Staal Hopes to Carry Over His Soccer "Game" into Hockey

Instead of their typical on-ice practice at the IceoPlex yesterday, head coach Michel Therrien allowed alot of the Penguin players to utilize the indoor soccer field adjacent to the ice rink to play a few games of soccer and work on some conditioning instead.

Staal's team won all three games that were played and Staal himself tallied five goals; two of which were game-winners.

“It was a great changeup,” Staal said. “It’s always fun hanging out with the guys, playing a different game and loosening up a little bit.”

CLICK HERE to read the entire article which also talks about Staal finally getting his first goal of the season out of the way.

In a similar article on the Penguins webpage, additional information was included about their unique practice yesterday. Therrien gave the players the option to lift weights or play soccer aside from four players who participated in on-ice practice due to not playing in last Saturday's game (Sabourin, Bissonnette, and Eaton; Sykora participated as well but because he missed a majority of training camp due to illness and sore groin).

"It’s nice, we had a workout and a little game,” Crosby said. “Just get the guys together, get moving, get sweating. We had a mix of soccer and hockey. We played sockey today.”

Crosby was the goalie for his team while Godard and Goligoski took turns being goalies for their team. The winning team won lunch. And Crosby also commented on his recently injury saying, “I feel much better. A little scare but I feel good.”