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MONDAY, DECEMBER 17, 2007
Average size
crowd today at practice. There were 25 people in attendance. Holik
had 2 friends who attended the practice today and Kari's brother was
also at practice along with another friend who I assume is from
Finland
because they were talking to Kari in their native language.
There
appears to be a change in the lines (splitting up Kovy and Hoss).
This is detailed in the line descriptions farther in my comments
below.
Moose and
Kari were out early today...30 minutes or so before practice.
Popovic was the first non goalie player on the ice. I expect that
we will see Popovic on the ice tomorrow night.
Enstrom
was not on the ice. I was told he had the "sniffles" and that he
was fine but was not practicing today.
The usual
players were out of the locker room early...Havelid, Thorburn,
Dupuis, McCarthy, Slater, Recchi, and Perrin. Zhitnik and Klee came
out together right before the scheduled practice time as did Slava,
Hoss, and Kovy.
First
drill for goalies was a two shot drill where one of the players
would shoot from inside the blue line and then Weeks would
immediately fire a shot at the goalie from the other side of the
crease and in close to the net. This required the goalies to
immediately slide from one side to the other after blocking the
first shot.
First team
drill focused on getting the puck out of our own zone (this was a
problem in the game
on Saturday).
A D man would pass the puck to the blue line where a forward, who
was guarded by an opposing D man, was waiting for it. The forward
would then either bounce the puck off the board and into the
offensive zone or pass it through the middle to the other forward
who would take it, or receive it. From there the two forwards would
shoot the puck or make a pass and then shoot.
Next drill
was two on two...one forward and one D man against another forward
and D man. The two man team would enter the zone and try to
shoot...
Last main
drill was 5 men on the ice. The puck would be brought into the
offensive zone and either passed one or two times (in the two pass
occurrence the 3rd forward would be hit with the pass as he was
following the other two forwards into the zone. This zone practiced
passing to either the second or third forward into the zone and/or
cycling the puck (which we would probably all agree the team needs
practice on).
Here are
some of the lines today
Kovy /
White / Recchi
Hoss /
Perrin / Slava
Dupuis /
Holik / Larsen
Boulton /
Slater / Thorburn
At the end
of practice Kovy and Hoss again practiced their shootout/penalty
shots on the far end of the ice.
Observations
McCarthy and
McCrimmon skated around together at the beginning of practice and
had a long talk.
There was no
talking or laughing today in practice.
Practice today
was more physical than usual. There were light hits into the boards.
At one point Perrin was backchecking against White and knocked White
into Kari.
Holik has a cut
under his left eye.
Recchi looked
faster today and seems to have a knack for getting off a shot no
matter how tough the D is on him when he has the puck.
TV and radio
announcers watched practice from the restaurant that overlooks the
practice sheet of ice.
There was a
BlueCrew member at the practice today. I think that's the first
time I recall seeing a BlueCrew member attend a practice.
Holik's mood was
not good after the scheduled practice time. He was taking shots on
net and did not look so good. He went over to the bench and smashed
his stick.
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 19, 2007
Before I get into my comments about
practice today I'd like to share my thoughts about the game last
night and in particular about Kovy's mother and wife who's seats
were near ours.
It was great to see Kovy's mom and wife at the game. His mother
watched the game intently and looked to me as if she could have been
watching her 10 year old son's first hockey game. She was that
excited about the game and watching her son. When he scored and
skated out to point at her she waved back at him. Then, later in the
game, when Roy and Kovy came together after the scuffle behind the
net he skated over to the glass in front of her seat and she waved
her finger at him like "no no Kovy, no fighting". Again, just like
the mother of a boy playing in a junior league. Kovy's wife did a
lot of shopping up in the Club section team gear store and after the
2nd period moved down to sit by Alexi Zhitnik's wife. They watched
the game but also talked alot. Kovy's mom was all about watching the
game. She did little, if any, talking during the game and especially
when her son was on the ice.
Now, about practice today. There was a big crowd today...probably 50
people. News got out quick that the Sens were also practicing at the
facility so it was an exciting day. The goalies came out first, as
usual, followed by Popovic (who looks like he is ready to play),
Havelid, Enstrom, and Slater. The goalies faced shots from the face
off circle and then an immediate quick one from next to the net on
the other side than the first shot came from (they had to slide
across the crease to make the 2nd save).
First main drill I saw today was a 5 man drill where the D men would
get the puck behind our net and pass it to the forwards who would
practice carrying it into the offensive zone, and then would take
shots on the goalie.
Next drill was a 3 on 2 drill where D men would carry puck out of
their own zone and pass to forwards. The forwards would carry the
puck into the offensive zone and would shoot while being defended by
2 other forwards. The forwards would rotate being on offense and
then change immediately to be on defense.
The formal practice ended after around 40 minutes. Then the players
worked on areas they wanted to work on. The top forwards practiced
their shootout moves.
The mood of the team was better today than it's been lately.
I stopped watching drills at that point to get ready to watch the
Sens.
Here were the lines I did take note of :
Slava / Perrin / Hoss
Kovy / White / Recchi
Larsen / Holik / Dupuis
Greek God line
On defense I saw Havelid and X together, Tobias and McCarthy
together, and Zhitnik and Klee together. Not sure if those lines
will be used tomorrow or not, but those were the first pairings
during the drills.
The Sens did a great 3 on 3 drill where they put the nets on the
blue lines and played a short rink game. IT was very quick and
required sharp passing.
They did similar passing and shooting drills to what the Thrashers
usually do. The Sens practiced for an hour and then got on the bus
to go back to the hotel.
We have uploaded some pictures from practice today as well as a
video clip of the Sens
doing one of their skating and
shooting drills.
CLICK HERE TO VIEW TODAY'S PICTURES.
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 21, 2007
Large turnout at practice today as
the kids are out of school for the Holidays. I would guess that
there were 50 people in attendance...with many of the attendees
being children.
Also in attendance was Kari's brother and Zhitnik's kids. I have
included a picture of the Zhitnik children and a picture with Kari's
brother in it. I could not get a clear picture of him because if the
camera moved the picture came out blurry...and I'm not a good
photographer. Plus, I was a little self conscious of taking a
picture of him...did not want him to think I am a stalker or
anything like that :)
Goalies came out early and did some drills where they faced multiple
shots from varying angles. I took a brief video of the drill.
Click here to view video.
I also took a brief video of the normal warm-up skate and shoot
drill. The guys do this when they come on the ice early before the
scheduled practice start time.
Click here to view video.
Next was a drill where the forwards would take the puck out of the
boards in the offensive zone, skate around or through the face off
circle, and then shoot. Once the first forward would do the drill he
would stay in the zone for the 2nd forward to do the drill and try
to get any rebounds. Here is a video of this drill.
Click here to view video.
Last was a drill where a 5 man unit (3 fwds and 2 D men) would bring
the puck into the offensive zone and shoot.
Click here to view video.
The formal practice ended after 30-35 minutes today. Most of the
players were off the ice by 11:45. Given the number of games this
week and the fact that we have back to back games Saturday and
Sunday I was not surprised by the short practice.
Observations:
1. Players were very good about signing autographs today even though
there were many fans in attendance. I am sad to report though that
the crowd was too large for Holik to stop and sign autographs...he
generally does not sign if there are more than 30 people at the
practice. Kovy signed many autographs today. He basically signed
everything that was put in front of him and did not leave the
autograph area until everyone had got what they wanted from him.
2. Team was in good spirits today. It is obvious that 2 home wins in
a row agrees with the players.
3. Waddell was on the ice for the whole practice today.
4. Kari's high glove side saves are improving. He seems to have a
faster glove than he has had in the past.
5. Talked to Popovic and asked him if he is playing on Saturday. He
said based upon the line combinations today at practice (which did
not change today during practice) he would not be in the line up on
Saturday.
6. Slater has a 1/2 inch gash next to his right eyebrow. Nice stitch
job by the trainer on it.
|
MONDAY, 12/17/2007
WEDNESDAY,
12/19/2007
FRIDAY,
12/21/2007 |
