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*CLICK HERE FOR A PEEK BEHIND THE SCENES AT PRACTICE!*
TUESDAY, MARCH 25, 2008
Recchi Jr was out early today and
was followed by Team Sweden (Havelid, Enstrom, and The Moose).
Here's a brief video of Toby and Nik taking
shootout shots on the Moose.
During his "warm-up skate" it was just me watching Recchi Jr. It was
funny as he would skate over to the boards where I was standing and
would shoot pucks at the glass (at me) and try to flip them over the
glass at me.
Later, during warm-ups, Recchi Jr and the Moose had a rematch of
their 1 on 1 battle from a few months ago.
Here's a video.
Once the boys all got on the ice there were various drills of the
normal variety. There were 2 on 1s, one man taking the puck in and
shooting, and then there was a long period of a drill where it was
basically 2 players against 2 players. They would battle for puck
possession and would take the puck down ice against the other 2
players and shoot. It was like a real game except it was 2 on 2 (and
the goalies).
Kari started out with the old pads and mask but the new blocker and
glove. After 20 minutes or so he called the equipment guy out and
switched back to his old (blue) blocker and glove. When he took his
glove off I noticed that he wears what appears to be a protective
padded sheath on his left (catching) thumb.
The nets were pulled from the regular spots and were placed against
the side boards facing each other. The guys would pair off 1 on 1
and would go at it and would shoot on either net. 1 of the players
played offense and 1 played defense. They could shoot on either net.
Slater held Holik during one of their battles and was awarded a
penalty shot (he scored). In another round Army was fouled and was
also awarded a penalty shot (he missed).
They did the same drill after that but it was 2 on 2 (2 red jersey
players against 2 blue jersey players). The team that lost had to
skate extra training laps at the end of practice (red won).
Here's a video of the drill.
After that they did a funny skating drill where they would skate
from one side to the other pushing another player facing them across
the ice. Then they would do the same thing coming back.
Here's a video.
Observations:
1. Team had a lot more fun today. The pressure is off (about the
playoffs anyway) and they seemed to have fun.
2. Zhitnik looks great in practice. He had some great offensive
moves during the drills. At one point he was battling Larsen and
they hit each other at the center ice of the short sheet drill and
both left their feet and fell backward.
3. Holik had to skate extra conditioning drills today (I assume
because he was not at practice yesterday) while everyone else
watched and hit their sticks on the ice while he was skating around.
4. Another new stick (this time a Bauer) was given a tryout by
Slater. Could not tell if he liked it or not. I think he used it the
entire practice though.
I'll be attending the game day skate in Florida on Thursday and will
post an entry on Thursday night covering the skate. I'm excited
because it's the first away game where I've been able to make the
game day skate.
If anyone is interested in the price of my ticket in FL please send
me an email and I'll send you a pic of it. Just want to make sure
that everyone knows I am accurate when I state the price of tickets
in other arenas.
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