Notebook: Olympic medalist Julie Chu joined Bolts staff at Prospect Camp

As the head coach of the women's ice hockey team at Concordia University in Montreal, Julie Chu normally would have been preparing for her team's season-opening exhibition on Thursday.
"It's been 571 days since our team had a chance to play a game because Covid hit and we didn't have a season last year," Chu said.
But the four-time Olympic medalist with the U.S. ice hockey team remained in Tampa for one more day, completing her stint as a special instructor at Lightning Prospect Camp.

Chu was invited to join the Lightning instruction staff by Tampa Bay general manager and Concordia alum Julien BriseBois about a month ago. After checking that it was okay with Concordia, her team and her family, Chu accepted the offer. She's been an instructor on Benoit Groulx's staff all four days of camp - today was her final day as she returns to Concordia Friday - and has helped devise practice plans, mentor individual players in skill instruction and take the lead for on-ice drills.
"Julien's been an awesome supporter of the women's side of the game, and I'm really fortunate for that," Chu said. "I think it's a special opportunity. It's exciting because I think the men's and the women's game used to be really separate. Maybe at the youth levels, we were playing on coed teams, but there was a bit of a separate, not necessarily mentality but just paths. And nowadays, we are seeing on a lot of NHL teams women becoming more prominent and in different roles, whatever it might be."
Chu brings an impressive resume to the Prospect Camp staff. She has four Olympic medals with Team USA: three silvers (2002, 2010 and 2014) and a bronze (2006). She's tied for the second-most medals for any United States female in Winter Olympics history. As a student-athlete at Harvard University, Chu earned the Patty Kazmaier Award as the top female collegiate hockey player in the U.S. in 2007 and was a three-time All American who completed her career as, at the time, the all-time assists and points leader in NCAA history.
Following her illustrious playing career, Chu served as an assistant coach at the University of Minnesota-Duluth and Union College before joining the staff at Concordia in 2014. She was named the Stingers head coach on June 9, 2016.
"It's impressive," Lightning assistant general manager, director of player development Stacy Roest said. "It's nice to talk hockey with her. She's got a great hockey mind and an impressive resume. We're excited to see her around. She'll be behind the bench, and I'm sure the guys will have time to pick her brain."
Chu said the first day of camp, some of the Lightning prospects did a double take when she shouted instructions on the ice. Groulx told her it was likely the first time many of them heard a female voice while practicing. But they quickly adjusted.

"They've been incredible," Chu said. "The entire staff has been welcoming. They want to include me in the conversations, allowing me to learn and develop and grow. And asking a lot of questions too to understand the women's side of the game, how do we approach different aspects. A lot of it is similar but there are definitely differences where from the AHL, NHL side of the business aspect and different things to a student athlete side at university."
Chu said she's learned as much from the players and coaches at Prospect Camp as they have from her. She's open to a coaching opportunity at the NHL level if it's right for her. Right now, she's enjoying her time coaching Concordia and taking advantage of chances to learn and grow like the one that presented itself with BriseBois' offer.
"For me, it's a lot of the structure that's in place, the details, the organization of how we want to prepare a practice," Chu said of aspects she's studied and learned while with Groulx and his staff. "How do we want to prepare for a week of preparation for games? And just being detailed in our explanation, detailed in our organization of our system. Yes, there's definitely hockey sides of things, but I've been picking all of their brains on everything from bench management to how do you communicate with players, what are your takes on systems and skill development. I think for me, I'm just trying to be a sponge. I'm really grateful they're giving me the time to be able to do that."
KOEPKE SHAKEN UP
Cole Koepke went down hard into the boards behind the net and needed attention from medical staff early during an intrasquad scrimmage at Prospect Camp Thursday.
Koepke remained on the ice for a while and was eventually helped to his feet and aided off the ice. He immediately went down the tunnel and didn't return for the remainder of the scrimmage.
Koepke seems to have escaped serious injury, however.
Lightning assistant general manager, director of amateur scouting Al Murray said the early medical reports coming back on Koepke were positive.
"We were worried shoulder or head and it sounds like it was more of a stinger like the football guys get because he says he didn't lose consciousness. He remembers everything. And his shoulder's fine," Murray said. "We're optimistic but that will be up to the medical people."
No word on whether Koepke will be able to participate at this weekend's Prospect Showcase.
The 6-foot, 172-pound Koepke is a 2018 Sixth Round draft pick of the Lightning. He was a member of the University of Minnesota-Duluth squad that won a NCAA Division 1 men's ice hockey national championship in 2019 and made his pro debut with AHL Syracuse last season, skating in nine games and recording two goals and an assist.

SCRIMMAGE STANDOUTS
The coaching staff split the 24-man Prospect Camp roster into two teams for a scrimmage Thursday, the first of camp, in preparation for three games against prospects from the Carolina Hurricanes, Florida Panthers and Nashville Predators at the Prospect Showcase, which begins Saturday (the Lightning play their first game against the Predators at AMALIE Arena 2 p.m. Saturday; all other games will be held at AdventHealth Center Ice).
The scrimmage was informal. Score wasn't kept and the whistle would blow play dead when the coaches wanted to emphasize a point. But it was a good chance for the prospects to get the competitive juices flowing after many have had their schedules interrupted because of Covid.
"It was good. I've been in camp for the past three weeks in Saint John, so I had played in a couple preseason games and had my feet down and a good head start," said forward Cameron MacDonald, a 2021 Fifth Round draft pick of the Lightning who plays with Saint John of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League. "The scrimmage felt good and trying to translate my game to this level against faster, more skilled players. I think I was able to keep up and show what I can do. Excited for this weekend and show what I can do there to."
Among highlights from the scrimmage, Simon Ryfors, a May free agent signing of the Lightning, picked the pocket of 2021 Third Round pick Roman Schmidt from behind in the defensive zone and fed Gabriel Fortier on the back post for a goal. Later, Amir Miftakhov, a 2020 Sixth Round selection and one of two goaltenders at Prospect Camp, made a swiping glove save from his knees to deny a top-shelf shot for the best denial of the game.