The biggest learning curve for any new player in a new organization is getting the systems, reads and style of play down as quick as possible. As part of the revamped defensive look this year, the new faces on the blue line are working fast and furious to pick up Colliton's defensive schemes and responsibilities.
"It's two days in. We're putting it in piece by piece," the head coach said of the process. "We gave them some information before camp (too). You get to these scrimmages, you want them to have the structure so that it looks again like real hockey… There's still lots of work there, but I think the first two days we've been pretty happy with the pace and the quality of the habits."
"I've been getting video through email, through our online video stuff. They've been sending it out to all the players, so I've been taking a look at that every day. Trying to just get everything down," Seth Jones said on Friday. "A lot of it's just chemistry with the guys, too. Trying to figure out where your D partner is, how some forwards like to play, where they like the puck, things like that."
There's a lot of excitement surrounding the increased depth on defense and the additions of more experience like Jones and Jake McCabe.
"I think it will elevate us all as defenseman with these guys that have some experience," Connor Murphy said. "The more good players that you have, the more you're hopefully going to perform better, so we just need to bring it all together and have fun and try to come together as quickly as we can."
"The first group was much better today as far as the habits," Colliton said of the progress, "and we looked more like a hockey team out there."
