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
Jim in Columbia, South Carolina, has noticed sportscasters’ use of the phrase on the season with reference to a period of time. This construction shows up in the sports pages as early as the 1880s, first referring to a team’s revenue and...
The slang phrase someone ate and left no crumbs means the person did something really well. In a previous call, a listener who works in theater noted the use of ate to mean “did something well,” as in they really ate that haircut! This...