Training Camp 2025 | Jon Cooper

when ear when you guys were doing drills like you were talking about like this game is fast. Yeah. And you know I mean how do you kind of you know knowing you know you have x amount of games till game one you get back to that speed I guess pace. I see why the collective bargaining agreement changed and why training camp’s going to get shorter. Like I’m pretty sure we’re the same as most other teams in this league. You probably play a game right now and you wouldn’t notice a whole bunch of difference. The guys are in like they’re in really they’re in great shape. They’ve been skating for months already. So, you know, a training camp decade or two ago used to be came in training camp to get in shape. Now, these guys are ready to go. So, it’s managing, you know, their workload and everything from everybody as we move forward here and, you know, kind of amp them up when it starts getting, you know, close to game time. So, do you have that in mind that training camp is reduced after this season and like there’s no like do you is that do you have look thinking about that? No, but you know, is our philosophy here to crush him in the first like three days of training camp? No, it’s not that either. So, uh, you know, we’ve got a pretty veteran group here. We’ve all been together and and it’s just getting everybody on the same page. And I think a big thing for me is timing. Uh, and then we’ve got these exhibition games coming up and and you know, it’s important that a lot of the regulars on our team won’t be playing in, you know, some of these early ones. And so just got to make sure that you know you’re putting guys in a position for when you know they are going to play in some of these exhibition games that they’re ready. Um but you don’t have to press them so early and so uh you know some of these scrimmages we have I think it’s good for guys to just slowly get their timing down. So that’s what you look for in these. With um with the games that do start like how do you approach that in terms of who gets to play early on? I know a lot of the veteran guys obviously won’t play, but like what do you look for in terms of who gets those opportunities? Uh that’s that’s I always say this, you know, those first three, four games. Um probably a lot of management decisions and what goes on in the games and then the last couple are a lot of coaches decisions. So I uh Julian gets a lot of he’s I get he’s in charge of those ones. Uh but again, we’re all in this together and we’re looking to see who’s going to play and where they’re going to play. But um you know, there’s a lot of interest in, you know, management, our scouts, and everybody that know these players a lot better than I do. And so it’s uh you know, this is it’s eye opening for me to see some of these players and how they develop. And then there’s bunch of guys here that just been drafted so I haven’t seen before. And so it’s uh educating for me too as as well for this camp. But, you know, some of these early exhibition games, Julian’s, he knows what he’s doing there. So, what have you learned in the years where you can maybe get an on ice feel for some of these guys that you don’t know like, you know, Sam O’Reilly’s coming in. I assume he’ll have an opportunity to play to kind of get get to learn him or even a guy like Dylan Duke who you got a little bit last year, you get a little bit more this year. So, as you’re behind the bench in these games, what do you have learned about seeing? Uh, well, you look for obviously the guys you’ve had before, you look for improvement. Did they get a little quicker? Did their poise get better? Are they, you know, bigger, stronger? All those kind of things. And the new guys again, you know, like O’Reilly’s, what is he 19? That’s crazy. You know, how young these kids are and how good they are. But, uh, for those kids, it’s more, you know, you’re kind of managing pro hockey for them a bit and what to expect. And um it that that’s kind of a little more more of a gradual process and helping the younger guys just kind of navigate the game against players that are bigger, older, stronger. And uh you know, then the the guys that have been here before, now you’re looking for improvement and trying to push them along.

Jon Cooper talks to media after day two of training camp

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