Two notes to get out there at the end of Jeremy Colliton Appreciation Day, capping the fourth playoff-free year in the past seven and the third in the past five (although the first in three years):
–Mark Wotton said he plans to play next year. “I’m a player,” he said. “I’m not ready (to quit).”
–Mikko Koskinen said he’ll have surgery on his left wrist, which has hampered his glove hand since late December.
We’ll do some wrap-up stuff here this week, including one last chat Tuesday at 1:30. Not sure when we’ll get stuff in the paper, but we’ll find a way.
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Want to try to get back downstairs and catch some people, so I’ll bail out on the Lake Erie-Rochester shootout. Suffice it to say that the point Rochester gains means the Sound Tigers will finish 29th overall and Albany will finish 30th. For what it’s worth. Hey, somebody tries to come back from Europe, they’ll be second on the waiver li… no, wait.
Phil Ginand got to play against his brother, Ryan, who had two assists. “It was awesome,” Phil said. “A lot of fun.” Both teams rolled four lines, and because there wasn’t a penalty for 19 minutes, they were out against each other every shift in the first period. He knew he had his brother lined up for a hit (from behind) in the neutral zone on their first shift, but “I didn’t think he was going to fall.”
Tyler McNeely finishes 5-6-11 and plus-9 in 10 games.
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Status of these guys for the summer, best I have ‘em, corrections gladly accepted:
(Numbers in parentheses for signed players are years remaining on the contract; those without numbers are signed only through next season.)
NYI
SIGNED: Rick DiPietro (10), Al Montoya, Kevin Poulin (2), Mark Streit (2), Calvin de Haan (3), Mark Eaton, Travis Hamonic (2), Milan Jurcina, Mark Katic, Mike Mottau, Andrew MacDonald (3), Trent Hunter (2), Matt Martin, Matt Moulson (3), Nino Niederreiter (3), Frans Nielsen, P.A. Parenteau, John Tavares
GROUP II: Josh Bailey, Blake Comeau, Michael Grabner, Micheal Haley, Jesse Joensuu, Kyle Okposo, Bruno Gervais, Jack Hillen, Dylan Reese (V-320), Ty Wishart
GROUP III: Trevor Gillies, Zenon Konopka, Doug Weight, Radek Martinek, Evgeni Nabokov (if his contract isn’t tolled)
BST
SIGNED: Mikko Koskinen, Matt Donovan (3), Anton Klementyev (2), Aaron Ness (3), Justin DiBenedetto, Rhett Rakhshani, Tony Romano, David Ullstrom (2)
GROUP II: Dustin Kohn, Robin Figren, Tomas Marcinko, Rob Hisey
GROUP III: Andy Hilbert (V), Jeremy Yablonski (V-320), Nathan Lawson, Joel Martin
GROUP VI: Jeremy Colliton (V)
AHL (unrestricted): Mark Wotton (V), Matt Campanale, Brett Motherwell, Benn Olson, Corey Syvret, Steve Tarasuk, Chris Barton, Jean Bourbeau, Brett Gallant, Phil Ginand, Tyler McNeely, Shayne Neigum, Joe Pereira, Mike Sellitto, Mike Sgroi, Justin Taylor
UNSIGNED DRAFT PICK: Brian Day (free agent if not signed by Aug. 15)
ELIGIBLE FOR NHL DRAFT: Art Bidlevskii, Alex O’Neil, Cameron Wind
Group II players are restricted free agents. The other free agents are all unrestricted. (V) indicates he’ll be a veteran next year. (V-320) means he qualifies as that one exempt player a night with 320 or fewer pro games.
I’m not positive on Reese, and if I was thinking ahead, I’d have asked him, ’cause he and a few other guys were here. Reese is 25 with less than 80 NHL games, but I think this was only his second year on an NHL contract.
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The Sound Tigers last won a playoff series in 2003. Since then, 21 of the 30 teams in the league have won one. If you include the old two-game preliminary round, add Norfolk and make it 22. Charlotte, Springfield, Lake Erie, Peoria, San Antonio, Oklahoma City and the new Albany are the seven others who have not won a playoff series since 2003, though obviously all but Springfield got a later start, and three won playoff series in the Sound Tigers era in earlier incarnations: Albany as the Lowell Lock Monsters, Peoria as the Worcester IceCats, and Charlotte as the Albany River Rats. Three others that are now defunct/moved on have also won one: Iowa, Cincinnati and, in a preliminary round, the Cleveland Barons.
Getting out of the East Division didn’t work, at least for two years. (Wouldn’t have worked in the East this year, either.) We’ll see next year.
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A few Team Photo streaks have continued: Mark Wotton continues to alternate sides, for one thing, and the past eight seasons’ photos will indeed include eight different and unique sweaters.
For nostalgia, here are the rundowns for 2001-06 and 2006-07 and 2007-2010.
2010-11: Back row: Rob Hisey, Robin Figren, Brandon Svendsen, Brett Motherwell, Rhett Rakhshani, Justin DiBenedetto, Brett Gallant, Eric Castonguay, Brady Leisenring, Mark Katic, Tony Romano. Middle row: Communications manager Jamie Palatini, trainer Mike Schroeder, Anton Klementyev, Jeremy Yablonski, Jason Pitton, Wes O’Neill, Tomas Marcinko, David Ullstrom, Rob Kwiet, Jean Bourbeau, Andy Hilbert, assistant to the general manager Kerry Gwydir, equipment manager Leni DiCostanzo. Bottom row: Joel Martin, Dylan Reese (A), assistant coach Matt Bertani, president Howard Saffan, general manager Garth Snow, coach Pat Bingham, Mark Wotton (C), Dustin Kohn (A), Mikko Koskinen.
Brought to you by the Connecticut Post. Yeah.
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The Real Standings:
EASTERN CONFERENCE ATLANTIC y-Manchester 43 30 7 93* x-Portland 38 31 11 87* x-Connecticut 35 34 11 81 Worcester 31 35 14 76 Providence 31 39 10 72 Springfield 29 42 9 67 Bridgeport 26 43 11 63 EAST z-Wilkes-Barre 51 21 8 110 x-Hershey 43 29 8 94 x-Charlotte 39 29 12 90 x-Binghamton 41 33 6 88* x-Norfolk 34 35 11 79* Syracuse 33 41 6 72 Adirondack 27 43 10 64 Albany 26 43 11 63 WESTERN CONFERENCE NORTH y-Hamilton 38 29 13 89 x-Lake Erie 39 31 10 88 x-Manitoba 34 31 15 83 Toronto 31 33 16 78* Grand Rapids 31 36 13 75* Abbotsford 27 36 17 71* Rochester 26 44 10 62 WEST y-Milwaukee 36 28 16 88 x-Houston 36 29 15 87 x-Oklahoma City 35 31 14 84* x-Peoria 36 33 11 83* x-Texas 35 33 12 82* Chicago 33 35 12 78 Rockford 34 37 9 77* San Antonio 33 37 10 76*
*-change in order from the actual real standings
Disclaimer: Teams play differently under different rules. Don’t change the past without changing the future or whatever.
The most dramatic switches are at the top of the Atlantic (lots of shootout wins for Portland) and in the middle of the East: Norfolk’s nine overtime losses were huge.
Norfolk is a weird little case. The Ads’ goals-for/goals-against ratio gives them the league’s seventh-best Pythagorean winning percentage (albeit fourth in their division, ahead of only Charlotte among playoff teams). But filter out those overtime losses and their five shootout wins and they finish below .500. The Admirals “underachieved” their Pythagorean number by about 80 percentage points, almost twice as much as the next team (Toronto, about .042 in percentage points). So which team is this Norfolk team, the near-.500 club, or the team whose goal differential was that of a 90-point team without shootout/OTL effects? Not that Wilkes-Barre is necessarily the place in which to find out, but suppose we’ll see what they do next week.
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