Rookie camp photos

Sweet photos... thanks for sharing them Chasen (and of course Rich).

BIG props to Chasen for these great shots. It was VERY smart of you to get one of the Legendary Juraj Mikus...although I think your slideshow is broken as his picture was in the middle.

Everyone knows that ALL hockey photo slideshows should start with a picture of Juraj Mikus.

Again...Nice work and thanks!

awesome photos, the kids really look in shape this year. Thanks Chasen and Rich.

Loktionov looks like he wil be a beast, along with azevedo, if you can call a 5'0 guy a beast.

and btw..

Juraj Mikus jokes = Not funny anymore

Juraj Mikus jokes = Funny

Calling smaller skilled players "beast" or "monster" = Not so funny

When was I trying to be funny? He will be a beast. Juan Pierre is a beast and he's like 4'8. It's called puttin up numbers.

Typical Irish guy getting all belligerent.

"...if you can call a 5'0 guy a beast".

You even questioned it in your original post.

Calling a little guy a "beast" is lame. Trying to be ironic with this Pierre McGuire-ish term is cliche. Just like calling a guy belligerent because he's Irish. Jayrew.

Now excuse me while I down this bottle o' whiskey and search for me pot of gold.

Hey, Hammond gets some national props from thn"

6. Dustin Brown vs. Justin Williams
The top line right wing position is up for grabs in Los Angeles. Brown is the incumbent, but the Kings would like to see more scoring punch from that spot. Enter Williams. However, as our astute Kings correspondent Rich Hammond pointed out, who wins the battle will also depend on who the No. 1 left winger is. If it’s gritty newcomer Ryan Smyth, Williams will have the upper hand. If it’s the silky Alex Frolov, expect Brown to stay put. Assuming he can stay healthy, we give Williams the upper hand, as the Kings will want to showcase their big summer acquisition, Smyth.

Jayrew- Don't read the jokes then.

Little known fact:

The Irish sport of Hurling (Which BTW is AWESOME!) was invented one summer when some Irish scoolkids were playing baseball next to a soccer field where Juraj Mikus was training. A kid hit a long ball right towards Mikus. When the kids yelled for him to watch out, Juraj simply did a 180 with his stick and slap shot the ball into the nearest goal, which was about 80 yards away. The Kids were SO amazed that they asked him to do it again, so they threw him another. This time he hit the ball about 200 yards between 2 radio towers outside the stadium. The rest is history. Look it up. (That one is for you Irish Pat)

BTW, if you've never heard of the Gaelic sport of Hurling, it's pretty damn cool. Here's a link on Wikipedia about it (Even though the History is obviously wrong..;-) ) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurling

Cheers & a pint of Caffreys to ya!

Cynic -- I use to be Irish for one day every year and hurling took on a whole different meaning.
Guess we are the only two who are not at the game.

Cheers to you Cynic.

And jet, I think I'm a little more familiar with your version of Irish hurling ;)

Thanks for all the kind comments and for the entertaining argument that I'm not really following. I got pretty lucky with the pictures because the players were running a drill along the boards right in front of me. My kit lense wouldn't cut it otherwise.

Rinkrat over @ Letsgokings.com took some great shots of the practice too, we were standing right next to each other for a while.

Thanks again Rich for posting the link!