The club’s returning veterans and rookies took to the ice Sunday at Prospera Place for Day 2 of Kelowna Rockets’ main training camp.
After going through the standard pre-camp testing on Saturday, veteran forward Tomas Soustal said it’s good to be on back on the ice and into the swing of a new season.
“Camp’s going really good,” said Rockets’ forward Tomas Soustal, 20. “I’ve played two scrimmages and practiced once so far. I was a little tired from the 5 K run and all the testing but other than that it’s good so far.
“The legs are definitely feeling better than yesterday from the testing though so we’re making progress there.”
Rockets veterans like Soustal get a chance to play with the younger talents in the first portion of main camp before they are returned to their respective midget camps. Soustal says he enjoyed skating with the kids.
“I think the new guys look pretty good. I got a chance to play with a bunch of new guys throughout the scrimmages so far and they definitely have potential and it’s been a lot of fun playing with those guys,” Soustal said. “Now in the afternoon we get to fine tune it and get a little more speed and a little more power to it.”
What Soustal is referring to when talking about adding speed and power is that following the morning skates this morning the main camp rosters were trimmed down. Kelowna sent the bantam draft picks from the most recent draft back to their clubs after seeing what they had to offer for a couple of days. The camp will now move forward with two teams.
For a couple of Rockets, main camp is a great form of putting players into game shape for upcoming NHL camps. Devante Stephens is one of those players, as he’ll be heading to the Buffalo Sabres camp on Sept. 4.
“Off-ice and on-ice training are a lot different, it’s tough to get into game shape but this really helps get you there,” Stephens told. “This will be my third time at Buffalo’s camp now and it’s a bit more exciting and there’s more on the line for me since I’m 20, so I just have to make sure I prove that I’m at the level that I’m supposed to be at.”
Main camp runs until Thursday.
The Rockets takes the ice as a team for the first time on Saturday, Sept. 2 when they host the Victoria Royals at Prospera Place at 7:05 p.m.