Off Wing Opinion

Saturday's practice opened up with a skating warm-up. With most players skating laps and stretching out, Alexander Ovechkin was talking with Coach Hanlon at center ice.

Hanlon again ran an up-tempo practice, mixing in a 3-man weave, as well as 2-on-0s and breakaways. After a short break while Hanlon explained upcoming drills, the Caps worked on light-contact 5-on-5 scrimmaging. Next half the team worked on taking passes at the top of the circles and putting shots on Brent Johnson, while the others ran a 3/4 speed powerplay drill. There was little battling in front of the net, which allowed Ovechkin to tip in several shots from the points for goals. The structured portion of practice finished up with 2-on-2s and a 3-on-2 forechecking drill.

On the way out of Kettler I ran into Lawrence Nycholat. Usually he's one of the last ones on the ice, so I asked him why he was off so early today.

I have to run home and pack for the trip. I haven't had a chance to pack yet, and we leave in around 1:30.

We continued the conversation into the elevator. I mentioned that he looked pretty good in practice for someone on the Injured Reserve. His response:

Yeah, I felt pretty good. It's from an old shoulder injury.

I then asked him about the rumor that the Caps put him on IR so he wouldn't hit waivers, and they wouldn't risk losing him.

Everyone's got a story for everything. Don't believe everything you hear.

I personally hope that the Caps work to keep him in DC. He always has a smile on during practice, joking pushing and shoving guys like Brashear. Recently he has taken to giving Cassivi a hard time on the ice, seeing as they used to be teammates in Hershey. He also has a strong work ethic, and is usually one of the last ones off the ice during practice. So while common sense and personal opinion says keep him, only time will tell what the Caps organization wants to do with Nycholat.

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 17th, 2007 at 4:24 pm by Joe Dumas and is filed under Hockey. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Today's Caps practice was pretty up-tempo. With Kolzig out for a couple weeks, the starting goaltender will be Brent Johnson, and, after being called up from Hershey, Frederic Cassivi will be his backup. Both goalies looked good today, with an Cassivi's workout emphasizing side-to-side movement. I wouldn't be surprised if Cassivi gets a couple starts, depending on how Johnson performs.

John Erskine was on the ice again today, and got a lot of ice time during 4-on-4 scrimmaging. He continues to impress with strong skating and good puckhandling. Again, while the Caps say he is only traveling with the team, I wouldn't be surprised if he sees some ice time during the Caps' 3 game road trip.

At one point in practice, several players were taking a break at one end of the ice, just messing around. Many were in the corner, trying to see how long they could keep the puck until it was taken. At one point, Donald Brashear was fighting off five guys, including Richard Zednik and Lawrence Nycholat, and still managed to hold onto the puck for a good 30 seconds.

On a lighter note, Cassivi and Nycholat were having some good-natured fun at the end of practice with a little shootout competition. Cassivi stoned Nycholat a few times, with Nyhcholat scoring five-hole as practice ended.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 14th, 2007 at 4:06 pm by Joe Dumas and is filed under Hockey. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.