn’t gotten that far yet; he has thought about it, but he isn’t tipping his hand, in deference to the fact that some of those thought-about players could make the NHL. But there’s a quirk in the group: With 11 defensemen, there haven’t been set pairs, so guys have played with different guys, some on different sides. “That’s been a positive for me, to see the different combinations,” Pellerin said.

Persson-Sundstrom-Kabanov: “I’ve been very happy with the way they’ve been moving the puck and communicating,” Pellerin said. “It’s a dynamic group.” He’s liked all the units so far, he said, liked the execution. They’re a big group (29 men), they’re right after the first group: The ice isn’t always perfect, but they’ve handled that well, Pellerin said. “The guys have been communicating, playing the systems, doing things the right way,” Pellerin said.

Also, in taking notes, it struck me — nope, doesn’t take me long — that Strome-Nelson-Lee, if it’s together for any length, lends itself to some variety of “Live From New York” nickname. “Three Wild and Crazy Guys.” Bah. There’s time. We’ll work on it.

A couple of thoughts, at any rate. Hopefully we’ll have a chance to track them all down in about a week.

….

Completely unrelated: Awesome.

*-Yeah, that whole “laying low” thing; sorry I didn’t get it up until now. Back to that. At least with the delay I can note Arthur’s tweet that tomorrow’s preseason game in Calgary will stream on the Flames’ website.

Michael Fornabaio