Devils holding optional practice today; Fraser participating

The Devils are holding an optional practice today, but it looks like most of the players will be participating.

Brian Rolston, Niclas Bergfors, Matt Halischuk, David Clarkson, Ilkka Pikkarainen, Paul Martin and Johnny Oduya were on the ice early working on taking long slap shots from center ice with the coaches. I'm not sure what the purpose of this was.

Here's the list of the players on the ice today.

Goaltenders: Martin Brodeur, Yann Danis.

Defensemen: Johnny Oduya, Paul Martin, Bryce Salvador, Cory Murphy, Mike Mottau, Andy Greene, Mark Fraser,

Forwards: Brian Rolston, Niclas Bergfors, Matt Halischuk, David Clarkson, Ilkka Pikkarainen, Andrew Peters, Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond, Rod Pelley.

Not skating: Zach Parise, Travis Zajac, Jamie Langenbrunner, Dainius Zubrus, Rob Niedermayer, Jay Pandolfo, Colin White.

This is Fraser's first practice with the team since he was injured in a Sept. 24 fight with Daniel Carcillo in Philadelphia. He remains on injured reserve.

Several players logged some big minutes Monday night, so it's understandable that they're not out there with no game on Wednesday. Jamie Langenbrunner and Travis Zajac both played more than 22 minutes against the Rangers, which is a lot for a forward.

Comments

[lowelldevilsfan]

Don't get the optional part of this, not even a little. I would think if nothing else they've proven thay have a lot to work on.

[Eric L]

2 days off between games, bout to go on a road trip. No need to overdo it early, i guess. Rest will be valuable this season, because of the Olympics, so take it while you can.

[HoOn]

The positives I get from this is that all of them are in anyway which proves they really want to improve and get better.

[iamtheprodigy]

It's not like we have a game tonight. We don't have a game until Thursday, and the guys will be tired from having just played last night. No reason to work them to the bone now. Good to see that most of the guys are taking advantage of the optional practice though. They have the right idea.

[NeilS]

If they're struggling you don't run guys into the ground the day after they just played a game and logged serious minutes. They're not going to be sharp in practice and they're not going to take anything away from it. Have a light off ice workout and then they get back on the ice tomorrow before the road trip.

[lowelldevilsfan]

yep cause the pp struggles will fix themselves. Sorry they're tired two games into the season.

[NeilS]

So the Devils should not rest and work on nothing but the power play until it breaks out? I wanna play for you, coach.

[Marc]

I think about 5% of the posters on here have played any type of higher level hockey. The comments are amazing.

[BenedictGomez]

TG,

I've never heard of that center ice slapshot drill. Any chance you could find out WTH the point of that is?

[iamtheprodigy]

Thank God you're not the coach, lowelldevilsfan. Think of it like final exam week in school. After you work really hard and concentrate diligently on one exam, do you go home and immediately begin studying for the next one? No, because you're exhausted and need a little break. It's not the exact same, but you get my point. The guys are tired from a game just last night. It doesn't matter if it's the first or last game of the season, if you play as hard and as long as some of the players did last night, you don't hop right back on the ice the next morning and start skating sprints. Time is on our side, why not use it effectively, as the others have said?

[MoonDragn]

Looks to me like they are having auditions for point for the PP to me.

[tsg]

Tell you what, lowelldevilsfan, when you've skated against the Rangers I'll take your opinion on who should be practicing the next day seriously. Until then, not so much.

[NeilS]

Benedict, it could be a center ice dump in kind of drill. Instead of going into the corner dump it in on goal and make the opposing goalie play the puck.

[iamtheprodigy]

Neil, TG said they were taking slap shots, not dumping it in.

[NeilS]

Yes, that's what you would do to get the puck on goal from center ice. They could also just be screwing around or having a competition of some sort. Seeing who can hit a certain part of the net, or a post, from out there. All sorts of stuff.

[Marc]

Maybe its a diversion to confuse posters like us while Lou makes a trade.

[devils1012]

Tell Brian Rolston to fire 200 pucks at the net from center ice and tell me how many the guy acutally hit the net on. I'd bet it will be less then 30

[Zorin]

I remember at the practice skate I was able to see...Shanny was hitting all the corners. Get this guy back here already.

[iamtheprodigy]

Zorin, it doesn't matter if he can hit all the corners if he's too slow to get in the right position to take such a shot.

[anthony]

I think the intent is to see if an opportunity arises to catch the opposing goalie napping?
I remember good Ole Frazee giving up a Loooooooonnnnnggg goal in college :)

Maybe that is where the offense will come from..... :)

[2P]

They need to work on their shot selection and aiming. How many shots hit Emery and Henrik in the friggen chest? Too many. Not to mention how many completely missed the net

[frankied]

I would guess that they are practicing shot accuracy. If they can hit the net from center ice, presumably it would be a cinch to hit the net from the slot (ie Rolston on the 5-3)

[RickyM2]

OK... I JUST MADE A NEW RULE FOR ME... For the next 20 games, I wont rant until listening to XM NHL and hear what other fans are feeling about their teams. i laughed at someone who basically wrote off Sabres, and Hurricanes after 2 games. Then I realized, "Hey that was me too"

I still think Marty has Playoff issues. But I'm feeling A LOT better now...

BTW... Detroit is 0-2 also

[NJromano]

vancouver who went 7-0 in the preaseason is now 0-3 in the reg season...

[iamtheprodigy]

Yeah, don't forget that Luongo has been even worse than Marty and the Canucks are losing like crazy even though they have one of the best teams in the West on paper.