Posted by Corey Cowick on July 5, 2009

We’re down to one more day at development camp and I think my body is starting to feel good about that fact. But it’s also a little bit sad in a way, because I’m just starting to get into a rhythm. First of all, it’s tough getting up at 7:30 any day of the week. The body is just starting to get into that kind of rhythm and I’m also beginning to feel good when I'm out on the ice. I’m starting to get used to the tempo a little bit. It’s going to take me a while to get back to men’s league tempo now.

Overall, it’s been a really good week. I’ve really enjoyed myself and the group of people here from the coaches to the players to the training staff and even the media, everybody has been so good and really helped you out throughout the week. I have no complaints, that’s for sure. It’s coming to an end tomorrow and I’m sure it’ll be a fun day and we’ll end it on a good note, just the way we started it.

We’ve learned so much at this camp, whether it was about nutrition, sleeping, naturopathy … just everything. You had to be like a sponge this week to take it all in. Now the important part is going home and draining yourself out. You soaked up all this knowledge and now you have to use it. It’s no good if you just go home and keep going through your everyday routine without adapting to the pro hockey life, if you want to be a pro, at least. There’s tons of knowledge to be had and I know you’re not going to learn everything in one week. But the way it was set up this week, it definitely helped you take as much out of it as you could have.

Sometimes, the most fun part of this experience has been just hanging out with the boys. Today, we were watching the Wimbledon final between Andy Roddick and Roger Federer. You had a couple of the European guys who liked Federer and you had some of the Americans who wanted Roddick to win. It was just a little bit of sport to bring the guys together and sometimes, those are the most fun things. The outings we’ve done as a group have been fun, too. We’re going to go to a movie together tonight. I’ve gone out to eat with a bunch of the boys and you just sit around and talk. They definitely had things planned for us that you know will be enjoyable but sometimes, the most fun is just hanging out with the other guys. Today, it was fun seeing the Euros get mad at every serve Roddick had and the Americans get mad at every unreal shot Federer made. Good times, for sure.

Posted by Corey Cowick on July 4, 2009

We had our first full scrimmage at development camp today and it was really good for me. I think I had the most applause of anybody and that means a lot to a kid who was picked in the sixth round. I think it had a lot to do with me being from Ottawa. There were a few familiar faces in the crowd that I remembered seeing when I was wearing the barber poles last year and it’s nice to see that support. It’s nice to know there are a lot of people also enjoying the ride with me now and it means a lot.

The scrimmage itself was fun. It was nice to hit and throw a few checks. That’s my game, a lot of physicalness, and it felt a lot better to do that. You learn a lot of things when you’re out there in that situation. It’s so fast and even at a scrimmage at a rookie camp, you can tell that at the next level, it’s all about speed and decision-making. That was very apparent to me, even in a little intra-squad game.

We had a shootout contest after our White team won the scrimmage game 4-1. I’m not for one for a big shootout competition but I did well at it with the 67’s this year. My performance wasn’t too, too dismal. A lot of people think I missed the net on my chance today but I did hit the goalie’s glove there. Andre Petersson won the competition and it was good to see him show off his skills. It was good for the fans, too. There was a lot of excitement and even though I didn’t do so well, it was a lot of fun nonetheless.

It was fun to see some of the other guys try out different shootout moves. For me, some of those things, I can only do on NHL 09. But what can you say? It’s definitely fun to see what some of the guys can do with the puck. Even though I go down and maybe fake a shot and try to go backhand or take a nice wrister, I’m not too, too clever with the puck, but I seem to do a decent job at the shootouts.

We had an autograph session with the fans after the scrimmage and I loved it. Playing for the 67’s, I was really involved with the fans. I went to over 40 schools in anti-bullying and stay-in-school programs, so to me, the community is huge. I’m a kid from Ottawa who was lucky enough to get the chance to play for the 67’s and was blessed enough to get drafted by the Senators. What can I say about this city that has given so much to me? In turn, I think I owe a lot to it and to give back. To see all those kids’ faces … it wasn’t too long ago that I was in their position, trying to get an autograph from some of the guys wearing the red, white and black. I can relate to it and I definitely enjoy that part of the game. It’s something I think is extremely important, to get the opportunity to be able to interact with the fans.

Posted by Corey Cowick on July 3, 2009

We’ve spent a lot of time over the past couple of days working on our stickhandling skills. Jari from SK8ON Hockey School, who’s been teaching us, is an animated man and he definitely made the stickhandling fun. It’s something that you never really do a lot of during the season. When you’re training, everything is usually about skating and shooting and stuff. So it’s nice to have a couple of hours focusing just on that. I know I learned a lot of things and it’s amazing to see what some of the boys can do with the puck.

It’s just another thing this organization has available to help you become the best hockey player that you can be. With your teams during the season, you’re only allotted a certain amount of ice time. Usually it goes toward team building and you’re working on systems. There’s not a lot of individuality. But it’s always nice to shoot some pucks and score some goals, too. It always goes back to liking to shoot on the goalies.

Last night, we went to a cooking class to help with our nutrition. I guess my group wasn’t deemed to be very smart. All we had to do was mix a salad, pour some yogurt into a wafer and make some fruit dip. We didn’t have any of the strenuous tasks, so I didn’t learn too, too much there. But I definitely learned a lot about the healthy side of sport. How many carbs you need to intake, the difference between carbs and proteins and how they affect your body. That was definitely huge for me.

I had to take some notes to send over to my mom so she knows how to cook for me when I get back home. She was a little upset when I called her last night and told her I didn’t learn how to cook any gourmet meals. She’s going to have to slave away in the kitchen for a couple more weeks for me.

I think the nutrition part of being an athlete is huge, especially since I’m a person who kind of lives in the gym during the summer. I really, really take pride in my conditioning and I think eating is an easy way to add a lot of energy to your body and add that extra strength and dimension to your game. All I can say is that I definitely feel a lot better when I’m well nourished and I feel like I’m eating healthy.

Posted by Corey Cowick on July 2, 2009

On Canada Day, they took us out to Wilderness Tours on the Ottawa River for a team activity. The day was really exciting. First, they had us rappel down off a crane. Not all the boys did that one. I think I was one of just over 10 that did it. But the hardest part was climbing up. You’re climbing up a crane and you're on this skinny little ladder and you’re constantly looking down and testing your nerves, that’s for sure. But that was fun.

Then we had the races in the rapids. Mark Borowiecki and I were in a boat together and we came third. It was close. I think we came second but the consensus opinion gave us third. I don’t know about that. We might have to catch a photo finish for that one. It was really, really fun and we had a nice barbecue after that. The rapids were unbelievable and some guys ending up falling into the river. It was pretty cool going through the water there and the drop that happened naturally. There were a couple of guys who finished the race with different partners than they started with, so it was funny to see that.

It definitely was something that helps bring us closer together. You have 32 kids at the this camp coming from different parts of the continent and the world. You’ve got four or five from Sweden, a couple of guys from the United States, even a guy from Denmark and a bunch of Canadians here, too. Everybody has one thing in common and that’s hockey. You go out on the water and not everybody is a good kayaker, so there’s something else in common. It’s nice to have the camaraderie with everybody.

The cultural differences between us are interesting. It was about an hour and a half drive out to Wilderness Tours and we had Jakob Silfverberg, who’s from Sweden, in our car. It started pouring rain, just a torrential downpour and we couldn’t even see in front of us. And he’s got the iPhone out taking pictures and saying ‘this is crazy.’ At breakfast this morning, the Swedish goalie, Robin Lehner, said ‘I’ve never seen this before. You have potatoes with breakfast.’ You know, home fries. Just the different cultural things are funny but everyone’s got the one thing in common and that’s hockey. So you have at least one conversation starter and then you tend to go back into talking about their hometowns and what their country is about. It's a great learning experience.

Posted by Corey Cowick on July 1, 2009

We’ve got two on-ice sessions behind us now and so far, it’s been really good. The body is holding up barely but there are definitely a lot of people here to help you out, whether it’s the training staff or everybody with nutrition. It’s helping to keep my body in shape and the massage therapists have really come to my rescue.

Yesterday was rough. It was really, really hard but it just gives you a bit of insight about what it’s really like to be a pro day in and day out. It was a fun day. We got the fitness testing results back and I did pretty well there. It was really hard work but it’s nice to see a couple of successful things on the board.

Practices here are a little longer than we had with Killer (67’s coach Brian Kilrea). We do a lot more stuff out there. You train as hard as you can for the summer and Chris Smith out at the Family Physio Training Centre has been really big with me. He’s trained me like a pro the last two years and I think that was the reason for a lot of my success last year. So the training side of it, I haven’t really had a problem with it. It’s mostly the on-ice stuff. You get out there and your legs are a little bit more wobbly than usual. Nerves have a bit to do with it but I felt a lot better on the ice today. It seems like the bounces are going my way instead of against me like it was yesterday and I felt a lot more confident out there as well.

I’m rooming with Jared Cowen in the hotel. I guess they call our room over there the Cow Den. It’s like the dairy farm – you’ve got both cows in one room (Cow-en and Cow-ick. Get it?). He’s a great guy. He introduced me to Star Wars last night and that was pretty funny. Lots of good times there. He’s not doing too much because of his knee injury, but he stays up a little bit later and doesn’t sleep as well as I do at the end of the night. It’s been great rooming with him.

It’s extremely weird for me, staying in a hotel in my hometown. My parents came out to watch me today and at the end it was okay mom, see you later, I guess you’re not making supper for me tonight. It’s a bit different. I feel like a tourist in my hometown but I’m enjoying it. It’s a beautiful hotel and it’s nice to stay with the guys. I’d much rather be in a setting with all the guys and hang around and interact with them than to be sitting at home away from it all.

Posted by Corey Cowick on June 30, 2009

Today was my first day as part of the Ottawa Senators organization and it still hasn’t really sunk in that I’m here. The last couple of days have been hectic, with friends and family over on Saturday night and then Sunday, just grabbing everything I could to try to get ready for camp today. It’s an unbelievable feeling. I’m starting to think I’m not very good with words because everybody keeps asking me how I feel about being drafted by the Senators and I can’t really answer it because it’s such a good feeling. There’s not a word that describes it well enough.

I thought the highlight of my career and pretty much my life was coming to play major junior for the 67’s in my hometown. I couldn’t even possibly think about playing in the NHL my hometown and now that the opportunity has kind of presented itself in a way, to get my foot in the door, definitely it’s an unbelievable feeling.

Today, I got to go into the arena down through the freight door instead of Gate 3 to my 300-level seats. It’s unbelievable to come down here. They have a beautiful facility and the team has such an aura around here, especially having grown up in the city and knowing what they stand for and how successful they’ve been and what a successful organization they are. I came down here and you know you’re one of the guys and it feels so good to be here.

I’ve got a nice little stall in the Senators dressing room with my name on it. That was a pretty good feeling, too, seeing Cowick there next to the Sens logo. It looks extremely good to me. I grew up as a Sens fan. I grew up with a Yashin jersey on my back and Daigle stick in my hands. I know those two are not the greatest names to say around here but I’ll whisper that part. The Senators are the big thing in this city. Being from Ottawa and a kid who loves hockey, Ottawa was the No. 1 team to me and that’s who I cheered for every year.

When I found out Saturday that Ottawa had drafted me, I couldn’t get the smile off my face. The emotion filled me but it also filled my family, too. I don’t think I’ve ever seen my dad smile that big in his life and I think that was the fastest my mom has ever cried. We had two rounds of hugs and I was so excited. To go to Ottawa was the best thing that could have happened to me.

Posted by Mike Fisher on May 12, 2009 in Mike Fisher

(Editor's note: Senators centre Mike Fisher represented Canada at the IIHF 2009 World Hockey Championship in Switzerland. He has been sharing his thoughts on his experiences at the tournament with ottawasenators.com readers in an exclusive series of blog posts).

The world championship didn't end the way we wanted, with a 2-1 loss to Russia in the gold-medal game. It was definitely a disappointing finish to a great trip. I thought we played very well against the Russians, especially in the last two periods. That's hockey, though. Sometimes you play well and lose. It's tough because in a tournament like this, it's a one-game series that decides it.

It's always an honour to represent your country. Not many people get to do it, so I felt very blessed to be part of Team Canada at this world championship. You never know when you'll get another chance, so you have to enjoy every minute of it. Representing Canada at the Olympics next year in Vancouver would be a dream come true. It's been a goal of mine for a few years now to be on that team, but I know it's going to be a very hard to team to make so we'll see what happens.

I arrived back in Ottawa last night. A bunch of the other guys were doing some travelling in Europe this week, but it's been a long three weeks in Switzerland and I just wanted to get home and settled in to the cottage in Peterborough for the summer. It's my favourite spot to relax and I'm really looking forward to relaxing a bit this summer. It's been a long year and I'll take a few weeks off, then start training in June again.

I'll be running my Mike Fisher Hockey Camp in Orleans again this July and everything looks good to go. We are sold out, which is awesome. It's going to be so much fun and we are all looking forward to it again this year.

Posted by Nick Foligno on May 12, 2009

(Editor's note: Senators forward Nick Foligno represented the United States at the IIHF 2009 World Hockey Championship in Switzerland. He has been sharing his thoughts on his experiences at the tournament with ottawasenators.com readers in an exclusive series of blog posts).

The world championship wrapped up for us on Sunday with a 4-2 loss to Sweden in the bronze-medal game. While it was a disappointing finish for us as far as not winning a medal, I feel we as a group of pretty young players have made USA Hockey very proud. We worked hard and I think the future is bright for us as a country on the world hockey stage.

I really enjoyed my first world hockey championship and I met a lot of great people. Not only the U.S. staff and team, but also the people living over there and the ones who ran the tournament. It was first class. As a player, I learned a lot about the international stage. I hadn't played in a tournament like this since I was 16, so it was nice to experience it once again. The big rink was something to get used to and you had a lot more time out there than in the NHL.

Looking forward, it would obviously be great to be asked to try out for the U.S. Olympic team for 2010 at the end of the summer, but hopefully I played well enough in their eyes that it will all take care of itself. If not, I know I played hard and definitely enjoyed my time over in Switzerland.

Now my plans are to go back to Ottawa for a few weeks. I didn't have any family meet me in Bern, so it worked out that I could just come home. So now I'm going to go home and enjoy my summer back in Sudbury!

Posted by Mike Fisher on May 6, 2009 in Mike Fisher

(Editor's note: Senators centre Mike Fisher is representing Canada at the IIHF 2009 World Hockey Championship in Switzerland. He'll share his thoughts on his experiences at the tournament with ottawasenators.com readers in an exclusive series of blog posts throughout the event).

Finland gave us our biggest test yet on Monday. They've got a great team and they came out flying against us. They were by far the best team that we've faced at the world championship and I think it was good for us, even though we ended up losing a close one 4-3. We know that the competition is getting much better and we have to continue getting better ourselves. Finland plays a North American-style game and plays tight defensively so we know we have to be better, especially 5-on-5.

It was fun playing against Jarkko Ruutu, one of my teammates with the Senators. He played pretty good, especially in the shootout with a couple of nice goals. Other than that, it's just business as usual playing against friends and teammates at a tournament like this.

I don't mind the shootout format they're using at the world championship. It's different than in the NHL, in that players can be used more than once. We got to see Marty St. Louis go three times and he scored some unbelievable goals for us. Ruutu had a few nice ones, too. I think it's a good format because you get to see the skilled guys go more often if the shootout goes for awhile.

We went into Zurich quite a few times during our stay there, checking out the sights and shopping and going for dinners and such. Zurich is one of the nicest cities I've been to. On Tuesday, we moved to a town called Spiez, which is half an hour outside Bern, where we'll play the rest of our games. It's a beautiful town on a lake in the mountains. Today, the team and all the families and friends are going up into the mountains for lunch. That should be pretty cool. There's so much to see and do here. It's awesome, but now it's time to focus on the games and get ready!

Because Tuesday was moving day for us, we had the day off, too. Spiez is a great place and a little quieter and the scenery here is hard to beat. But now we're really looking forward to tomorrow's quarter-final game against Latvia. Having the two days off has been nice and it's given us a chance to rest, but we just want to get back to playing again

Posted by Nick Foligno on May 5, 2009

(Editor's note: Senators forward Nick Foligno is representing the United States at the IIHF 2009 World Hockey Championship in Switzerland. He'll share his thoughts on his first experience at the tournament with ottawasenators.com readers in an exclusive series of blog posts throughout the event).

It's been quite a busy week here in Switzerland. A lot has been going on and now we are now into the elimination rounds after making it through the first and second rounds. We played against France, Russia, and Switzerland in the second round and did okay. All were great games: we beat France pretty easily, but we had different luck against Russia and a tough OT loss against the Swiss.

We played well and as a young team learned a lot from those games and I think it will help us going into the elimination round against Finland. I am especially looking forward to the game because we are playing Ruuts! (Finland winger and Senators teammate Jarkko Ruutu). I am sure he will be up to his old tricks, but it will be a lot of fun and hopefully we can get the win.

Besides hockey, I have just been enjoying the town of Bern. We have eaten at a lot of places and believe it or not, pizza is very good in Switzerland. The brauts (sausages) are also very good! I am really enjoying my time here. It's been a great atmosphere. I think everyone is looking forward to playing for REAL now, meaning it's lose and you go home, it's like every game is a Game 7 from here on in and that's exciting. Our team is excited and ready.

You may have noticed I haven't been wearing my usual number 71 over here. I didn't really have a choice about it. I just wore whatever they gave me and it happened to be 17, so I was happy. Hopefully, this number is good luck and I start scoring a few goals here.

On another note, my Senators teammate Ryan Shannon has been playing great for us. He is really good on the big rink because of his speed and skill. It's been fun to continue playing with him. Hopefully, we can help our team get some wins and maybe play against Canada and the other guys pretty soon here. That would be a lot of fun.