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.

….

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.

…..

(more…)

It looks, from the lines at Wonderland at least, as if David Ullstrom will be OK to go tomorrow, though they might give Casey Cizikas another day (or two) (or more). “We’ll go day to day with him,” Brent Thompson said. “There’s a slim chance he could get in one game. We’ll see how things play out.”

Still no Trevor Frischmon or Jon Landry, and Thompson said they won’t make the trip tomorrow. Marc Cantin joined the group from Reading, making 18 forwards, eight defensemen and two goalies on the ice.

The transactions report that Houston has called up Benn Olson from the ECHL and released onetime (literally) Bridgeport goalie Joe Fallon from his PTO.

Edit in the afternoon:
Awards from the league: Cory Conacher is rookie of the year, and Nick Petrecki of Worcester is the Yanick Dupre Award winner as the league’s man of the year.

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.

….

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.)

Replay scoreboard: Fourth use, with… Wait.

Let’s go back. Puck bouncing. Four penalties in the first assaults the flow. Bridgeport escapes with a lead. (Blair Riley, three-game goal streak.)

Portland ties it on a bounce off a skate. Portland takes a lead through a screen. Bridgeport looks like it’s having one of those nights.

Jon Landry scores. Justin DiBenedetto collects a perfect pass in the slot and feeds Rhett Rakhshani in front of the net. (Sadly for Portland, that perfect pass to DiBenedetto was from a Pirate.)

And then Andy Miele ties it with 55.1 seconds to go in regulation.

And then Donovan tries a wraparound as overtime winds down. It bounces back off a defenseman to Frischmon. He tries once, then twice. Somewhere in there, the buzzer sounds. Somewhere in there, the puck goes into the net.

Somewhere in there, referee Tim Mayer gives the most half-hearted point toward the puck in the back of the net. He knows what’s coming at him from the team in red. There’s not much he can do about it.

Jeez. A weird game. But two big points for Bridgeport.

“Our team won with sheer character,” Brent Thompson said. “Our details weren’t good enough. Our habits within the game weren’t good enough. Character, heart, willingness to go to those areas and get dirty goals — the guys stepped up, and obviously Poulin was fantastic.”

Poulin was. Peter Mannino wasn’t bad, either.

But it’ll be remembered for two moments in overtime, one at either end, one where the new video replay system could’ve really helped.

With about 2:30 left, Brett MacLean carried it up three-on-three. He got around Ty Wishart to the outside and put it to the front, where Nick Ross had a half-step. Poulin stopped Ross’ shot and tried to cover it behind him; it kicked instead toward the goal line, where Jon Landry pulled it out of either the net or the crease, depending on how far across the goal line the puck got. The red light came on. Mayer, arriving on the scene, waved “no.” Naturally, play went on for another 90-something seconds. Mayer finally goes in to take a look.

What specifically happened in there, we don’t know. From the league: “A malfunction of the system being tested prevented proper review from taking place. Officials followed proper procedures to rule on the play.” Mayer talked to the goal judge after a while, went back to the box, exited and waved it off one more time.

Presumably, then, the system wasn’t available to check one more thing: Whether the puck went into the net before time expired in overtime.

We’ve got a VHS look at that. It’s impossible to tell for sure from the center-ice camera angle with Phil’s audio patched into it; the buzzer sounds on that tape just about as Frischmon gets his second whack. Is the audio synchronized to the video? Is there any delay to the audio? No way to know. It’s close enough that you’d almost certainly need some sort of clear visual evidence — clock, superimposed, for instance — to overturn the call. And the call, as that half-hearted point made clear, was “goal.” They’ve still got a two-point lead on the Whale.

“It was one of those games where we had to find an ugly way to win,” Thompson said.

“And we did.”

….

The Sound Tigers’ magic number for a playoff spot is five points. It can’t be done before Wednesday (Portland is off until Tuesday in St. John’s), but if things break right, they could do it that morning.

Ullstrom hurting the Cy Young candidacy with two assists. Now 21-6.

Steve Oleksy moved back to defense late in the second period and was there for the third in his usual defense spot alongside Matt Donovan. They were more or less down to three lines, with Tomas Marcinko spotting in on the penalty kill and on the wing with Frischmon. “I was just trying to shake it up,” Thompson said, adding, “every guy contributes every game, whether they play one shift, whether they play 100 shifts. Even the guys who don’t play are contributing. We want every guy to feel valued. Tonight, we needed to shorten the bench.”

The Whale beat the Phantoms to stay two points back.

Portland actually gained a spot in the standings (because Adirondack lost to the Whale, falling to 10th) but lost ground (by only gaining one while Manchester and Syracuse got two).

Speaking of, Prescout. It will be really weird to see Trent Hunter back here, particularly in another sweater. Brian O’Neill also returns, for the second time since last year’s regional ended early.

Not sure if it was mathematical before on some level, but it certainly is now: There will be a new Calder Cup champion, with Binghamton eliminated. Steve Stirling was running the bench tonight for the Sens with Kurt Kleinendorst suspended.

St. John’s win over Hershey clinched the Atlantic Division for the Caps. It also clinched the East Division for Norfolk, which wins even when it doesn’t play.

Tip of cap to Ray Whitney, 1,000 points.

Merits aside, take a look at Tim E. O’Brien’s rebranding concept for the Columbus Blue Jackets Generals… and in particular, look at his concept for the captain and alternates patches.

Beltran/Wainwright, teammates five and a half years later. Painful read. (Hat tip: Andy Martino.)

And RIP, Samuel Glazer.

You add David Ullstrom back into the mix, that lineup gets a heck of a lot deeper. If he’d like to score a couple of goals while he’s here, all the better.

“I’m excited,” Ullstrom said. “The boys are unbelievable. The team effort they put in every night is unbelievable. … We went on a good run the last time I was down. We want to continue to do that and make the playoffs.”

Bridgeport jumped on the Falcons early, withstood the Falcons’ goal and added on. Ullstrom scored the fourth and sixth coming back from the NHL.

“Obviously that’s where you want to play,” Ullstrom said. “I felt more and more confident as time went on. I feel I can play there. It was a good learning experience. At the same time, you’ve got to stop treating it as a learning period after a while and start producing.

“Overall it was a good experience,” he said. “This summer is going to be huge for me, coming in in good shape and trying to make the team out of camp.”

In the meantime, he and the Sound Tigers are that much closer to getting back to the playoffs.

….

Jamie, computer just about back to normal, showed me the replay of that Romano goal 14 seconds into the game and pointed out something pretty neat. Romano, going to the net, swapped hands as he got there and redirected Justin DiBenedetto’s pass in left-handed. Give it a look.

Trevor Frischmon and Sean Backman got shout-outs from their coach for their work on the penalty kill tonight. The Falcons went 0-for-3, while Bridgeport was 2-for-4.

The Whale gave up three quick ones to the Penguins in the first, and that was all the scoring for anyone . So Bridgeport leads by two points and the tiebreaker. Bridgeport’s magic number for a playoff spot is eight points. Teams 9-11 won, while Teams 12-14 all lost. Syracuse lost in overtime, so it’s seventh, a point ahead of Manchester.

Prescout. Big win for the Pirates, who are just a point behind the Monarchs. Tough loss for the Sharks, who still have two more games to play than anyone else between seventh and 13th, but who sit 14th, six points out of a playoff spot.

Poulin became the fifth Sound Tigers goalie to win 20 games: Rick DiPietro (30 in 2001-02), Mike Morrison (23 in 2007-08), Wade Dubielewicz (22 in 2006-07, along with 20 in 2003-04 and 2005-06) and Dieter Kochan (20 in 2003-04).

Norfolk played. Ho hum.

Edit: Owen Sound, Mike Halmo’s team, was eliminated from the OHL playoffs tonight.

Alaska finished first overall in the ECHL for the second year in a row.

Bishop Lori is conducting the ceremonial faceoff before Saturday’s game. Anyone want to give him a crash course in Skipjacks history before he goes to Baltimore?

And finally, the winning UltraSuperMegaMillions numbers are Dylan Reese, Mark Wotton, John Persson, Kevin Poulin, Matt Donovan, and the UltraSuperMega ball is Jeremy Colliton from the first year. Good luck!

While the Sound Tigers were on the ice this morning, the Islanders sent them back David Ullstrom. Obviously a boost in several situations. (And obviously he could go back up if they need him over the last 10 days.)

Edit: In the afternoon, the AHL suspended Russ Sinkewich one game for his check-to-the-head minor against Worcester’s Curt Gogol on Friday. Sinkewich will miss tomorrow’s game.

Rhett Rakhshani practiced and is a possibility to return to the lineup. There was a hole in the lines where Trevor Frischmon fit in; they gave him a maintenance day today, but Brent Thompson said he’s probable for the weekend.

Nothing new for Jeremy Colliton, but Thompson said Anders Nilsson is making progress. He wouldn’t commit to a timetable, though we’re obviously past that initial hopeful 7-10-day window. Leni DiCostanzo was opposite Dan Clarke this morning. Assuming nothing crazy happens on the Island tonight, the Sound Tigers will probably start Kevin Poulin tomorrow rather than Leni.

And autism awareness day on Sunday, among other off-ice notes from the weekend on the team’s site.

The Islanders announced that, first reported by Arthur Staple, a few minutes ago.

As Bob McKenzie reminds us, it’s an important waivers day: A regular roster NHL player, if he isn’t technically on an AHL roster on Monday at 3 p.m., can’t be sent down for the rest of the year. So, if teams want the flexibility to move out a veteran at any point the rest of the year, he’s got to go on waivers today. (He reports that these guys are on waivers today. For instance, if I’m not mistaken, the absence of Dylan Reese from that list makes him an NHLer for the rest of the season.)

More but less pressingly is what that means for the Sound Tigers’ lineup tonight, which is to be seen. They played their only 12 available forwards last night. If Calvin de Haan is indeed available, they could go 11 forwards/seven defensemen.

Edit: ECHL transactions have Greenville loaning Marc-Olivier Vallerand to Bridgeport.

So there was David Ullstrom today at Wonderland, for now at least, skating with Casey Cizikas and Rhett Rakhshani and ready to get back out there. How long will he be with those guys? Well, with Cizikas and Rakhshani, depends on chemistry, flow, what have you. With the Sound Tigers? Sounds as if all involved are hoping for a short stay. Story tomorrow.

Brandon Gentile was in town and wearing No. 23 on his helmet. Today at least, Benn Olson was in Calvin de Haan’s old spot with Ty Wishart. Twin Towers on defense. Another defenseman is likely by tomorrow to get themselves to seven. The only forward line intact was Haley-Romano-Backman; we’ll see what they finally look like tomorrow night. (We’ll almost certainly be sitting home for it, so stop by for a liveblog.)

Edit: With an assist to Doug for finding the release from Colorado, Jon Landry is the other defenseman. He’s no relation to the Jon Landry who played here last year; that Landry isn’t playing right now, though far from forgotten. This Landry is second among ECHL defensemen in scoring.

The Sound Tigers are wearing special pink-trimmed sweaters for Saturday’s game.

Seen on Twitter: Pascal Morency speaks.

Don’t know if you guys watch “The Middle,” but I thought last night’s episode, particularly the opening scene as they honored and remembered and reacted to the death of actress Frances Bay’s character, was beautiful.

You may have seen this by now, but: Just after Jack Jablonski, Jenna Privette, a girls hockey player in Minnesota, was seriously injured in a game. Jeez. A fund has been set up for her as well.

And RIP, Bill Janklow.

What looked like a familiar set this morning, with the welcome addition of Tomas Marcinko to full practice, got a bit jumbled quickly. Notes:

–The Islanders announced that Calvin de Haan will miss four to six weeks with a left-shoulder injury, without further specifics. They don’t expect him to need surgery, though. Brent Thompson had said earlier that Brett Gallant is on a similar timetable, though there’s even fewer specifics on his upper-body injury. Joey Haddad practiced again.

–The Islanders then announced this afternoon that David Ullstrom, out since a Dec. 20 concussion, is coming back to Bridgeport.

Edit: Forgot to mention Mark Katic skating. Back on the ice, at least; a first step back. At best, he’s six to eight weeks away. But still.

Edit3: I seem to have whacked this accidentally while adding the Katic note, but Bridgeport let Mathieu Aubin go Wednesday.

–One defenseman, and most likely two defensemen, will be coming in on PTOs in the next couple of days. Edit2: According to the ECHL transactions today, one of them appears to be Alaska’s Brandon Gentile, who played for Thompson last year, a defensive guy with some mobility.

What the lineup will look like, who’ll finally be in: Still to be determined, Thompson said. Marcinko is the closest of the three close regulars. The Islanders play Thursday night, as well.

Meanwhile, new potential shootout candidate: sniper Benn Olson outlasted Kael Mouillierat to win the last-man-standing competition today.

Will take a closer look over the NHL Central Scouting midseason draft rankings for skaters and goalies. At first glance, the only local I caught was at No. 123, Brunswick’s/New Canaan’s Kevin Duane. The Connecticut prep schoolers all appear to be from out of our region (though one is the son of former NHL coach and player John Stevens). Only other Connecticut name I recognized off the top of my head was former Enfield High freshman standout Robbie Baillargeon, who’s in the USHL. Speaking of upstate, Matt Conyers has more on that Gordie Howe visit to Glastonbury.

So the flow of the day is something like:

–Koskinen: Took the skate; head OK, everything else, not so much.
–Hisey, Ullstrom, Olson good to go.
–After the skate, word that Lawson and DiBenedetto are coming down.
–Emmerson and Petizian released.
–And now this afternoon, Aaron Ness signed his entry-level deal and will be coming here on an ATO.

We’ll see now who actually pops out of the runway tonight. And when they go in line rushes, we’ll put those lines here.

Edit: And here they are.

BRIDGEPORT
F: Hisey-Colliton (A)- Rakhshani
DiBenedetto-Ullstrom-Schepke
Bourbeau-Romano-Figren
Gallant-Taylor-Svendsen
D: Kohn (A)-Motherwell
Katic-Wishart
Olson-Wotton (C)
G: Martin
Lawson

CHARLOTTE TWEETERS… er, CHECKERS
F: Terry-Dodge-@ZachBoychuk
Blanchard (A)-Matsumoto-Micflikier
Sutter-@ZacDalpe-@Matt_Pistilli
@MikeMcKenzie11-Nash-Herauf
D: Rodney (C)-Sanguinetti
Jordan-Bellemore
FitzGerald (A)-Borer
G: @MichaelMurphy31
Pogge

R: Cozzan, Lemelin. L: Cooke, Redding.

The lack of Joensuu makes one imagine that he’ll be the recall in place of DiBenedetto.

Hard to bear

Look, this is a beat-up Hershey team. This Hershey team may be even more beat up than the Sound Tigers. They scratched 11 men today, including their top two goalies, an all-star defensemen and an AHL-elite right winger. (Although one of the 11 is a pretty good player that Washington sent down with instructions not to play.)

And they still had Aucoin, Kane, Pinizzotto, Willsie, Bouchard, Joudrey, Greentree… on and on.

And Bridgeport could have beat them. Maybe should have beat them. Drew some penalties. Pat Bingham was talking about how aggressive the Bears’ penalty kill is, “they almost dare the referee to put them down five-on-three, and the refs did put them down five-on-three.” They took advantage. Ullstrom was excellent on faceoffs, Bingham noted, and moving the puck up-ice. They held the Bears to 14 shots, which I’ve got to double-check but appears to be a Bridgeport record. Edit: Yup, certainly looks like it. They’d had 15 three times, but not since October 2004. They scored two. Ullstrom and Pitton hit crossbars, and Hisey hit a post.

And the result? It’s an old story. Bingham even invoked “Groundhog Day.” They’ve lost 18 games in regulation since Jan. 1. Seven were one-goal losses. Five were two-goal losses. (Four threes, a four and a five.) They’ve found ways to lose.

And how many ways? Remember the chart here at the end of January? (On that page, it’s missing the last game of January, which was a loss.) Well, just as the past two months have included the second-longest winless streak followed by the winless streak, and just as the two longest losing streaks for goaltenders in team history now overlap, well, there’s this:

On to March.

…

The team plans to take the next two days off. I’ll ask the bosses, but any strong feelings one way or the other if we do the chat Wednesday instead of Tuesday? I’ll keep you posted. Edit: Yeah, let’s do that. Wednesday at 1:30. Be here.

Bingham thought Jeremy Colliton and perhaps Dylan Reese would be good to go during the week. (They don’t play until Saturday.)

Last year’s deadline was spent here in the dark. This year’s will be spent at home, probably. We’ll see what goes down.

Would imagine we’ll hear, too, if Brett Gallant gets anything more than time served.

What did everybody think of the special sweaters? Tried to put together some sort of list of differences between these and the original whites: Orange instead of yellow/gold, obviously. The back numerals looked to be a darker blue, more Islanders’ royal blue. Didn’t get a close-up look at the nameplates; is that what ’05-06 looked like? Can’t remember. The neck on this one had laces; the old ones didn’t. And the patches were different, with an Islanders patch on the left sleeve and the 10th-Anniversary patch on the right. And then the various branding and “Edge” differences. Anything else?

Darien’s Hugh Jessiman finally got to the Show. He played almost 10 minutes for the Panthers today.

My grammar school’s archrival, my high school’s archrival and my DAD’s high school’s archrival all had groups here today. Felt very threatened.

And RIP, Greg Goossen and Duke Snider.

Neither Jeremy Colliton nor David Ullstrom was on the ice for warmup. Ullstrom, word is, is not healthy, but no details at this point. (Haven’t seen Pat Bingham yet today, between no skate and Sacred Heart.) And Colliton, no word at all. Will pass on updates if/as we get them. (Edit: Ray, on Twitter, says Bingham said Colliton was banged up.)

Then while we counted heads, during line rushes, Mikko Koskinen appeared to take a shot up high. He took a few minutes to shake it off but seemed OK after that. Nothing like a little excitement.

BRIDGEPORT
F: DiBenedetto-Castonguay-Rakhshani
Svendsen-Hisey-Joensuu
Bourbeau-Romano-Figren
Gallant-Marcinko-Pitton
D: Wotton (C)-Motherwell
Kohn (A)-Landry
Olson-Frank
G: Koskinen
Martin

MANCHESTER
F: King-Azevedo-Holloway
Nolan-Cliche (C)-Moller (A)
Clune-Zeiler-Meckler
Kaunisto-Elkins-Kozun
D: Campbell-Voynov
Hickey (A)-Kolomatis (-Mullen-scratch)
Muzzin-Teubert
G: Zatkoff
Jones

R: Sullivan. L: Simeon, Galvin.

The Monarchs have one to scratch.