Detroit camp invite Engelage reflects

Hey Spits Fans,

Well, as I'm sure you all know, I was invited to attend the Red Wings strength and conditioning camp earlier this month.

I headed over to Detroit on July 4th and checked into the Marriott Hotel at the GM Renaissance Centre just across the river. I stayed with Jakub Kindl of the Kitchener Rangers for the week.

After checking in, we all met at the Joe Louis Arena and did our fitness testing. Then the week began. We had to wake up a little before 7:00 am to catch breakfast and our ride over to the Joe. We would do a team warm up before every skate in the morning. We were then on the ice from 8:30 am until 10:00 am. The skates were fairly tough for the goaltenders.

We had Detroit’s goalie coach Jim Bedard out with us for every skate which was great as it allowed me to learn a lot. After our skates we were able to go back to the hotel and catch about a two hour nap. Then we were back to the Joe for our workouts. We had different things to do each day, some days were upper body and some were lower body and some were core. We also went for two three mile runs along the Detroit River.

During the camp we also were able to attend several special events. We were lucky enough to attend two Detroit Tigers games versus the Boston Red Sox. We were able to sit in the Ilitch's suite which was located right behind home plate. We had the best seats in the house and a lot of food to go with it! Also, the Tigers won both games which was exciting.

We were also taken out to the Hockeytown restaurant for a nice meal. We were also able to catch a couple of movies. The hotel had its own movie theatres which were nice.

Overall, I feel that I did well at camp and really enjoyed myself. It was an experience of a lifetime.

See you all in September,

Andrew Engelage #1

Courtesy Windsor Spitfires