Practice 12/11/07

Little sent to Chicago and Haydar on waivers....glad I got Bryan to sign that stick today...

Around 20 people in attendance for practice today. This is the second day in a row where there was a TV camera on site. Hope that trend (the TV camera) continues.

Popovic was on the ice 30 minutes prior to the scheduled practice time of 10 am. Moose and Kari came out shortly thereafter followed by Havelid, Recchi, Slater, Dupuis, Enstrom, and Little. Today was a bit different in that none of the forwards took shots on the goalies. Steve Weeks did the shooting on the goalies.

Waddell was on the ice the entire practice.

Drills today were variations of the normal drills which we routinely see. Puck was dumped behind defensive side goal and was passed out by D men to forward to took pass at blue line and shot. Then, next time around same drill except forward was waiting next to offensive side goal for deflection.

There was a transition drill today where 10 players (plus goalies) were on the ice. The D men would pass to their 3 forwards who would carry the puck into the offensive zone with little resistance from other 2 D men. Once in the zone other 3 forwards would come onto the ice to match up with the 2 D men on the other end of the ice. The puck was shot and then transitioned into the other zone. There was alot of tape to tape passing in this drill. The D men and forwawards were constantly switching in and out.

One line I saw alot was Recchi, Slava, and Perrin.

Another drill was 3 forwards lined up in front of the offensive side goal and then the D men would take a shot. Either the forwards would deflect the shot or work to get the rebound and shoot. The 3 forwards would then act as forwards for the goalie's side as if they were shortanded while 3 other forwards would come onto the ice...thus creating a PP/PK practice drill. It was pretty slick to watch.

McCrimmon at one point skated up next to Enstrom (right infront of where us fans sit) and I am not a lip reader but I swear he told Toby "too passive". If that is indeed what he said I'll let you decide for yourself what he was trying to say to Enstrom.

Other than Recchi line above all lines were pretty normal.

DW addressed the team at around 50 minutes into the practice. Only thing I could really hear was "Boston is a good 1st period team". I've not seen DW address the team on the ice in the middle of practice. Wonder if he was talking about possible roster changes...probably not but who really knows.

The end of practice was on one end some of the forwards (Kovy, Hoss, Slava, ect...practicing shoot out shots).

Now, the question which I've been asked more than any other....how fast, or not, is Recchi. I spent time today just watching him skate. He is not fast or slow. He is in the middle. I don't think we'll see him skating by any better than average defensemen and taking the puck to the net. My opinion, albeit limited to watching 2 practices with him, is that he's going to be used on the PP and maybe a few shifts. DW probably wanted to help the PP and add some veteran leadership to the team and that's why he went out and got Recchi...not for his speed.


Observations

1. Enstrom's stick has little or no bend. That probably helps with his passing...which we all know is pretty good.
2. Kari was very sharp in the goalie drills he was doing with Steve Weeks. Very good movement in the crease. Very sharp positioning and rebound control. Later in practice, however, he was letting in more shots than normal. I could not tell if he was letting them in because he was not trying too hard at that point or if they were just good shots.


Then I stayed to watch Boston practice. I'll not outline their drills but here are some observations of their practice.

1. Their drills entailed, for most of the practice, a line and D men doing the drill with everyone else standing around watching the drill. Once one line was done they would switch and then another line would go. Our drills usually take up both ends of the ice and run at the same time. Not Boston, they do it one at a time.
2. Their coaches almost seemed to recommend drills to the players then the players would talk amongst themselves about how the drill would be done. Then the drill would begin.
3. Marco Sturm got cut badly in the eye last game or game before. It looked horrible. I don't think I saw him skating during the practice but he was with the team on and off the bus.
4. Charra is HUGE. I think the top of Toby's head would just barely make it over Charra's beltline.
5. I was not too impressed with the Bruin's practice. Not as much skating as we see from our guys. No real drills for the goalies.