Penguins Prep For Norfolk 3/22

Friday, March 22, 2013

The Penguins practiced at Coal Street this morning, preparing for a home match up with the Norfolk Admirals tomorrow night. The Penguins haven't fared well against teams in the East Division this season, and have had trouble especially of late going just 1-6 in their last seven against those teams.

I asked head coach John Hynes about the added importance of these divisional games and if now is the time to really focus and bear down.
We can figure them out," Hynes said of teams in the division. "We just have to play hard and play a certain way."
Heading down the stretch, every game becomes increasingly more important. I talked to Trevor Smith about that, among other things.
"These games are going to be huge," Smith said. "Everyone is kind of eying the playoffs, jockeying for position. You want to be up there in the playoffs and guarantee your spot down the stretch."
I also got a chance to speak with defenseman Clark Seymour about his first impressions and a little bit about his style of play and what he brings to the table. Here's what Seymour had to say:
"Guys are opening their arms to me and it has been a great experience so far. Today's practice was high paced, yesterday was an off-ice workout. It's good to be around the rink and see how things work around here." - Clark Seymour
For those who aren't familiar with Seymour, I asked him to sort of to give fans an idea of how he plays the game.
"I'm a big stay-at-home defenseman. Easy puck moving defenseman that keeps it simple, plays physical and chips in the odd time offensively."
ROSTER NOTES

With 14 healthy forwards and eight defenseman, decisions will need to be made relative to who will be in the lineup heading down the stretch.  Here's how the lines looked in today's practice:

Holzapfel - Smith - Kolarik
Uher - Peters - Thompson/Payerl
Collins - Gibbons - Megna
Farnham - Sill - Minella/MacIntyre

Reese - Dumoulin
Mormina - Grant
Morrow - Samuelsson
Wild - Seymour

Zatkoff - Thiessen

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