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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Today was an optional, as the nine forwards/four D/one goalie alignment probably would’ve told you. Brent Thompson reiterated “day-to-day” on the injured David Ullstrom, Jon Landry and Trevor Frischmon, and said they’d probably get tomorrow off, too, though he said Ullstrom might give it a try. We’ll see. Anders Nilsson got back on the ice for the first time, but “it doesn’t look like he’ll be practicing anytime soon with us.” Jeremy Colliton remains out.

Justin DiBenedetto on his Saturday altercation with goalie Michael Hutchinson: “Just the heat of the moment. It is what it is … Emotions run high.” He said he hadn’t heard anything about anything further from his last-five-minutes instigator penalty, which at least by rule carries a one-game suspension.

….

So a quick playoffs reset (and hey, tickets are on sale):

–Bridgeport can’t finish fourth anymore (can’t catch Wilkes-Barre without winning the division), could mathematically but probably won’t finish second (by winning out while St. John’s loses out in regulation), has a slight chance of finishing fifth (lose the division to Hartford while gaining one more point than Hershey over the final three games). Still the most likely finishes: either third (the magic number remains three points after the Whale’s win Sunday at Hershey) or sixth (gaining fewer than three points while Hershey gains the same or better and the Whale wins the division).

The Sound Tigers’ possible opponents are down to the Whale (as either the third or sixth seed), Wilkes-Barre (as that unlikely fifth seed), Hershey (as the third if the Bears slip behind the Whale), Syracuse (as the third or that unlikely second), Manchester (ditto), and three other teams only as the second seed: Portland, Adirondack or Providence (Bridgeport would have to beat the Bruins in overtime Friday for that to have even a chance of happening).

–The Penguins need one point gained by them or lost by Hershey to clinch fourth. Otherwise, they’re fifth and Hershey’s fourth; no other team can be fourth. The Bears can slip no lower than sixth, which may be unlikely but isn’t impossible; they’re pretty injury-/call-up-ravaged, they’re on a five-game winless streak, they’re definitely without the tiebreaker against Bridgeport, and they’re down the season-series tiebreaker against the Whale if Hartford wins two more games in regulation this week than they do, making up the necessary four points.

–The Whale clinched their spot on Sunday but could still finish third or anywhere from fifth (that Hershey scenario) to eighth, but if — let’s just put it as “their magic number against Syracuse is three, and it’s two against Manchester” — they’ll be no worse than sixth.

–Norfolk’s 1. St. John’s is a point away from 2.

–Syracuse has a tiny bit of breathing room but probably doesn’t want to play with tiebreakers; it could finish anywhere from sixth to 11th. Manchester has good news and bad news: It has four games to play, and it has to play four games (though the first is Tuesday; two days to rest after a short ride).

–Only two games mid-week in the known conference: Manchester at Worcester on Tuesday (a Monarchs point would eliminate Worcester: if there’s a tie at Worcester’s max of 78/31, it could only be among Worcester, Manchester and Springfield, both of whom beat the Sharks in the season series), and the Whale at Portland on Wednesday.

And then a big weekend.

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We’ll chat tomorrow at 1:30. Box at the bottom.

Edit: Norfolk’s Jon Cooper was voted AHL coach of the year, the Louis A.R. Pieri Award. Imagine Brent Thompson was a candidate on some ballots.

Former Lock Monsters and River Rats coach Tom Rowe is the new coach of Lokomotiv Yaroslavl.

Poking through the Central Scouting draft rankings to look for locals; Deerfield’s/New Canaan’s Alexander Gonye is 103rd, and Brunswick’s/New Canaan’s Kevin Duane is 145th among North American skaters. If you know of any others, let me know. Enfield’s Robbie Baillargeon is 50th. At 111th, Kristoff Kontos is the son of former New Haven Nighthawk Chris Kontos.

Mike Vaccaro on hockey fans.

I somehow managed to miss the Ozzie Guillen firestorm this weekend; not sure how, but still. I try hard not one of those who believes that if your political views differ from mine, you must be a jerk/idiot/reprehensible human being. That said: Jeez, Ozzie.

And finally, I don’t know, which jacket fits Bubba Watson better?

(Just to disclaim, that’s not my own copy under my name there; may be AP. I had tossed up a short bulletin on his win, and someone else updated the post.)

In warmup, Romano was saucering a puck across the ice. He missed and lofted it over the glass.

It was that kind of night. They played two of the weirdest periods you’ll ever see, picked it up at the end of the third, but haven’t won a game since that bad hop to Kris Newbury two weeks ago.

The way Worcester was coming and the way Bridgeport let it come, it was a matter of time. The way Worcester finally scored, twice in a blink, just added to the chaos. A goalie change, then a goalie injury (with a guy left unbelievably wide open at the top of the crease as two Sound Tigers went to the initial shooter), then a bad change…

Last week, even in losing, they didn’t look like this. They were in every game to the last. Last night, from all accounts, a bounce or two and it’s a different night. This one…

“Something we’ve been proud of all year is consistency, 60 minutes in a game,” Thompson said. “Tonight, we faced a bit of adversity, and we shut it down.” There’s time to turn that around, and they did pick it up again late.

“Character rises to the top,” Thompson said.

He feels it’s there. It’s what he’ll be looking for. It’s what they’ll need.

“We played 90 percent of the game,” Calvin de Haan said. “If we had an effort consistent for 60 minutes, it’d make a difference.”

….

Anders Nilsson turned an ankle, and apparently it’s not as serious as they initially thought. Thompson said his plan was to come back with Poulin for the third, to see if the change could spark Bridgeport a bit after they got down. Odd turn of events.

Haley on his assorted fights, including the one on the way back from the penalty box: “That’s hockey.”

Erik this afternoon was wondering about John Persson; no immediate confirmation from here of a report that Persson’s coming.

The Whale won a see-saw game in a shootout and moved two points ahead. Meanwhile, Manchester is only three points back, though the Monarchs have played a couple of more games. Slacker Yalie Brian O’Neill was apparently on spring break and didn’t score, stuck on one goal in two games.

Prescout. Senators had a 2-0 lead and couldn’t hang on.

At the other end of the standings, Norfolk set the single-season record with its 18th win in a row.

And a hat tip to the retiring Bruce Jaffe at Prep.

Two probably related sets of transactions today. Emergency conditions apparently terminated, the Islanders sent Micheal Haley and Anders Nilsson down. This afternoon, Bridgeport let Rylan Galiardi and Riley Gill go from their PTOs.

Both teams had today off.

Meanwhile, with help from his four-point game here yesterday, Tyler Johnson is the AHL Player of the Week.

Chat on Tuesday at 1:30.

You knew 10 defensemen wasn’t going to hold up for long, and the casualty was the one guy on a PTO, Brandon Gentile. Lots of bodies here, obviously, and The List on Monday could constrict things even more, but Brent Thompson’s admiration for the guy was (and has been) clear, and it’s also clear he’d be glad for another chance to coach him at some point. See how things go.

Nick Niedert arrived to fill in for Anders Nilsson, who was recalled yesterday and named AHL goalie of the month today.

The lines and pairs throughout the week have looked pretty similar to the ones that ended last week, but Thompson talked about making sure everybody gets an opportunity as they get into the run toward the playoffs here. One playoff-style thing for sure this weekend: the schedule. Every other day? Is this the Adams Division semifinals?

(Won’t be in Albany, by the way, so be here for the liveblog off Josh Heller’s call.)

Up top, Dylan Reese joined the Islanders in Philadelphia. Edit: In fact, this afternoon they announced he has been activated. That’s seven defensemen up there.

Barry Goers signed a PTO with Lake Erie.

And Syracuse and Anaheim may be breaking up, Lindsay Kramer reports.

Snowy here, anyway. Though that might be sleet.

Edit after a night of high schools: The Islanders called up Anders Nilsson late this afternoon to spell Al Montoya.

Breaking a thing or two out from the chat today and adding a link or two:

–Russ Sinkewich has joined the team on an AHL contract. Brent Thompson had him in Alaska last year and compared him a bit to a right-handed Brandon Gentile: big defenseman (6-3), “rock solid,” “moves well. We need that physical presence he brings.”

So that made 10 defensemen today, and Sinkewich, on an AHL deal, becomes a candidate for the Clear Day list. How that’ll shake out, particularly 10 defensemen: “You never know. Going into this time of year, you never know what’s going to happen: injury, call-ups,” Thompson said. “I’m sure it will all work itself out in the next week or so.”

The 10 included Marc Cantin (paired with Mark Katic), and Yannick Riendeau was at forward with Tony Romano and Brett Gallant. Apparent number assignments: Sinkewich 32, Cantin 37, Riendeau 40.

A couple of recent alumni notes off the transactions list: Marc-Olivier Vallerand latched on with Rockford on a PTO, and Houston sent Benn Olson to Ontario (ECHL).

Elsewhere: Indeed, a pretty amazing video. (H/T: Phil Plait.)

And RIP, Davy Jones.

It has been a while around here, really, since you figured that they were fine as long as they scored one. At times in 2001-02; for a lot of 2003-04, until the injuries caught up; a little bit in 2008-09. But that’s about it.

Bridgeport was all over Albany all afternoon long. A very aggressive offensive-zone forecheck at times. Hitting everything that moved, sometimes a little overzealously (though the Sound Tigers weren’t thrilled with the officiating, as the bench minor will attest, as will Casey Cizikas’ anger after he was hauled down on a short-handed two-on-one), knocking a couple of Devils out of the game along the way.

It just felt as if Albany wasn’t going to have a chance unless it got a fluky-bounce goal early. Bridgeport made it 1-0, then it got the fluky-bounce goal (and Blair Riley was looking for it, he said, with Frazee just getting back to the net).

Meanwhile, and you might’ve seen it on Twitter, the only time Albany was even getting shots through to Anders Nilsson was on the power play. The Devils took seven shots on the Tomas Marcinko major (and we’ll see what comes of that, his second boarding major in four weeks), had six power-play shots after one. And since they weren’t running up huge overall shots totals, you knew the Devils weren’t getting them at even strength.

Five minutes into the third period, Albany had four of its 19 shots while it was short-handed. It had only two of its 19 shots at five-on-five.

By game’s end, the Sound Tigers had a 38-26 shots edge in all and a 28-7 edge at even strength, part of a dominant effort overall.

“It shows the team, the character, the effort, the leadership,” Brent Thompson said, “the guys’ will to buy into the system. I think the conditioning (as well). We had good jump. We got better as the game wore on.”

It’s not to overlook Anders Nilsson, winner of a team-record nine in a row, who was pretty much perfect. The Devils barely tested him, but when they did, he made good saves. As Thompson pointed out, he moved the puck very well and kept his focus all day.

They got goals from players who haven’t scored much. They absolutely dominated the game. They’re 16-1-0-1 since New Year’s, sitting sixth in the conference, five points ahead of ninth.

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Team’s off Tuesday, but I think we’ll stick with the weekly chat at the regular 1:30 time.

The whole “16-1-0-1″ thing kind of draws attention away from the fact that they’ve won the past five. Think it ties for the fifth-longest home winning streak in regular-season play; will check.

Thompson was happy with the game Backman played, coming back off Sunday’s scratch. Thompson also said he’s hoping Rhett Rakhshani will be able to play next weekend. They’ll continue to evaluate him during the week.

Tony Romano was back in town by game’s end.

Jeremy Colliton now a point away from 200 as a Sound Tiger.

Dumb stat: 19th time Bridgeport has won three games in three days, in 122 opportunities. (Add an 0-for-2 if you want to count the playoffs.)

Looks like Joey MacDonald is sticking in Detroit.

Chat tomorrow. See you then.

A doldrum-y, fluky-bounce kind of night turned into yet another Bridgeport win Saturday, and if I’ve got to try to come up with one reason, it’s the end of the Phantoms’ second power play.

Bridgeport had completed a solid penalty kill, much improved, Brent Thompson thought, from the first-period kill that degenerated at the end and left Shane Harper alone in front. The puck came out of the Bridgeport zone and got loose in the neutral zone. Tomas Marcinko took it, skated it, got it deep, and started a cycle that seemed to last about four minutes, interrupted only by the pesky technicality of Casey Cizikas’ goal.

Shots at the end of that penalty kill were 12-8 Adirondack. By the end of the second period, they were 26-19 Bridgeport.

“I think the big thing was puck decisions,” Thompson said. “The first period, one, we weren’t taking shots, and two, we weren’t protecting the puck in the offensive zone.”

They did a lot more of that, and the power play came through, with David Ullstrom’s pair of goals off one-timers, one from Matt Donovan, one (well, both, one primarily and one secondarily) from Jon Landry.

Another win.

“The battle level on our team is huge,” Ullstrom said. “It shows what kind of team we have.”

…..

Jamie noticed the streak: Anders Nilsson has won seven decisions in a row, which at least by my records ties the team mark for consecutive victories. (Ties Nathan Lawson, who started his AHL career 7-0, though the first was in relief.)

Landry has two assists in each of the past three games.

So ends the Adirondack Phantoms season series. Bridgeport wins it 4-2, in case it matters. Season series against Hershey ends Sunday. In case that matters, Bridgeport needs a regulation win to tie the series and send it to goal differential.

In the Coast: Tony Romano was on the ice for two power-play goals tonight but finished with the same line as last night, no points, five shots. A night after Alaska couldn’t score on 50 shots, the Aces bury five in the first as of this writing; Chris Langkow has an assist.

The angle from the press box made it look as if Cizikas buried that puck into the empty net. Apparently hit the post and caromed out at a funny angle.

Jon Kalinski was scratched for a reason tonight.

Prescout. Two nights in a row that Bridgeport’s next opponent faces Manchester. (Spoiler: The streak ends here.) Another spoiler: The power play’s still good without Keith Aucoin.

OK, back in like an hour and a half.

The AHL named Kevin Poulin its player of the week today for that assortment of various things he did this week in 244:42 of playing time. From the press release: On the strength of his week, Poulin lowered his goals-against average for the season by half a goal (3.27 to 2.77) and added 14 points to his save percentage (.891 to .905).

Poulin is the 12th Sound Tiger to earn the honor (edit: more accurately, it’s the 12th time for a Sound Tiger, and he’s the 11th; Tambellini won it twice in 2007-08) and the fourth goalie (Kochan ’04-05, Dubielewicz ’05-06, Munroe ’09-10).

Edit 2: And now a bit after five, the Islanders announce that they’ve called Poulin up and sent Anders Nilsson down.

We don’t know a heck of a lot, as we’ve maintained a rough radio silence since roughly Thursday. But…

–Anders Nilsson was sent back down after Friday’s game. (If you’re an RSSer who has also been laying low since Nilsson and Micheal Haley were called up Wednesday, you’ll also want to note that Dylan Reese was sent back down Thursday.)
–The ECHL transactions today say that Wheeling edit: Gwinnett loaned former Wilkes-Barre/Scranton left winger Joey Haddad to Bridgeport.
–His agent reported that Kael Mouillierat is coming back here, fresh off a highlight-reel goal, with film here (something like “Alaska vs. Idaho OT Win 4-3 Shootout,” if it’s not still the first thing that loads; it leads). Didn’t see confirmation from Idaho, but his agent was right on the last time.

We’ll see if there’s more of note from (or after) the morning skate Monday morning, by which time we’ll have to start keeping an eye on the World Juniors.

Some other links from the week: Mike Milbury won’t face any charges. And a catching-up-with piece with Blaine Down, who’s 29 and a dad.

The Islanders announced that Al Montoya and David Ullstrom indeed have concussions. It’s reaching the point where it’s easier to list players in the organization who do not have concussions. Anyway, Micheal Haley and Anders Nilsson got the call to fill in for them. The Big Club has two more games before the break, so we’ll see how they make it through. Edit, Thursday 1 p.m.: Mark Eaton’s ready to go, so the Islanders sent Dylan Reese back here. Reese was on emergency recall as the sixth defenseman (or fifth defenseman the day Calvin de Haan went up, if you prefer), but Eaton’s return gives them six season-starters.

Ray caught that Jean Bourbeau signed a PTO with the Phantoms. Bourbeau made his AHL season debut tonight in Hartford. Which, hey, prescout. The Whale played with 17 skaters and won.

Nick Niedert won tonight for Elmira, his first ECHL win.

And if you didn’t guess from this posting nine hours after the recalls happened, I’m blowing what’s left of my time off for the year this week. Though there’s a fair chance I’ll be posting again before Monday (depending on concussions, or depending perhaps on how bored I get the next few days, or both), happy holidays and merry Christmas.

Hadn’t been a lot of clinkers lately*, especially not for Anders Nilsson, but this one got away on two second-period goals, one 74 seconds in, one with 1.5 seconds left. Perhaps it’s to his credit that this one looks so off because he has been so good. He wasn’t exactly bad. He was just, well, pick your adjective from among the “ordinary”/”average” class.

On the other hand, you get Alex Giroux and Marty St. Pierre coming at you two-on-one, you’d better hope for something darned extraordinary to happen. Power outage. That’d be fine**.

Bridgeport had some chances, including a Casey Cizikas breakaway, and scored but once on Manny Legace. Springfield got a bounce off a defenseman, got that two-on-one after Bridgeport didn’t get it deep, got those two David Savard goals from long distance (the second through Dane Byers’ screen, though Nilsson absolved himself of nothing). It got other chances off Bridgeport mistakes.

Pretty early in the third, it was 5-1, as it stayed.

“I said we were going to have some growing pains in the first 20 games,” Brent Thompson said. “It might be the first 40 games. We’re going to try to get better each day, improve on those mistakes. That’s the direction we need to go right now.”

…

The power play went 0-for-6, but I thought it looked more like it did last night — generating chances, keeping the puck deep longer, maybe even creating a little momentum here and there — than it did in some past oh-fers. “Any time you establish your shot, you get momentum and chances,” Thompson said. “We had chances, but then we didn’t score on the power play. The guys get frustrated.” On one of the late power plays, Legace made three saves from about a combined 10 feet. Tip your cap. In two Bridgeport games at Springfield, Legace has stopped 56 of 58 shots and played to a 1.08 goals-against average (and has the misfortune of going just 1-1).

The flip side: Going 1-for-4 on the penalty kill plummeted the Sound Tigers from second to fifth, from 87.3 percent to 85.2.

Thompson said that, indeed, Justin DiBenedetto was feeling the effects of yesterday’s hit. “We’ll go day-to-day with him.”

Big Benn Olson steps up to left wing… and scores on his third shift, on the rush, a bottom-left-circle rebound of Blair Riley’s right-circle shot with Legace out challenging Riley. It’s his first AHL goal. “Been a long time since last year (with Cincinnati, his only other pro goal). I went to the net hard, and the puck just happened to be there.” He had practiced there earlier in the week. “It had been a while since I’d done it, but I’m familiar with what I’ve got to do, how the systems work. It wasn’t too hard (to jump in). It’s fun to get in on the forecheck, hitting the D instead of being hit by the forwards.” Nice little pump of the arm for the celebration, too.

Lines got torn up for the third period and I think changed even within the third; some power-play personnel changeups may have affected the even-strength combinations. Tyler Ruegsegger with old college linemate Rhett Rakhshani plus Jeremy Colliton was the most interesting. Thought it was kind of interesting, to start, to see Tyler McNeely-Cizikas-Sean Backman back together for the first time since opening night. A whole line from that first game, DiBenedetto-David Ullstrom-Tim Wallace, was missing; two up, one hurt.

The Islanders had the day off but sent Kevin Poulin back down to Bridgeport, they announced early in the evening. If this, then, is it for Joe Fallon, of the 28 29 goalies to actually play for Bridgeport, his tenure in the nets was 27th 28th-longest. Edit: Lovely: Forgot to add Nilsson to the list.

Hall of Famer Craig Patrick, recent addition to Columbus’ front office, was in the house.

Prescout. The Whale still leads the Berkshire League by three points over Adirondack.

A Wall Street Journal story on the challenges of coaching football at Columbia.

David Hinckley questions the latest Rock Hall of Fame selections.

And after hearing the Drifters’ “White Christmas” on the radio last night, I think I might actually be in the mood, finally. Will break out Spector soon and make sure.

*-Actually, the last time Bridgeport lost to anyone by more than one goal, or one goal plus an empty-netter, was at home against Springfield, Nov. 19. Before that? The two Adirondack losses in October.
**-I know, I shouldn’t even joke.