Soundin' Off

Weird that it’s over like that. It happens.

It does appear that Kevin Poulin’s 50 saves on 54 shots set a team record. Wade Dubielewicz made 45 on 48 shots in Game 6 of the 2006 playoffs. His 22 in the second aren’t a record, though; Dubielewicz made 26 on 27 in the second period that night. That game also ended on an overtime power-play goal, Ryan Stone’s.

Did up the stats today after the chat. Updated the all-time lists. Most notably, Rhett Rakhshani moved into 10th in all-time scoring, two points ahead of Jesse Joensuu. Jeremy Colliton caught Jeff Hamilton in one category: He has more shots than Hamilton, 685-653. (Jeff’s still got him by 12 goals.) The team’s games-played list: (1) Wotton 368, (2) Colliton 326, (3) Regier 290, (4) Haley 247, (5) Marcinko 243, (6) Mapletoft 240.

Considering that fully half of the franchise’s playoff games occurred in the first two seasons, this probably isn’t stunning, but… of the Sound Tigers’ top 18 players in playoff scoring, not one played for the team after 2006. The 19th was Trevor Smith, 2-5-7 in 10 playoff games over two springs. Those 18 players include eight who weren’t in the 2002 playoff run.

Bridgeport is 43,833 away from 2,000,000 fans all-time. (ahemyes, tickets distributedahem) Take out two games at Nassau and two in the Maritimes, and they’re 77,198 away from 2,000,000 at Harbor Yard. So there’s that to look forward to, sometime in the first half of next season.

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Below the fold are selected quotes from some of the people I pestered for a few minutes on Monday. And then we’ll go to summertime blog mode. The playoffs (Sean Bergenheim, again!), the Worlds, we’ll keep an eye as best we can. They’ll make me work, no doubt, but I’ll be around. Hope you’ve enjoyed stuff here for seven years and in the paper for 11.

Thanks to the bosses. Thanks to the PR folks and the league and the organeyezation and the fellow writers all over this league. Thanks to players and staff and coaches and Leni, Matt and Kevin and everybody else over there for putting up with me.

And most of all, thank you for reading and being here.

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The Sound Tigers got their wrap-up meetings over in a hurry; well, they got them over in a hurry, as in they got them done today, within 24 hours of the start of the game that eliminated them. They didn’t get them over in a hurry, as in the scheduled 11 a.m. appointments finished up a little after 3 p.m. (That’s far from unusual. They get backed up easily.)

They hung out in the room one last time (the logjam waiting for the three various interviews helped gather them in the hallway), swapped war stories, checked out the old team photos, shared a few laughs, complained about lack of sleep last night. I have boatloads of notes to transcribe and didn’t even get to everyone I’d hoped to get. Word of the day after the first losing sweep in Sound Tigers history? Probably “shock.” The team had high hopes and high expectations. To go out in three drove them nuts.

Garth Snow wasn’t committing to any moves, be it signing draft picks like John Persson, qualifying those restricted free agents, or re-signing those who need re-signing. He and Brent Thompson also weren’t talking about the reported possibility of Thompson being up for one of the vacant assistant coaches’ jobs on the Island. “Too early,” was the gist.

Rhett Rakhshani still didn’t know the full extent of the damage of taking that puck to the mouth in Game 2; he was off to the doctor’s in the afternoon.

Scott Howes could return to Alaska for its run at a Kelly Cup repeat. The ECHL is in the conference finals, Kalamazoo against Florida, and Las Vegas against Alaska. Kael Mouillierat could’ve rejoined Idaho, but Las Vegas eliminated the Steelheads yesterday.

The list, as best I have it; corrections welcome: (Numbers in parentheses for signed players are years remaining on the contract; those without numbers are signed only through next season. Lots of help, as you can surely expect, from CapGeek and other sources.)

Bridgeport
SIGNED: Anders Nilsson (2), Kevin Poulin, Marc Cantin (2), Calvin de Haan (2), Matt Donovan (2), Aaron Ness (2), Casey Cizikas (2), Mike Halmo (3), Brock Nelson (3), David Ullstrom
GROUP II: Mikko Koskinen, Mark Katic, Ty Wishart (V-320), Sean Backman, Justin DiBenedetto, Tomas Marcinko, Tyler McNeely, Rhett Rakhshani, Yannick Riendeau, Tony Romano
GROUP III: Jeremy Colliton (V), Trevor Frischmon (V), Trevor Gillies (V)
GROUP VI: Micheal Haley (V-320)
AHL: Kenny Reiter, Jon Landry, Steve Oleksy, Russ Sinkewich, Brett Gallant, Scott Howes, Jordie Johnston, Kael Mouillierat, Blair Riley
UNSIGNED DRAFT PICK: John Persson

Islanders
SIGNED: Rick DiPietro (9), Evgeni Nabokov, Travis Hamonic, Andrew MacDonald (2), Mark Streit, Josh Bailey, Michael Grabner (4), Kirill Kabanov (3), Matt Moulson (2), Nino Niederreiter (2), Frans Nielsen (4), Kyle Okposo (4), Marty Reasoner, Ryan Strome (3/slide possibility next year), John Tavares (6)
GROUP II: Yuri Alexandrov, Matt Martin
GROUP III: John Grahame, Al Montoya, Mark Eaton, Milan Jurcina, Dylan Reese, Jay Pandolfo, P.A. Parenteau, Steve Staios

Group II players are restricted free agents if tendered a qualifying offer by June 25. The other free agents are all unrestricted. (V) indicates he’ll qualify as an AHL veteran next year. (V-320) means he qualifies as that one exempt player a night with 320 or fewer pro games. And because he spent significant time here, I’ll note that Dylan Reese would be a full-fledged veteran next year in the AHL.

That’s 25 NHL contracts on the books next year (4 G, 7 D, 14 F), including Strome (who wouldn’t count against the limit of 50 if sent to junior).

The view from upstate: Paul Doyle’s gamer and Jeff Jacobs’ column on Marek Hrivik; Bruce Berlet and Mitch Beck at Howlings.

And as it appears things are pretty well broken down in the room, we’ll do a chat at 1:30 on Tuesday as usual.

To save a bunch of commenters saying “Olson was traded to Houston,” summary of the day so far, and we’ll tack lineups on here around 6:45 with anything else in between:

–Benn Olson to the Aeros for future considerations. He’d barely played here since the new year, and with the bodies coming back, it didn’t look as if he was going to play much, either. So, probably good for both parties.

–The team let Dallas Jackson go from his PTO.

–Columbus called up Greenwich’s Cam Atkinson, so Bridgeport will miss him tonight. Or maybe Springfield will miss him. Whoever’s running the CBJ Twitter feed has been answering questions all day. Some of the responses are priceless; Some of the questions, even more.

More after a car ride.

More after the car ride: Bridgeport made official three more AHL contracts, Kael Mouillierat, Scott Howes and Jon Landry. They’ll all be eligible for the Sound Tigers’ Clear Day list on March 5.

Neither Calvin de Haan nor Mark Katic will play tonight. If you do the math on all the ins and outs and suspension and guys-who-didn’t-practice this week, you’re left with 18 skaters for Bridgeport. That’s apparently who’s in tonight. We’ll toss the lineups up after warmup. Which, if I remember that the game’s at 7:30 instead of 7, will be around 7:15.

And here they are.

BRIDGEPORT
F: Howes-Frischmon (A)-Riley
DiBenedetto (A)-Colliton (C)-Backman
Ullstrom-Mouillierat-Haley
Gillies-Romano-McNeely
D: Landry-Wishart
Gentile-Donovan
Ness-Oleksy
G: Nilsson
Poulin

SPRINGFIELD
F: Giroux-St. Pierre-MacLeod
Byers (C)-Joudrey (A)-Kubalik
Calvert-Garlock-Mayorov
Spencer-Mair-Bogosian
D: Amadio-Goloubef
Cullity-Ruth
Regner-Prout
G: Legace
Dainton

R: Cozzan. L: St. Lawrence, Galvin.

Springfield doesn’t put the letters on their warmup jerseys. I’ll add them if I can.

Bridgeport released Riley Gill tonight.

The Sound Tigers released Nic Riopel from his PTO this morning. Before you start looking for a chain reaction of goaltending transactions, instead read the Greenville News and wonder if this isn’t just picking up his ECHL team for the night.

Word from down there is that Scott Howes didn’t practice this morning after taking the spear last night, but he could be ready for tomorrow’s game.

Meanwhile, the Islanders made room for Brian Rolston to come off injured reserve by placing David Ullstrom on, retroactive to Dec. 20, so he could come off IR at any time.

A tough little lineup tonight against the Falcons, with Brett Gallant out of the cage, after last week’s action that included Dane Byers’ hit on Calvin de Haan and Trevor Gillies’, um, double minor against Adam Mair. Gillies had a word or two for Byers from the red line as they stretched at the start of warmup. No Rhett Rakhshani yet, though he has been activated. The ECHL transactions suggest that Scott Howes is on his way here from Alaska, but he’s not on Bridgeport’s roster.

Meanwhile, with Anders Nilsson called up, Bridgeport signed some dude from Orange to back up Kevin Poulin. His name is kinda familiar. Steve Valiquette, in for the night, is wearing No. 30.

BRIDGEPORT
F: Ullstrom-Colliton (C)-Haley
Gallant-Frischmon (A)-Backman
McNeely-Cizikas-Wallace
Gillies-Marcinko-Romano
D: Wishart-Klementyev
Donovan-Reese (A)
Olson-Ness
G: Poulin
Valiquette

SPRINGFIELD
F: Giroux-St. Pierre-Atkinson
Byers (C)-Drazenovic-Kubalik
Russell-Mair (A)-MacLeod
Spencer-Bogosian-Thomas
D: Lebda-Goloubef
Holden-Savard
Regner-Ruth
G: Legace
Taylor

R: R. Fraser. L: Galvin, Redding.

I may be short an ‘A’ on Springfield. Only saw Mair’s. Trevor Frischmon, meanwhile, takes over the injured Justin DiBenedetto’s ‘A’. (Am told the elbow is clear on a replay.)

Belatedly noted while scouting ECHL goalies: Jack Downing of New Canaan scored his first pro goal Friday for Elmira.