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*CLICK HERE FOR A PEEK BEHIND THE SCENES AT PRACTICE!*
THURSDAY, MARCH 6, 2008
Interesting day today at the Ice
Forum. It was a late arriving crowd...just like at Philips...and I'd
say that there were 15-20 of us there for the practice today.
As usual, Moose and Popovic were out early followed by Thorburn and
Slates.
Slates is trying another new stick (an Easton like the one Duper
used). With him being on somewhat of a scoring streak I'm not sure
why he's trying a new stick. Thorburn also was trying a new
stick...he's going from Easton to Warrior.
Ok, once the bulk of the team was on the ice Weeks had some of the
shooters warming up Kari and Moose. Nothing too earth shattering
thus far.
DW was on the ice (actually behind the bench) for the entire
practice.
Kari had his new mask on today. Like his pads, he apparently likes
to break in new equipment for a while before using it in a game
situation. I tried to get pictures but soon found out that my camera
(video too) was out of battery life. Sorry...I thought it was
charged but no luck.
There were only 2 drills today.
First drill was a warm-up drill where the players started at center
ice and did some touch passes and then took the puck in for a shot.
After the first shooter took his shot he waited in front of the net
for the next shooter and acted as a screen and/or tried to deflect
the shot of the next guy coming in. Kari got beat a lot in this
drill.
There was no emotion from anyone on the ice. Usually when Slava
scores on Kari he yells. Not today. No emotion, no joy, no nothing.
(at least that's my opinion...I could be wrong)
Second drill, which lasted 25 minutes was a simple 2 on 2 drill. The
team was split into 2 teams and they started out on the 2 benches. 2
guys from each team basically went at it 2 on 2 for what appeared to
be a 30-45 second shift. Weeks would blow the whistle to tell them
when to come off and go onto the ice. It was nothing fancy and
appeared to me to be the coaching staff telling the team "If you
don't want to work during our practices and during the games here's
a drill in which you WILL work." Up and down the ice they went...for
25 straight minutes with no breaks.
I commented to some fellow fans that it had the feeling of training
camp where the players were really going at it, banging into each
other, and skating hard. When their shift was over Weeks yelled at
the guys coming off the ice to skate hard off the ice (which, in my
opinion they did not do).
It was unbelievable how long the drill lasted. Half way through the
players were obviously tired but it went on and on. DW was behind
one bench with Weeks and Beast was on the other bench.
X rode Little into the boards and he was shaken a bit. He skated
back to the bench very slowly and humped over.
When someone would make a good play there were some cheers from that
player's bench. That was about all of the emotion on the ice today.
White did not skate but he was at the facility.
Observations
1. Tough practice today. As I said above, no emotions.
2. Popovic again skated as a forward. I asked him when he came off
the ice when he was going to practice as a defensemen, He did not
answer. I told him that I wanted to see him practice as a D man
because that meant that he was actually going to play as a D man. He
smiled. I told him then that I really wanted to see him on the ice.
He thought about it for a minute and said "me too".
3. Christensen was the last one off the ice. He stayed and skated
with Beast's kid after everyone else was off the ice.
4. Kovy left the ice without signing autographs. He also left the
facility quickly and did not sign anything as he was leaving.
5. Kari also did not sign as he came off the ice (he usually comes
back from the locker room after taking off his equipment but did not
do so today)
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