Day 5: Coaches Corner

Ok, so we had a good day of practice yesterday and will have a light skate today in preparation for hosting the Wicked Ale tonight. As promised the forward lines will be slightly shifted tonight. Here they are:

Frolov - Demitra - Murray
Korolyuk - Draper - Ekman
Halpern - Jokinen - Horton
Malone - Legwand - Isbister

Draper is off the first line and slotted to center Ek and Korks; with the propensity of those two wingers to pass, perhaps the more offensive Draper will work better than a third passer, Jokinen. Olli drops out of the top six to center Horton and Halpern. Maybe this can spur Horton, who needs a better passer than Halpern to feed him. Frolov leaves that line and goes back to the top unit with Demitra and Murray; they played well in the preseason, so we'll put them back together now. The fourth line remains intact, if for no other reason than they're the only line to score a goal this year. ;) Hall and Malhotra are ready to cycle in there if Isbister starts to fade.

Also, Chris Mason will make his Rover debut tonight in goal. Marty's numbers are excellent through two games (1.53GAA, .925svpct), but we want to get Mase some game action, and hopefully the Ale are the team to do that against.

Being at home, I really expect the team to come out with both barrels firing. There is no reason to let up against a decidedly weaker opponent, and a convincing victory tonight may restore a bit of confidence among our shooters. There are tougher games ahead and we need to be hitting on all cylinders when it counts, so there's no time like the present to work out the kinks (hopefully that's all we are experiencing).