Pro hockey: Hawks to train at Notre Dame

The Chicago Blackhawks will begin preparation for the defense of their Stanley Cup championship Sept. 12 when they open training camp at Notre Dame.

The Hawks will train for four days (Sept. 12-15) at the Compton Family Ice Arena on the Notre Dame campus. They will return to the United Center on Sept. 16 for their annual training camp festival. Tickets for that are $5 and go on sale at 10 a.m. Friday.

“We are thankful that Notre Dame is allowing us to host our camp at their new state-of-the-art, world-class facility,” said Hawks general manager Stan Bowman, a Notre Dame alum. “Opening camp on the road offers our players and coaching staff a unique team bonding atmosphere. We look forward to bringing Blackhawks hockey to our fans in Northwest Indiana.”

The Hawks open the 2013-14 NHL regular season Oct. 1 at home against the Washington Capitals. Their sixth annual fan convention begins Friday.

Russians invite Datsyuk to camp

The Russians’ effort to win an Olympic gold medal on their home turf in February will, naturally, include Detroit Red Wings forward Pavel Datsyuk, the Detroit Free Press reported.

Datsyuk, 35, was among the 35 players invited Monday by the Russian Hockey Federation to a camp scheduled for Aug. 23-24 in Sochi, site of the next Winter Games. The news comes on the same day Hockey Canada announced Mike Babcock will be back behind Canada’s bench in hopes of following up on the gold medal Canada won at the 2010 Games.

Datsyuk is a slam-dunk selection, of course. He has skills that make the best defenders in the world look inept.

Olympic hockey is the rare area of the sport in which success has eluded Datsyuk. He captured bronze at the 2002 Salt Lake City Games but left Torino in 2006 in fourth place, followed by a nationally embarrassing sixth-place finish in 2010. There will be tremendous pressure on the Russians to succeed on home ice, just like the Canadians did in Vancouver.