Talkin' About Practice

New Website

2007-12-16T18:06:00.000-05:00

I've created a new website where all future practice posts and information will be shown. The website address is ThrashPractice.com. (not case sensitive)

Please check it out and let me know what you think. If there is anything you want to see added to the site just let me know. My email address is thrashpractice@yahoo.com.

Thanks!

Practice 12/13/07

2007-12-13T12:32:00.001-05:00

Today turned out to be an optional practice for the team. As such, here are the players who practiced:

Kari
Slater
Thorburn
McCarthy
Haydar
Zhitnik
Boulton

I did not stay the entire practice as it was not all that exciting to watch the 7 players who did practice do their drills.

The drill(s) I saw centered around passing in the neutral zone followed by 1 or 2 of the players taking the pass and going in to shoot on Kari. The passing was both touch passes as well as tape to tape open ice passes.

There were about 23 fans in attendance. Some of them left after a few minutes to wait out next to the player parking lot for autographs as the players drove out of the facility. It looked like all the players were in the facility but just not on the ice.

No observations today because, as I said before, there were only 7 players skating and there was not much to observe.

Practice 12/11/07

2007-12-11T15:13:00.000-05:00

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.

Practice 12/10/07

2007-12-10T12:02:00.000-05:00

I will be starting a new website in the coming weeks on which I will post my practice blog. The website is thrashpractice.com. Look for it in the next week or so.

Not that big of a turnout today (fan wise). There were 20 fans in attendance. However, the media was well represented by Craig Custance, a TV crew, and Jeff Shultz from the AJC. They were apparently there today because Mark Recchi practiced with the team for the first time.

As usual, Moose was first on the ice followed by Kari. They warmed up with a somewhat normal skating drill within the faceoff circles. The drill was skating forward, backward, and side to side.

Then Thorburn, Little, Slater, and Recchi came onto the ice. Thorburn, Slater, and Little took shots on the goalies.

Weeks had what sounded (from afar) like a pep talk with Kari. The two words I could actually hear were "pisse_ off". I could be wrong, but I think Steve was telling Kari to forget the game on Saturday and come out to play like he was pisse_ off.

Slater talked to Recchi for awhile when Recchi came out onto the ice. They appeared to be talking about Mark's new blue gloves (guess he had to get new gloves because the black ones he wore in Pittsburgh probably would be a bit of a color clash with our uniforms...)

McCarthy is sporting a new Easton stick these days (much like the ones that Boulton and Tobias use).

The team moved onto the alternate ice surface at the beginning of the scheduled practice (10 am). Once there they started with a drill where the puck was dumped behind our own zone net and brought out by a forward and skated down the ice by a line of 3 forwards. Once in the offensive zone the forward took a shot on net. After the first shot was taken 2 D men would enter the offensive zone and would then take the next shot with the 3 forwards posted in front of or around the net.

Here are some of the line combos I saw at the beginning of practice today:

Haydar / Little / Slater
Thorburn / Slava / Holik
Slater / Boulton / Dupuis
Larsen / Perrin / Recchi
Kovy / White / Hoss

Kovy was really hot and scoring on almost every shot at the beginning of practice.

The next drill was a 2 on 2 with two forwards entering the offensive zone and taking a shot. Then a shot would come in from the following D men and the 2 forwards would attempt a deflection.

The last drill was a 5 on 5 drill starting in one zone and then when the team of 5 lost possession the play would move to the other zone with a new line of 3 forwards coming out to take the place of the 3 forwards which had started on the ice. The D men also rotated into the play as well.

Here are some other line combinations I noticed at the end of the practice:

Little / Haydar / Perrin
Recchi / Slater / Boulton
Kovy / White / Hoss
Thorburn / Slava / Holik
Slater / Boulton / Dupuis
Recchi / Little / Larsen
Larsen / Perrin / Recchi

There was no practice again on the power play.

At the end of the official practice Kovy was on the far end of the ice apparently practicing his shootout moves against the Moose. He probably took 10 shots or so on Moose.

Observations

1. Recchi takes very small strides when he is trying to skate fast. His skating motion just kind of sticks out compared to the other players.
2. Recchi is wearing #8
3. The practice drills appear to be designed by both McCrimmon and Weeks. I say this because today McCrimmon would explain part of the drill to the team and then Weeks would chime in with his thoughts (I think he was explaining to either the D men or goalies what he wanted to see happen during the drill...could be wrong).
4. Larsen appeared to get cut on the right side of his face during the practice as the asst. training was holding a towel against that part of his face/head for a long time during one of the stoppages in practice. I did not see him come off the ice so I don't know for sure what happened.
5. It was apparent to me that they tried Recchi with many people/lines (other than the top line) to see if there were any early signs of chemistry between him and the other players.
6. Recchi did not appear to "gel" with any line or players in particular. I think they will have him on the 3rd and 4th lines and see what happens. Since there was no PP practice today I could not tell what PP line he will be on.
7. Recchi has reasonably good speed but is nowhere close to Dupuis or Kovy. I would say he's slightly faster than Larsen.

Practice 12/6/07

2007-12-06T13:04:00.000-05:00

Good turnout today for a mid week practice. It started at 11 which probably made it easier for fans to take a "long lunch" to go and watch practice. There were 40 people in attendance today.

As usual (except when he was the starting goalie most nights when Kari was out) Moose was out first. Havelid soon joined Moose and took shots on the Moose.

Kari came out and then he and Moose skated down to the other net for some drills with Steve Weeks. Kari and Moose at one point took off their practice jerseys and traded. Apparently they had each others' jerseys on when they hit the ice. When they were switching jerseys I got a look at the equipment they wear. Kari has much larger shoulder padding (higher atop his shoulder area) than the Moose does. I also noticed that Kari is letting his hair grow out and currently is not sporting any coloring effects to his hair (ie, no highlights...I think that is what they are called... like he's had before). Weeks did a specific drill with the goalies where he would have them start in the middle of the crease and then slide to the post to block a low shot.

Kovy and Hoss were not on the ice today. They were at the facility but not on the ice.

The first drill was a passing drill I have not seen before. It entailed skating and passing and then shooting from just inside the blue line McCrimmon stopped everyone after 2 minutes of the drill and basically gave them a pretty big and loud tongue lashing including the F bomb many times. We could hear it all the way over in the stands. They then started the drill again and apparently he was happier with their efforts as they moved onto another drill after 4 minutes.

At one point Tobias stood up Haydar when he was entering the zone on the next drill which was a variation of the first drill. Basically Toby dropped Haydar. X was most pleased with this as he started yelling and banging his stick on the boards.

As normal, the drills were competition based so when one side/team made a good shot and goal the players would cheer.

Kari was once again checking his positioning after several of the shots to see if he was in the proper place to address the shooter and make the save.

The last drill was a three on two drill with a trailing D man coming in to maintain pressure in the offensive zone.

Observations

1. There is no joy on Zhitnik's face during practices. Everyone else, at times, seems to have some fun and yell or cheer. Not Zhitnik. Hopefully if his play and stats improve he will demonstrate a bit more of a playful or fun attitude during practice.

2. The players only skated for 30 minutes. Todd White said that with the back to back games coming up this Friday and Saturday they did not want to practice too long today.

3. No PP work was done today. Given that we were 0 for 9 last night I went to practice thinking we would see some PP work.

4. No DW on the ice today.

5. I have not seen McCrimmon as animated and upset at practice as he was today. Perhaps he is starting to take more of an overt and direct charge with the players.

6. Hoss was walking around the locker room by the door before practice in some workout clothes. He was happy and upbeat so I think he was working out in back and getting some treatment.

Practice 12/4/07

2007-12-04T11:29:00.000-05:00

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.

Practice 11/30/07

2007-11-30T13:12:00.000-05:00

A fairly good turnout of fans today for practice. Given that it was Friday I was expecting more of a turnout although I would guess that there were around 30 people in attendance.

As usual the goalies were first on the ice. Weeks came out and did more skating drills with Ondrej and Moose. The goalies were in the crease and had to state side to side and then to the top of the crease. Then Slater, Haydar, and Thorburn came out to take shots on the goalies.

Slater looked to have tweaked his left wrist as he took his left glove off several times and was looking at his wrist and stretching it.

Weeks then had the shooters post 5 feet in front of the net and take one timers from passes that came from the corners behind or beside the net.

During this drill the goalies let in quite a few shots.

Then McCrimmon had a dump and chase drill. One common theme of the practice, once everyone got on the ice that is, was dump and chase and digging pucks from the boards in the corners behind the net. There were a few drills where the puck would be shot into the corner and taken out by a D man and then skated down the ice at which point it would be dumped into the zone.

They did the normal 2 on 1 and 3 on 2 drills. Today though there seemed to be more work done on digging the pucks off the boards than usual. Some of the time was spent carrying the puck out of the defensive zone and into the offensive zone.

Do not recall seeing any work on the PP today.

Observations:

1. No laughs and only a few smiles today.
2. Players seemed to skate harder today than usual. Some contact with other players along the boards which was harder than usual.
3. Goalies let in alot of shots especially in the drill where the player was posted in front of the net.
4. More emphasis on dump and chase today than usual.
5. Ondrej stayed on the ice for a good amount of time after Moose left.
6. DW was on the ice most of the practice which is unusual.
7. McCrimmon was evidently not happy with the play last night because he had longer conversations than usual with the players when setting up a drill. It appeared that he was going over what when wrong last night (on the white board) and then would talk the players through the drill so as to show them how to improve on the areas that need work.
8. No autographs from Holik today.
9. Kovy seems to be spending more time signing autographs lately than he has in the past.

Practice 11/28/07

2007-11-28T12:21:00.000-05:00

Smaller turnout today than normal at practice. I would say there were 20 people in attendance. Craig Custance from the AJC was there as well as a SportsSouth camera crew who did interviews in the locker room after practice. There was also another journalist there who I have not seen before. One of the PR guys talked to her and took her into the locker room for a tour. I heard her ask the PR guy which player was Kovy...

Moose and Ondrej were on the ice early with Darren Elliot taping some type of advertisement or video clip. After Moose and Ondrej went to start practicing Darren still continued to work with the video guys taking some shots on net.

As usual, Nik and Tobias were the first on the ice. They took turns taking breakaway shots on the goalies. It took quite awhile for one of the two D men to score on Ondrej. Finally after maybe 6 shots each Toby scored high glove side. Popovic came out and joined in. At one point Pops did a spin o rama on Moose and scored. Everyone laughed. Then, Moose took a breakaway shot on Ondrej and missed high glove side (missed the net actually). It was funny to see a goalie taking a breakaway/shootout shot on another goalie.

Something unusual then happened...Kovy/Hoss/Slava all came on the ice one after the other. It was one of the only times I remember those three guys coming out onto the ice before most of the other players. The entire first PP line came onto the ice early and did 15 minutes of PP practice time. One the ice was Kovy, Hoss, Slava, Tobias, and Holik was posted infront of the net. Kovy and Tobias rotated at the point. The goal of the drill appeared to be puck movement in the zone and then a shot on net with Holik either screening the goalie or deflecting the puck (rocket science, isn't it).

By 10 am the entire team was on the ice and they skated on the normal sheet for a short time then went to the other side of the practice facility to skate on the other sheet.

Once on the other side they worked a long time on a drill where the D men would dig the puck out of the corners behind their net and pass the puck out of the zone to a forward who then took the puck into the offensive zone. At that point they would either shoot or post a forward/center in front of the net for a deflection.

For some reason it seemed like Hoss and Slava were on the same pairing alot during this drill. Kovy was paired with Dupuis quite a bit as well. (not saying lines are changing, just an observation).

After 30 minutes the team switched back to the normal sheet of ice. During the transition Holik and Hoss talked to Holik's dad who was in attendance. They seemed to be having a pretty good long conversation although I could not understand what they were saying because it was not in english.

Once on the other sheet they did their normal 3 on 2 drill. McCrimmon almost immediately stopped the drill once on the other sheet because he and DW did not like what they were seeing. He huddled everyone together at mid ice along the boards and talked to them for a good 1-2 minutes. Then they went back out and started the drill again.

The practice ended with some of the players leaving the ice early. X was the first to leave which was unusual. The top PP line then again formed at the far end of the ice to do their PP drills/practice again. They practiced the PP again for another 10 minutes straight. The gist of the time seemed to be to have sharper and quicker passes, posting someone in front of the net minder, and getting deflections at net.

Observations

1. Tobias continues to impress with his skating and passing abilities. He is truly gifted in these areas.
2. Klee continues to work hard and seems to be comfortable with X. The two guys seem to compliment each others
game.
3. Kovy had fun today. He got alot of pucks in the net today during practice.
4. Hoss was hitting the net but not scoring as much as Kovy.
5. Slava, The Professor, did alot of taking to Kovy during the various drills.
6. Steve Weeks eye (that got hit with the puck a few weeks ago) is almost totally healed now.

Another practice post will be done after the practice this Friday

Thanksgiving day practice, 11/22/07

2007-11-22T13:10:00.000-05:00

Another good turnout for practice today. I would say there were probably 40 people were in attendance.

Ken Klee's three sons and, I believe, Todd White's son were on the ice over an hour before practice started. Ken would come out of the locker room and give skating tips to the kids from time to time.

When Kari and Ondrej came on the ice Ken said to Kari "How was practice yesterday"? It was a joke about how the team had a game and Kari had practice...Kari laughed and smiled.

Today was the second practice in a row where Kovy, Slava, Hoss, X, and Klee were not on the ice. Joining the "non practicing" players was Boulton, White, and Toby. DW, as usual, was not on the ice but did come out of the locker room for a brief chat with the fans.

Kari does not have his new goalie mask yet, or atleast if he has it he's not using it yet.

As with practice on Tuesday, Ondrej and Kari came out early. They did the same basic drills as Tuesday where they practiced skating/sliding side to side in and out of the goal crease. Then Thorburn, Haydar, DuPuis, and White came out and took turns taking shots on net with the goalies in the crease.

Ondrej looked sharp and Kari was better today...both in his play and mood.

Ondrej said he is playing Saturday which means the Moose will be playing against the Devils tomorrow in Blueland.

Again, as in prvious McCrimmon practices the players did touch pass drills at center ice with one man breakaway shots between the face off dots and then two/three man breakaways.

Moose left the ice early. It simply appeared he had practiced enough.

Observations

1. McCrimmon continues to run fast paced, competition based, drills with the squad. The players seem to like the competition part of the drills and it appears to make the drills fun for them.
2. Kovy's car was not at the practice facility. I did not see if Hoss or Slava's cars were there or not.
3. McCarthy does not look happy. Obviously he's not too excited about being a healthy scratch or having such poor stats at this point in the season (minus 12 or so with no goals or assists yet).

Practice 11/20/07

2007-11-20T13:48:00.001-05:00

Pretty good turnout today by fans for today's practice. I'd say there musy have been 30 people there which is not bad considering that most of the schools are not out yet for the holiday.

Kari and Ondrej started out the practice by coming out first and doing some skating drills. Weeks had them moving forward, back, side to side, back, and then to the place where they started. If Kari's injury was bothering him it was not evident from how he skated during the drill.

Thorburn and Haydar then came out to take some shots on Kari and Ondrej. Moose had come out onto the ice at that point but was on the other side of the ice taking shots from Havelid. Kari looked ok, as did Ondrej, except it was evident that Kari was fighting the puck a bit.

Here are a list of the players who I noticed did not skate: Kovy, Hoss, Slava, X, Klee, Holik, and Slater. I believe the rest of the team was on the ice. Waddell was not on the ice but did come out from the locker room for a few minutes to talk to some people. The players who did not skate were at the facility so they were probably in the back with the trainer or working out.

The first main drill was an interesting skating/passing drill. Three players would skate down the ice a few feet apart from each other. They had 2 pucks for 3 players and first then went to 3 pucks. They objective was to constantly pass the puck between the three players while skating down the ice. It was kind of like juggling the puck between the 3 players with there always being a pass in process.

The next drill was a touch pass drill where the players did touch passes at center ice and then came into the offensive zone 3 on 1 and took a shot. They did this drill for quite some time.

The final drill was 2 men against the goalie. They had to score or else they were forced to skate the length of the ice. If they scored they only skated back to center ice.

As you would expect, there was alot of laughs and fun today given the team's recent success.

Moose left earlier than the other two goalies who were two of the last players to leave the ice. Little was the last player to leave the ice as Ken Klee's kids were on the ice with him after the main practice was over. Little was playing goalie and the two Klee boys were taking shots.

Waddell's daughter also skated after most of the players had left the ice.

Observations

1. The players seem to enjoy the practices now more than they did under Hartley...even when we were winning under Hartley. McCrimmon has good drills which the players seem to enjoy as most of the drills have some element of competition to them (ie, the players against the goalies or the players on one side of center ice versus the players on the other side).

2. Kari was not happy during practice. To me it seems like he wants to be stopping all the shots he faces during practice but is just not back to where he needs to be yet for that to happen. He was ok after practice when he was signing autographs but overall I would not say he was in a good mood during the practice.

3. Steve Weeks has a black eye and it looked like he got some stiches after getting hit in the eye with the puck last week during practice.

4. The AJC was there covering the practice (not Custance, but Carroll) so I expect to see a story out of her in the AJC before too long.

Next post will be Thursday afternoon late after the Turkey day practice.

Practice 11/12/2007

2007-11-12T12:41:00.000-05:00

As usual, Moose was out first today. Ondrej joined him soon thereafter. Within a few minutes Slater, Thorburn, and Little were taking turns shooting at the goalies. The goalie would face the right ring shooter then turn immediately to face a shot from the left wing. They would rotate who took the shots from where to practice lateral mobility of the goalies (because, as we heard the other night from the FL announcers, Ondrej has lateral mobility issues).

Before Moose and Ondrej came out Bobby Holik's daughter was on the ice skating and taking shots. Bobby's father was there too (at least I think it was his father).

Slater is using a new stick. He's swtched from the Warrior he used at the beginning of the season to an Easton.

Haydar is also using a new stick. He said he was forced to switch because they stopped making his old stick. (I think he used to use a Reebok sickkick.)

Enstrom and Havelid then came out on the ice and skated together. Toby would feed Nik passes and Nik would shoot. They spoke to each other in Sweedish. They seem to be bonding as a team.

A new guy was in and out of the locker today. I saw him try to park in the players' lot but ended out where us fans park. He went into and out of the locker a few times. I am not saying he's a new player but perhaps a family member of one of the players.

Drills were pretty much as usual. One on one vs the goalie, two on one, three on one, then 5 on 3. No focused power play or PK drills. No drills digging pucks from the corner or one on one battles to dig the puck from the boards like they have had in the past.

Steve Weeks too a puck in the eye during the first 30 minutes and hit the ice. He was bleeding after being hit with a backhand slot that deflected off a stick and directly into his eye. He left the practice and went to the Dr. Waddell came in for the second half of practice to help on ice.

Kovy did not skate today. His car was at the facility so he was probably back working out or getting some treatment on his back from the trainer.

Ondrej got beat a few times high glove side which was something new. Then later in practice he made some unbelievable saves with his glove.

Hoss and Ondrej talk on the ice more than Hoss seems to talk to other players. Given that they are both from the same country this is not a big surprise.

Holik looked more offensive (scoring/shooting I mean) than usual. He was driving to the net more than I've seen in other practices.

Observations

1. Team spirit was as high today as I've seen thus far this season. Everyone, except for Weeks, was having a good time on the ice and working hard.

2. The team started out on the regular ice surface, then moved to the other sheet, and then back to the regular sheet. The guy who takes care of the ice said it's because the goalies are working before the practice begins so they skate awhile on the regular side before going to the other side. When they are on the other side he resurfaces the regular side, then the team moves back over and finishes on the regular side.

3. Hoss may be going back to us usual (last season at least) Warrior stick. He switched to a Mission this season and carried both the Mission and Warrior out with him today.

4. No changes with any pairings I saw. McCarthy and Popovic skated together. Not sure if that means they could be paired together or not.

Practice 11/7/2007

2007-11-07T13:03:00.000-05:00

There was a low turnout for practice today amongst the players and fans in attendance. Here's a list of the players who were not on the ice for practice

Kovalchuk
Hossa
Holik
Kozlov
White
Enstron
X
Klee
Havelid (although he did come out in shorts and a tee shirt to skate for about 3 minutes before returning to locker room)

Kovy's car was not on the lot either so he was probably out having an MRI (as listed on the message board).

The Don was not on the ice either. As usual these days, McCrimmon / Weeks / Tony ran the practice.

Here is an overview of the drills which were run today.
.
1. Breakaway drill shooter on goalie
2. Drill where player took pass at blue line and skated around coach between face off dots and took a shot.
3. Two on one breakaway drill with shot on goalie
4. Three on two breakaway drill with shot on goalie. This drill featured pass from one wing to the other wing (long pass) with several passes afterward before shot on goal.
5. Two man drill where multiple touch passes between players followed by entering the zone and shot on goal.
6. Three on one defenseman drill and then maintaining zone with multiple shots.
7. Goalies as a team/duo versus two shooters. If the goalie made multiple saves the shooters had to skate hard the length of the ice to the other goal. If they shooters scored they only had to skate back to the blue line.
8. Weeks did shooting drill against goalies where they would make sharp movements from one post to the other and then face shot from Weeks. (this was the first time in awhile where I saw a drill with a coach and goalies only. was wondering why goalies did not get individual practice time with coach...and it happened today).

Observations

1. Ondrej does not like to be scored on in practice. He and Moose (much more than Kari) seem to treat practice more like a game whereas Kari appears to try hard on some shots and not others.
2. As usual, Moose was first on ice.
3. Boulton has a nice cut on his left eye which is healing. Probably from his scrap the other night.
4. It was colder that usual in the practice facility...probably because it was cold outside last night.
5. Ondrej skates very well. He is almost in Moose's league when it comes to the skating drills.
6. Ondrej has an exceptionally fast glove. He got beat a few times high glove side but compared to Kari (not a knock on Kari) he is very hard to beat high glove side.
7. The drills under McCrimmon are shorter in duration and if he does not like how the drill is going he stops everyone, calls them in, and starts again.
8. Moose tackled Haydar at one point and had him in a headlock (it was funny to watch).

The players who practiced were off the ice in an hour (which was good because the Glads were suiting up ready to take the ice at noon.

Because of all the players who did not practice there's really nothing concrete to report relative to line combinations. The Bolts / Thorburn / Slater line did do some of the drills together and seemed to be together more than any other grouping I can recall.

The team had a lunch brought in and Bernie Mullin was there (I never saw The Don though). Boulton's wife and 2 of his kids were there and went in for lunch as well. Eric's son cried when Eric tried to pick him up (like he was scared) so Eric took his helmet off and all was good after that.

Craig from the AJC was there as usual so I suspect he'll be posting something about the practice today assuming he's not already done so.

That's about it. I can't go to practice tomorrow so my next Talkin' About Practice entry will be next Monday.

Practice 11/5/2007

2007-11-04T19:26:00.001-05:00

Have to work out of the office today so no update. I will be at practice on Wednesday though. Check back then.

Practice - Oct 29

2007-10-29T11:57:00.001-04:00

Practice started today at 10 instead of 10:30. I assume that is because the team is traveling to Montreal today.

Haydar, Sterling, Thorburn, and the goalies were out at 9:30 doing a one timer drill where the forwards would take one timer shots on goal. They would pass to each other and then one time the puck at the goalie.

Don Waddell was not one the ice. In his (coach's) place was the video coach.

According to someone I talked to Kari may skate this week and is doing good in his recovery. There was no tear in his groin muscle but rather a stretching of the groin which caused damage.

Little was not on the ice today. I was told he had a hamstring issue and will be on the trip. He is expected to skate tomorrow in Montreal.

Practice started with one on one drill battling for puck possession in front of the net. Everyone got a turn at this drill.

Next was a drill focusing on two on one breakaway opportunities.

That was followed by a three on two breakaway drill.

Again, like last practice no specific drills on the power play/penalty kill.

Here were some of the pairings today

Havelid and Enstrom. Zhitnik and Popovic. McCarthy and X. Klee and Havelid. Klee and X.

Holik / Slava / Larsen
White / Perrin / Hossa
Kovy / Dupuis / Haydar ( I assume this is because Little did not practice)
Slater / Thorburn / Boulton / Sterling

Slava did not look enthused to be on the 3rd line with Bobby and Larsen

Observations

1. Hoss line looked good.
2. As I said above, Slava did not look happy about his pairing.
3. Dupuis changes sticks almost constantly. I noticed him doing that at the game in Nashville (we were sitting right behind the bench) and he also does it at practice. He also, during the game, sent his gloves to the back (I assume to be dried out).
4. Sterling looks like he is now trying to find a spot in the roster which is a change from the beginning of the season. It appears his confidence is shaken.

That's it for the first installement of my new blog. Please feel free to leave me comments or ask questions.

Thanks

Practice Tomorrow - 10/29

2007-10-28T18:39:00.001-04:00

Tomorrow will be the first practice at the Duluth Ice Forum in a week. No practice schedule has been posted yet on atlantathrashers.com but I'll update the blog when it is posted on the thrashers site.

I am curious if Don Waddell will be on the ice tomorrow (he was not at the last practice on 10/22).

It will be interesting to see if the mood of the team has changed any since winning a few games since beating the Rangers at home.

More to follow tomorrow after practice.