It wasn’t the prettiest hockey action Airdrie Thunder fans will see this season, but if the team has any success in the Heritage Junior Hockey League during 2011/12, this is where the blueprint will have started.
The Thunder’s annual three-on-three conditioning tournament took place at the Ron Ebbesen Arena, Aug. 13-14, with 42 eligible players filling spots on six teams.
Frank McEvoy, the Thunder’s general manager and president, said he was expecting a larger turnout, although what he saw was still inspiring for the upcoming season.
“We only had about seven or eight junior guys here, but we had a lot of midget AA’s here and I’m very impressed with them,” he said.
“Some of these guys are going to make our team this year. We’ve seen some good goaltenders here today, but it’s really hard to identify defencemen at this level, in this type of an environment here, because there is no defence here. It’s run and gun, but the skill level is there and the skating level is there.”
McEvoy also confirmed that head coach Art Krusel would be back for this season, with assistants Gareth Barley and Tim Sullivan.
“Art has coached for me for five years, so I know exactly what he brings to the table – consistency,” McEvoy said.
“Not only is he a great coach, he’s a really good teacher of the game. He likes a tough style of hockey player. Art can really identify why a player does a certain thing and he really makes the players accountable for what’s going on.”
The GM, who is back for his 34th year of hockey in Airdrie, was slightly concerned about a series of no-show players for the conditioning camp.
“We have close to 20 eligible to come back, so I don’t know if that’s a message that they’re not interested in coming back, or that they are, but some of them haven’t returned our phone calls,” McEvoy said.
“(Last year’s players who were there) are in pretty good shape and they are ready to go.”
McEvoy said the level of conditioning was below where it should be at this time of year, but expected it with the August date.
He hopes it will improve when Thunder training camp opens on Sept. 2.
“Yeah, it’s August. Some of players here are going to need to have a couple of skates before our main tryouts start on Sept. 2,” he said.
“Three-on-three does the conditioning thing, but it also identifies the guys who know the game of hockey. We’ll have quite a list of players and I expect at least 40 at our camp and I’ve also been recruiting a few players.”
