Soundin' Off

So contrary to what I got told last night, whether or not Jon Sim is banged up, the Islanders told Katie Strang he just isn’t reporting to Bridgeport. And with that, they placed him on unconditional waivers to release him.

Edit: Strang just tweeted that Sim plans to go to Switzerland.

Jon Sim is on waivers again. Saturday was his 10th game since his last clearance, so this may just be a chance to restart the clock. Guess we’ll see Tuesday.

The Sound Tigers reassigned defenseman Matt Duffy from Kalamazoo to Gwinnett in the ECHL.

All-star rosters come out tomorrow afternoon at 3. In addition to Eastern Conference playing captain Mark Wotton, imagine Rhett Rakhshani and Kevin Poulin are the leading Bridgeport candidates, if anyone is to be added.

One crazy sequence of saves from erstwhile tweeter Mike McKenna.

The Rangers traded Michal Rozsival to Phoenix for Wojtek Wolski, who’s of course best known as Luch Aquino’s junior linemate. Are the Blueshirts that confident in Ryan McDonagh and the cast in Hartford, or is something else brewing? (Or are they clearing cap space for Wade Redden’s triumphant return?)

Great Rob Riley story in the Columbus Dispatch.

And the PHPA, union for AHL and ECHL players, extended the contract of executive director Larry Landon.

The Islanders put Jon Sim on waivers today, so there’s a chance he could be here for tomorrow’s game. It’s already a crowded house at forward for these guys.

It’s the first 15-game night in AHL history, so here’s one-fifteenth of the league’s lineups:

BRIDGEPORT
F: Colliton (A)-Bailey-Rakhshani
Svendsen-Ullstrom-Blight
Labelle-Hisey-Yablonski
Haley-Marcinko-Figren
(Bourbeau-scratch)
D: O’Neill-Klementyev
Katic-Reese (A)
Motherwell-Wotton (C)
G: Koskinen
Lawson

SPRINGFIELD
F: Calvert-Blunden (A)-Kubalik
Pandolfo-Frischmon (A)-Byers
Mayorov-D’Alvise-Filatov
Ratchuk-Tarnasky-Regner
(Murovich-scratch)
D: Sigalet-Savard
Holden-Goloubef
Moore-Guenin (A)
G: Wesslau
LeNeveu

R: R.Fraser. L: Simeon, Redding.

Edit, with thanks to Jamie Palatini and Ian Healy, to reflect that Figren is not in two places at once. That would be cool.

Both teams have one to scratch. But Jean Bourbeau and Tyler Murovich never stood up during line rushes, so I’ve got a guess. Edit2: Indeed, those are the two.

Bourbeau, by the way, out there in the full cage, is now wearing No. 20.

Talented young’n Nikita Filatov, who’d been banged up during the week, is apparently in for the Falcons.

Jon Sim is up for today’s matinee against the Devils. David Ullstrom, after his Wednesday off, is back in. Don’t know what the line combos will look like. No further word on the other injured.

Mikko Koskinen in net.

Bits and pieces from the first New England trip without Tim Hortons, from a breathtakingly unusual Wednesday off and from a bloggerific Thursday:

–Edit: Updated everywhere else and forgot here; sorry. The Islanders sent Jon Sim back to Bridgeport this afternoon.

–At least McDonald’s is only a buck.

–The ongoing injury parade makes it necessary to bring in guys like Labelle and O’Neill, but it sounded as if Pat Bingham wouldn’t mind keeping a few extra bodies around when guys get healthy.

“I need to be better behind the bench. Guys need to be better, too,” Bingham said. “If we’re even just a little better (Tuesday), we win that game.”

–Disappointed in myself. I left out the “remember ties?” footnote Tuesday night. Argh. I need to be better, too.

–Always thrown in Springfield to realize it’s on the east bank of the Connecticut River. I don’t know why. A half-rational thought tells you so. (There’s this bridge to West Springfield, so…) Maybe it just never registers when you cross the Dexter Coffin Bridge. (OK, when I cross.)

–Only once was I thrown to see Bingham at the “other” end. Thought it might be more.

–No discussion yet about whether there might be another assistant here at some point.

–The Free Chris Botta movement turned this into a hockey Thursday on WFAN. Not sure which was more entertaining: that, or that Mike Francesa insisted, even after a commercial break, that one of the Leafs took out Pierre Turgeon in 2002. Peca hurt, but losing Turgeon, forget about it.

–Joked on Twitter about talking “Terriers” with Phil. I was going to talk it here, but Alan Sepinwall did so with much eloquence. Seriously, find a way to watch Season 1 at some point if you haven’t. My favorite new show, and in the conversation for favorite show, period. (Caveat: Don’t have HBO.) And you’ve gotta love that theme song.

–Was royally annoyed at myself for forgetting, in the interview with Phil, so many details of the Steve Stirling/Mike Milbury/Brad Shaw situation four and a half years ago. Then I remembered when it was, and forgetting made sense. Aha.

–Nice story on Puck Daddy about the girl who got hit in the head with a puck the other night. Tough kid. Her note to Darien’s Ryan Shannon is utterly adorable. Good for all involved.

–Finally, in answering a question last night, I got myself curious and checked back a year. On Nov. 15, 2009, the Islanders called up another No. 2. Looking over the lineup from that night (the night Jon Gleed got off the exercise bike and had three assists), I was struck by how structurally similar it was to what you’d probably consider Bridgeport’s lineup with all the injured guys in, which would probably be something like

Hilbert-Hisey-Rakhshani
DiBenedetto-Ullstrom-Joensuu
Haley-Marcinko-Figren
Bourbeau-Colliton-Yablonski
Katic-Motherwell
Wotton-Klementyev
Kohn-Hamonic

Pick two goalies, but since Koskinen was out last year, let’s use
Lawson
Poulin

Similar structure. But a change or two.

Cool Fun 101, as usual, had its lessons that weren’t in the activity book. A little psychology, a little chemistry, some math (one day’s piece of the NHL half of a two-way minus one day’s piece of the AHL half equals…)

But the Sound Tigers won. Which itself is news. Nine morning games (one on the road), two wins now. Hey, two in three years, even. Start ‘em all at 11.

“I was a little worried about having the layoff after the Manchester game,” Jack Capuano said. “We responded really well.”

Yeah, until they didn’t. Breakaways, turnovers, screens, rebounds, penalties, and playing the role of Brian Leetch in Game 7 of the 1994 Final today, Steven Goertzen. A 3-0 lead became 3-3. A 5-3 lead became 5-5.

“We got a little sloppy,” the new guy said, “and when you get sloppy, it ends up in the back of our net.”

Fortunately for the Sound Tigers, the new guy scored a little bit.

“At this level, the puck gets there,” Jon Sim said. “Up top, the puck wasn’t getting there for whatever reason. The puck got there (today).”

By noon, they had matched their highest output before 1 p.m..

.…

Did anybody throw a hat? Not that I’m gonna get upset over little kids not tossing one (“you lost your hat on a field trip?”), but…

As tweeted, good for Geno Binda. He made his call on that shot off the posts. He talked it over with his linesmen. He talked it over with the goal judge. And he changed his call. We’ve seen other refs who wouldn’t have taken such steps.

Andrew MacDonald was in the dressing room afterward, a couple of weeks away from his return from the broken hand. Micheal Haley, he who hasn’t always had good luck with his hands before noon, walked up to him, pointed to the cast on MacDonald’s hand, and called MacDonald “Hales.” Brilliant.

If I don’t write it for Friday’s paper, I’ll blog up a lot of Lawson thoughts on his first two games. Good stuff as always.

Pressure in my inner ears is equalizing again. Dave, I’m begging you: You don’t have to tell them to scream for a T-shirt.

Among the worst-kept secrets in the game once Howard Baldwin took over, but the Whale and the Bruins are playing outside Feb. 19. (Bridgeport pays its only regulation visit to Hershey that night.)

Is the gate still there? I’ll totally carry the gate.

And RIP, Clyde King.

So Jon Sim goes on waivers. Rob Schremp’s return coupled with Matt Martin’s success apparently pushes him out. We’ll see what happens by noon tomorrow. The Isles also announced that Milan Jurcina will miss a couple of weeks, which probably puts Dustin Kohn a heartbeat away.

At least for today, Jeremy Colliton was back in the Martin/Schremp spot with Rob Hisey and Rhett Rakhshani. The other lines looked familiar.

Colliton, Jesse Joensuu and Robin Figren defeated Tony Romano, Brett Motherwell and Mark Wotton in a three-on-three game after practice. There seemed to be some controversy. Wotton questioned the officiating and the goaltending. We’ll see if there’s carryover tomorrow. That’ll be at Shelton, too. The barn’s busy this week. A brand-spankin’, fresh sheet of ice for the kids to see on Wednesday morning.

Larry Brooks on what happened 35 years ago. Go now.

Norwegian Mats Zuccarello apparently isn’t going to Sweden. Non-Scandinavian Drew Fata is apparently going to Norway.

This book looks fascinating. Odds are I’ll never get to read it, but still.

Livechat tomorrow as usual. In honor of election day, we’ll take your suggestions for QuickPolls. I hope to have a few of my own set to go. And the phone will be off the hook. No robocalls, please.

And RIP, Denise Borino-Quinn, Maurice Lucas, and Ted Sorensen.