After a day off, an interesting practice.

I wrote in Monday’s San Bernardino Sun that the Ducks players and coaches were “going bald scratching their heads” trying to figure out what’s wrong with the team. I might have been jumping the gun a bit with my hyperbole. Turns out I actually knew what I was writing.

On Monday, a day off for the players (Drew Miller had dinner with his brother, Buffalo goalie Ryan), Randy Carlyle reviewed the Edmonton game and did some “deep thinking.” It resulted in an interesting practice. The team did a drill I hadn’t seen before, sprinting full-on, two at a time, from one blue line to the top of the opposite faceoff circles. Over and over. No puck anywhere, just a stick in the hand, sprinting.

The coach’s philosophy: “We just have to try to stimulate more – from an emotional, physical and conditioning aspect – is what we‘re going to try and focus on to get ourselves 10 percent better. We‘re displaying some things that are causing us to think we‘ve lost a little bit of an edge.”

He talked to the players a lot during this practice, more than I’ve ever seen him just stand next to a whiteboard and talk. It’s interesting to note, and probably just a coincidence, that the Kings had a 2-hour off-ice meeting in lieu of a practice over the weekend before playing Edmonton on Sunday night.

So aside from benching Todd Marchant and Shane Hnidy and maybe switching the lines up – check out tomorrow’s notebook – this is how the Ducks are “shaking things up.” For now.

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About J.P. Hoornstra

J.P. Hoornstra covers the Dodgers, Angels and Major League Baseball for the Orange County Register, Los Angeles Daily News, Long Beach Press-Telegram, Torrance Daily Breeze, San Gabriel Valley Tribune, Pasadena Star-News, San Bernardino Sun, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, Whittier Daily News and Redlands Daily Facts. Before taking the beat in 2012, J.P. covered the NHL for four years. UCLA gave him a degree once upon a time; when he graduated on schedule, he missed getting Arnold Schwarzenegger's autograph on his diploma by five months.