The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Opening day of the Flin Flon Bombers' Main Camp wasn't an outstanding day, but the players made up for it the following day. Starting things off over the first weekend in September, the Whitney Forum housed the hopeful Maroon and White players. The first day didn't leave head coach and GM Mike Reagan disappointed, but it didn't leave him thrilled either. "For the first day, I think it was ok," he said. During the Main Camp, players participated in practices as well as four-on-four games and five-on-five games. The final game of the first day was "lacking the intensity" that Reagan had hoped to see. "I'm hoping it's because we plated four-on-four hockey, where it's more about skill level at that point. Because there is a lot of open ice, you're going to see the guy's skill level. "I think that's why we did it...to be able to see...the skill level of some guys," said Reagan. The second day of Main camp had the Bombers playing the five-on-five portion of the weekend. Before the day got started, Reagan said he was hoping the games were going to lead to more physical play. Reagan was looking to see what "type of grit guys have." He said he was going to be looking at who is winning one-on-one battles. Being physical and winning those battles often leads to those players fighting. Though the coach doesn't encourage the fighting aspect in camp, he says it is a part of the game. "I tell them that at some point (they're) going to have to drop the mitts. It's better to get it out over with now then have it sitting in the back of (their) mind and worrying about it," said Reagan. He says along with proving themselves to the coaching staff, the players are proving to themselves what they can accomplish. Being physical left a few players with injuries through the camp. Reagan says sometimes it's the little things like the players not stretching long enough that injures them. It's a common occurrence, he said. "Every year you have two, three or four guys who go down with groin injuries and stuff like that," he said. Early in the Main Camp, the Bombers had a player with a broken tooth from a fight as well as another player who with a possible broken hand from a fight. Being down a few in numbers, the coaching staff was forced to change the format of a few games. Players fighting and getting hurt, said Reagan, reflects the emotion of the game. "We definitely don't go in there and say 'we want you to fight this guy,'" said Reagan. "We want...fights to start because of emotion. It's the emotional part of the game," he said. "I want to see who's passionate and that sort of thing." Reagan says he sees passion in a number of the young players. "There's no question the guys that we recruited play with some passion," said the coach. Looking down the bench, Reagan says the players who don't play with the intensity and passion will weed themselves out soon enough. "I've said this year that guys won't play for me if they aren't passionate about the game," said Reagan. The former Bomber himself says he's looking for "guys who are going to go out and compete every night." Of the players the Bomber organization has recruited, Reagan says he's happy. "They play the game hard," he said. Between the first and second day, Reagan said he was pleased with the goaltending situation. "They've been low-scoring games, which is surprising for four-on-four hockey," he said. All in all, Reagan said he was pleased with this year's Main Camp. "Overall, I think the intensity picked up and it was nice to see a few guys drop the mitts," he said. "Overall, I think we saw what we needed to see." The final day of Main Camp had the Bombers play in their annual Maroon and White game Ð rather, the Black and White game this year. Team Black defeated Team White 7-4 in front of roughly 250 fans Monday night.
