Thoughts from Monday's Practice Thoughts from Tuesday's Practice Thoughts from Wednesday's Practice Thoughts from Thursday's Practice

A couple notes from today's practice at Centennial Sportsplex:

- Mostly meetings today. Only six players took to the ice: Belak, Dekanich, Dumont, Tootoo, Svatos, Wilson.


- Coach Trotz said Mark Dekanich was recalled because goaltender Anders Lindback is under the weather. He said Lindback spent most of last night's game in the training room getting fluids. Lindback will likely miss tomorrow night's game, but depending on how quickly the bug passes his system, the coaches didn't seem concerned about any long-term effects.


- On the injury front, Coach Trotz said Steve Sullivan is probable for tomorrow (but likely will need to wear a shield or mask of some sort) and Marcel Goc is day-to-day, but out for tomorrow's game vs. Phoenix. Coach said Marek Svatos would return to the lineup and either Nick Spaling or Colin Wilson would slide from wing to center to fill Goc's slot in the middle.


- Coach Trotz talked about Alexander Sulzer's importance to the team this season...
"Sulzer has came in and was our seventh defenseman coming out of training camp. With the injury to Frankie (Bouillon) and earlier in the season to (Ryan) Suter, he's gone in there and played some pretty good minutes. He's done a really good job for the most part. That's a hard role to go in to when you're seventh and then you're moved into the four/five role. I think he's put some pressure on the defensemen in our lineup; there are times when he's been better than players in some of those higher roles. He's a really hard worker, so he prepares himself to have success; it is really only a matter of game experience for Alex -- being consistent, getting that experience."


- Coach Trotz talked about Patric Hornqvist and how he's continuing to add more elements to his game...
"Patric’s worked on his speed the last couple of years. He's a little deceptive; he gets on people hard. The game-winning goal last night was an example of that. He jumped on that guy quickly and I think that caused the guy to stumble and allowed us to get to the front of the net. That was a huge goal."


- Coach Trotz talked about being forced to piece together different line combinations last night...
There was a side benefit of being in full scramble mode last night, I saw a couple of people who I hadn't played together in the past, paired up on a line together and play pretty good. The first period I had to switch people around because Fisher got hurt early; the second period I had to switch when Goc went down. And then Sullivan went down and we were left with 10 forwards. I saw some new combinations I liked.