It's in the Bag

  I admit, I had to Google "bag skate." It wasn't in wikipedia or my dictionary app, but so many people were using it on Twitter to define the long hard non-stop practice the Caps had on Wednesday, I had to find out. And that's all it is. A long continuous practice, for punishment or conditioning. I think it's obvious which reason the Kettler crew did four sets of sprints in between drills for a straight ninety minutes, though I think if punishment is to be equal, old Gabby should have been doing his share. Mike Green worked hard the whole practice and he wasn't even in the last few games.

11:27am- Everyone was already out on the ice before the 11:30 start time. After stretching and the first set of suicide sprints, it was time for one-on-ones, or what I like to call couples skate. Mike Green was out for the action, paired with Cody Eakin.

 

Then we had some more active one-on-ones where they shot at the goaltenders. I'm not impressed with these and the other open ice types of drills. Sure Vokoun can stop what amounts to a breakaway, well most of the time- the five-hole was pretty open from what I saw. Make that man go side-to-side. That's where he gives up the most, IMO. I would call for five-on-five every day until they get things down. They go through these drills and then on game day it looks as if so many times they stop and you can see them thinking "What happens next?" and there's no time for that when five people who are not your teammates are barreling down on you.

12:16pm- Then came a more realistic drill, three-on-three inside the blue line. They were trying hard, I give them that. Ovie was making moves that had my mouth hanging open a few times.

This mark on the ice was from Ovie falling hard and bouncing right back up.

12:27pm- Blue line to blue line skate. No one was going hard past the lines, mainly gliding to a stop. I can't blame them, by now they had been on the ice for a straight hour. Which leads me to my next bit of confusion. If these men can skate non-stop for an hour with smiles on their faces, why then when I think all they need is a few more steps to really break out and set up a chance do they instead dump it and change lines? Sure they might be worn out, but momentum is a good thing.

For some reason- I didn't catch on to the pattern, Erskine (I think? It may be time for a new prescription) and Ward dropped down for pushups before continuing on.

12:30pm- No signs of slowing down. BB was still working the team. Among the phrases overheard were "If we don't get better at this we're f#$%ed." and "Work your nuts off here!" Stay classy, Bruce.

Over an hour in and everyone was still playing hard.

12:37pm- They all gather at the far end of the rink for some four-on-four and then five-on five drills.

12:41pm- Both nets were brought into the corner for some mini action. I don't get it, I just record it.

Eakin was sent back to collect extra pucks. Rookie work, I suppose.

12:48pm- More sprints. Perreault decided to smack his stick on the glass right by my head and my ears were ringing for quite a bit.

12:50pm- Ovie is still smiling. Is it just me or does Mike Green look like he should be tying up someone to the railroad tracks these days with that facial hair?

 There was so much snow left at the end boards, Arlington County was about to call for a two-hour delay.

12:52pm- One more meeting at the strategy board.

12:54pm- Guys finally start leaving the ice.

Eakin, Ward, Perreault, Hendricks, Laich, Schultz, and Halpern were the last ones still hanging around.

1pm- Brooks Laich was the last one off the ice and still took time to sign for those few still left at the rink.

I was curious to see what BB had to say about this type of practice, so I hung around another forty-three minutes to eavesdrop on the press conference, but those things are quite close in and the sound quality was not the best. People are better off finding it on the official page than going by the few notes I managed to scribble down.

Did it work? We'll find out Friday night.