Your source for the latest news, views and observations from the Atlanta Thrashers practice arena.

ALLEN IVERSON

"TALKIN' 'BOUT PRACTICE"

Cunneyworth did a great new drill with the guys at the beginning of practice. He brought out a 4 x 4 piece of wood which had a hole cut on the bottom that was 2 or so pucks high and 3 pucks wide. Along with that were two sticks that had bases affixed to them so they could sit on the ice. He put the wood on the goal line and the sticks outside the crease pointing in toward the posts at an angle. A player would stand in the slot and take saucer passes and then lift the puck in the top of the net. Then the player would take pucks which were bounced off the wood and would also go "roof" with the shot. It was a great drill. I thought Thorburn was very good at lifting the puck compared to the other players.

Bogy skated around and bounced the puck off his stick 17 times without the puck hitting the ice.

Reasoner has a big 'ol black eye and stitches.

Lines were pretty much as we have seen. Sterling was in with the "Greek God" line.

Army was late on the ice but he practiced and seemed fine. I asked him if his head was hurting at all and he said he was ok. He also said his fiancée said that they showed the replay of his face hitting the ice on TV Saturday night "like 100 times".

Kari's glove hand looks faster than it used to. I can tell he has been working on it. Even with that said, Williams was having his way with Kari early in practice...Kari could not stop Jason like 4 times in a row.

Rather than outline all the drills I’ll make some basic comments about the drills today.

1. It was obvious that the coach wants the lines to work the puck up the ice by passing. Several drills focused on this today.

2. Everyone on the team participated in a drill where they had their skates along the boards and had to first stop it with their right foot, then next time on the drill their left foot, and control the puck and then pass or shoot it. Apparently Anderson feels they needed practice at this as they did it for a good 5-8 minutes.

3. Everyone participated in a drill where they battled in the corner for the puck (1 F and 1 D) and then skated to the front of the net to accept a pass and shoot on net. Seemed like he wants them to get used to being in front of the net and shooting. (as in the drill with the board and sticks I started out describing).

4. Along with that, there were a few drills where the puck was shot from the point and a player was in front of the net to deflect the shot with his stick. Another drill with a player in front of the net. I suspect Anderson recognizes what a lot of us have talked about regarding our guys not getting in front of the opposing goalie.

It was a long practice...a full hour with most of the players staying on the ice a good 15 minutes extra.

Observations

1. Spirit of the team is different than I have seen. Whatever team building exercises and team talk Anderson is giving is working. It is hard to explain but it is different. Players get upset with themselves when they don't perform the way they want to and it seems like they don't want to let their teammates down.

2. Anderson is a players' coach. He takes shots with them, talks with them like a player, and is one of them.



 

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