Jarred Tinordi and Mike McCarron trained hard in London this summer, as promised.

Here's a great article in the London Free Press about Jarred Tinordi and Mike McCarron's summer of hard work in London, ON.

I’ll say it again, it’s great that Mike McCarron is hanging with Jarred Tinordi. I do think these two will be a central part of the team, will provide the pushback and insulation from intimidation in a large part, what with the league moving away in wittle baby steps from fighting. The ‘muscle’ is going to have to come from big players who actually play, not John Scott anymore, until the NHL in three or four decades gets around to outright banning blows to the head and an effective refereeing system and philosophy.

The article also confirms a lot of what we ‘know’ as Hab fans, that Jarred Tinordi is a great teammate, a great leader who commands respect. Guy Carbonneau can't say this enough, as coach of the Canadian U18 team, he was very impressed by Jarred, who captained the American team.  Carbo constantly refers to the way Jarred talked to his teammates during timeouts, on the bench or on the ice, encouraging them and directing them.  Despite the fretting by some impatient fans, I really don’t think he’s in danger of being traded or waived anytime soon, he’s an asset that’s hard to replace, that is still liable to pay off for the team for years to come.

It also shows that Mike’s difficult first season, which was caused by his bumpy transition to the OHL, was probably due to his poor physical condition because not of laziness, but poor training methods. I can see a well-meaning coach laying out a circuit for his whole team, trying to get everyone challenged, and struggling and failing to account for the giant young man in the group. The twenty pound dumbbells he laid out for the military press station might have been fine for the rest of the group, but allowed Mike to coast through it, unknowingly. It wasn’t what he needed in the first place. But it’s not the will that was lacking, he slavers at the thought of the next workout, his personal trainer says, which is the best attitude for a kid to have.

I loved when it first came out that Mike was tagging along with Jarred, patterning his behaviour after him, making London his new off-season home. That gave me a lot of comfort.

Good interviews with the prospects on the Habs’ website too. Mike McCarron is asked what his plans are for the summer. “Going to be in London, training with Tinner.”

Attaboy! Hope those two push each other to new, uhm, heights.

We spent a lot e-ink this summer on those two, generated lots of sturm und drang, but I believe they’ll be all right. Let’s not rush them, let’s allow them to come to us.