The kind of day you wish you were riding toward a playoff game with Sam Cooke on the radio.*
Last regular practice, unless things happen that makes one happen Tuesday. Even so, most of the regulars didn’t skate. The black aces, all 50** of them, took the twirl; of those who played Wednesday, the only ones to go Thursday were MacArthur, Fretter and the goalies.
Among those who did skate: Frans Nielsen (the shoulder’s no better, no worse, but he was skating more to keep the legs fresh than anything) and Sean Bentivoglio (his is feeling better, he said). They had a little four-on-four game, and Nielsen made this sweet pass from behind the net, throwing it back against the grain as he skated to the goalie’s left, to MacArthur in front of the net to the goalie’s right for an easy goal. Beautiful stuff.
They were talking a little about the too-many-men penalty from the first period last night, which was really pretty funny to see. The first unit was coming off, and both the second- and third-unit forward lines hopped on — and all went. There was no one left on the bench**. “Wotts looked up, and he had outlets everywhere,” Regier said. (It would surely have been less funny if it had cost them, but it didn’t.)
Here’s a couple of reads on Rob Hennigar. “Offensive upside” was the word today. Appears there are not plans to bring in Marcinko, though it sounds like the big club plans to try to sign him.
The Bears’ defense corps remains uncertain, but Tim Leone writes that signs point to a return for Lepisto and Sloan. Got to bring the headphones and listen to John Walton tomorrow night.
Some reading: Hartford’s Andrew Hutchinson wins the Eddie Shore Award for old-time hockey defenseman of the year. Petteri Nokelainen is part of a Globe feature on the Bruins’ fill-in centermen. Just as Eric Duhatschek writes, we “won’t have Mick McGeough to kick around anymore.” And a funny post from Filip Bondy on a trip to the Rock.
*-All I know about April 2006, I learned from my blog.
**-Caution: may be hyperbole.