Coach Bell’s Training Camp Notebook: NHL Camp Week 1

Fresh off guiding the Ottawa Senators prospects through the 2025 Prospect Showdown in Montreal last weekend, Belleville Sens Head Coach Dave Bell and his staff are settled into the Nation’s Capital for the next couple of weeks, where they’ll play a supporting role in Ottawa’s training camp.

While he’s there, we’ll be checking in daily with Coach Bell to gain an inside look at what life is like as preparations for the 2025-26 season get underway.

Day 1 – Tuesday, September 16, 2025

Day one of training camp typically sees the coaches spend a lot of time in meetings, while players who are just arriving undergo medical evaluations and get themselves acquainted (or reacquainted) with the facilities around the Canadian Tire Centre (CTC). Coach Bell and his staff, assistants Stefen Legein and Andrew Campbell, goaltending coach Paul Gibson, and video coach Tom Black, spent the first half of the day planning out practices – laying out the structure, drills and details they’ll be going over with players in the week’s first on-ice workouts. These initial practices usually tend to focus on building pace and chemistry, and setting a standard for the rest of camp. And, while the training camp workload is heavy, staff and players will end up with a bit of time to themselves at the end of the day. For Coach Bell and company, that meant a well-deserved trip to an Ottawa-area golf course to let off some steam.

Day 2 – Wednesday, September 17, 2025

Much like day one, the second day of NHL camp sees the AHL staff spend time preparing for the on-ice portions of the week. Players spent the day rolling through the media “car wash” to gather footage for in-arena, promotional, and other content and are getting some screen time, while Coach Bell and company began drilling down on some specific analytics on players.

“We spent the morning building our individual player foundation slides, so if and when they come to Belleville we will meet with them upon arrival and go over our expectations for them individually. We also tailored some goals they’ll need to hit if they want to make the next step to the NHL, and we went over some of  our team objectives as well.

In the afternoon, players took part in orientation meetings for the upcoming season. The presentations touched on things like concussion protocols, new league rules and initiatives (like cut-resistant equipment measures), and any other critical information that players need to have before the season gets going.

Day 3 and 4 – Thursday, September 18 and Friday, September 19, 2025

Players finally hit the ice to begin practices for the final two days of the first week of training camp in Ottawa. Head Coach Dave Bell and his staff move more into a supporting role, as Ottawa Head Coach Travis Green starts going over his systems with players and putting those into practice on the ice. Players also took part in the first scrimmage of camp, to start getting back up to game pace, which Bell said “was nice to see”. Bell says the first couple of practices are usually “pretty standard” and he spends a lot of his time continuing to “evaluate how much work players have put into their summers”.

Some training camp players will get their first taste of game action this Sunday, September 21, when the Senators host the Toronto Maple Leafs in their preseason opener, at Canadian Tire Centre, with a 3:00 p.m. puck drop.

The full 2025-26 Belleville Senators schedule is available here.

Single-game tickets for the first-half of the 2025-26 season are now on sale via Ticketmaster or at the Belleville Sens Box Office located inside the Quinte Sports & Wellness Centre. Details on season seat memberships, flex packs, premium seating, the Business Edge program, and more can be found by visiting the Belleville Sens Website. 

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