It had that training camp feel to it, too.
The Blue Jackets skated hard, worked on skill-based drills and, as Tortorella mentioned, logged some "conditioning" skates. That included some laps around the outside of the rink, plus a set of "Herbies," which looked like an abridged version of the bag-skate scene in the movie "Miracle," in which legendary coach Herb Brooks forces the U.S. hockey team to skate sprints until their legs are burning.
The Blue Jackets' version wasn't nearly that intense, but it grabbed their attention.
"I think that was part of [Tortorella's] idea," captain Nick Foligno said. "We've got four days [before the next game]. It's been a weird week. No games [before Thursday], and then four days off before the next one. It's different, but [Tortorella's] always going to take some skin, as he says."
The "Herbies" did, however, give Josh Anderson a chance to recreate the role of U.S. captain Mike Eruzione in the movie.
"Actually, Josh was joking [around]," Foligno said. "He was like, 'Josh Anderson … from London, Ontario!"
Tortorella appreciated the upbeat attitude, and not just from Anderson.
"They were full of enthusiasm today," he said. "They practiced hard. They practiced quick. I thought they started off very shaky, the first couple minutes, I could tell. And we just had to remind them that we're here to work, and I thought they dove into it, and they practiced very well."
The Jackets will do it again Saturday, when they will crank out another practice prior to their flight to Las Vegas. Looking ahead, it's best to get these practices in now. The next two months are jam-packed with 29 games, including 16 in March.
"We have [Saturday] planned already for some other parts of our game," Tortorella said. "So, it works out well that way, because once we come back from the All-Star break, you look at our schedule, we're not going to be able to practice much at all. So, we're going to try and use it to our benefit."
News & Notes
-- Defenseman Ryan Murray didn't participate in practice, and Tortorella said Thursday that he was, "Not even close," when asked about the defenseman's status after morning skate.
Murray, who's missed 23 games with an upper-body injury, hasn't played since Nov. 27, when he was injured in the Jackets' 3-1 loss to the Montreal Canadiens at Belle Centre. Murray had returned to skating, made the last two road trips and participated in a full practice in Buffalo prior to the break.
-- Forward Cam Atkinson didn't practice Friday, after skating the previous two days. Atkinson, who's still healing from surgery to repair a fractured bone in his foot, skated in a sweatsuit prior to practice Wednesday and then donned full equipment Thursday morning. Atkinson is a little more than three weeks into his estimated recovery time of 4-to-6 weeks.
-- Sergei Bobrovsky looked sharp during practice, facing a lot of odd-man rushes and other situations where he had a disadvantage. In fact, during one 2-on-1 rush, he made two great saves back-to-back to keep the puck out of his net.
He stopped the first one with his glove, after lunging hard to his left. The puck was sent to the other side of the net, and he quickly wheeled, on his knees, in the crease. He stopped that shot with his right hand, which put practice on hold for a couple seconds as teammates applauded by banging their sticks on the ice, boards and glass.
Bobrovsky said he worked out, off ice, during the bye, in preparation for a busy conclusion to the regular season.
"I used that window of time to work in a gym, to do off-ice stuff to maintain my body, recover mentally and just prepare myself for the most important part of the season," he said. "It will be intense finish. In February, I think we have lots of divisional games [in the Metropolitan Division], so it will be pretty tight games."
