Posted by Corey Cowick on July 6, 2009

We wrapped up development camp this morning with a 3-on-3 tournament. Our Black team finished third, which was a little upsetting for us. But I guess it was a pretty good final without us. The Blue team did everything it could to win. They even had a few scraps out there, which was pretty fun to see. The outcome was a little disappointing for us. I thought we had it in the bag after yesterday, the way we were dominating out there. But it was definitely a good last day of this camp for us all.

The tournament was a very competitive thing for everyone who was involved. Every time you’re on the ice, especially in this kind of environment and with the calibre of players here, everybody wants to win. Nobody likes losing at this level and that’s why you’re so good. You’ve got that competitive instinct and you never want to lose. I guess you could see it out there as a spectator and we could see it lining up against the other guy. Anybody in hockey, you never want to lose, whether it’s a 1-on-1 drill, a 3-on-3 tournament or in a real game.

After this week, I think I can say I’ve made some new friends. I’ve got a couple of new Facebook adds, so that’ll be good. I’ll be able to keep in touch with some of the guys over the summer and see how they’re doing. I sat beside a kid from Sweden, who I’ll probably keep in touch with and maybe I’ll even see him next year because he’s playing in Sault Ste. Marie. And there’s a couple of guys I got to know from the West Coast, too, so it’s definitely been a good experience for that. You find guys that you have something in common with, especially since we’re from the same organization. I hope we’ll be teammates somewhere down the line.

Finally, I’d like to thank everyone who took the time to read this blog. I tried to say as much as I could. I’m not the greatest with words but I hope, at the very least, that the fans found it entertaining. I tried to incorporate a little bit of humour into this blog so people could have a few laughs while reading the web page. Hopefully, I can do this again someday. Have a great summer, everyone.

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.