It has been a long time…  Believe me, I know…

I think these breaks without games kill the psyche of the fans as much as the players.  With another off day, I ventured to Ice Works to get another glimpse of training camp.

The first thing I most definitely noticed, as the expressions on the players.  Huffing and puffing, the team looks like they are working hard in the drills (especially the defletctions and odd man rushes).  They are doing as much game action simulation as possible, in order to keep their legs moving.

Scrimmages were a ey on Tuesday night, as they saw a surprise shootout star in the stick of Brendan Witt.  Look to see him maybe in the later rounds of a shootout.

Tampa will be on a 3 game, 4 day road trip throughout the tri-state area.  Hopefully they will be a team that may be tired and able to be pounced on.  The timing may be right.

Berard skated before practice today, in a warm-up suit.  Reports are that his skating is improving by day, and his return can be sooner, as opposed to later.  He is probably the only one that has been enthiused about the lag time.  With the number of days between games, it doesn’t allow Berard to miss games.

Listening to Steve and Kinger doing their talk at practice, the emphasis was on simulation and energy at practice, so that coming back to the ice on Thursday does not appear to be just a 4 day break between games.

Make sure that you check out the New York Hockey Report tonight - Steve Mears should be stopping by, along with Alex or Steve from Hockey Night on Long Island.  With Joe covering a game tonight - we remove the banter…. Tune in tonight!

Gary