Sunday Practice

I had the chance to watch 4 hours of practice on Sunday at the job. We saw two scrimmages and two of the three teams run drills.

At the end of practice McGrattan came out and worked on his skating (thank god) along with Hanzal. By the end Hanzal looked like he was in a lot of pain. Hanzal was giving out pucks and I got one! Most of the writing is off but you can still see part of the NHL symbol and the word “practice”. It’s my first practice puck. I usually let the little kids run and get them. McGrattan is fun to watch work on his skating. He is a very large guy (like 6’5, 235 lbs) and he definitely is not as smooth as Hanzal. His crossovers vastly improved when the skate coach told him (and showed him) that leaning wasn’t helping him.

During one of the scrimmages, Lessard (brought in for SA, not Phx) hit Jovo a little too hard and Doan said something to him (being he is the Captain and he probably told him to take it easy or something). Lessard then proceeded to say something to Doan and we got a flash of angry Doan (my favorite). Gloves were flying and Lessard and Doan were being held back. Jovo then realized what was going on and threw his gloves off and went after Lessard. Jovo and Lessard then spent some time in the box. I don’t think that was good on Lessard’s part. He is trying to make a good impression and he insults the captain and an alternate captain.

Another interesting altercation was when Chickenoff tripped Carcillo. Carcillo (while on his knees) hit Chickenoff’s shins with his stick. Both of those boys went to the box. Once they were out, Carcillo was a moth to Chickenoff’s flame. He was totally watching Chickenoff. He reminds me of a cat stalking a mouse.

None of the goalies really stood out as really good or really bad. There are six goalies at camp and all but one are under contract with us. I thought we had another goalie that was with the Sundogs last season, but maybe his contract was up with us. It doesn’t seem to be a goalie fight like it was last season when we started with three goalies on the Coyotes.

I can’t think of anything else. There wasn’t a lot that stood out to me today. I am still trying to get all the new guys straight.