BLOG: Blackhawks Looking to Maximize Every Minute of Camp

A sense of relative normalcy returned to Fifth Third Arena on Monday morning.

The Blackhawks opened the Chicago portion of their summer training camp, where 35 players on the roster will skate for two weeks before the team departs for Edmonton for the final week of camp in one of two NHL hub cities before play begins in the Qualifying Round.

"It feels like we've been gone for a long time, but then you get out on the ice with the guys again and it's like -- it just felt like three or four months went by like that," captain Jonathan Toews told reporters via conference call while still under the same roof as those asking the questions -- one of the many Phase 3 protocols in place for the safety of everyone involved. "It's definitely weird to be here in July, getting into a little mini camp, but it's good to be around the boys for a couple days. It's been a strange time for everybody but at least that felt somewhat normal."

RETURN TO PLAY

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"For everybody I think it felt good, a little bit of anxiousness there and excitement just to be all together again, moving the puck around," defenseman Duncan Keith said of day one. "I thought there was some good pace during practice and guys were moving pretty good for not being together for as long as we have, so I think it was a good start. We're going to try and build off of that today and keep trying to build here as camp goes along."

Camp itself will be short -- perhaps not in a literal sense compared to camps before the start of regular season action, but this time around all 24 teams will go right into playoff hockey. There's no time to gather bearings nor work things out like October usually affords in the regular season. It has to be a finished product by the time the puck drops on Aug. 1.

"With such a short camp that we've got to be ready to go come the first game," Keith added. "All those little things that we just did (today), that (conditioning) skate at the end, is going to help us and make sure we're ready to go. We're going to try and build off of today and take it into tomorrow and keep trying to get better and better."

"You've got to find that proper balance of how hard you can push yourself. At the end of the day, we've got a couple weeks, you've got to try and take as big of strides as you can as a player and as a team every single day, but not get to a point where you push it too far and you do more damage than good. I think we're doing our best to get in the mindset, to watch some video, go through the reps, go through the motions, get that feel down and then just start cranking."

Aside from the players knowing their own bodies along the way, it's a full team effort, both on and off the ice, to maximize every minute of this three-week lead up to game action.

"We use the tools we have -- talking to (strength and conditioning coach Paul Goodman) as the day goes on, as the practice goes on, to see where they're at and trying to find that sweet spot," head coach Jeremy Colliton said of the meticulous planning in place. "We have to challenge them, because that's the only way we're going to get them ready to play, but certainly we don't want to be dealing with a bunch of injuries -- there's not enough time to rehab guys and get them up to playoff level. It's a unique situation but everyone's going through the same thing across the league and the challenge for us is just to do it better than everyone else, and particularly better than Edmonton."