I was so happy about my decision to stop by Ristuccia Arena and watch a glimpse of the last day of Bruins Development Camp before heading to the dentist.

This development camp is for young prospects whom Bruins drafted or invited to develop (duh!) and prepare for their future. It only lasts five days, but is said to be very dreadful, with programs such as shuttle runs, battle drills, power skating, etc. The average age of 25 kid players is only 20, while the average height is 6'1". Pretty awesome, eh? Just thinking about Joe Colborne, the B's first round drafter of 2008, who is already 6'5" at age 19!

It was so fun to watch those baby-faced wee kids skating around, doing drills and running scrimmages. Apparently I wasn't the only person who thought so, 'cause there were much more fans in the stand than those who showed up to big boys' practices in a regular weekend. And Cam Needly and Chia were there too!

My impressions? Big Joe is really big. If he doesn't stop growing, he's going to be eye-to-eye with Chara soon! He's an awesome draft and definitely a keeper. Yuri Alexandrov's skating and stick-handling ability is also impressive. And he's such a cheerful Russian, om nom nom~ Ben Sexton just passed his 18th birthday, but he looks as smooth and sharp as everyone else. Zach Hamill reminds me a lot of David Krejci and he takes a lot of leadership on the ice. Despite his height (only 5-9), Jason Lawrence who just leaded BU to win NCAA championship really excels in skills and speed. There were definitely more exciting kids, but I kept having trouble to identify them just by their numbers, considering it's my first time to really see them. So that's all I remembered.

While having a great time, I had to leave after one hour. The Bruins website said Cam Needly later went down to the ice and gave them some 1-on-1 instructions. It must have been a thrill for those kids.

So the dev camp was wrapped up already. Now I can't wait for the start of training camp to see the big boys! Is it September 12th yet?