Report from Practice

I was able to attend the tail end of the Thrashers' practice this morning at the Ice Forum. Pav was in net on the near end and was getting a lot of rapid fire practice on one timers, shots from the point, and breakaways. I don't know whether those drills were more for his benefit or for the benefit of the shooters, but Pav was stoning everybody left and right.

As I said, it was the tail end of practice, and everybody seemed to be having a lot of fun out there. Coach Anderson and the assistants took a turn or two on a couple of the drills and guys were yapping at each other when they would either score a nice goal or would get robbed by Pav. Boris Valabik in particular seemed to be having a good time and was playing very well, scoring on a couple of one timers from the point and making nice passes in the drills. He looked very confident for a guy who has been bouncing back and forth between Atlanta and Chicago.

Havy looked happier than I think I've ever seen him before. He was grinning the entire time he was on the ice and was talking it up with his teammates in line and with Pav after his shots. I'd never noticed it before, but with his helmet on, Havelid actually looks a decent bit like Chris Tamer. For that matter, Bryan Little looked a lot like Slava Kozlov out there. You could tell the difference by the tufts of curly hair sticking out of his helmet and the fact that his face actually had an expression on it.

Though you can't judge much based on the fun drills at the end of practice, it was good to see that the team seemed to be having fun out there. I doubt that was the case in practice during the six game losing streak earlier this month.

For the Chronicle, I'm Razor Catch Prey.