Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Tuesday practice update 10/23

Phantoms coach Terry Murray said yesterday that Marc-Andre Bourdon's undisclosed upper-body injury was more than a day-to-day thing, which is why I was surprised to see the defenseman out on the ice  at the Glens Falls Recreation Department Ice Rink for practice this morning.

Bourdon, who last skated with the team a week ago, was back on the ice for the early portion of practice, about a half hour, before leaving to return to the Civic Center for an off-ice workout.

Murray said he still hadn't had the chance spoke with Bourdon, who didn't travel with the team to Newfoundland this weekend, about his injury since the Phantoms returned from their trip. He hoped to discuss the matter with Bourdon later Tuesday, after he and the team returned to the Civic Center.

"The fact that he’s on the ice and got through, probably, a half-hour is a good thing," Murray said after Tuesday's practice, moved to the Fire Road facility as crews prepped Glens Falls Civic Center for a  concert this evening. "If everything went well with the off-ice workout, I would say he’ll probably be on the ice for the full practice tomorrow.”

Tuesday's practice, featuring the same lines as yesterday's, ran more than two hours. It had a heavy focus on skating towards the end. It's not hard to figure out why.

The team plays its first three-games-in-three-days stretch of the season this weekend, at Albany Friday, vs. Rochester Saturday and at Syracuse Sunday. There's a story in tomorrow's paper about veteran defenseman Danny Syvret, who has played in a lot of three-in-threes in his AHL career.

Murray doesn't think he's been behind the bench for a three-in-three since he last coached in the AHL more than two decades ago, but has had the chance to watch a lot of three-in-threes while keeping tabs on some of the younger prospects in the NHL organizations for which he coached.

The Sunday games aren't always pretty, particularly when there's travel involved. Conditioning is big.

"I know it’s difficult," Murray said. "That’s where you have to trust your game. You have to trust the team game going into that three-in-three on the weekend. Trust your system, go out and do your job, work hard for your teammates — all the clichés, I guess, that you’d throw out — but that’s really what it comes down do. That’s what we’re doing the work for.” 

Forward Tye McGinn left midway through after banging into the boards hard during a drill. He left to apply ice and returned minus his gear a short time later, watching a few minutes from the bench before leaving again. Murray didn't have an update on McGinn's condition at the rink.

I'll ask again tomorrow.

One final update: I thought maybe the Phantoms might be keen to using defenseman Matthew Konan in the line-up for at least one of this weekend's games, to give some of the others a rest. Murray shot that down pretty quickly, saying Konan is still not in game shape after undergoing off-season surgery.

"We’re slowly bringing him along – getting him involved in drills, getting his conditioning level up," Murray said. "He’s doing a lot of off-ice workouts. He’s just a young guy that’s going through the process of getting himself ready to play at the pro level. But it’s a ways away."

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