Maybe the most amazing thing I saw today was that there was only one player wearing ice or getting worked on in the training room today and that was for something very minor. The Komets are remarkably healthy for this time of the season, and they really have been all season.
At this time of the year, Al Sims likes to have practices that last no longer than an hour, if that, but there were still several players staying late to work on some individual stuff. Colin Chaulk was drilling with Olivier Legault, Guy Dupuis was doing single-leg skates and Justin Hodgman was working on his shooting with Kevin Reiter.
I told Justin he might be the youngest Komet ever to score a playoff goal, and Guy brought up an interesting point wondering if Konstantin Shafranov isn't the oldest ever to score a playoff goal. I have to do some more research, but I'm guessing that's a pretty safe call on Guy's part.
Nothing great strategy-wise revealed today, but that's what happens when you face each other 15 times during the season. The Komets are very confident, but I don't get the sense they are over-confident.
``They worked really hard against us, and it seems like they had three lines going hard at us,'' Dupuis said of Port Huron. ``I think the goalies came up with the big saves at the right time and kind of kept them down. It would be tied 2-2 and they would make the big save and we'd come up with a lucky shot late and win the game. I think after a while it got in their heads that it might be difficult to beat us. I thought they sometimes out-worked us. They were definitely the hardest-working team in the league. They are really physical. They did all the right things except winning on the scoreboard.''
