Daily Recap - Saturday, Oct. 4 - Training Camp Day 16

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After back-to-back game days and with another game tomorrow afternoon, the team took an informal practice session today. The session had a similar feel to an in-season morning skate. Around a dozen players opted to skate, working primarily on shooting drills.

The roster for tomorrow is still being decided, but the coaches did leak some plans.

• Jason Arnott and J.P. Dumont are expected to be in the lineup tomorrow. Patric Hornqvist will likely open the game on their other wing, but much like last night's game, the coaches may shuffle lines around to test out different combination.
• Radek Bonk and Nick Tarnasky will not play tomorrow night as they both rest some bumps and bruises. With today's roster moves, that leaves 14 forwards for the coaches to choose from for tomorrow afternoon's lineup.

Quote book
Coach Trotz
On last night’s game…
“The first 10 minutes of the game we were fine. We came out with a bunch of jump. Once we got the second goal we just sort of shut it down and stopped working and competing at the level that we were. Momentum started to go toward Atlanta and they scored four unanswered goal, so I wasn’t really happy with that. And then I thought we got a little better in the second and in the third we cranked it right up and were really good."

On Pekka Rinne’s performance last night…
“Pekka looked really good. We didn’t give him a lot of support, but he looked really good; big body, he sealed the net down. He was really, really good. You look and you see he got four goals against, but he saved a few chances that should have been goals.”

On Ville Koistinen…
“He was fine. I thought a lot of things that he’s able to do, managing the puck and all that, he did a pretty good job. Defensively you could tell there were times he looked a little tired on the back-to-back, but he was fine.”

On Jordin Tootoo…
“I thought Toots was really good last night. I talked to him about making sure he had balance in his game, in terms of keeping the foundation of being a hard player to play against and still add the skill elements. I talked about him being a Gary Roberts type of player, someone who can separate people and stick up for himself and his teammates, a hard guy to play against; can contribute on both sides of the puck, put up some offensive numbers. We’re trying to give him examples of players around the league that he can watch and that was one of the guys we talked about. Last night was a good example, Toots had a goal, two assists, a fight. He jumped in for a teammate who got hit and he didn’t take on anybody small, a guy who’s what 6’7 and about 245.”

Goaltender Pekka Rinne
On the pace of camp the past few days…
“We have fewer guys, so it’s more intense. The pace is getting there. Everybody is preparing for Opening Night, so every single day guys are a little sharper, getting closer to NHL speed.”

On having a goaltending coach around the team full time...
“It’s a little bit different, but obviously it’s a good thing. I get to work with him (Mitch Korn) all the time, pretty much every day, so that’s a good thing for me. It’s just going to make me that much better to get a chance to work with him every day.”

On his relationship with fellow goaltender Dan Ellis...
“He’s such a great guy and we get along really well. It’s just simple things -- on the ice we talk about on-ice stuff, some drills we’re doing, some saves we’ve made, some goals we let in; stuff like that. And then off the ice stuff as well. He’s a great guy and I’m happy to be here with him.”

On the NHL playing games in Europe…
“It’s huge. NHL is such a big thing in Europe, especially in Finland, where hockey is the No. 1 sport. People just follow hockey all year long, so it’s a great thing I think, for those fans to see their favorite players and see NHL players, it’s really something unbelievable.”