The Reign practiced this morning at Citizens Business Bank Arena and that is news in itself. Karl Taylor said the team will only be practicing five times all month, the result of a schedule that includes three sets of three games in three nights.

“We can do video a ton,” Taylor said. “That becomes more of your practice time, your teaching tool. Some people larn by doing, some learn by seeing, some learn by listening. You try to do all of them, ideally, because then you’re nailing all the different types of learners. You’re getting everybody. But some learn better by doing video, watching listening. … We do tons of video. There’s no question we use that as a teaching tool a lot.”

Today’s practice was mostly optional, with most veterans getting the day off. All three goalies were on the ice, as were Pat Bowen, Doug Krantz, Jordan Hill, Jason Fredricks, Jordan Morrison, Kyle Kraemer, James McEwan, Justin Taylor, Brett O’Malley, Aaron Lewadniuk, C.J. Stretch and Michael Pelech.

Most of the work focused on net-front deflections – set plays where the defenseman shoots from a distance and a forward, stationed in front of the goalie, tries to re-direct the puck into the net.

More on that, and the emergence of rookie defenseman Pat Bowen, in tomorrow’s editions of the Sun and Daily Bulletin.