Teams usually start skating together before practice starts
"officially."  And I'm sure that it's an understood given that the
coaches would like them to.  That way, when they actually start practice,
they don't have to concentrate on remembering how to skate :)  I think
it's a good idea.  You know the players want to have a successful season,
and I'm sure every resource will be made available to them before
official practice begins, so that they may get a head start.
 
On Tue, 4 Oct 1994, Bill Fenwick wrote:
 
> You can tell I'm desperate for hockey talk when I read an article about the
> Gophers closely enough to pick something like this up...
>
> Pam writes (quoting from the _Minnesota Daily_ article):
>
> >Gophers coach Doug Woog officially started practice Monday at
> >Mariucci Arena -- and he wasted little time in making his players
> >work hard.
> >
> > [...]
> >
> >The team had been skating together for the past two weeks, so the
> >focus was on puck handling and shooting.
>
> Just a point of clarification -- I'm going to guess that this means the
> Gophers were doing the skating on their own, with no coaches present.  (That's
> probably what "officially started practice" means, at least I hope so)