Columbus Cottonmouths open camp looking ahead
The Columbus Cottonmouths opened training camp Wednesday at the Columbus Ice Rink with 18 players hungry to bring the team back to respectability in the Southern Professional Hockey League.
The first order of business is to put last season in the rear-view mirror and look ahead to the Snakes’ 13th season in the SPHL and 21st season overall of professional hockey.
“Last year is just one of those things where everything that could go wrong did go wrong,” said defenseman and team captain Kyle Johnson, who returns to the team for his fourth pro season. “I really haven’t thought about it too much. These things happen. Is it what we wanted? No, but I think what we have now will negate anything that happened last year.”
Johnson led a group of defensemen who put in extra work at the end of the morning skate with returning goaltender Brandon Jaeger. Last season’s SPHL All-Rookie team netminder worked on his glove hand and stopped redirected shots from the top of the crease with his defensive counterparts at the end of Wednesday’s session.
According to Johnson, the hard work wasn’t anything different than last season, despite the record.
“I know we finished in last place, but I don’t think people gave us enough credit last year,” he said. “There wasn’t a day where we weren’t working as hard as we could. It was just one of those things, playing through injuries, playing short, that made it hard for us. We’ve had the same attitude since I got here Day 1. The Snakes have always been a hard-working, hard-playing team.”
Besides Johnson on defense and Jaeger in net, forwards Andy Bathgate, Chad Bennett, Dylen McKinlay, Ben O’Quinn, and Craig Simchuk return from last season’s team.
Simchuk played defense in Wednesday’s practice as the Cottonmouths are short on defensemen in camp. Three defensemen signed to camp in Columbus — Rusty Hafner, Alex Pompeo, and Kyle Shapiro — are all currently in camps with ECHL teams.
The World Cup of Hockey threw a wrench into professional hockey this season. The National Hockey League dropped the puck on the regular season Wednesday night, while the American Hockey League and ECHL begin their seasons on Friday, just one week before the SPHL season begins. Usually, the seasons begin much earlier in the higher leagues, allowing a trickle-down effect of players cut from higher leagues to the SPHL.
“Hopefully, those guys come back, but if they don’t, we got it covered, I think,” Johnson said.
“I changed a little of my game plan,” Snakes coach Jerome Bechard said as a result of the late start in the higher leagues. “I really wanted to get some scrimmages in, but with that, I really slowed things down. We did some skating, bumping and battling drills, and getting everyone where they need to be in our systems and what we’re trying to accomplish. I just told the guys we’re short on numbers going in right now.”
The players who are here, however, have the coach and captain excited about the possibilities.
“As of right now, we’re fast,” Johnson said. “We’re smart. We’re young, but I think that’s going to work out in our favor. There are a lot of guys who need to prove themselves and are willing to do that.”
“Up front, they all can fly,” Bechard said. “They all look like they stick their nose in the right areas. They’re all strong and can win battles in the corners. It’ll be interesting to see in games when the guys finish checks, but the speed is definitely there.
“I also like the fact that everyone that has been recruited have been captains or alternate captains on their former teams.”
Bechard hopes to see the best of his players come out in their two exhibition games this weekend. The Snakes travel to Macon Friday night to face the intrastate rival Macon in preseason action, while defending league champion Pensacola visits the Columbus Ice Rink for an exhibition game Saturday night.
“I want to really see their compete level, their decision making, and their hockey sense,” Bechard said. “Macon’s going to have a little different look and be a little more physical than they were last year. (Pensacola has) a lot of new guys, new coach, new systems. We’re going to see where we match up. It’s just a matter of who will be more prepared on X’s and O’s and who is on the same page.”
For now, the returning players have embraced their new campmates and are excited to get the season started. As captain, Johnson has made sure to include the first-year players in the mix.
“If anything, it’s just welcoming the new guys, letting them know they’re part of the team already,” he said. “This is a family.”
This story was originally published October 12, 2016 at 7:43 PM with the headline "Columbus Cottonmouths open camp looking ahead."