The on-ice portion is being led by Admirals head coach Lane Lambert, assistant coach Ian Herbers and Nashville Director of Player Development Martin Gelinas. Goalie coach Mitch Korn is working with the four goalies in camp and strength and conditioning coaches David Good (Nashville) and Jason Nordby (Milwaukee) are leading the off-ice conditioning. Dwayne Blais is running the power skating drills.

 

I’m told the athletes played water polo last night.

 

It’s too early to tell which players have impressed to this point. A full roster of the participating players can be found here. Get used to some of these names as they will be in Milwaukee this season.

 

Moving on…

 

Former Admirals defenseman Andrew Hutchinson will likely play for Wilkes-Barre Scranton next season while former Rockford sniper Kyle Greentree and former UW defenseman Brian Fahey will probably be in Hershey.

 

I leave you with legendary coach John Brophy. Brophy played one game for the Milwaukee Chiefs in the 1952-53 season.

 

In the 1987-88 season, I was in attendance at a North Stars game and saw then-Toronto coach Brophy and Minnesota coach Herb Brooks nearly come to blows. Minnesota’s Basil McRae and Toronto’s Dave Semenko were involved in two fights earlier in the game at the old Met Center in Bloomington, MN. The two lined up for a third scrap on a faceoff. The puck slapped the ice and Semenko dropped his gloves. However, McRae skated away and went to the Leafs bench to taunt Brophy. The white-haired Brophy had to be restrained by his team from jumping onto the ice and challenging McRae. Brooks then leaned over and started shouting at Brophy, which caused the Maple Leafs coach to shift his attention to the North Stars’ bench boss.

 

The game is also noteworthy because one of the WCHA’s great players, Pat Micheletti, scored his only two NHL goals in that game.

 

I’ve told that story to many people over the years. One day, I found the skirmishes between McRae and Semenko on Youtube.

 

A couple years ago, I was riding the elevator to the press box at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines. There was a scout that entered the elevator with me in the basement. We were chatting for a few minutes…mostly he was asking about our team. I then introduced myself and he did the same. It was Dave Semenko. That, for me, was a cool elevator ride.