Practice 12/4/07

A small turnout for practice today...only 10 fans.

Goalies were out early along with Slater, Thorburn, and Little to take shots on the goalies. One of the drills was a shooter posted in front of the net taking deflection shots on the goalie from another forward in the corner.

Slater and White were trying out new sticks today. Actually, Slater wsa trying out a Warrior stick that he used at the beginning of the season.

Kovy was out earlier than usual. He is the only player on the team that wears his socks over the top of his skates...

DW and Hoss skated around together and had a nice long talk during the warmup part of the practice.

Popovic was not on the ice today. Someone said everyone is healty so I assume that means he's just recovering from sliding into the board feet first the other night in New Jersey. McCarthy took his spot on the ice as he was paired with Zhitnik.

First team drill was getting puck deep in defensive zone to forwards breaking out at blue line. The passing looked better today than usual on this drill.

Another drill was the defensement passing puck from own zone to a forward at the blue line then the forward would take the puck in on a breakaway shot. That shot was followed by 2 forwards in front of net to try a deflection on a shot from a D man on the blue line.

Kari was beaten a few times by Slava early in the practice. At one point Kari smacked him with his stick.

Little had a beautiful goal shot past Kari on the short side. Everyone yelled at how good of a shot and goal it was.

Holik ran over McCarthy and Zhitnik (and Kari for that matter) on one drill..but did not score.

Final main drill was a 3 on 2. Lines for this drill were Slava/Kovy/Hoss, Little/Larsen/Haydar, Slater/Boulton/Dupuis.

DW was on the ice and appeared at time to be a cheerleader for the players as they were doing the drills.

Moose had some great saves during the drills.

There were 1 or 2 tv crews there as well as Craig Custance.


Observations

1. Team mood was better today than last practice. I asked DW about it and he said it was good to see everyone having fun and that he thought it was positive affecting their play.
2. Kari was checking his positioning in front of the net after several shots to make sure he was in the proper position to make the save.
3. I noticed today that all of the players use clear tape on their socks except for Little and X. Little uses masking tape and X uses black tape.
4. Team speed was evident today. The drills were quick, crisp, and the players seemed to be well positioned both offensively and defensively.
5. Kari appears to be healthy although a few times he would shake his right leg almost as if to stretch it out.