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Practice takes toll on battered Moose

By: Paul Wiecek

Posted: 01/25/2010 3:43 PM | Comments: 0 (including replies)

WORCESTER, MASS. -- When it rains, it pours and the Manitoba Moose -- like most of the U.S. Northeast today -- is in the midst of a deluge.

With the Moose mired in a four-game losing skid and reeling from injuries, the team had two more players go down to injury here this afternoon.

First, it was veteran NHLer -- and powerplay anchor -- Mathieu Schneider who left the ice midway through practice. Schneider was helped off the ice and the word after practice was that he had "tweaked" a knee and is now questionable for Wednesday's night's game here against the Worcester Sharks, the AHL affiliate of the NHL's San Jose franchise.

And then Moose forward Chad Painchaud, acquired from Victoria just last weekend, took a puck in the face and also had to be helped from the ice. Painchaud required stitches to close the wound but is not expected to miss any action.

Put it altogether and it was just more of the same for a Moose club that was hoping that a return to the ice here today after a day off Sunday would mark a fresh start and the first day of the rest of a season that has unravelled in four lopsided losses over the past 10 days.

Moose head coach Scott Arniel put his club through a gruelling 130-minute practice which included an exhausting skating drill to end practice that appeared to be punitive as much as practice.

"A bit of both," Arniel said after practice. "Sometimes you have to recognize when it's a wounded dog and sometimes when it's just brain cramps and mental mistake after mental mistake.

"That was a very dominant lineup we faced in Hershey and every time we made a mistake, they made us pay. So that practice today -- all that skating and me yelling and making them skate every time they made a mistake -- that attention to detail is how I go about dealing with these kinds of situations."

One bright note for the Moose today was that forwards Marty Murray and Matt Pettinger -- who missed the Hershey series with groin pulls -- were back on the ice and are probable for Wednesday.

"It felt good," said Pettinger. "I'm looking forward to getting back."

The Moose are in the midst of a six-game road swing that will see them play here against the Sharks on Wednesday and Friday, before moving on to face the Penguins in Wilkes-Barre Saturday and Sunday. The Moose then return home.

Paul.Wiecek@freepress.mb.ca

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