Practice Notes: Playing with Pace, Trusting Current Configurations

After a tough 2-1 loss to the San Antonio Rampage in Texas last Saturday, the Ontario Reign took to the ice at LA Kings Icetown Riverside this week for full skates Monday-Wednesday in preparation for road tilts on Friday and Saturday at Iowa and Chicago.

Notes for today’s skate at Riverside:

– All hands on deck for the Reign. All 24 skaters running through drills with no changes in line combinations…
Sam Herr, Brett Sutter and Spencer Watson skated together in purple
Matt Marcinew, Matt Schmalz and Keegan Iverson twirled around in yellow
T.J. Hensick, Matt Luff and Michael Mersch wore grey
Philippe Maillet, Mike Amadio and Justin Auger skedaddled in white
Boko Imama, Andrew Crescenzi and Jamie Devan in maroon

Defensemen Matt Roy, Zac Leslie, Kevin Gravel, Stepan Falkovsky, Sean Walker and Alex Lintuniemi ran in individual drills with the forwards.
Goalies Jack Campbell, Jeff Zatkoff and Cal Peterson shared net time.

– Head Coach Mike Stothers spent most of the skate working on defensive-zone puck retrieval and ran multiple drills on both wings of the ice.
“We wanted to get back to playing with pace,” Stothers added. “We are not trying to hurry the play, but we need to get back hard for pucks in our end and get back handle them clean and in an efficient manner.”

– From d-zone retrieval, the focus shifted to breakouts of out the defensive zone and moving up the ice. Emphasis on making quick decisions and reading the opposing pressure. Where are the opposing forwards attacking? Does it give an open passing option up the wall of up the middle of the ice?

– Heads up! “Shoulder checks” (looking around over your shoulders) and communication stressed. Physically SEE where the puck, teammates and opposition positions themselves.

– Legs Feed the Wolf: Goal line to goal line skate (five times). Amadio praised for efforts and leads the team in a post-practice stretch.

– Finishing Touches: Assistant Coach David Bell led stick work/body positioning drills on top of the crease to assist in the battle for loose pucks and passes off the wings.

Honoring Chrissy Duarte

Reign honoring Chrissy Duarte on their helmets. pic.twitter.com/4nPyoW4bOD

— Joey Zakrzewski (@ReignInsider) October 11, 2017

– Additional Note: As mentioned on Twitter earlier, a tip o’ the cap to the team requirement and medical staff on their donation of multiple boxes of tape, water bottles, coolers, powdered Gatorade and more to the Junior Reign Youth Hockey Program at Riverside.

#sticktap to the @ontarioreign equipment and training staff for their large donation of supplies to @Jrreignhockey today. pic.twitter.com/pKTKzSLi5S

— Joey Zakrzewski (@ReignInsider) October 11, 2017