You may have seen by now that Frans Nielsen got the call to fill in for Shawn Bates. He didn’t practice today with the Sound Tigers, already off to the Island. (While these 2 p.m. practices are nice, you pay for it on the writing side.)
They had a team-wide shootout competition at the end of practice, and three defensemen — Mitchell, Malec and Fata — were three of the first four to score (Colliton was the forward). All five Dmen were among the first 10 to score. At last it was Nilsson (0-for-6 in regular-season shootouts) vs. Comeau (1-for-3), and Nilsson put one in.
Tambellini (sick) and Berry (banged up) got an extra day off, so they skated 10 forwards and five D. Colliton is feeling better but isn’t a certainty for the weekend. Nothing was set as far as a callup, though you’d think having an extra body or two would make sense on the upcoming tour of the Northeast.