Bad performances lead to hard skating session The players knew it was coming. After Tuesday’s ugly 5-2 loss to the Dallas Stars, practice on Wednesday at Kettler Iceplex figured to be a challenge.
Nothing the Caps haven’t endured before, of course. Any NHL player worth his salt has gone through the dreaded “bag” skate, in which players sprint up and down the ice until they’re too tired to do any more. After a poor third period Saturday against the New York Islanders and the uninspired loss to the Stars, they deserved a punishing 90-minute practice. And that’s exactly what they got.
“It didn’t catch any of us off-guard,” Washington forward Mike Knuble said. “[Coach Bruce Boudreau] pretty much told us what was going to happen before he left the room [Tuesday]. It’s been a while since I think we all skated like that. It was one of those where you’re going to feel it today. There will be guys sitting on couches at home, that’s for sure.”
Players were ordered to skate up to the red line and back. First one trio, then another. That lasted for seven minutes. After some intense one-on-one work in the corners, Boudreau made his players skate again. By the end of that second set of sprints, several of them, including captain Alex Ovechkin, were on all fours gasping for air. After some more work in the defensive zone came yet another round of sprints.
Things turned bizarre when assistant coach Dean Evason pushed both goals into the far corner of the rink. Each net was manned by one of the team’s goalies about 20 feet apart. A puck was passed into that tight space, and a pair of defensemen and a pair of forwards fought each other for it.
The Caps (9-4-0, 18 points) have lost four out of six games and are in danger of wasting a 7-0 start. Practices like this one — though used sparingly at the NHL level — can be an effective way to get a team back on track.
“I think any bag skate with no pucks is worse than that,” forward Jason Chimera said. “At least we did a lot of functional things out there that we could use in a game. Not just needless skating. We did a lot of skating, but we did a lot of things that we can work on, too.”
The last time Boudreau did this? Nov. 2, 2008. It was his second season in Washington, and the Caps had lost at Buffalo 5-0 the day before. Instead of a scheduled day off, that Caps team had a bag skate. They lost their next game 2-1 in overtime but won six of their next seven.
“The one thing that it shows [is] no matter how tired you are you can have fun if you’re working hard,” Boudreau said. “They were smiling and laughing, and yet they were kicking the crap out of each other. Hard work doesn’t necessarily have to mean punishment. If you want to compete, it can be fun.”
