(Mostly) Staying the Same
With the roster officially cut down to 23 men after the allowance of an expanded roster in Prague, head coach Sheldon Keefe kept much the same at practice as was iced during the opening two games of the season.
The only difference on Wednesday was Kurtis MacDermid dressed in a black jersey along with the other defensemen, skating as the seventh D-man.
Notably, unlike Tuesday, defensemen Luke Hughes and Brett Pesce did not take part in practice. Yesterday, the two defensemen joined their fellow D-Union members for the skills practice.
While working special teams, the first unit of Dougie Hamilton, Nico Hischier, Timo Meier, Jack Hughes and Jesper Bratt remained the same, while the second unit had one slight change. Ondrej Palat worked as a penalty killer, while Dawson Mercer took a spot on the second unit. In the season opener in Prague, Palat played on the second unit and when he was unavailable to play in the second game, Mercer took over that man-advantage spot.
