bag skate
n.— «When Laviolette’s postgame comments Saturday included the phrase “we’re kidding ourselves,” the Hurricanes didn’t need a magnifying glass to read between the lines.…It couldn’t have been any clearer if the ice had been painted black Sunday: Good morning. This is your wake-up call for the season. Sunday’s so-called “bag skate,” as it’s known in hockey parlance, now takes a place in recent Hurricanes history with the December 2001 practice behind closed doors at the RecZone that helped turn the Canes’ season around on their way to the Stanley Cup finals and the one in Los Angeles in February 2003 that helped that season spiral out of control when Craig MacDonald collapsed and Jeff O’Neill left the ice screaming curses at then-coach Paul Maurice.» —“Canes fighting mad” by Luke Decock News & Observer (Raleigh, North Carolina) Oct. 9, 2006. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
In the 15th century, the word respair meant “to have hope again.” Although this word fell out of use, it’s among dozens collected in a new book of soothing vocabulary for troubled times. Plus, baseball slang: If a batter...
Eric from West Lafayette, Indiana, wonders which phrase is correct when referring to “making the grade” or “meeting expectations”: Is it cut the mustard or cut the muster? It’s the former, a reference to the strong...