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Some news and notes from today's practice:

- Spirited quick pace for the first 20-25 minutes of practice today and then a more informal feel for the closing stretch. The opening part of practice focused heavily on shooting drills, primarily two-on-one drills and finished off with shootout drills before things became less formal. "We shot the puck well last night," Trotz said. "We created a good number of scoring chances, just didn't bury that third goal."


- With a heavy dose of games on the immediate horizon, today was used as a "body maintenance" day for a couple of forwards. All six defensemen and both goaltenders were on the ice today, but a lighter group of forwards rotating through the drills.


- Joel Ward did not skate today, but Coach Trotz said there was a chance Ward would play in tomorrow night's game. Ward will likely give it a go in morning skate and measure his availability from there.


- Dumont, Geoffrion, Halischuk, and Hornqvist all stayed out on the ice late today along with goaltender Anders Lindback.


- In advance of tomorrow night's projected goaltender matchup between Pekka Rinne (leads Western Conference in GAA and SV%) and Tim Thomas (leads Eastern Conference in GAA and SV%), Coach Trotz praised Rinne's imporantance to the team this season, "We wouldn't be where we are right now without Peks. We are very fortunate to have one of the top goaltenders in the league. He is not only a Vezina candidate (League's Top Goaltender), but should be a Heart candidate (League MVP) as well."