Soundin' Off

This place is… nothing like I imagined.

The barn is bright, for one thing. Vividly so. The bright comes from white-painted cinder-block walls that stretch maybe 15, 20 feet up to yellow rafters under a silver roof. The vivid comes from greens and blues: light-green ventilation; blue curtains on the windows; alternating light-green and forest-green seats, every other section, 15 rows in most from floor level to the wrap-around concourse, with concessions in every corner. (Was built in the ’70s, you know.) Stand anywhere on the concourse and you’ll still be able to watch the game, like Lowell. But it feels nothing like Lowell.

It’s still cozy. If you’ve been, you know how Binghamton feels a little like New Haven, minus the top 100 rows or so? Just seating-wise, this feels a little like Binghamton, if you cut the top seats off, left the concourse open and had one incredibly big elephant gate between the benches. But brighter. Cheerier. We’ll have to see what it’s like with some anger in the seats, if such arrives. (The downstairs is much less cheery and much less bright and much more peg-on-the-wall. But I digress.)

Five banners hang over seats in the west* end of the arena, white banners with red winged-wheel logos. The first honors AHL legend Glenn Merkosky, though Matt Clackson is wearing his 15. The other four honor their four championship teams in order. For a moment, looking up at the last two, I was an angry kid again. They broke our hearts here a couple of times. The last finals game for a New Haven hockey team? Here, May 16, 1989, after the circus left through that elephant door. The final Nighthawks game ever? Here, April 18, 1992. Those two years stare you in the face. I swore at a few far-away people under my breath and moved on.

The Phantoms brought their Calder Cup banners from Philly, and they hang in the corners, not quite flanking the Red Wings’ banners. They were made for the Spectrum, a much bigger building. They’re huge in here. Not exactly their fault, but still.

Outside, it’s like any other run-down river town in this league, except for the “run-down” part. Parts look old, sure, but well-kept, and there’s a library up the block that looks recent and beautiful; lots of foot traffic on a dreary Saturday. Were it a nicer day, I’d have taken a walk around. (It’s rainy and dismal.)

Nice town. Sorry it took me almost 25 years to get here for a hockey game.

Been here before, though. Cousins have a place in Lake George, and we’d spend some time every few summers in the area when my brother and I were kids. (They themselves have cousins in Trumbull, to make this plausibly local; turns out they’re in Shelton tonight.) Caught the old Glens Falls Tigers of the Eastern League once, in 1987. On the home team’s roster but not chucking that day: John Smoltz. Closest I’d be to a Hall of Famer for about a decade.

—-

Oh, yeah, they’re playing hockey. Just a rotation on defense:

BRIDGEPORT
F: Bentivoglio-Moore (A)-Haley
Smith-Mauldin (A)-Martin
DiBenedetto-Marcinko-Joensuu
Gillies-Romano-Figren
D: MacDonald-Flood
Wotton (C)-Gleed
Kohn-Klementyev
G: Munroe
Lawson

ADIRONDACK
F: Maroon-Matsumoto (A)-Legein
Kolanos-Ross (C)-Laliberte
Nodl-Kalinski-Bellamy
Klotz-Beaulieu-Clackson
(Dingle-apparent scratch)
D: Lehtivuori-Mormina
Marshall-Stephenson
Bourdon-Curry (A)
G: Riopel
Backlund

R: Ciamaga. L: Lemay, Harper.

I had thoroughly forgotten that Pat Bingham coached here. Will have to ask him a bit about the town.

Meanwhile, for the Adirondack perspective on things, here’s Tim McManus’ gamer, full of Greg Gilbert genius: “We don’t shoot the puck,” Gilbert said. “We all think we’re Wayne Gretzkys and Mario Lemieuxs (with) these fancy plays we’re looking for. Put the puck to the net. I guess that’s a hard thing to understand.” Sound familiar?

*-Or west-southwest, or southwest, or whatever you’d call it. The Hudson takes a turn here, as you’ll see if you pop the city into your favorite map/satellite Web site, and the barn kind of parallels that, adjacent to the falls.

Pretty much the same this morning as it has been, though with Bridgeport down to 12 available forwards this weekend, there was a possibility the Sound Tigers might consider calling up an extra body. Tony Romano was with Trevor Smith Sean Bentivoglio and Greg Moore, and Jesse Joensuu was back in alongside Justin DiBenedetto and Tomas Marcinko. Newsiest bit so far today is that they had their breakaway contest after practice, and the last man without a goal, Greg Mauldin, apparently has to grow a mustache.

Jeremy Reich and Joel Rechlicz skated in white jerseys while the team practiced. Tyler Haskins, hanging out and watching, remains off the ice with limited activity.

From Albany, Bobby Hughes had a court appearance Thursday. Have not heard yet if he’ll be rejoining the team right away, which might change the call-up thinking. Edit: Bridgeport president Howard Saffan said Hughes could be back with the team Friday.

Elsewhere: Wyatt Smith is the captain of the Baby Pens.

The coach you might have seen tossin’ sticks onto the ice in the big-time SPHL? It’s onetime (er, two-time) Nighthawk Brent Sapergia.

And RIP, David Lloyd.

I would have loved to have heard that just once. But a men’s team called the Nighthawks just won the Sound Tigers’ tournament here. They’re walking off with the championship trophy (not a cup, but that’s OK).

The Wotton-Westgarth pair sits out tonight. Did not see a third letter in Wotton’s place. Romano sits out as Joensuu returns. And Chad Johnson starts his fourth game in a row for the Pack; he won the first three.

BRIDGEPORT
F: Smith-Moore (A)-Bentivoglio
DiBenedetto-Mauldin (A)-Joensuu
Martin-Marcinko-Haley
Gillies-Morency-Figren
D: Kohn-Klementiev
Katic-Gleed
MacDonald-Flood
G: Lawson
Munroe

HARTFORD
F: Owens-Locke (A)-Parenteau (A)
Grachev-Arnason-Weise
Garlock-Dupont-Couture
Soryal-Crowder-Ambuhl
D: Heikkinen-Sanguinetti
Sauer-Dandeneault
Henley-Potter (A)
(Williams-apparent scratch)
G: Johnson
Zaba

R: J.Koharski. L: Galvin, Redding.

If you haven’t noticed, been trying to tweet a little during games when the one-liners present themselves. FornabaioCTP.

–Same cast of characters as yesterday. Some if not all of the dinged-up will skate tomorrow and see how it goes, and then they’ll have a chance to make some decisions for the road trip.

–Katie Strang, meanwhile, reports that Doug Weight had swine flu. (We’ll see if you can actually read that through the pay wall.) Similar announcements have been coming from around the league.

–Former Beast standout Ryan Johnson took a hard spill into the boards but appears to be doing OK.

–And finally, well, then, maybe Andre Agassi should stay out of “upcoming biography.” (/grammar joke)
Edit: Well played, Sports Pickle.

So the Devils trapped, and the Sound Tigers threw pucks around (did everyone put a pass behind Katic at one point tonight?), and it wasn’t always the prettiest game, but hey, you get a crowd like that (biggest announced crowd ever by five), you give them a win, a lot can be forgiven.

The Bentivoglio-Haskins reunion paid dividends. Haskins came out hitting, they drew a power play, and a pretty power play later, 1-0.

Six power plays later…

Weird first period to watch, that way. The second was a little better. The third wasn’t terrible, but… The ice, only skated on a few times and in a crowded house, couldn’t have been great, especially by the end of the night, and they were being too fancy on it. (At the same time, if Zharkov could have pulled the trigger, he’d have had two or three.)

In overtime, Haskins won a draw, got it to Bentivoglio, who got it back to MacDonald. MacDonald shot as Haskins went to the net. Goal.

Simple won out.

—

A moment of silence for Roy Boe before the game, eight years since he stepped out at center ice to introduce this Sound Tigers team.

Chris Elsberry’s column today is on the Sound Tigers’ on-ice results since 2002.

I never got Nighthawks tickets for reading. Darn it.

The Lighthouse deadline is gone, “and apparently (Charles) Wang’s patience is through, too,” Chris Botta writes. Then the kid went out and scored a goal.

Oh, Louis Robitaille. How you’ve been missed.

And so Bridgeport is tied for first with Springfield (with four former Sound Tigers), Worcester (spoiling Glens Falls’ return) and Manchester (coupla points for Kevin Westgarth).

Back-to-back Bombulie tweets tonight: “Wyatt Smith tips in a Chris Lee point shot as Eric Tangradi crashes the net. 1-0 WBS.” “@fornabaioctp No, the second assist didn’t go to Masi Marjamaki.” Smith finished with two goals and an assist in his first Penguins game.

Two goals for Peter Zingoni tonight.

Jason Krog was named captain of the Wolves.

Austin to San Antonio is about 80 miles. The American Statesman didn’t staff the Stars’ first game. Well, it was Friday night.

If Safety Graphic Fun isn’t in the RSS reader by now, I mean, c’mon.

Wha? OK, second source.

And deepest condolences to Phil Giubileo, whose brother passed away today.

So the Islanders finish up the preseason with a loss and three majors for Joel Rechlicz, and Jeremy Reich broke his left wrist in a fight. Yes, it’s not even this year yet, and it’s that kind of year.

Carolina assigned Rob Hennigar to the ECHL. The Devils waived Jay Leach and Tim Sestito. (Greg Moore is reportedly there, too.)

Ilya Zubov wants out of Binghamton.

Tough Adirondack hockey trivia.

The AHL re-did its Web site.

Former Nighthawk Sylvain Couturier has job security.

Filip Bondy points out danger on 161st Street. Meanwhile, it’s a good thing New York built those two baseball-only ballparks and got rid of those multi-purpose stadia, right?

And finally, Scott Adams believes China is doomed.

(The header quote was comment spam on an old post. Figured I’d share.)

Glenn Healy resigned his NHLPA post; this just gets weirder and weirder. In the continuing series of player comment links: Andrew Ference and Jeremy Roenick, among others. And quite possibly more important than any of ‘em: Ted Lindsay.

Springfield invited a slew of veterans to its training camp, including inaugural Sound Tigers defenseman Chris Armstrong.

Meanwhile in conditioning-assignment alumni news, Mike Sillinger has a new job, and Shawn Bates is going to Colorado’s camp.

The U.S. Government is messing with NHL travel schedules, shutting down Air Canada charters between U.S. cities. (HT: Michael Russo).

We’ve got a new newsroom-wide blog, if you’d like to follow us during the day: Connecticut Postings.

A request: With the blog’s move from the other server, it appears that some posts were cut off in places when I fake-drew a line with a bunch of hyphens. If you notice a post that seems to fade off in a weird spot (more weird than usual, anyway), particularly a postgame post, please let me know so I can try to fix it. Thanks.

Courtesy of old friend Stephanie: Going Dutch, and Saying It Right from the Times.

Toronto, the worst place in the league for visiting AL teams? Maybe.

And the all Faith and Fear in Flushing corner: Greg Prince relives The Best Infield Ever, no punctuation; Jason Fry stays more recent, in hilarious (and sad) fashion.

Bluefish PR coordinator Paul Herrmann is a man after my own heart. On the back page of his game notes is a chart of the Atlantic League teams, their runs scored and runs against, and their Pythagorean projections. Out. Standing. (BTW, the Fishies are about six wins below where their run differential says they should be. That could make a difference.)

Sound Tigers single-game tickets go on sale Saturday.

More Kelly/NHLPA reaction from Vincent Damphousse, Nick Schultz and one Steve Valiquette.

Mike Russo, who got Schultz, also notes that Mark Parrish is working out and hoping to latch on, and has asked Garth Snow about another possible tryout.

It was Roy Mlakar Day in Ottawa.

Check out the super-standalone MSG and 2 Penn Plaza rendering (on the NYC historyblog “The Bowery Boys”). Outlined against a clear background and a cloudy sky, a view impossible in real life without clearing, oh, three or four blocks.

And finally, high comedy from the Town of Hempstead: The Lighthouse project’s zoning hearing is set for the same day as a certain event of import, should that hearing fail.

On a Salary Dump Friday, a little bloggin’ while we wait out the raindrops down the hill from the Bowl:

Congrats to Chris Botta on his new gig.

The ECHL announced that the NHL has hired referee Francis Charron. Charron has worked five Bridgeport games, including the one against Portland Jan. 31 where he called two penalty shots in the first period. The first was the second game in Portland in March ‘08, and he’s mentioned briefly in that extensive blog post. He has called 38 total power plays in those five games. So first impressions lean toward positive.

Jacques Demers’ fascinating life story rolls on: He has been appointed a Canadian Senator.

Interesting piece on how the Globe prepared its Ted Kennedy obit; the Washington Post’s Post Mortem blog notes that the reporter who first wrote it isn’t with the paper anymore. When I first got to the Post, I learned that we had a massive obit package prepared for Joe DiMaggio. In late 1998 and early 1999, there were several times it appeared he might be on his deathbed; he fought back from the brink in all cases but, naturally, one . We joked, darkly though it was, that we might have to add taglines to the stories: “Joe Schmo now works for the Walla Walla Watchman.” “Abel Baker is now a teacher in Kalamazoo.” “John Doe died in 2005.”

And this might be even more inside-baseball for the media crowd than that obit story, but this Blogslot post cracked me up*.

Second Avenue Sagas pens an ode to the 9 train.

And RIP, John E. Carter.

*-If you need a cheat sheet: Many papers put columnists’ headshots next to their columns. See Chris Elsberry’s columns for us, for example.

That’s where Sports Business Journal pins Bridgeport, just above the midpoint, in its ranking of 239 minor-league markets. We can quibble with some things (”Norwich-West Haven”? Markets without big-league teams include “Long Island”*?), but hey: Take that, Schaumburg!

Hershey tops the rankings, quite fairly. Peoria, Rochester, ManchVegas and Albany (!) make the top 20. Glens Falls sits at 235, but maybe the advent of the Phantoms helps that. Here’s their notes on methodology.

Rick DiPietro’s rehab either is on schedule or isn’t where the Islanders said it would be by now. Speaking of goaltenders, just saw (hat tip: USCHO) this St. Cloud Times report that Islanders draft pick Jase Weslosky is leaving St. Cloud State for academic reasons and is transferring to Bemidji State.

Chris Holt! (to Bingo)

Third String Goalie gets around to those Canucks uniforms.

As Twitted (Tweeted) (whatever) earlier, they played the Sixpence None The Richer remake of “There She Goes” at the Pilot Pen tonight. Nice to hear the song. Wish it was the version by The La’s. An OK music night. “A Hard Day’s Night” during the second night match. And earlier, “All the Time” by Green Day off “Nimrod” — including the two bad words, unbleeped. As Zheng-Kuznetsova dragged into the night and Stamford’s deadline creeped up, “Having the time of my life/watching the clock tick” got more appropriate.

(I need a Twitter etiquette crash course. Like, when retweeting, are you allowed to edit for space/clarity/other? Changed an “I” to “(Els)” when RTing Elsberry over the weekend, for example, just because I thought it looked weird when other people used “I”… If get to too many characters, can you drop in three dots?)

A sweet Seth Davis visit with John Wooden over at si.com.

And finally, well, there’s this. So Luis Castillo**, like the Darryl Strawberry from a cast of ringers, is the only one left — unless he has fallen into the Springfield Mystery Spot***.

*-No jokes.
**-OK, maybe Daniel Murphy, too, after the position shift.
***-Would have been more appropriate to the source were he wrongly sent up the river to serve six life sentences, but hey, that’s too harsh. All the guy did was sign his name.

Tyler Haskins has signed an AHL contract to come back to the Sound Tigers for another year.

As Islesinfo caught and commented, defenseman Jan Piskacek is also on an AHL contract.

Edit: New Haven alumni watch: Alan May has resigned as Norfolk’s assistant coach.

He’s still unsigned, but Tyler Haskins is closer to getting ready for the upcoming season.

Had a nice chat with your Seventh-Player-Award-winning centerman Tuesday; he’s working hard, unsurprisingly, as he rehabs from hip surgery.

“The surgery went really well,” said Haskins, who started skating three weeks ago. “(Rehab) has been going great. Five days a week, I’ve been at the gym four hours a day, weight training, rehabbing. It’s been a really, really productive summer.”

Haskins is in Phoenix, working out with the likes of Jeff Taffe and Peter Mueller. He hopes to be cleared for contact within the next two weeks.

“I feel great. It’s nice to be pain-free,” he said. “It’s a big change from the last month (of last season).”

Haskins admitted the hip restricted him from mid-March on. “I don’t think I was as effective as maybe I could’ve been. … You play at a level, and you can’t really play at that level anymore. Losing like we did was kind of a bitter taste to end with.

“I’m looking forward to getting a chance to come back there.”

Speaking of which… The Islanders’ indication continues to be a Jacksonian we-hope-to-have-Tyler-back kind of thing. Haskins referred contract talk to his agent, Peter Cooney; Cooney shot back an e-mail this afternoon concurring that they’re working toward that goal.

Beyond that, Haskins said, “I had a great year last year, a great time in the City of Bridgeport. I loved playing there. Obviously, I’d love to come back and play with all the people I met there. I’ve got a couple of really good friends still under contract. That’s the first place I’d love to come back and play. Hopefully we can get something done.”

—–

Nothing reportedly new on Nathan Lawson.

Colton Fretter signed with Springfield.

Dallas Eakins takes over the Marlies. A little birdie tells us this has been an unannounced done deal for a long time. As noted in the comments, former Beast of New Haven. The by-then-veteran defenseman did not seem thrilled to be hanging out at the corner of George and Orange for those few days.

But anyway:

Wolves exec Kevin Cheveldayoff, one of the best in this league, moves east to the Blackhawks.

Wild stuff (maybe literally): New-old Yankee Stadium, or what’s left of it, is being overrun by plant life. (Hat tip: Peter Abraham, who notes that it’s probably a “Steiner Sports scheme.”)

Maybe doing some blogging from the big Women’s Major Softball National Championship this weekend. Should be an interesting time. (The Brakettes’ 10-inning win Tuesday is part of why this isn’t showing up until, what, like 4 a.m.)

And tip o’cap, JR, who never held anything back.