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*JUST
ADDED: CLICK HERE FOR A PEEK BEHIND THE SCENES AT PRACTICE!*
FRIDAY, JANUARY 11, 2008
Today was a very exciting day at
practice. It was anticipated that the Penguins would practice at our
facility, and in fact they had scheduled a 12 noon practice time
although it was cancelled last night at 11:30 by the Penguins.
Perhaps the weather in Atlanta last night delayed the team's
departure from Tampa thus the reason their practice today was
cancelled.
About 50 fans at practice today...10 or more of which were a Jr
hockey team that only spoke French. Not sure where they were from or
what they were doing at practice.
 By chance I arrived at practice earlier than usual today and saw JIM
SLATER skating! I don't know how long he was on the ice before I
arrived...I'm guessing 10-15 minutes, but he skated for another 10
minutes while I was there. I was the only one there so you are
getting the scoop here first! He did some basic skating and puck
handling/shooting drills. During the workout it was obvious to me
that he was in discomfort in the patented "lower body" area. Here
are two videos of Jim doing the same drill. In between the 17 second
drills he would take a breather. I was glad to see him on the ice
and told him so when he skated off. He said he felt like he'd just
been traded to the team (because it had been awhile since he'd been
on the ice). To me, he seemed genuinely happy to be back out
there...discomfort or not. I'll not get into the particulars of what
part of his "lower body" is injured because obviously the team
should be the ones to do that...not me. Here are 2 videos of him
skating a drill:
Clip #1,
Clip #2.
Ok, now to practice. Moose and Recchi Jr were first out. Actually
Recchi Jr warmed up for awhile by himself before the Moose came out.
Then, as is becoming a normal part of our practices, Recchi Jr went
one-on-one against the Moose.
Here's a video.
The normal players came out early to take shots on the Moose and
warm up. They were Thorburn, Boulton (He's still not sure when he's
going to get back into the line up...but he skated good today at
practice) and Stuart. Part of the warm-up was the new goalie
"screen" drill where one of the goalies screens the other while
shots are coming in.
I love watching these guys do this drill.
Once the official practice finally started the team started off with
a 5 on 5 drill where the units (1 fwd line and 2 D men) basically
practiced getting the puck out of the zone and into the other zone.
No shots, just getting the puck behind one net, passing out of the
zone, and carrying into the other zone.
Here's a video.
Next the team was split into 2 groups. The puck was passed to a
forward who would enter the zone and shoot. Then another forward
would do the same thing and the first forward would stay in the zone
for a deflection on the shot. The same thing would happen until 2
forwards were in the zone and would try to deflect the shot on net.
Here's a video.
Next drill was a one on one drill. One forward vs. one D man.
Here's a video.
At this point Klee was going against Perrin. Perrin ended up hitting
the goal post with his face, I think, and his knee. He ended up on
the ice for a pretty good time and was helped off the ice. It looked
to me that he injured his "lower body". I heard that it does not
appear that serious but that's with no formal review by a Dr or X
rays. We'll have to stay tuned for official word from the team. It
was so quiet you could hear a pin drop in the arena as he was being
helped off the ice.
Here is a video of Perrin being attended to on
the ice.
After the team regrouped from the Perrin injury delay the team split
into 4 groups and the did a 2 on 1 passing and shooting drill.
Here's a video.
Final drill was a power play drill. I have 2 videos of this drill.
Clip #1,
Clip #2.
After the official practice was over the guys split onto the two
ends of the ice. The SO guys (Slava, Hoss, Kovy) and a few others
were on the far end practicing their SO shots. The rest of the guys
were in a semi circle around Kari on the near end taking shots on
Kari.
Observations:
1. Team was in more of an upbeat mood than the other day although
coaches did not seem as happy as the players were.
2. When Slater was skating Larsen came out to watch for a bit.
Larsen made some comment about how he was sure that Slater was a
sore on the ice...or something like that.
3. McCrimmon and Hoss spent a long time after practice over on the
far boards at center ice talking about a play or plays that had been
drawn on the board. I'd say they talked for 5 - 10 minutes.
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 9, 2008
Smaller crowd at practice today
(now that all of the schools are back in session). We had maybe 20
people at practice.
Recchi Jr. was first on the ice today. He skated around for awhile
and then his dad came onto the ice to skate with him.
Here's a video of Recchi Sr acting as the
goalie while Recchi Jr played the part of Kovalchuk.
Moose came out on the ice with Dupuis and Boulton. Dupuis was
shooting the puck into the side boards and accidentally got it too
high and broke one of the glass panels between the benches. We had
to get the Ice Forum crew so that they could clean up all of the
glass pieces off of the ice. No video of the shot or cleanup
unfortunately.
Kari came out later than usual today. Not at practice (at least not
on the ice) were Slater and McCarthy.
Players came out in mixed up jersey combinations so before practice
began there was a big jersey changing session where most of the
players changed jerseys.
Here is a video of a normal warm-up drill
where three forwards were warming up the Moose.
Once the practice officially started it became clear that the theme
of the day was practice winning one on one battles. There were
various drills throughout the practice where the players were put up
against each other in one on one situations.
The first drill was simply a puck being brought into the zone by a
forward and shot either at or around the net and then taken out of
the zone.
Here is a video.
Next drill was a one on one drill where the puck was shot into the
corner and then 2 players went to the boards to dig out the puck and
battle for possession. The team was split into two groups and each
group ran the same drill on each end of the ice. The player with
possession then attempted to take the puck, against the will of the
other player, to the net and shoot. Here are videos of the drill on
both ends of the ice:
Clip #1,
Clip #2.
Next drill was a drill where the players were again broken into 2
groups. A puck was placed inside the blue line and the players would
race to get the puck and the one who got the puck was to shoot on
net. The player who did not get the puck was to be the D man and
attempt to brake up the shot attempt.
Here's a video. During
the drill Kovy was matched up against Holik and Kovy, as you would
expect, beat Bobby to the puck by a wide margin every time.
Last drill was a 2 on 2 drill which ran the entire length of the
ice. The two player team would attempt to maintain puck possession
and shoot on net. The opposing two players tried to gain puck
possession and then take the puck to the other end of the ice and
shoot on net.
Here's a video.
Mood at practice was somber. No talking or laughing by the players.
If a player did not execute the drill as the coaches desired then
the player got to do the drill over again.
Hossa and Recchi did some of the drills together (as a team) as did
Kovy and Slava. There were no real line combinations that were
evident because the drills were not line oriented drills.
Observations
1. As noted above, mood of the players was somber and serious.
2. DW was not on the ice or visible in the practice facility (i.e.,
outside of the locker room).
3. Carroll Rodgers from the AJC was in attendance so I suspect she
will have an article out later about practice or the Thrashers in
general today.
4. Everyone I talked to at practice had the same question...what is
the story with Slater. Nobody seems to know what the illness is that
he apparently has or what is going on with him. He's not been seen
since he was reported to have "an illness".
MONDAY, JANUARY 7, 2008
Tom Glavine was supposed to be at
practice today to skate with the team at the end of their practice.
As it turns out, he was not feeling well so he did not make the trip
to Duluth from his home in Alpharetta (Country Club of the South).
Too bad for the baseball fans who were early to practice with their
baseball bats and other baseball items they were hoping to get
signed. Once they figured out he was not coming they left practice.
Also too bad for the 2-3 TV crews who were at practice expecting to
get footage of Glavine on the ice. Hope they took their footage of
practice anyway and it makes it onto tonight's news.
Around 60 fans were in attendance today. Many of the local schools
are back in session now but it was obvious that not all are back in
school as there were many kids at practice today.
Boulton came onto the ice 35 minutes before the scheduled practice
time to test out his injured knee. He skated around for awhile and
looked fine. He talked to the trainer and then went into the locker
room to reappear later for the practice. (I heard the conversation
between him and the trainer but it's not my job to report on his
injury. If the Thrashers want it out on the Web I am sure they are
plenty capable of getting the news out there themselves.) It was
stated on the Thrashers message board today that Boults expects to
be back on the ice for the game on Thursday. When he signed
something for me today he told me the same thing...look for him on
Thursday but not tomorrow.
Also on the ice early was Mark Recchi's son. I would guess that he
is around 5-6 years old.
Here's a video of Jr Recchi going one on one
with the Moose.
The goalies were out early along with Thorburn, Stuart, Doell, and
Popovic. Here is a video of something I've never seen before. Weeks
had one of the goalies in net with the other one screening the
goalie in net.
Great video. They had some good laughs about
it too. Almost looks like Moose and Kari are
dancing...
No major line changes that I could see. Slava skated with Kovy today
(and White) on some of the drills.
Very fast paced and upbeat practice today. First drill was a pass
into the offensive zone from the blue line and then a shot on net.
The forward would take the shot and then wait for the next forward
to do the drill to shoot so he could get any rebound. Here's a
video:
Sorry, that's the last video on today even though I had 5 of them. I
got a new camera and had it on the highest resolution setting so it
took 40 minutes per video to upload. I changed the settings so next
practice I'll be back to more videos :)
Next drill was a two on two drill with the puck being carried into
the zone with a shot on net. After the first shot the puck would be
sent back to the blue line where a D man would take the pass and
shoot on net. Again, another drill to practice shots from the point
with deflections in front of the net and/or cleaning up any rebounds
from the goalie.
Following that was the normal two on one drill where two forwards
would enter the zone and the D man would try to prevent a shot.
The final drill was a three on two with the puck being carried into
the zone with a shot on net. Then the forwards would occupy the zone
by cycling the puck and taking shots on net.
As has become a usual practice (with the shorter practices we've
seen lately...30-40 minutes) the SO guys (Hoss, Kovy, Slava) occupy
one end of the ice after the official practice is over practicing
their SO moves and the other players are on the other end of the ice
taking shots on the other goalie.
Observations:
1. Recchi's son skates very well. When Mark was signing something
for me today I told him his son skated really well before practice
and he said " Thanks, yes he is a good skater and really likes it".
By the way, Jr Recchi uses a stick which is basically a 1/2 size
version of the one his dad uses. He needs to lose the Penguins
stickers on his helmet...especially now that his Dad wants to stay
in ATL.
2. Kari is watching the puck into his catching glove better than I
have seen in the past. He continues to look at it even once the puck
is in his glove. And, here's something else new...when he's
preparing for the shot he almost shakes/moves his glove a bit in
expectation of the shot. I've not seen or noticed that before.
3. DW was on the ice the entire practice. You can see him skating up
and down the ice during some of the drill videos.
4. Upbeat mood today. I'd not go as far as to say there were a lot
of laughs and cutting up today...but the team was upbeat and
positive and quickly/efficiently going through their drills today.
5. Moose sweats a lot....all of the players do obviously but when
Moose signs autographs he still has beads of sweat on his face which
drip off...sometimes onto what he is signing for you.
6. No new helmet for Kari yet...at least none at practice. |
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