Thoughts on the Open Practice

Didn’t get out of the house on time so I ended up getting to the practice a bit late.

Apparently both Holmstrom and Stuart skated but I missed them, no grey jerseys were out by the time I sat down. Meech skated for the first half of practice in a white jersey as a forward and the second half as a defenseman in black.

As it was my first Wings practice, one thing that surprised me was that it seemed to be more up-tempo than pre-game warmups. I had expected them to be a bit more similar but I imagine the fact that they’re more structured makes the practices seem faster. Or maybe it’s the use of the whole ice surface.

I took about 60 pictures but I haven’t had time to look through them to see what actually came out and how many are duplicates or anything like that. We’ll see if I can even label them properly without the players having names on their jerseys.

All-in-all, it was a good time. Maybe not worth driving 90 minutes into Detroit for more than once a month for me but since all the Wings do is offer it once a season I guess I don’t need to worry about that. Definitely a good idea for kids who might not be able to stay up for and/or sit through a whole game.

At the start of the season, I ranted about what the Wings were doing wrong and how they could fix it. Open practices are a part of that.

Extending the idea, at times when they’re off for several days they should hold them in Lansing and Grand Rapids, to get their fans from outside of Detroit involved. I’m aware they did one in GR this year, I just think it should be a more regular thing.