Minnesota Wild Practice, Part 2

Let's say, you go to the Xcel Energy Center.  You sit way up in the nose bleed seats and settle in for the game.  Putting vertigo aside, you look way down the valley sides and there on the valley floor there's some movement.  If it weren't for the huge TV you might have to squint to see that it's a hockey game.  You can hear the goals, but you can't see them.

But at a practice it's different.  The rink seems small.  You can watch every move, and hear some of what's said.  The players don't talk a lot as they go through their drills. They're too professional for that.  As they concentrate on the work at hand it's clear they're enjoying themselves.  Here's some more inspiration:

After practice the players had to sign some autographs.  Some of the autograph seekers appeared to work for dealers, since they had lots of 8x10 glossies and other stuff to sign.  Sorry I didn't get any paparazzi-style shots of the autograph hounds as they ran down their quarry.