Friday practice, cuts, and lineup for Saturday

I was in mid-post about Lewis getting sent down when I got the press release about him and Kevin Doell. Lewis, whose hip is all healed up, pointed out that the Wolves have a team meeting tomorrow night to kick off training camp. He's new to the team so it makes sense for him to be there from the beginning. So he won't get into any Thrashers preseason games it looks like.

Dan Turple shouldn't be far behind headed to Chicago, Pavelec said he just lost him as a roommate. Pavelec will probably stick around for a while since Lehtonen is out with a groin issue. The start of the season is tough on the groin, so hopefully once he gets ramped up, it won't be a problem. I asked Pavelec about how he feels camp is going for him and he seems really pleased.

Lineup for tomorrow's game against St. Louis (first home game):
Bartovic - Holik - Hossa
Kovalchuk - White - Sterling
LaVallee - Little - Haydar
Slater - Perrin - Giroux

Zhitnik - Havelid
Enstrom - Klee
Oystrick - McCarthy

Hedberg - Pavelec

Bartovic continues to look better than expected. It looks like he lucked out on Kozlov's current soreness and will get a turn with the top line, including buddy Marian Hossa.

If you're planning to go to the open morning skate at Philips tomorrow, note that both groups will be practicing, the game and the non-game group. The second group starts at 11:15.

A few notes from today's practice. Dupuis is sick, left practice throwing up. Perrin and Havelid were troublemakers in the scatter drill -- hitting the sticks of other players and getting really close to them to throw them off. There was another drill where they had to pass over top of a line of sticks. If they hit the sticks, they had to do it over. Sterling didn't get it until the fourth try. Another time he was corrected on his positioning. Not the best practice for him.

Edit to add: Hartley was very complimentary of Enstrom's play against Nashville, praising several particulars. He talked with him about the too many men penalty, saying you have to make sure your guy is closer to the bench over here. Enstrom didn't think it was him being called, he "thought the whistle was from another planet." Hartley said that the last cuts were going to be very difficult.