Thoughts and observations from Sunday morning's first session featuring team A.

With the focus positioning and transition it was an ice time where a player would relish not standing out, as opposed to making a name for himself. To be just one of the guys is to be in the right place at the right time and doing the right thing.

With that there were some players that managed to stand out for both good and bad reasons.

Notables:

The Big Line - My first crack at the reunited MCI line with Jarome Iginla, Craig Conroy and Dean McAmmond. Their red coloured jerseys weren't the only thing that caught one's attention. They all speed, they all had a nose for the net and they did appear to have chemistry as a line. Provided a great benchmark for the rest of the forwards, of which very few were big roster players (Reinprecht, Saprykin, Kobasew, Yelle, etc all in session B).

Jesse Wallin - a very competent defenceman that sometimes got himself in trouble by over committing on some drills and getting himself out of position. For the most part he did a fine job of matching skills against the other 7th defenceman candidate of the session, Steve Montador.

Dion Phaneuf - there are two immediate truths when one takes a look at Dion Phaneuf. 1) He's going to be a player 2) He's going back to Red Deer this fall. Rough around the edges but already looking pretty comparable to lower roster Pro defencemen, I was struck by how big he is. Listed at 6'2" on the guide, he looked bigger than his defence partner Rhett Warrener (also listed at 6'2"). 

Krzyzstof Oliwa - Pretty much as advertised. Very big, not very skilled, and not very fast. He does have a whale of a shot though I wonder if he as the other skills to get himself in position to use it.

Robert Dome - Sadly he just didn't stand out. He didn't look bad, but he didn't step up either. Part of the problem early was the fact that he had on Matt Davidson's jersey, leading me to believe that Davidsion was in trouble to make the team.

Blair Betts - one of the soundest young players on the ice. He didn't stand out with the puck as much as he dazzled without it by understanding his position and picking up his check on defensive drills. He appeared to have some good chemistry with the real Matt Davidson.

Matt Davidson - good size, great speed, and a clear tenacity on the forecheck. Worked with Betts on a line and the two appeared suited.

Ryan Donally - A very big man, rivaled Oliwa in size. He'll have to do more than grow however to take that next step. Below average wheels and hands.

Other Notes:

The first thing that stood out to me were the number of track suites on the ice - a count of six this season, almost double what you traditionally see. Sutter, Playfair, Rich Preston, Rob Cookson, Jamie Hislop, and David Marcoux.

Marcoux spent a lot of the 90 minute session working with and talking to Roman Turek, often pulling the big goalie aside from the group to work on specific skills. Turek looked sharp.

Some very unique drills under the tutelage of Darryl Sutter, and Jim Playfair (the mastermind behind many of them if I judged correctly).

At one point Playfair had all the blueliners dressed in black taking part in a stickhandling drill around one of the nets. Each player would take the puck beside one post work their way around to the other post, pass the puck out to the slot, receive it back and then stick handle back around to the other side and then do it again. It really separated the men from the boys.

NHL level defencemen like Robin Regehr and Rhett Warrener were seamless in their ability to move their feet and hands around the net, while younger players like Rail Rozakov and Phaneuf were constantly looking down. One standout in this drill was Steve Montador.

Another interesting defenseman drill was set to simulate a point man moving the puck around a defender tight to the blueline then firing on net. Playfair tossed two gloves on the ice, each only 8 inches from the blueline and two to three feet apart. Each defenceman had to take the puck along the line, beat the glove and fire, then go back the other way and fire again.

Once again the upper end pros stood out, but so to did Jesse Wallin and Phaneuf.