Practice Notes 12/15

  I was finally able to get out to a practice at Northwoods yesterday and have a few notes and observations.


- The following did not participate in practice: Jeff May, Josh Lunden, Al Montoya, and obviously Beaudoin and Tikhonov who are both out 4-6 weeks.

- Tyler Mosienko has returned for another stint with the team from Las Vegas. The reigning ECHL Player of the Week had 17pts (6-11) in 14 games with Las Vegas and has also skated with the Rampage for 4 games picking up 2 penalty minutes and 0 points. Here is a quick non-professional scouting report from good friend and SoCal resident Keith Burgdoff, who saw the Wranglers play the Ontario Reign a couple games last month: 

Non-stop energy! Extremely fast and can handle the puck. Gives 100% from the start to finish of every shift. Earned the "C" on his jersey! Sometimes over pursues, but is quick to recover.

- These were the lines during practice:
Ahnelov - Stone
Stafford - Summers
Ross - Goncharov

Boedker - Ebbett - MacLean (Neilson was extra)
Hollweg - Brine - Ortmeyer
Picard - Kearns - Prucha (MacArthur was extra)
Pope - Mosienko - Watkins

- The practice was focused on forechecking/backchecking with a lot of teaching from the coaches. After the official practice had ended, and the players have 30 minutes to work on individual/team building drills, several players worked with a 4th coach I have seen a couple other times on skating drills. Picard, MacLean, Ortmeyer, and Prucha were among those working on balance and skating efficiency.

- There were several funny moments as the boys seemed to be in good spirits. Ortmeyer led the team in stretching after practice and jumped up to skate to an open goal when Hollweg whacked him in his ankles and knocked him flat on his face. Meanwhile Eric Neilson gave an injured Josh Lunden a 2 minute ribbing about how pretty his hair is from center ice. Finally, while the team was performing a rebound drill, Jed Ortmeyer knocked off the water bottle with a wrister, sending it 2 or 3 feet up in the air and knocking the top off. You would have thought the team just scored an OT goal in game 7 of the Finals. It's good to see the team bond like they have.

- Finally, a big shout out to the Rampage Booster Club who came out yesterday and delivered Christmas Buckets of baked goods and treats for the guys. They were all very appreciative and seemed genuinely surprised. Well done.


Gameday coming tomorrow. I wish they would have picked a different team to do the Teddy Bear Toss against...