Jesse Joensuu punished himself on the bike after the game, went in, showered, dressed, and walked past Pat Bingham as the coach talked to the assembled reporter.
“Sorry, coach.”
Bingham almost laughed. “For what?”
They played a game of attrition this weekend, losing Jean Bourbeau and Benn Olson yesterday, then three more today, and thankfully it sounds as if it could’ve been worse for Brandon Svendsen.
Around that scary moment, Rob Hisey took a check to the head — first use of Rule 48 we’ve seen — late in the second after David Ullstrom suffered an injury in the first. They were down to nine forwards for the third, and on occasion eight with players in the box. They started with five defensemen, and the occasional penalty dropped them to four.
The parade of penalties led to 17 or 18 power plays and — maybe I’ve seen it before, but can’t remember it — three major-game misconduct combinations.
You always hope against hope to see something new when you come to a game. Spearing majors have become rare enough that it’s always funny to see them (as long as guys aren’t getting hurt, at least). You had Jordan Smotherman getting called for, well, something; it was announced as “illegal equipment,” and someone down the press box said he’d played with the goalie’s stick, but now it’s listed as “throwing the stick.” (Which, come to think of it, maybe he threw Khudobin a stick? I’m totally speculating. It was in the Providence zone, so if he threw a stick at the puck, it’d be a penalty shot.) Either way, there, you’re going back to the first year, when The Other Jason Goulet of Milwaukee got a penalty for playing with two sticks as he tried to bring a stick to his goalie.
But it’s sickening to see the backboard come out, especially as quickly as it was called for. We’ve been through this with Pascal Morency (precaution, thankfully), with Blaine Down, indirectly with Kevin Colley (sadly not just precaution). Here’s hoping it is more like Morency.
….
Louis Liotti went right back to Reading. “It was a one-game deal,” Bingham said. “We appreciate him coming in. He played hard. He got thrown into the fire pretty good.” They’re taking tomorrow off, and I guess they’ll see where they are Tuesday.
Joel Martin, with (no) help from those two decisions in relief, now has a couple of unfortunate team records, losses in nine decisions in a row, 10 appearances without a win (tied with Koskinen).
Jonathan makes a good point about the Tangradi/Johnson situation.
Prescout. Tough come-from-ahead loss. (Denis Hamel with 20 goals. Nah, he can’t help anybody.)
We’ll update on Svendsen tomorrow if available; otherwise, practice Tuesday, and we’ll chat at 1:30.
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