3/11/13 Drills - No player evaluations, but I did have a brief exchange with Lombardi. Will post it after the description of the drills since it happened near the end.
The defense started the drills.
1. Walk the line with the puck. Change directions at whistle. Repeat until a long whistle prompted the player to shoot.
2. Similar to drill 1, except all the defensemen did it at the same time. No shooting... and of course, they spread the defense over the two blue lines and the center ice line, so they didn't all cram on one line.
3. Walk the line passing back and forth with a partner. Pass the puck to a forward at the whistle.
4. Fight lessons.
Forwards
1. Deflections. A forward would hang out in front of the net, another forward would lob a couple shots that had to be deflected. The forward would then back up at different angles and shoot the puck on net.
2. A broken trapezoid was formed in the slot area. \ _ / with the upper part closer to the net. Cones were about four feet out from either side of the post, placed on the goal line. The players practiced carrying the puck from behind the goal line, around the cone, then shooting the puck into the open net while getting in the trapezoid area. Another player at the point would then take shots for the forward to deflect into the net. Then another player, behind the goal line, would pass the puck to the player, still in the trapezoid area, and the receiving player would have to one time it. So... they practiced driving to the net from behind the goal line, tipping shots from the point, and receiving passes behind the goal line while in the slot.
The groups were split up unevenly starting from this drill on. Group A, comprised of Auger, Brodzinski, Hyka, Zykov, Kitsyn, Maclise. Group B had the rest of the forwards. Group B eventually had one of the forwards acting as a defender, and the "defender" was given a football blocking pad. The defender had to push and pester the forward as he was driving to the net, deflecting shots, and one-timing passes from behind the goal line. Group A did not have a defender.
3. Group B was on one side of the ice getting fighting lessons.
Group A was joined by Lowry. Player took turns skating from blueline to blueline, then backskating, from blueline to blueline, pass the puck back, receive a pass and repeat the drill on the other half of the neutral zone, before receiving one more pass, skate in, and shoot.
4. Group B was still getting fighting lessons
Group A had players take turns. Skate around the face off circle with the puck, pass to player in the corner, skate around the face off circle again, receive pass from player in the corner, then shoot. Then skate around the other face off circle on the opposite wing, receive a pass, and shoot. Finally, drive to the net, and one time a shot from the slot.
5. Group B was still being given fighting lessons.
Group A had players Skate around the center ice circle, pick up the puck, skate from blueline to blueline to blueline (so an "S" pattern), before driving to the net to shoot. Group B eventually joined in to participate, then Group B did drill 4 at the end.
Goalies
1. Brief lateral practice.
2. Rebound control, like yesterday.
3. There were two variations of this drill, so the goalies were split into two groups (eventually switching variations). One variation had the goalie stop a shot in the slot, drop down in butterfly, move laterally, get up, then push back and reset square to the shooter. So these goalies dealt with shots from the slot.
In the other variation, the goalies had players carry the puck from behind the goal line and take shots from the face off dots. These goalies deald with shots from bad angles.
4. The goalie had to slide from the post to the top of the crease, where two or three forwards were parked in front of him. A player at the point would then take a shot, and the goalies would work on tracking the puck, but also deal with a 3-on-0 right in front of him.
So anyway, during the final drill, Lombardi walks up while Bartosak is in net. Bartosak was taking a long time to get up, and Lombardi chuckled and said, "He's just like Quick was at that age. So out of shape." Please bear in mind he did NOT compare Bartosak to Quick... just that his conditioning was poor like Quick's at the same age. He then remarked that they wouldn't have needed a goalie for the next 20 years if they could have kept Bernier too. But they like Bartosak's upside.
I asked him if he was going to have Bartosak back-up Berube in Ontario, and Lombardi said that he's going to let him go back to juniors. That's when he walked away. I didn't want to change the subject and ask him about other stuff (like contracts), nor did I want to ask him anything that was already covered by someone else in the media... so hopefully you find it interesting enough.
Will post impressions soon!
