Roughly a dozen players were already out on the ice at the Veterans Memorial Coliseum, stretching or doing soft toss with pucks. I opened the door of the Wolf Pack dressing room, report to the equipment crew and learn I’m assigned a stall between goalie Jason LaBarbera and defenseman Jeff MacMillan.

Labarbera, who has played here for parts of five seasons and was the league MVP a year ago, is the first to do a double-take when he saw me carrying sticks and a hockey bag in his direction.

MacMillan, a steady influence at the blue line, signed with the Wolf Pack over the summer months. He’s spent virtually his entire career in Utah, but sees a familiar face and quickly breaks the ice.

"Need help with your skates?"

There’s a couple of snickers from nearby players in the room at various points of undress and getting ready for practice. They’re curious at what I’m up to. It’s one thing for players to deal with the media after a game. The locker room is a team’s sanctuary and me being here and attempting to do what they have trained years to do, it’s understandable there might be some uneasiness. Have I crossed a line?

"Guys," I said. "Your jobs are safe. I’ll be gone by noon."

A few laughs follow.

I sit down, dig out shin pads, a helmet and other protective gear and begin to get dressed for hockey. MacMillan and I exchange small talk. He sees a Connecticut Clippers tag on the equipment bag. I explain to him that dad now has a hand-me-down from a son who’s currently playing high school hockey.

MacMillan recently returned to the Hartford lineup after missing a couple of weeks with an injury sustained during a game. Bumps and bruises are part of hockey. Some often occur in the strangest of ways. MacMillan, for example, dove to block a shot in the opening minute of the second period and somehow caught an elbow in the face from a Utah player near the net. He started to see double and was held out of action as a precaution for what may have been a mild concussion.

A night earlier, the two of us were talking after a 2-1 win over the Grizzlies, not so much about another routine win, but about him changing cities, the relief of living in the Northeast where travel had to be more manageable in contrast to a team out west that spent half a season in airports. MacMillan held no resentment in a game where players change teams and franchises switch affiliations or relocate to a new market. In fact, MacMillan had no chance to greet former teammates. The players in Utah this season were no longer property of the Dallas Stars. The Phoenix Coyotes, who severed ties in Springfield, now have a working agreement with the Grizzlies. Dallas, meanwhile, sent its prospects to Hamilton and Houston for a season with plans to have an arena and team up-and-running for 2005-06 in Des Moines, Iowa.

"Mac" directed me to the equipment man of the Wolf Pack to get a practice sweater. Jason Levy, who seems to thrive on just a couple of hours of sleep, has been here since the club came to Hartford eight years ago. He handed me a white, numberless sweater with the team’s snarling Wolf crest on the front.

Next came signing a waiver. In case I suffered a debilitating injury, the Wolf Pack would not be liable for my medical expenses. Judy Pal, the team’s energetic public relations director who helped set up this George Plimpton-type story idea I had, handed me a pen.

"You need to sign this," she said.

"Do I need my agent to look at it?"

Once I scribbled my name, I snapped on my helmet, inserted a mouth-guard and took the same path that Wolf Pack players use to reach the bench area.

You know you’re in a rink when you hear the echo of pucks bouncing off boards.

Boom. Boom. BOOM.

Though I’ve been in this Coliseum many times, it’s still a complex that will dwarf you. Some 15,000 seats and an enormous scoreboard suspended from the roof right in the middle of the arena. From ice level, it is a totally different perspective.

I can only imagine what kind of a rush it must be to play a game here before a full house or the emotional energy one can muster with one flick of the wrist by scoring a goal to send the home crowd into a frenzy.

Hours before, on this same surface, Hartford Wolf Pack captain Ken Gernander did just that when he became the franchise’s all-time points leader. During a 3-2 win over Bridgeport on Jan. 15, Gernander picked up an assist for his 344th career point as a member of the Wolf Pack.

Though Gernander didn’t receive a standing ovation to match the one Gordie Howe did when Mr. Hockey scored his 800th NHL goal here back on Feb. 29, 1980, the Wolf Pack faithful acknowledged the club’s most identifiable player. Since 1997, over 200 players have worn the Hartford sweater, but only one has been here since the first Wolf Pack puck dropped. Players come and go, but "G" is the constant. He holds virtually every club record that can exist -- longevity and talent can do that. A skilled player who has a great passion for the game, Gernander, at 35, may not generate points like he used to, but he capably filled in on defense when injuries hit the team a few weeks ago and played like he has skated regularly at the blue line for 10 years.

The next time you attend a Wolf Pack game, focus your attention on any shift that Gernander takes. If you have difficulty understanding what positional hockey is all about, Gernander is a perfect example of what to do. What makes him standout is his vision of being able to see a play develop before it really happens. Scouts call it anticipation, a skill that has helped to make Gernander the reliable pro that he is. On any shift, "G" will take away a passing lane, intercept a pass or impede the progress of an opposing player by getting in his way. No shortcuts. No wasted motion. Total effort and commitment to compete.

Gernander has been the welcome mat for so many players over the years here that, if he every stops playing, he’ll be a perfect coach. What’s most impressive about him is that at 5-foot-10 and 170 pounds, he has logged over 1,000 pro games and has the mental toughness to absorb the thumps and 10-hour bus rides that go with the game. Most nights, Gernander’s smarts are more important to the team than goals. The youngster in him has never really left. It was the late "Badger" Bob Johnson who coined "Every day is a great day for a hockey game." Gernander, who hails from the land of 1,000 lakes, treats each day at the rink like he’s skating on a frozen pond somewhere in his home state of Minnesota.

On this day, "G" will direct the workout. It’s a captain’s practice, but virtually the entire team is here. It says something about the regard the players have for him as much as it underscores what drives this team to win -- the all-for-one, one-for-all mentality.

I’ve witnessed the up-tempo workout that coach Ryan McGill puts the team through at practice. He and assistant coach Nick Fotiu have implemented a system that has maximized the talent pool, essentially a speed team of interchangeable parts that is determined to outnumber and outwork the opposition to loose pucks. Because of that, the Wolf Pack, a solid defensive club, are a difficult team to play against.

A year ago, the Wolf Pack had one of the lowest goals-against averages among 30 teams, finished tied with Milwaukee for most points (102) and came within one goal of reaching the Calder Cup Finals.

This season, Hartford is again among the league’s elite. With any luck the Wolf Pack figure to have another long run in the playoffs.

I had been on the ice for just a few minutes and after some minor stretching to loosen up, I located a puck and starting stick-handling with it on a portion of open ice. I tried my best to blend in with the others. As seconds pass, I sensed what I was doing mattered little to the Wolf Pack players.

With each stride, I was starting to feel more at home almost to the point that I started to believe I could play. In a way, I sensed I belonged out here, no matter how much of a stretch that was. My feeling of confidence, however, quickly changed when Jed Ortmeyer saucered a puck in my direction.

Like so many of the Hartford Wolf Pack this day, the players were kind to me. Ortmeyer showed patience and reacted as if he was involved in a youth hockey camp. Maybe the novelty of a beat writer trying to play the same game of a team his byline is on was something he had not witnessed before.

The two of us started to have a 60-foot catch with the puck. My problem magnified somewhat when the two of us took a few strides and were soon doing this basic passing drill while in motion. Here was Ortmeyer putting the puck on my tape and here was I, returning it more times into his skates than onto his stick blade. But hockey involves repetition and the more we did this, passes started to click. I sensed I had made a token imprint.

The mental game of sports involves the simple fact to worry only about what you can control as a player. Get better and just improve your game so the decision-makers are forced to do one of two things -- find a slot on the team’s depth chart or force a trade. If the playing field is level, just be ready when opportunity knocks.

A year ago, Ortmeyer spent most of 2003-04 with the New York Rangers. His oldest teammate was Mark Messier, who at age 43, is in his 25th season. I’m in a minority still on the hockey beat who remembers seeing Messier play for the Cincinnati Stingers in the WHA. On this day, Ortmeyer’s playing catch with someone who’s 52 years old -- experienced from breaking sticks on frozen ponds in Torrington and twice his age. Ortmeyer’s a kid whose reached the game’s top level.

This season, Ortmeyer, one of 25 players here in Hartford, has made the most of what’s been a year that raises more questions than supplies answers about every player’s future. For Ortmeyer, youth is still on his side. He’s effective without the puck, an asset needed to play the game at the highest level. In the long run, this winter will help him and others of similar skills to become a better all-around player. Instead of seeing limited time as a fourth-line winger with the parent club in New York, Ortmeyer, 26, has been able to play regularly. His only problem is staying healthy. Ankle and rib injuries have forced him to miss stretches of games.

Against Lowell on Jan. 22, Ortmeyer scored a hat trick in a 6-4 comeback victory. It was an impressive game for a forward not considered a scorer, but a good reward for someone who plays the game hard. A blue-collar type, Ortmeyer will work the corners with gusto. He may not finish checks with the crunch that Ryan Hollweg can, but Ortmeyer is a menace to rival defensemen and that alone will create space for Jamie Lundmark.

"I’m not a scorer and I don’t try to be, but it’s nice to score goals once in a while," he says. "I’m a banger, a crasher, a guy that has a role to play physical on a line that is really a pain in the side for the other team’s skilled guys. We’re out there to prevent the other team’s line from doing their job. It’s a defensive role. If you can’t play defense, you’re more a liability than a help."

Over the years, there have been a handful of natural goal scorers to play here in Hartford. The NHL Whalers had some of the best -- Gordie Howe, Blaine Stoughton, Mike Rogers, Ron Francis, Sylvain Turgeon, Kevin Dineen, Pat Verbeek, Ray Ferraro, Brendan Shanahan and Tom Webster. The Wolf Pack, too, have had a few who can finish -- Brad "Shooter" Smyth, Derek Armstrong, John Tripp, Marc Savard and now Jeff Hamilton and Alexandre Giroux.

Hamilton, who played at Yale a short time ago, led the AHL in goals (43) last season with Bridgeport. He’s not big in size, but he knows how to get open. His quick and accurate release makes him dangerous.

Giroux, on the other hand, has a knack to pick corners. He reminds observers of Michel Goulet -- the former Nordiques great who with the Stastny brothers used to kill the Whalers all the time in the early 1980’s.

Hamilton and Giroux bookend Hartford’s top line which is centered by Dominic Moore. It’s a trio that blends skills of three smart forwards and often brings out the best in each player.

It’s odd how the game works. Moore and Hamilton were rivals in college. The Harvard-Yale schmooze on ice rather than football. Now, they’re teammates. "Jeff’s a great player and a goal scorer," Moore says. "We’ve been battling against each other the last few years and it’s great now that we’re teammates. Jeff was always the guy we highlighted on, and knew was a game-breaker. Hey, us Ivy League guys have to stick together."

Moore, 24, was drafted by the Rangers. Hamilton, 27, is property of the Islanders. He’s here because of a contract squabble, a rental for a team that needed a game-breaker.

Giroux, who the players call "Rooster," arrived here last March in a deal with Ottawa for defenseman Greg de Vries. Giroux, 23, played in Binghamton where the Senators appear to have what seems to be a never-ending supply of prospects. Jason Spezza, the top pick in the draft in 2003, is a lock to lead the AHL in scoring this year but there are so many more promising players which enabled the Rangers to acquire a young winger with great hands who has shown a determined willingness to finish checks to become a more complete player.

Moore, who leads the club in scoring, has emerged as a more confident player -- to make plays and jostle for room near the net. It’s maturity as much the inner drive to keep ice time in a slot that opened up when Cory Larose signed last summer with Atlanta. A play-maker who reads the ice so well in close quarters, Moore has benefited the most from the extra space that presents itself from skating with Hamilton and Giroux, two finishers who draw the attention of defensemen inside the low circles.

"Scoring goals involves a lot of luck," Giroux says as we wait for a drill to begin where forwards, at opposite sides of one blue line, take off once a puck is dished cross the ice to a defenseman at the other blue line. Both forwards will skate as fast as possible down the wall, crisscross near the center ice logo and then make a mad dash for the attacking zone. Along the way, there’s a return pass from a defenseman designed to create a 2-on-0 rush against the goalie.

I’m in a group that will be shooting pucks at Steve Valiquette, a 6-foot-6, 217-pound netminder who only leads the league in goals-against-average. "Valley" has such size that he almost "plays bigger than the net." That’s how one-time Whaler coach Paul Holmgren often described Sean Burke, a towering goalie who had the misfortune of playing for some talent-short Hartford clubs.

"I was center until I was 11," Valiquette says. "I was a fairly good skater and scored my share of goals but I think playing out of goal helped me understand a little more about goaltending, especially what a shooter may be thinking or what he’s looking to shoot at."

Valiquette is a student of the game. From the bench when he’s alternating starts with LaBarbera, he focuses on the shots players take and makes mental notes.

"Recall a game earlier this season when (Craig) Weller scored against Bridgeport?" Valiquette says. "There was traffic in front of the net, but he tucked one in just inside the left post. Maybe from 10 feet. Just a terrific shot. There may have been two inches of space in the corner but he found it. I asked him about it, like did he see an opening or just picked a corner? All he said was ‘I was just trying to put it on net.’ "

This season, Valiquette, 27, has pushed his game to another level and has found a niche after bouncing from team-to-team in recent years. "Valley" credits extensive work with coach Ben Allaire, who worked with Burke in Phoenix along the way. Allaire suggested that Valiquette stay deeper in the crease. The adjustment has worked to improve his confidence and reaction to the point now where he’s daring rivals to score against him.

It’s been said that any shot on net is a good one. The riddle seems to be why more pucks don’t go in? From the stands, the net area of 24 square feet looks fairly easy to find. On the ice, players know the dimensions shrink. Putting home a loose puck from the goalmouth is tougher than a two-foot putt. Fans often groan when what looks like half an open net to fill turns into another save by the goalie.

My only tip comes from Giroux who says with a wink, "Shoot blocker low." That small zone of the net is traditionally a weakness for most goalies because it demands reaching back across the body in hopes to get something in the way of a well-placed shot.

Jamie Lundmark, the ninth overall pick in the 1999 Entry Draft, is one who can pick corners of the net. He’s across the ice and will be my partner on the up-coming skate-and-shoot drill. The parent Blueshirts haven’t retained many of their top draftees, but Lundmark, 24, has made it through the maze. He’s played 111 NHL games over two seasons but he been somewhat of a fringe player during trials in New York almost to the point that it hindered his development. This year, Lundmark, like so many others, hooked on with a team in Europe with the NHL shutdown. Within a few weeks, he returned to the States, reported to the Wolf Pack and worked on changing his game. "I’m trying to be more feisty," he says about an experiment that, in the long term, should give more upside to his career.

Lundmark whips the puck into the neutral zone towards Weller and the two of us go up our wings. As we crisscross around the Pack logo at center ice, Lundmark snaps up a return pass from Lawrence Nycholat and it’s all-out attack against Valiquette.

While Lundmark carries the puck, I make a 50-foot charge from the blue line towards the right post. With my stick on the ice, Lundmark hits my tape.

Now what did Giroux say? Something about blocker side low.

I look, but the only blocker I see is lost somewhere in a maze of pads, glove, stick, mask and a red jersey with the Wolf Pack logo.

I manage to snap a wrist with a little zip. The puck deflects safely into the left corner -- not of the net -- but of the rink.

Since the best players in the league can’t solve Valiquette, I don’t feel too bad, but I had a gut feeling "Valley" was geared up for the seven or eight pucks I fired at him during the drill than any other shot all season.

If a no-talent, never-was scored on him, the boys would never let him live it down.

Valiquette and LaBarbera, no doubt, play the game’s most demanding position. No matter how many mistakes occur in open ice between the two nets during a game, a goalie can supply an emotional lift for his mates with a big save.

The Wolf Pack, who are often involved in one-goal games, have relied plenty on their goaltenders. Both have been outstanding when you look at the league standings and see Hartford has allowed the fewest goals of 30 teams.

A goalie and shooter both know any shot on goal can be a good one. How many times has a goalie played one angle for a shot coming from the left circle and suddenly, at the last split-second, the puck zips a different direction once it caroms off a skate, a leg or a stick and scoots past him.

Maybe another day, the puck will bounce for me. Not many off my stick found the back of the net this day.

For 45 minutes, it was go, go, go. Not once did I look at the clock because I didn’t have time to check.

Though many players left the ice when practice officially ended at 11 a.m., a handful stayed to shoot pucks or play a form of shinny while trying to hit posts.

I shot pucks, trying to hit the crossbar. I had more luck doing that than a drill I wound up doing with Ryan Glenn, one of the rookies on the Wolf Pack.

Glenn was positioned at the blue line and I was feeding him pucks for shots. At speeds of 80 or 90 miles per hour, every shot Glenn took steamed about four feet high and just inside the elbows of the net.

After about 20 shots, Glenn motioned me to get in the low slot. Now, he would hammer shots close to the ice and on net. It was my job to deflect them into the net with luxury knowing there would be no interference from Weller, a solid 6-foot-4 and 222-pound defenseman, taking away real estate or massaging my sternum with the butt end of a stick.

I felt pretty good that I was able to redirect three pucks into the net with one ringing home off the left post.

I could sense that practice was drawing to a close. There were fewer and fewer players on the ice. I took one spin around the ice and located a bucket on the bench and started to pick up pucks at one of the nets, something I’ll do at a Southington High practice session with my sons.

Glenn and Jake Taylor, another rookie, skated over. Here are two kids fresh out of college. The season, for better or worse, has been an increment on hockey’s learning curve for both who are trying to make an impression.

Glenn, who played at St. Lawrence, has shuttled between Charlotte in the ECHL and here. Taylor, who played at Michigan a year ago, has been a regular at the blue line for the Wolf Pack since mid-November.

"You don’t have to do that," Taylor said. "We’ll get those."

I smiled.

"Guys, I’m the rookie today. It’s my turn."

We share a laugh and put pucks in the bucket.

I also reminded both players to have fun this year.

I guess it’s the parent in me.