There's an art to watching prospect camp, or so I presume. I still haven't gotten the hang of it and it usually takes a day or two to get into the swing of things.

When the players hit the ice it's hard to know not just who to watch, but how to watch. With 30-odd players that you aren't overly familiar with on the ice everything is just a blur. Nameless numbers flying around.

So the first step is to get your hands on a roster with jersey numbers. If you plan to go this week you can print off this one or pick one up off of the front row of the bleachers. If there aren't any there bug the PR staff for one and tell them I put you up to it.

So now you have a roster with numbers. Good. Where do you go from there?

Pick a few players to watch. There's no way you're going to get a read on anyone, so don't even try. The professional scouts that are watching won't even form impressions of all the players in one day, so don't worry about it.

There are two easy ways to pick who to watch.

1. Pick a few names and numbers from the list (Bogosian, Esposito, Holzapfel, Machacek and Kulda are good starts).
2. Ignore the list and watch everyone for a few minutes to see who jumps out, then watch those players.

I went mostly with the second method today and different players jumped out for different reasons. Here are the various thoughts that popped into my head as I watched the first 30 minutes without regard to a player's status.

Other news and tidbits form the first day of camp:

There are still a few lingering questions that need to be cleared up this week- what is Zach Bogosian's nickname (Bogo? Bogy? Bogs? Something else?) and how does Riley Holzapfel pronounce his last name?

So how did the first day go overall?

Well, Zach Bogosian easily stole the show. Four TV crews showed p this afternoon and they were there to see two players- Bogosian and local boy Vinny Saponari. Bogosian handled himself well in front of the cameras and made an early impression on head coach John Anderson who called him the best player on the ice. Not bad for the youngest kid on the ice. The third overall pick in this year's draft won't even turn 18 until next week. When the head coach of the parent club comes out of the gate praising him you know it bodes well for his future with the team.

For is part Bogosian told TV crews that he's looking forward to competing for a roster spot in the fall and that he's going to do everything he can to make it hard for the Thrashers to send him back to Peterborough (he's too young to play in the AHL or ECHL). Bogosian is one of the most physically mature players at the camp and might be the most talented as well. That's a dangerous combination for anyone that has to compete with him for a roster spot in September.

In other news, I caught up with Niklas Lasu and Zach Redmond after the day's on-ice activities today. They were the only two of this year's seven draft picks that I hadn't met yet and I wanted to find out a bit more about them.

Lasu is a Swedish forward who is probably a bit bigger than his listed size of 5-11, 180 lbs. This is his first visit to the US and he's looking forward to seeing the city. His first impressions? Everything is big and it's really hot.

I asked Lasu to describe is style of play for those of us who haven't had the pleasure of seeing him play.

"Well..." he said in his thickly accented English. "I like to hit people."

Nice.

"I like to make my teammates better and make it hard for the other players."

Even though he had 53 points in 41 games for Frolunda's junior team this past season he doesn't see himself as a scorer. He's a defensive specialist and a pest who models himself after underappreciated Bruin PJ Axelsson (who happens to be one of my all-time favorite role players) and Dallas Star Joel Lundqvist. Lasu doesn't know any of the current Swedish Thrashers (I don't know why I thought he would but I still asked) but is well aware of Toby Enstrom's success. Lasu will make the jump to Frolunda's second division senior team this year and he's excited about playing against grown men instead of other junior-aged players. They're bigger targets.

Zach Redmond is a smooth-skating defenseman who likes to rush the puck.

"I pass more than I shoot but I like to jump up," he told me.

When I told him that John Anderson's philosophy is that all of his defensemen have the green light to jump into the play if they have a chance to score his eyes lit up.

"That sounds great to me."

Redmond was born in Houston but moved to Michigan when he was about two. He's been there ever since and will be a sophomore at Ferris State next season. He's very happy with how his freshman year went (6G, 13A and 19PTS in 37 games) and he's expecting to play an even larger role next season. His coach has told him he'll get plenty of ice-time if he shows up to play and there's no doubt that Redmond is up for the challenge.

And that's it for day one. I'll be back tomorrow with news from day two during the day if I can find some desk space to use.