Quick Hits: 5 Things To Know Ahead Of Training Camp
Bill Vilona, Ice Flyers Correspondent
The Ice Flyers begin a new era this weekend with the start of training camp and Gary Graham as new head coach, 10 years after he led the team to its first SPHL title.
It was Graham’s only season behind the Ice Flyers bench, Pensacola’s first hockey championship and the cities first professional sports title.
With Graham back behind the bench and players reporting to training camp on Saturday, here’s 5 things to know as the season quickly approaches.
pLAYERS WILL BEGIN TO REPORT ON saturday with Training Camp officially starting on Monday
The players will start arriving on Saturday and everyone on the Ice Flyers training camp roster will be in Pensacola by Sunday night for physicals. Monday will be an off-ice workout on the holiday (Columbus Day). On-ice practices will be conducted Tuesday (Oct. 10) through Thursday (Oct. 12) at the Pensacola Bay Center beginning at 10:00 a.m. The schedule is for a 40-minute first session, then the ice surface will be reworked to smooth choppiness and then another half-hour of practice will conclude each of the three days.
PRACTICES WILL BE OPEN TO THE PUBLIC WITH AN EXHIBITION GAME ON oCTOBER 13
Practices at the Pensacola Bay Center will be open for fans to attend at no charge. The exhibition game on Friday, October 13 against the Birmingham Bulls will be at 7 p.m. with a $5 general admission charge for open seating. The two teams will then play their season-opener on October 21 at the Pensacola Bay Center.
The Ice Flyers are one of only two SPHL teams hosting a preseason game against a league opponent. The Huntsville Havoc are playing the Peoria Rivermen in the brand new F&M Bank Arena, a 6,000 seat arena in Clarksville, Tennessee, located 44 miles from Nashville and a potential minor league hockey market.
FYI, this is the 20th anniversary season of the SPHL with a commemorative logo and a new web stream video contract with FloSports. In September, FloSports announced a 4-year deal to show all 280 regular-season SPHL games and playoffs.
Over 20 PLAYERS WILL BE REPORTING TO TRAINING CAMP
Graham is expecting 12 forwards, 8 defensemen, and either two or three goaltenders. Returning team captain Garrett Milan will be the veteran leader.
In addition, 8 players the Ice Flyers signed this summer are in ECHL training camps, which opened Friday across all ECHL teams. When cuts are made and players become available, the Ice Flyers roster will change. It is always a very fluid roster before the season-opener. Right now, the Ice Flyers have rights to 30 players.
Graham likes the goaltenders he has signed, plus Brad Arvanitis, who shined last year and has a development contract with the New York Rangers as well as being in ECHL Camp. He could be back with the Ice Flyers depending on roster numbers and how everything evolves in his high-level training camps.
Also noteworthy, Graham has opted to not have an assistant coach, so he will stay busy running all the drills.
Fans will see a new style of play in pensacola
Look for a faster, more pressing offensive approach from the start of scrimmage play. Graham has mentioned he wants his defensemen to be more offensive oriented as well.
“I think we have an opportunity to play a little faster with this group,” Graham said. “I think we are going to try and do this early on and see how it goes. More physical, too, for sure. I don’t think we possessed the puck enough last year. We had a lot of skill guys but we didn’t have the pucks on our sticks enough.
“Look for us to be more of a puck possession team. We have a lot of returning guys, and I did the film work on these guys and I talked to a lot of them, too, and they are ready to play a more up-temp, faster, aggressive style.”
gRAHAM WANTS HIS PLAYERS CLOSE
The players will stay in rental properties, as in past seasons, but Graham wants them closer together and closer to the Pensacola Bay Center.
“We are going to do a lot of team building exercises off the ice,” he said. “That is a big thing I like to do with my teams. Because to me, the teams that win on the ice, are also the ones that do things together off the ice.
“We have a lot of guys coming back that are hungry and very motivated. They are guys who are not happy with the way the season went last year, and so they are coming into training camp with a chip on their shoulder. They understand what we expect here with the culture and how we want them to play.”
