                      
|
2014-15 Minnesota Swarm Training Camp ScheduleNovember 4, 2014The Minnesota Swarm, I mean the NLL since the Swarm hasn't yet, announced their training camp schedule leading into the 2015 regular season. Camp opens up on December 5th at the Toronto Rock Athletic Centre in Oakville, Ontario. The opening day of camp for the Swarm is the last opening for any NLL team by a week. The Swarm will have three pre-season games against the same three teams from last season and all of the games occuring in the same locations from last year. The headlining game yet again is in Rochester against the three-time defending NLL champion Knighthawks for the fourth straight year in the Knighthawks Christmas Classic on December 6th. This match up never comes to Minnesota and the Swarm management seem fine accomodating and kowtowing to the wishes of Knighthawks owner Curt Styres. By the time the Swarm start camp, the Knighthawks will have had four practices already in the books while the Swarm will have two practices within a day to get ready for their match up on the night of the 6th. The second practice is at noon on the 6th which is scheduled to go for two hours with the team then hopping on the bus for a two and half hour trip to Rochester over 146 miles. It will bring the team to the Blue Cross Arena by four that afternoon, giving them three hours to spare before game time. It sounds exhausting but the Swarm did the same pretty much last year on gameday and still came out the winners against the Knighthawks. But last year, the Swarm had an extra week of practice in their pocket by the time they played their pre-season games. It is expected but not yet confirmed that the game will be able to be viewed online. The Swarm also have pre-season games in Oakville against Calgary and Colorado just like last year at the TRAC to help decide who will make the final 20-man roster which needs to be decided by Monday, December 15th. The final 20 will then get together for four practices at the TRAC from December 19th through December 21st to focus and install the game plan for the regular season opener at The Hive against the Colorado Mammoth on January 3rd. The team will not be back together until the night before the home opener so that weekend before Christmas will be crucial. None of training camp occurs in Minnesota, where the hometown fans reside, for a sixth straight year. It is yet another failure of Swarm management to connect with existing fans and to promote the team to new fans. Just one weekend of camp in Minnesota would go a long way with fans but management only thinks of the bottom line and having the team at any moment in Minnesota costs the team more money than they are willing to spend. I am sure the team will have their annual bowling party sometime to sway their fans but how many players does one expect to see available, I have the over/under at five. As camp nears, I will post an training camp roster and try to preview the pre-season games to the best of my ability but we can already see that the team will have more competition for spots than last year. Last year, the team only brought 26 to camp and the roster was pretty much settled by the time camp started. Then came 4-14 and things have changed as at least 31 players will be at camp with battles at every position especially on both sides of the offense. Even with the two goaltenders on roster in Zach Higgins and Brodie MacDonald, the Swarm will still have to decide who will start the season as number one in net as that is surely not clear at this moment. Pre-Season Schedule (Central Time)
Practice Schedule - (Toronto Rock Athletic Centre in Oakville, Ontario) (Central Time)
|