Conditioning skates, wind sprints, whammies, two-and-a-halfs, bag skates — many names for the basic, infamous drill where one goes up and down the ice at high speed. A quick break to fill the lungs, then it’s time to suffer again.
“There’s no secret to it. It sucks, but it’s part of hockey,” Seattle Kraken center Alexander Wennberg, who declined to give his name for the drill, said.
“You can’t just be playing just to have fun and all that. There’s got to be some hard work behind it. You’ve got to taste some blood. It’s going to really hurt in your legs. But afterward you feel like a million bucks because you really put in the effort.”
They’re associated with punishment, a wake-up call after a poor performance. They’re also a training camp tool. Kraken coach Dave Hakstol was watching, stopwatch in hand, as each group — goaltenders excluded — did their laps on tired legs to conclude the first two days of camp. Brandon Tanev, coming off a season cut short by knee surgery, was right there with them. Up and down the rink two and a half times.
“We pay attention to every detail. Conditioning is a big part,” Hakstol said. “There’s also a mental piece to grinding through a condition drill like that. It’s not a lot of fun, but everyone does it together. You work through it together and you build camaraderie through that.”
There are several explanations for the “bag skate” name, some creative, some vulgar. One is that players skate into exhaustion and lose their lunch into — that’s right — a bag. No one spewed on the rink this week as Kraken training camp got underway.
“I think you train hard enough during the summer that you shouldn’t puke. If there’s guys puking, it’s definitely a very big bag,” center Ryan Donato said. “But I still think it’s (called) a bag skate regardless.”
Perhaps there’s an element of punishment in the training camp setting as well. Paying the price for a summer well enjoyed.
“Especially when training camp’s only a couple days long, it’s tough,” Donato said. “You’ve really got to get your feet going, back in the systems of starting and stopping and getting your legs going. There’s an original soreness you’ve got to get through and recover.”
Much of Sunday’s practice at Kraken Community Iceplex centered on special teams with competition already looming. After just three days of on-ice work, the Kraken will host the Edmonton Oilers in their preseason opener Monday night.