One day of camp down, and a few more left to go before puck drop on January 19th. The guys were pretty impressed by the 5,500 strong turnout from everyone who showed up to Sunday's practice. From Norm Sanders:
Some Blues players seemed taken aback by the large crowd size. Blues coach Ken Hitchcock said he and his staff heard loud noises before the start of practice thinking there was more construction work being done, perhaps on a new fans' club area being built right outside the entrance to the team's dressing room.
"We skated at 11 and about 10:45 you could hear all this noise, then we figured it was players going on to the ice," Hitchcock said. "That's when it registered there must a be a few more people than we thought out here."
At times, the crowd nose was so loud the players had trouble hearing Hitchcock's drill instructions.
"It was a little bit of a shock for all of us," he said. "You expect two or three thousand, not 6,000 or whatever. That's why we simplified some of the drills."
Well done. You drowned out Ken Hitchcock. That right there is something to be proud of!