Things That Make Me Go Hmm at Main Camp...

• Players competing for a job at Rockets main camp are broken down into three teams. All three teams use every dressing room at Prospera Place, other than the Rockets main dressing room. GM Bruce Hamilton remains strong in his belief that until you make the roster, you won't have the privilege of putting your gear on in the teams locker room.
• Rockets GM Bruce Hamilton is feeding his scouting staff well at training camp this year. The press box is amply supplied with coffee, donuts and sandwiches. Rockets Athletic Therapist Jeff Thorburn may have had some say on the menu, as the scouts are being offered a bevy of fruits. Something tells me the scouts will be headed to the Timbits box more often than picking up an Okanagan grown apple!
  
• Prospera Place is undergoing a face lift...sort of. New carpet was installed last week behind the luxury boxes on either side of the arena. The new carpet will even extend to the stairs leading up the press box. You likely won't notice the change, as the carpet is neutral in color. The smell of carpet glue is the only clue that you are walking on freshly laid carpet. Or is that David Michaud's after shave?
  
• The Rockets again this season are not holding an intersquad game. Good on them. In my opinion they are a waste of time. I rather see the hockey club evaluate through exhibition games, rather than boring fans with a glorified intersquad game.
• Sixteen year-old Dylan Tait may be the best looking goaltender at camp. The rookie netminder has color coordinated pads in the Rockets team colors.
• Rockets Head Coach Ryan Huska and Assistant Jeff Finley were busy following Monday morning scrimmage, collecting water bottles on the two benches. While it's only a small thing, both coaches are leading by example, showing the players that no one is above the team first concept.
• Rockets fans are in for a treat this season, as they will be able to see the WHL's newest team, the expansion Edmonton Oil Kings on February 16th. The unfortunate thing is the Rockets won't play a regular season game up in Edmonton this season. That means Edmonton resident Colin Joe will have to show his stuff during an exhibition tournament next week up North, or wait until his overage season, if he has any hopes of playing in front of family and friends.
  
• Billets are so hard to come by in Prince George, that the Cougars hockey club has put an advertisement in a church bulletin.
• I can see it coming. In a couple of weeks radio broadcasters across the league are going to be asked to make predictions on the upcoming season. In junior hockey, it's a guessing game at best. The strides that some junior players make from one year to the next are remarkable. A 17 year-old that scores 10 goals one season can end up scoring 35 the next. Who can predict that, outside of the amazing Kreskin?
  
• If I'm forced to predict first place finishers by division, I'd take Kamloops in the BC, Seattle in the U.S, Calgary in the Central and Regina in the East. If my past performance at predicting holds true, I'll be dead wrong on all four counts.
  
• I was asked the other day about the reason behind creating the blog. My answer was simple. It's just another tool that can be used to inform the Kelowna Rockets fans of what the team is up too. It's really no different that a newspaper article, except mine has the added feature of poor grammar and spelling errors. Call it a gift from me to you (the spelling and grammar part). The concept is nothing new, as more and more NHL broadcasters are required to write blogs for the teams they cover. Is being proactive a bad thing?