[Pierre "Monster" McGuire]

Just got back from the Heat practice.

Group A was on the ice first. Group A mostly had the 12 tryout guys with a few Heat regulars (like Armstrong, Patterson, Breen, Cameron, and Howse). Luke Strand and Cale MacLean ran most of the drills. The drills were heavily focused on the rush. 5 on 5's and 3 on 3's. What I noticed the most Ward's patience with the players. If they weren't doing something properly, he'd stop the drill and calmly tell everyone where they needed to be or what they needed to do. He even stopped the drill a couple of times to congratulate the players on being perfectly in position.

As for individual players. No one player stuck out. Riley Emmerson is still coming to every practice and still lumbers around the ice - sticking out like a sore thumb. But no one can take the guy off the puck. He's too damn lanky and too damn strong. Sylvester is a work horse out there. Always in the right place, has great hands, and an even better shot. Very quick too. When everyone was gassed and tired, he wouldn't even go for a drink of water. He'd go straight to the net and start shooting, while everyone rested.

In Group B, which had all of the Heat regulars, they ran all of the same rush-oriented drills. Irving was great in net. He didn't treat it as if it were a practice. He was sprawling across the crease to make great glove and blocker saves. Brodie looked very solid defensively. It seems like every time I watch him his skating is getting progressively better. He skates as well as Negrin now. Rheault never quits working. Even though he's a smaller guy, he works well along the boards and has a great shot as well.

A couple of interesting points:

- Patterson and Armstrong stayed on the ice for both practices (that's about 2 1/2 hours of hard, physical drills). To me, that just shows a whole new level of commitment to getting better. I was quite impressed by that.

- Also, Ron Sutter was out on the ice with the coaches. He's never usually out on the ice. IIRC he's the Flames western scout. I'm wondering why he was out there. I wonder if Feaster asked him to check it out and report back to him on who's giving it their all, and who's slacking. Maybe Feaster wants to know which prospects he's willing to give up in a trade? Who knows. I just found it different that a scout would be on the ice during a practice.