Soundin' Off

What looked like a familiar set this morning, with the welcome addition of Tomas Marcinko to full practice, got a bit jumbled quickly. Notes:

–The Islanders announced that Calvin de Haan will miss four to six weeks with a left-shoulder injury, without further specifics. They don’t expect him to need surgery, though. Brent Thompson had said earlier that Brett Gallant is on a similar timetable, though there’s even fewer specifics on his upper-body injury. Joey Haddad practiced again.

–The Islanders then announced this afternoon that David Ullstrom, out since a Dec. 20 concussion, is coming back to Bridgeport.

Edit: Forgot to mention Mark Katic skating. Back on the ice, at least; a first step back. At best, he’s six to eight weeks away. But still.

Edit3: I seem to have whacked this accidentally while adding the Katic note, but Bridgeport let Mathieu Aubin go Wednesday.

–One defenseman, and most likely two defensemen, will be coming in on PTOs in the next couple of days. Edit2: According to the ECHL transactions today, one of them appears to be Alaska’s Brandon Gentile, who played for Thompson last year, a defensive guy with some mobility.

What the lineup will look like, who’ll finally be in: Still to be determined, Thompson said. Marcinko is the closest of the three close regulars. The Islanders play Thursday night, as well.

Meanwhile, new potential shootout candidate: sniper Benn Olson outlasted Kael Mouillierat to win the last-man-standing competition today.

Will take a closer look over the NHL Central Scouting midseason draft rankings for skaters and goalies. At first glance, the only local I caught was at No. 123, Brunswick’s/New Canaan’s Kevin Duane. The Connecticut prep schoolers all appear to be from out of our region (though one is the son of former NHL coach and player John Stevens). Only other Connecticut name I recognized off the top of my head was former Enfield High freshman standout Robbie Baillargeon, who’s in the USHL. Speaking of upstate, Matt Conyers has more on that Gordie Howe visit to Glastonbury.

It can’t hurt to change the calendar, right? After this game at Wilkes-Barre, Bridgeport finally gets out of 2011. You may remember that, a year ago at this time, after a New Year’s Eve win, they were 18-14-1-2. And since then, not a lot has gone right.

They’re not scoring, so they’ve got to shut the other team down, Thompson said; then again, giving up well over three a game shows that hasn’t been easy.

“We’re continuing to work to try to improve our group,” Brent Thompson said. “I know the Islanders are working diligently. We’ve got great prospects. We want to make sure they keep pulling on the rope.” A positive environment is important, he said.

That’s hard when the numbers keep racking up like this:

The calendar year: 24-42-6-6, .385.

They should be pulling into Bridgeport right around now. If they burn the calendar, don’t think anyone would blame them.

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Jamie Palatini, who was with Tomas Marcinko last night in Norfolk and flew back with him today, texted in the first period to say that Marcinko was home. Sounds as if all is going and has gone well.

It’s the first time in nine games, since the Hershey home game, that Bridgeport didn’t allow a power-play goal.

Opposition goals six seconds apart is a Bridgeport franchise record. The previous fastest involved a couple of Norfolk Admirals, each with a tie to tonight’s teams.

Weird to think that I hadn’t been in that building in over two years, as much time as I’d spent there the previous eight. There’s a clip from that game on Jonathan’s blog, which was clutch in- and postgame. (Therein: These were the fastest two goals for the Penguins in the regular season, though there was a pair five seconds apart once in the playoffs.)

Sean Avery to Hartford, at least for now.

Prescout. Same score there.

….

Edit: Forgot the dumb lists. Favorite blog headers this year. And five favorite posts this year (and a horse racing bonus).

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And such ends an improbable year. We said hello to… well, the list goes on and on and on. The turnover this year was incredible, both in and out at times. I actually didn’t realize how dramatic it was. This season so far, Bridgeport has used 36 players and dressed two other goalies as backups. (This doesn’t yet count Mathieu Aubin, who does indeed appear to be on his way on a PTO.) Last season after Jan. 1, Bridgeport used 37 other players — that is, players who aren’t back and have played this season — and a backup-only goalie. Seriously: 73 players and three backup goalies in 78 games.

Certainly worth tipping the cap to Mark Wotton; you’d expect him to depart the stage quietly and humbly, and he even exceeded those expectations. And to departed longtimers like Dustin Kohn, Jesse Joensuu, Nathan Lawson.

It was an awful year for the hockey world. We woke up on Sept. 7 to the horrible news from Yaroslavl, that Alexander Karpovtsev, Brad McCrimmon, Igor Korolev, Josef Vasicek, Karel Rachunek, Jan Marek and Sergei Ostapchuk were among those gone. That followed a summer that saw us lose Derek Boogaard, Rick Rypien and Wade Belak. The hockey world also lost people like Tom Cavanagh, Sam Pompei, Dan Sernoffsky, Rick Martin, Mandi Schwartz, E.J. McGuire, Donnie MacMillian, Ian Jenkins, Barry Potomski, Harley Hotchkiss, Barry Wilkins, Red Coughlin, Aaron Alto, Joey Ciancola, and Johnny Wilson. (And as my computer blew up a time or two, I’m going to bet I missed a few people, and I apologize in advance.)

A tip of the cap also to the Boston Bruins, to the Alaska Aces (easy because a few of them are or have been in Bridgeport), and at last, Steve Stirling and the Binghamton Senators.

If you feel like looking back some more, there’s still a list of trivia questions a few posts back. Otherwise, here’s to 2012.