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*JUST
ADDED: CLICK HERE FOR A PEEK BEHIND THE SCENES AT PRACTICE!*
TUESDAY, JANUARY 29, 2008
Another small crowd today at
practice...I'd say around 15 of us there today. Included in the
group were 2 fans who drove down from Pittsburgh for practice
yesterday and today...a guy and a girl. The girl is a Thorburn fan
and wore his jersey and made a sign for him yesterday. He stopped to
talk with them yesterday before and after practice.
 Eric
Perrin was at the facility today but did not
practice. I asked him if he was ok (as he was leaving in his car)
and he said he was fine.
As reported in the Blueland Blog, Colin Stuart was back with the
team today and practiced with the group. He was one of the first
ones back on the ice. We all told him welcome back as he was making
his way to the ice and he seemed happy to be back.
For some reason nobody seemed happy when coming out of the locker
room this morning. Kari did not look at any of us when he was
getting on the ice and did not say anything. The look on his face
was such that we really did not talk to him either though. You could
just tell he was not happy about something.
Normal goalie warm-up drill with Thorburn, Stuart, and Slater taking
shots on Moose and Kari to get them warmed up.
Havelid was sporting a new helmet today. (no numbers on it yet).
And, Recchi has changed sticks. He used to use a white CCM and now
he uses a BLACK CCM. It may be the same model but not sure why he
went from one color to another. By the way, Recchi Jr also uses a
CCM stick (big surprise) although Jr prefers the White model.
According to Mark we will see Recchi Jr here in the next few weeks.
He's coming down for another extended visit. Yes, I will get more
video of Recchi Jr taking advantage of Moose prior to practice.
Holik is also sporting a new stick. It's still a wood stick...but is
a RBK stick vs. a Sherwood. He was looking at it throughout the
practice. Not sure if he'll use it in games yet or not.
Popovic practiced as a forward today which either means he's a
scratch tomorrow and they needed a fwd for practice to make the
drills work...or, he's going to play forward tomorrow. I'd go with
the first option. We asked him if he was playing tomorrow and he
said he did not know. I also asked Craig Custance about it and he
expects Pops to be a scratch tomorrow.
I took video today of what happens on the other end of the ice when
the goalie warm-up drill is going on. Here it is:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBsWj2WfdI0 Duper is the one at the
beginning of the video trying a trick play to pick up the puck with
the stick and throwing it into the net.
One thing I noticed for the first time today is that Toby does not
shoot a lot during warm-ups. He usually skates around with Havelid
and they pass between the two of them. What ended up happening a lot
today is that Toby did the passing more often than not and Havelid
did the shooting.
First drill was with the puck being dumped behind the net, the D men
would pass to forwards at center ice, then would go 3 on 2 vs. 2 D
men in the other zone. No shot on goal. It was a fluid drill going
from one side of the ice to the other and back again with the lines
switching on the fly.
Here's a video.
Next was a drill where the team was split into 2 groups and 2 man
teams would pass the puck down ice and then take a shot on goal.
Here's a video.
Next drill was a pass from the corner to point man who would shoot
on goal with the aid of a deflection from the fwds in front of the
net. Then the same group would practice breaking out of the zone
ending up in a 1 on 1 drill for the next shot.
Here's a video.
After that was a drill where a pass was sent out of the zone, then
brought back in in a 2 on 1 and shot on goal.
Here's a video.
Next was a pass out of the defensive zone with 2 D men versus 3
forwards. The group would then enter the other zone and shoot on
net/maintain zone. Here are 2 videos:
Clip #1,
Clip #2.
The final drill was a long one where the team lined up on the blue
line and a squad would practice digging the puck out of the corners
while the non participating players watched. That drill went on 5 or
more minutes and ended the practice. No video of that drill...was
getting ready for autographs...sorry!
Observations
1. The team took the drills very seriously today. Hard fast skating
and some hitting in the drills, particularly in the last drill where
they practiced one on one battles digging the puck out of the
corners.
2. DW was on the ice the last half of the practice.
3. There was a news crew at the practice today. I've seen more news
crews at practice in the last few weeks than I saw in the entire
first few months of the season.
4. Slava appears to still be on the same line as Holik which means
Stuart is probably on the 2nd line again.
5. Kovy's new S600 Mercedes (White), BiTurbo, is sweet. Have not
seen the Bentley for awhile.
6. Here's a list of players who drive Porsche Cayennes - Kari , Hoss
, Duper
MONDAY, JANUARY 28, 2008:
Light turnout for today's 2pm
practice. I would say there were 15 fans in attendance. Bobby
Holik's daughter was at practice as was Kari's brother. Bobby's
daughter watched the practice from the big set of bleachers and
throughout the practice he kept throwing pucks over the glass to
her. She kept running around trying to catch the pucks as he threw
them over the glass.
Kovy, Hoss, and Toby did not practice today. I suspect the reason is
that the players' union has rules about time off for players during
the all star break. Also not at practice was Kiwi and Larsen. I
talked to Brad as he left the facility and he said he spent the
weekend doing rehab work and that was what he was doing today at the
facility as well. Hoss was at the facility, I assume working out,
but Kovy was not on site. He was probably spending time with his
family and friends who came in for the game and festivities this
weekend.
Kiwi was not there...I believe he's in the AHL All Star Game
tonight.
Normal players on the ice early (Kari, Moose, Havelid, Boults,
Thorburn). Standard goalie warm-up with players taking shots on net.
First thing the players did was skate around the ice in pairs
passing the puck to their partner.
First real drill was taking a pass from a player who was skating the
other way on the ice, taking the puck into the zone, and shooting on
net.
Here's a video.
Next was a slight variation on the first drill. Puck was in one zone
and passed from that zone to player coming into the zone from the
other end of the ice. Then the player who passed the puck in the
first place would attempt to defend against the player coming into
the zone who received the pass in the first place.
Here's a video.
Last drill I saw was a pass between two sides of the ice in one zone
and then take the puck with another player into the other zone and
shoot on net.
Here's a video.
Sorry folks, but I left practice at that point (after 30 minutes)
because my wife asked me to get her All Star ticket signed week by
Hoss and since Hoss was not practicing today I did not want him to
leave the facility without getting the ticket signed. I do know that
the team practiced for about an hour.
Observations:
1. McCrimmon seemed to be pretty pleased with the drills that I saw.
He smiled which does not generally happen during practice.
2. Ken Klee's eye looks horrible. Stitches on the top of his nose
and by his eyebrow along with a black eye.
3. DW was at the facility but not on the ice. I left 2 hours after
practice was over and DWs car was still at the facility.
4. Team skated good today. Fast, crisp, and precise passing during
drills.
5. Moose left the facility with 2 older/retirement age friends from
Manitoba. We talked with them while they were waiting for Moose to
return to the parking lot (he walked Dupuis's daughter...age 3 or
4...into the practice facility to be with her Dad). When Moose and
his friends left all 3 of them were in the front seat of the Buick
they were riding in. Guess you had to be there but it was a funny
sight seeing Moose in the passenger seat next to 2 friends of his in
a Buick.
6. Before the practice the guys were trying Ovechkin's move from the
SO competition at the skills competition. I understand that Boulton,
not to pick on him but he was one who tried it, did not quite have
the same skill level tossing the puck in the air and spinning like
Ovie did/does.
7. Kari drove his Porsche Cayenne today. I asked him why he drove
the "big" Porsche today vs. the "small" Porsche (911) he drove last
week. He said he does not drive the 911 when Don is at practice
because Don gets scared when Kari drives the "small" Porsche. It was
really funny.
8. Slater got a new ride...a Range Rover. He said he's had it for
about 2 months. He laughed and said he got a good deal on it...he
bought it from Bobby Holik.
Again, sorry for the short post today. I got most of the things
signed today I wanted to so I'll have a full report for you
tomorrow.
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