Hanlon ran an up-tempo practice which included breakaways, one-on-ones, two-on-ones, five-on-three scrimmaging, and a penalty shot relay. It's clear that the players are feeling much looser - during the penalty shot relays the players on the benches were hollering encouragement to their shooters and jeers at the goalies, and when the black side won, everyone on the white bench had to do crunches on the ice.
Other interesting points:
Kolzig seemed to give up a few too many goals five-hole during the penalty shots, but I'm going to scratch that up to the laid-back nature of that portion of practice.
During the beginning of practice, after seeing Semin fall down on the 1-1s, said aloud that he noticed Semin seems to fall a lot in practice. Almost immediately a veteran Caps fan next to him explained that both Semin and Ovechkin enjoyed sprawling out on the cold ice.
Most notably, Alex Ovechkin wore a full face mask during practice, something that I have personally not seen all year. It was a full clear plastic upper mask with the clear plastic cage bottom half.
Ovechkin's full mask.
Coach Hanlon is clearly pleased by the Caps' recent performance.
