Soundin' Off

The boys have been in British Columbia for bit more than two hours now. We knew Bobby Hughes wasn’t going to be among them; we had a vague idea he might be going somewhere else. Now today comes word that Hughes is going to be assigned to Utah.

Not a huge shock, though the legal issue makes it look funnier than it otherwise would. “A pure hockey-operations decision,” Howard Saffan said. I don’t doubt it; if not for some of the injuries and Hughes’ arrest, I wouldn’t have been surprised if it had happened sooner. So he’ll play a lot for the Kinasewich-less and Sixsmith-less Grizzlies with no set timetable on a return to Bridgeport.

Speaking of timetables, interesting bit: Because he had to give up his passport, and because he didn’t have other photo ID, he wasn’t going to be able to fly. He’s taking the bus out to Salt Lake.

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In response to a comment, Rick Cohen said he might do some blog/journal type of things from Abbotsford. I imagine they’re just about settling in there now.

Chris Lee got called up. Jonathan Bombulie tweeted an interesting stat: If Lee makes his NHL debut tonight, Pittsburgh’s bottom-four defensemen will have played a combined 22 NHL games.

More from last year’s defense: a note on Joe Callahan from Bill Ballou.

Edit: TV writer Earl Pomerantz is recovering from surgery, and in the meantime, they’re re-posting some of his favorite blog posts. Today’s repost is a “The Greatest Hockey Story Ever.”

And finally: Grr.

Bobby Hughes is back with the Sound Tigers; he took part in their morning skate in Shelton. The last player off the ice, he declined to comment afterward.

Coach Jack Capuano said the plan is for Hughes to come on the two-day trip to Springfield and Adirondack and continue to skate with the team. “It’s good for him to be with his teammates,” the coach said. “It’s the best place for him right now.”

No roster moves, so Hughes is technically the 13th forward. In case you’ve missed it, Hughes was arraigned yesterday in Albany on two sexual-act charges and had been gone since his arrest Nov. 4.

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.

Bobby Hughes is out on bail and on his way upstate, if he’s not there already. Howard Saffan (”We stand by Bobby. … We look forward to him getting back on the ice”) said Hughes has an expected court date within a week. Will he then be back with the team? Could depend on what happens in that court date, but it doesn’t sound as if the team will keep him away.

Anyway, they’re playing tonight in Springfield. Joensuu is out sick. Rechlicz apparently has a hand infection that’s keeping him out. Saw Klementyev here, but he’s not playing.

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

SPRINGFIELD
F: Trukhno-Potulny (A)-Thomas
Linglet-Wiseman-Fretter
Reddox-O’Marra-McDonald
Brennan/Paukovich
D: Arsene (C)-Taylor (A)
Armstrong-Motin
Peckham-Plante
Nickerson
G: Dubnyk
Sorochan

R: L’Ecuyer. L: Colby, Redding.

Edit: Change on Springfield. Guess I gave up on their rushes too soon./Edit2: BTW, Mauldin is starting with Smith and Moore.

Interesting swap on the third line, with Martin playing the left and Haley on the right.

L’Ecuyer usually let them play last year, though he had one or two whistle-happy games.

Meanwhile, Chris Armstrong. Not a whole lot of links to the 21 Finalists floating around this league anymore. (Except, of course, for the one who keeps dominating this league and has been to a couple of more finals.)

Coming down late today: Bobby Hughes in court to waive extradition to New York on two serious charges.

Legal expertise limited, I’ll leave it at what Dan wrote for now.

No goals in 126:40 (81 shots), no even-strength goals in 187:56, but even that was an extra-attacker goal, so no goals with equal skaters in 246:40. Bridgeport’s longest scoreless streak since the lockout is 170:48. For what it’s worth.

Jonathan Bernier was good. Really good. He’s got a shutout streak of his own in the other direction.

Could they get some more traffic? Maybe. Dig out a few more rebounds? Possibly. Win a few more battles? Yeah.

You don’t expect to go scoreless over 80 shots, though.

Trevor Smith noted that they’ve got a three-in-three here; they’re right back at it in 20 hours, and if they score early against the Penguins, maybe this whole drought is in the mirror. They’ve got time to put it behind them in a hurry.

At least, they hope.

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Capuano on Hughes: “I thought he did well. Bobby obviously had the injury there in Albany last year; during training camp, he started building momentum. I thought he played well.” He took a penalty-kill shift with Mauldin in the box and got a fairly regular shift as the game went on.

Prescout. The Bears almost came back. Some Penguins haven’t forgotten about the last meeting two weeks ago.

Hamden’s Jon Quick signed a three-year extension with the Kings.

Ryan Vesce is a force in the Show.

Became official Thursday at SHU: Yale’s C.J. Marottolo takes over.

Huge local football game: Central beat Greenwich, 14-13.

They don’t pack them in here like they used to, but attendance: 3,568. Bridgeport had played 11 regular-season games here before, never to a crowd lower than 5,435. (In fact, 10 of Bridgeport’s 11 home crowds against Manchester were lower than that 5,435.) Seven crowds here had been better than 9,000; four were sellouts.

Rant: Back-to-back trips to Lowell and then to here should not be allowed. (Portland, too, while I’m at it.) Nothing against I-495, the world’s longest right* turn, but if it only went through civilization instead of skirting it, at least there’d be something to look at besides trees. Gonna be dark on the way home. I know that’s how the Interstates were supposed to work, not disrupting cities and towns. But, come on, give me a look at a village every few miles or something. (End rant.)

From Bill Walsh’s Blogslot: The Fake AP Stylebook. (Caution: May be too inside.)

And RIP, Soupy Sales. In his honor, please go to your parents’ wallets, take all the little pictures of guys in beards, and mail them to…

*-Or left, since I’m going home now…

Word is that the audio situation should be resolved and you’ll get Phil tonight… but tonight turns out to be free preview night for the AHL Live, so you can get video, too, if you’ve got the bandwidth. (Oh, and Internet at your current location. You’ve got one more chance, SBC AT&T. But I digress.)

Nathan Lawson gets the start. They’re going off rotation. What is he, C.C. Sabathia or something?

Meanwhile, meet Bobby Hughes:

BRIDGEPORT
F: Smith-Moore (A)-Mauldin (A)
DiBenedetto-Romano-Joensuu
Bentivoglio-Haskins-Martin
Rechlicz-Hughes-Figren
D: Wotton (C)-Gleed
Kohn-MacDonald
Katic-Westgarth
G: Lawson
Munroe

MANCHESTER
F: Zeiler-Elkins-Segal
Gauthier (A)-Cliche (A)-Meckler
Moller-Loktionov-Holloway
Mikus-Azevedo-Westgarth
D: Bagnall (A)-Piskula
Campbell-Kolomatis
Hickey-Voynov
G: Bernier
Zatkoff
R: C.Brown. L: Ross, Lovett.

The Kings recalled Chris Parse, the second-leading scorer in the AHL. And that Hickey-Voynov pairing is Nos. 37 and 76, which is one odd-looking note.

Feels like forever since I’ve been here. It’s actually only 18 months and 21 days, but that’s almost forever in hockey terms. (Check out some of those names.) I’ll throw out another musical thought: “House of the Rising Sun” by the Animals gets better every time I hear it.