Notes and quotes

Published 1:31 pm Thursday, December 6, 2007

Here’s a Thursday grab bag:

– There seems to be some confusion about the term “bag skate” that both coach John Becanic and defenseman Jonathan Harty used in Wednesday’s story. A bag skate isn’t some sort of specific drill, it’s just skating the players as a disciplinary measure. It’s the equivalent of having the football team run laps for taking too many false start penalties, or having the basketball team run lines for goofing off at practice.

– Something I wasn’t able to get in from last night’s game was Becanic taking a different strategic approach to overtime, a strategy that ultimately proved successful. Here’s his quote: “We said, ‘Let’s just go after it.’ We thought maybe we could catch them because we’re not traditionally a very aggressive team in overtime. We haven’t had much luck in shootouts, so we might as well try and get it here. I gave a lot of guys the green light to just go.”

– Something to keep in mind during last night’s and tomorrow’s game is the condition of the ice. The ice bikes are racing at Comcast Arena on Saturday, and they require the ice to be built up significantly higher — right now the ice as about twice as thick as it normally is. The result is that the ice surface becomes a lot slower and more difficult to maintain. So if the puck does something that doesn’t seem quite right, it might be because of the ice.

– I’ve decided to add some new links to the side of the blog (not sure if they’ve popped up just yet). I’ve added the media-written blogs that I know about from the rest of the Western Conference (Spokane, Vancouver and Chilliwack were added). Not sure if I’m ready to post all the WHL-related blogs I know (there’s been a growing number and I don’t want the important ones the get lost), but feel free to let me know if you’d like to have direct access to them all.