I added a photo gallery from the first couple of days of camp. The number of players still stands at 20 and they had a pretty solid practice this morning.  I came into the MetroCentre this morning as Jared Schomburg was running the team through a bunch of drills in the hallways around 9:15. They were off the ice by about 11:30.

Look for another round of players to join the team maybe as early as after tonight's exhibition game between the Chicago Blackhawks and Dallas Stars. After two games under their belt, tonights match-up could be a deciding factor for many of the guys sitting on the fence between the NHL and AHL.  It looks like former Rockford IceHogs winger Troy Brouwer, who has had two points in two games so far, is really catching the eye of some reporters up in the big house.

I wanted to break down the camp by the numbers a little bit. Here goes:

Of the 20 skaters in camp so far, 12 are forwards, six are defensemen and two are goalies. 12 were born in Canada, while six are American and one each from Ukraine (Igor Gongalsky) and Sweden (Adam Hobson). Peter MacArthur (Clifton Park) and Mike Brennan (Smithtown) are both from New York, but it turns out that Ryan Murphy (Rumson, N.J.) actually grew up closer to Brennan than MacArthur did. And it looks like Rumson is just across the Navesink River from Middletown, N.J. where former coach Mike Haviland grew up. Don't ask me to prounce Navesink.

11 players have AHL experience and 14 have pro experience, with Danny Groulx having the most ice time (386 games) in the pros.   Two are coming straight from the WHL's Spokane Chiefs (Judd Blackwater and Trevor Glass) Memorial Cup championship season. That's Bill Peters' former team. And Adam Hobson also had Peters as his head coach in 2005-06 and 2006-07. Kenny Bernard, Kenny MacAulay and Igor Gongalsky all played with Fresno (ECHL), Rockford's new affiliate, in 2007-08.

10 skaters developed through the college system, while the other 10 came up through juniors. While they were opponents in college, Nathan Davis and Brennan played on the same National U-18 team for two years (2002-03 and 2003-04). Mike Peck wrote yesterday about how Dan Bertam and Bennan were college teammates. MacAulay and Joe Fallon played for the University of Vermont Catamounts for three seasons together (Fallon is a year younger than MacAulay).

One final odd note: Rob Klinkhammer and J.C.Sawyer share the same birthday (Aug. 12, 1986). Also Glass (Jan. 22), Murphy (Jan. 23) and Brennan (Jan. 24) will celebrate their birthdays three days apart, while MacArthur (June 20), Judd Blackwater (June 22) and Groulx (June 23) are four days apart.

That's enough for today.