A day after the Wings endured one of their most embarrassing performances of the season, head coach Mike Babcock skated his players hard, but he was careful.
During the morning skate, the Wings practiced for about 30 minutes before heading out to take on the Boston Bruins in Boston on Friday night before coming back home to play them again Sunday afternoon on NBC.
The Wings finished today’s practice on the ice by doing sprint drills and finished the session with Babcock giving the team a stern lecture in which he believes he got his point across.
“The way we’ve been here lately it hasn’t matter who we’ve played,” Babcock said. “They’re a deep team, they’re a physical team, they got great goaltending.”
The Bruins team they are about to face next are the NHL’s best defensive team allowing the fewest goals (2.22) per game. Goaltender Tim Thomas, a Flint native, also may be a Hart Trophy finalist come seasons end.
“He competes, he’s kind of like Dom (Hasek) was in some ways; sometimes he doesn’t look orthodox, but he doesn’t give up his ice, always challenging, always coming at you, even when plays are in tight at the net,” Babcock said. “He doesn’t give up any battles. He’s kind of like (Dwayne) Roloson in some ways, the fact that they didn’t get here as quickly as some of the other guys, (but) they’re making good on their time here.”
Here are the lines the Wings skated with today during practice according to Ansar Khan of Mlive.com…
Franzen-Zetterberg-Bertuzzi
Hudler-Datsyuk-Cleary
Draper-Helm-Eaves
Miller-Abdelkader-Holmstrom
Lidstrom-Kronwall
Ericsson-Rafalski
Kindl-Salei
Howard (starting)
MacDonald
Source: Mlive.com
