Coach Kowalsky is pleased with what he has seen so far, and is beginning to see the organizational depth he'll get to work with in Binghamton. "It's probably the best I've seen in my time. Ray came in and wanted to get younger and faster. Paul Castron is a big advocate of skill and he's doing a good job with that." Those skills were put to the test on the final practice. The 33 prospects were divided into three teams, spending time with skills and development coach Pertti Hasanen to work on puck control and shooting accuracy.
Instagram from @amandacstein: #NJDevils skills practice at #NJDevCamp
Stick handling skills involved players weaving a puck around a long target in front and to their sides, without moving from a designated square. Shooting drills involved players shooting on a Shooter Tutor as a chance to show off their scoring abilities. "You really have lots of prospects and younger prospects. You see younger kids, with a lot of speed, compete, hockey sense and skills," said Coach Hynes. "Those are the things that we talked about when we got here that we want to infuse in our team at the NHL level, but also through our prospect development and that's what we've seen at this camp."
Instagram from @amandacstein: Round and round
Teamwork has been a common theme over the last few days at camp, and those particular skills were put to the test Friday afternoon at the Amazing Escape Room in Montclair. Divided into four teams of 10, the prospects and the coaching staff had 60 minutes to solve a series of challenges, locked away in a room. The only way out of the room was working together to find hidden clues and cracking codes. Prospect Joey Anderson was not only part of Team B that finished second, he also had controls of the New Jersey Devils Snapchat account for the process. Team A came out the winners, and finished in under the allotted 60 minutes. They were followed by Team B, and C, while Team D made it out with just under a minute left in the challenge.
Tweet from @NJDevils: Hockey smarts: ���Survival smarts: ���The #NJDevCamp prospects escaped the room! pic.twitter.com/sEUSVSbEaH
No player will make or break their career this week, it is a pretty simple recipe to be successful at a camp like this. Show up on time, and work hard. Coach Hynes knows this group got that message, "This group has been very fun to work with, and see work. One of the things we talked to them when they came in was competing and we want to have self-starters here. I would say collectively as a group they've had an excellent week." That excellent week has one more activity to go, which is Saturday's scrimmage in front of season ticket holders at the RWJBarnabas Health Hockey House at noon.
