The week of ten thousand overreactions ends tonight, as the New York Islander Rookie Camp concludes with the Blue and White Scrimmage. This is a chance for fans and writers to completely overact to a glorified practice. Rookie Camp is a great experience for the youth of the organization to get familiar with the big club but recently it seems that is has been turned to a week of overreactions by the blog box desperate for content during this down time in the offseason.
There are some tangible benefits for the rookies and prospects during camp. These kids get a chance to learn what it takes to be NHL players. They are introduced to the system, learn weight training and nutritional techniques and form valuable bonds and friendships with other Islander rookies. The experience for these kids cannot be undervalued.
However from a media perspective, rookie week drives me bananas. Look I understand the need for many to fill their columns and blogs with fresh content and exciting interviews. However rookie camp has somehow evolved into a self-serving evaluation camp. If I read one more insane tweet about Griffin Reinhart being a bust because he had a bad shift in a practice, I may hurl my tablet into the sound. It works on the other end of the spectrum as well, Josh Ho-Sang is a generational talent because he has a good shift and creates a scoring chance.
I’m not trying to highjack my own blog with a personal rant, I’m merely trying to keep some sense of reality in check with this team and more importantly these young kids. Ninety percent of them will return to their junior teams and universities. How the prospects stand out against NHL level talent during the Islanders’ training camp is far more valuable information than how these kids look in a breakaway relay against a Junior-B goalie.
With all of that being said there is some interesting news coming out of camp. Newsday’s Arthur Staple tweeted out the new height and weight of some of the Islanders’ prospects and it appears that the Islanders stable of young defenseman continue to grow. Scott Mayfield has added muscle and now checks in at 6’5”. Adam Pelech, Griffin Reinhart and Ryan Pulock have all added weight and the bigger and stronger these kids get, the more intriguing they become as NHL prospects.
Tonight is a great night for some summer hockey in the middle of July and I do recommend attending the Blue and White Scrimmage if you need to get your hockey fix on. I just want everyone to stay grounded and keep some form of reality. In past rookie scrimmages people were raving over the likes of Robin Figren, Kirill Kabanov and Tyler McNeely. I actually heard someone say one year, "Figren looks like a young Pavel Bure." How did that work out?
It is not my intent of being Debbie Downer today, I just want everyone keep a firm grasp on reality when one of these kids does something amazing tonight. All of these kids are talented. You can’t compete in the high levels of hockey without talent. However just because it can be done in a practice against a group of peers, we should not be penciling in anyone’s name in the opening lineup come October. We as fans and writers see something amazing and we want to see the Islanders’ win so badly that we tend to distort reality. I’m just trying to rein us all back in and bring everything back into focus. As always for more on all things hockey please follow me on Twitter at @DanDanNoodles78.
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