Throughout the season, the New England Black Wolves hold their practices near Toronto, which accomodates the main core of players who are readily available to drive in to Ontario. The rest of the players, who live and work farther away, traditionally catch up on a game-day walk-through.

This week, Black Wolves coach Glenn Clark had his entire team together for practice.

“We flew in all our guys,” Clark said this week in a conference call. “We had our whole team (Tuesday) night. We have a good collection of guys every week … we had talked about this and planned this, target a few practices throughout the year and really go through all of our systems with all our guys involved.

“It's nice every once in awhile to be able to go at it with the whole group.”

The Black Wolves, in their third season, open their National Lacrosse League season Saturday in Rochester, meeting the Knighthawks (0-1) beginning at 7:30 p.m.

New England finished last season 10-8 in the regular season, an improvement from 4-14 the year before in the franchise's first season since relocating from Philadelphia.

The Black Wolves then reached the finals of the East Division playoffs.

Among the changes for this year's team are the additions of the league's top faceoff specialist in Jay Thorimbert along with fellow free agents Chad Culp and Scott Self, as well as draftees Seth Oakes and Doug Jamieson.

New England returns NLL Goalie of the Year Evan Kirk (career-high 620 saves), along with Shawn Evans, a two-time league MVP who led the team last season in points (118), goals (50) and assists (68). Kevin Crowley added a career-high 90 points.

One thing Clark saw that he liked at this week's practice was depth.

“We've thickened our group on both sides of the ball, offense, defense and goaltending, honestly,” Clark said. “When you play in a league where everything's so tight, if you can deliver and have less breakdowns as you go through a game, a quarter, a season, you have more chance for success.

“Every team in the league has star players … it's what happens in the depth and the thickness of your lineup.”

Clark said, as he went through player meetings, it was also mentioned to him by a newcomer to the league that he was surprised by the camaraderie involved in the group.

“He said, 'guys were telling me when you go to pro, it's a lot different than when you're playing junior and college,'” Clark said. “He was really surprised at how tight and good a group of guys it was. … Guys are energized. Guys are excited.”

On Friday, the Black Wolves named Evans team captain, while Brett Manney and Kyle Buchanan will serve as assistant captains.

Rochester opened the season Dec. 29 with a 12-5 loss to the Toronto Rock. The Knighthawks are led by Dan Dawson, in his 16th season, who finished 2016 with 40 goals and 95 points, reaching the 40-goal mark for the third time in his career. Cody Jamieson (99 points last season) did not play against Toronto and his status is unknown for this week's game.

v.fulkerson@theday.com