Soundin' Off

No Haskins this morning, but Greg Mauldin and Jesse Joensuu were out there (on a line with Justin DiBenedetto), as was Dustin Kohn on defense. Do they play tomorrow? “Not sure yet,” Jack Capuano said. He sounded as if he’s considering giving them an extra day, at least some of them. The team split up into two groups for a little competition: The skaters went five-on-a-goalie, one set on each end, and the first side to score earned a point. The losing team had to skate a couple of laps at the end. Mauldin’s team lost, but he was exempted from the skating. (Joensuu did skate and looked OK.)

Have kept forgetting to mention that Jeremy Reich is in town. He still has the cast on his wrist for another week or so, but he has been skating on his own and working out.

Just spent a few minutes perusing News from 1930, which has broken format for a few days to go back 80 years instead of 79 and examine how the Wall Street Journal reported the great crash of 1929. Fascinating.

And with that, unless something crazy happens, I’ll leave you alone for a few days. Phil’s making the trip, if I recall correctly (Edit: Actually, he’s joining the team Saturday in Portland), so you’ll have a local perspective on the radio Webcast for two games, at least.

Edit: OK, I lied: back with Eric Boguniecki’s signing with Alaska.

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.

—

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…

Two guys appeared this morning in the little-used white practice jerseys: Mark Flood, and Micheal Haley. Uh-oh. “Haley had a setback,” Jack Capuano said. That didn’t sound good for the weekend, though Capuano wouldn’t go that far.

Going the other way, Flood got through the practice and was one of the last ones off the ice, spending time working on skills with Martin and Westgarth and Matt Bertani. “It felt great, actually,” Flood said as he came off.

Top three lines were as they began Tuesday night; Morency was with Marcinko and Figren this morning.

Manchester leads the division to begin the first three-in-three. “They’re a puck-possession team, a quick team,” Capuano said. “They’re a team whose guys have been there for a while together, so they’ve got some chemistry. The power play is pretty dynamic.” It went 4-for-6 Sunday.

Tomorrow’s story references this.

Elsewhere, Hartford has shipped Patrick Rissmiller to Grand Rapids. (Only two more years at $1 million-per on that one.) Peter Zingoni is making an impression in Houston. Washington called up Aucoin and Giroux. Sergei Kostitsyn left Hamilton.

*-Bobby Fuller, 10/22/42-7/18/66

All kinds of stuff going on. Chris Chelios landing in Chicago with the Wolves. Jaime Sifers getting shipped to Houston. Ottawa sent Ilya Zubov back to Russia. Hartford picked up Mathieu Dandeneault on a PTO. Philly traded for once-burned-out Stefan Legein and sending him to Adirondack — see you bright and early Nov. 4.

Things are a little more normal for the Sound Tigers, with the lines back to opening-night style, though Brett Westgarth gets the night off on the blue line.

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

LOWELL
F: Snetsinger-Walter-Perkovich
Zharkov-Swift-Gionta (A)
Davis-Sestito-Vasyunov
Robitaille-Mills-Cormier Palmieri Cormier*
D: Davison-Eckford
Leach (C)-Corrente
Murphy-Taormina
(Magnan (A)-scratch)
G: McKenna
Coleman
R: T.Koharski. L: Boyle, T. Low.

(I may have messed something(s) up w/ that Lowell lineup. Edit: Yep. Edit2: Maybe not. Cormier was announced as a scratch but is listed as playing on the various sheets. I thought I saw “29.” I’ll stick with Cormier in. Until proven otherwise.)

In other news, the chicken-tenders place is closed here. I’m not coming back.

A couple of weeks ago, maybe, this might have gone differently. Mikko Koskinen wasn’t as comfortable on the North American ice back then.

Um, the kid looked pretty comfortable tonight.

He has things to work on — he mentioned, especially, managing to cover up or get the puck to the corner when it’s in tight — but it was a solid first start, especially in that first 15 minutes, when Worcester could have run away with the evening. The Sound Tigers popped in three goals in a little over three minutes, and that was that.

(Literally. Until the bonus round.)

—

Bentivoglio, Haskins and Martin had a combined one point tonight, and that was Martin’s on the five-on-three, but they were buzzing, forechecking, wreaking some havoc for the second game in a row. “They’ve been good,” Capuano said. “They’re doing the right things at the right times. They understand the system. They believe what we’re trying to teach, and they’re having success. We hope to get more guys on the same page.” Was a little surprised to see they got only four shots to the net.

Eric Boguniecki in the dressing room afterward, visiting the folks, so he visited the boys. He’s still hoping to latch on somewhere.

Thanks to Gerry Cantlon: Junior Lessard landed in Finland with Ilves. And Mark Parrish landed in Norfolk on a PTO.

So the Devils trapped, and the Sound Tigers threw pucks around (did everyone put a pass behind Katic at one point tonight?), and it wasn’t always the prettiest game, but hey, you get a crowd like that (biggest announced crowd ever by five), you give them a win, a lot can be forgiven.

The Bentivoglio-Haskins reunion paid dividends. Haskins came out hitting, they drew a power play, and a pretty power play later, 1-0.

Six power plays later…

Weird first period to watch, that way. The second was a little better. The third wasn’t terrible, but… The ice, only skated on a few times and in a crowded house, couldn’t have been great, especially by the end of the night, and they were being too fancy on it. (At the same time, if Zharkov could have pulled the trigger, he’d have had two or three.)

In overtime, Haskins won a draw, got it to Bentivoglio, who got it back to MacDonald. MacDonald shot as Haskins went to the net. Goal.

Simple won out.

—

A moment of silence for Roy Boe before the game, eight years since he stepped out at center ice to introduce this Sound Tigers team.

Chris Elsberry’s column today is on the Sound Tigers’ on-ice results since 2002.

I never got Nighthawks tickets for reading. Darn it.

The Lighthouse deadline is gone, “and apparently (Charles) Wang’s patience is through, too,” Chris Botta writes. Then the kid went out and scored a goal.

Oh, Louis Robitaille. How you’ve been missed.

And so Bridgeport is tied for first with Springfield (with four former Sound Tigers), Worcester (spoiling Glens Falls’ return) and Manchester (coupla points for Kevin Westgarth).

Back-to-back Bombulie tweets tonight: “Wyatt Smith tips in a Chris Lee point shot as Eric Tangradi crashes the net. 1-0 WBS.” “@fornabaioctp No, the second assist didn’t go to Masi Marjamaki.” Smith finished with two goals and an assist in his first Penguins game.

Two goals for Peter Zingoni tonight.

Jason Krog was named captain of the Wolves.

Austin to San Antonio is about 80 miles. The American Statesman didn’t staff the Stars’ first game. Well, it was Friday night.

If Safety Graphic Fun isn’t in the RSS reader by now, I mean, c’mon.

Wha? OK, second source.

And deepest condolences to Phil Giubileo, whose brother passed away today.

It’s that kind of fall (again): Greg Mauldin left practice about halfway through after tweaking something; “lower body” was the only report. Anton Klementiev departed early, too, though it wasn’t clear if that was injury-related or not.

Mark Flood (lower body) remains out, but everyone else skated, which brings us to that annual exercise: Even though this isn’t the final roster and everything will be torn asunder by Thursday morning, here are today’s line combinations:

Bentivoglio-Haskins-Joensuu
Haley-Romano-Figren
DiBenedetto-Mauldin-Martin
Hughes-Marcinko-Sixsmith
Morency

D-pairs, without Klementiev:

Kohn-MacDonald
Piskacek-Gleed
Wotton-Gannon
Katic-Westgarth

And the three goalies.

Hey, check out the first line at last year’s first-real-practice. It’s a cute little coincidence, but it points out the futility of the exercise: That line played together only a handful of times during the year. The point, Jack Capuano reminded us, is just to get guys in combinations and work on systems, skate, work on conditioning. Looked like a good skate; lots of work on breakouts.

Chris Botta has today’s Islanders lines.

Elsewhere, appears Keith Aucoin and Alex Giroux are among Washington’s cuts. Sure, claim Rob Schremp.

I’m stumped as well. Something about bocce and lightning, maybe. And, OK, I laughed. Sorry.

Edit: Two BTWs: The team plans a press event of some sort Tuesday night to officially unveil the new uniforms; you got a sneak peek during the exhibition game’s national anthem. And Mike Russo says Jaime Sifers appears to have made the Wild.

Our friend Phil Janack was let go by his paper. He’s blogging on his own for now. Hopefully someone hires him soon.

The Oilers sent Kip Brennan and Rob Schremp to the Falcons. So now we see about that whole “Isles might claim him on waivers” thing.

The Devils sent Ben Walter down.

Jaime Sifers continues to impress.

And RIP, William Safire.

Well, the kids made their cases. Of the 18 skaters, 14 played for the second night in a row, and they put together a 3-2 win Saturday night. It appears that most of them won’t be around for long — official cuts come down Sunday, though some long faces appeared Saturday night amid several meetings with the coaching staffs — but they’ve made their cases.

“I saw a team with just a bunch of guys competing for jobs,” Jack Capuano said. He especially praised the defense, but moved on to the goalies (and Koskinen made some big ones late, in particular as Hartford outshot the Sound Tigers 17-2 in the third) and forwards. The Sixsmith-Nikiforov-Healey trio accounted for all three goals.

Oh, yeah — and Koskinen was out of his gourd a few times. Like your average 6-foot-6 goalie, he’s a little vulnerable when he’s moving around. But he got himself back in the way. He and Sudsie Maharaj appeared bound for a postgame session.

Gannon’s is a name that popped up a few times this week. “He’s just a big kid, a right-handed shot,” Capuano said. “He was a true freshman at Colorado College, a two-year captain, a teammate of Jack Hillen.

And Healey, Capuano said, had back issues Friday night but rebounded tonight with a couple of goals.

He made his case, too.

LINEUPS
BRIDGEPORT
F: Vladimir Nikiforov-James Sixsmith-Paul Healey (A)
Mike Lesperance-Adam Perry-Jason Dale
Jean Bourbeau-Bobby Hughes-Jeff Pierce
Justin DiBenedetto-Tony Romano-Robin Figren
D: Jan Piskacek-Evan Stoflet
Victor Bartley-Jake Gannon
Luke Sellars (A)-Dustin Friesen
G: Scott Munroe
Mikko Koskinen

HARTFORD
F: Ryan Hillier-Patrick Rissmiller-Jordan Owens
Dane Byers-Paul Crowder-Derek Couture
Devin DiDiomete-Tomas Zaborsky-Andres Ambuhl
Brent Henley-Tyler Arnason-Dale Weise
D: David Urquhart-Michael Sauer
Nigel Williams-Ilkka Heikkinen
Trevor Glass-Corey Potter

Hartford 1 1 0–2
Bridgeport 1 1 1–3
First Period — 1, Bridgeport, Healey 1 (Nikiforov, Sixsmith), 8:13. 2, Hartford, Couture 4 (Henley, Rissmiller), 19:33. Penalties – Henley, Hfd (roughing), 3:01; Figren, Bpt (holding), 5:22; Lesperance, Bpt (hooking), 9:07; Sauer, Hfd (holding), 13:01; Romano, Bpt (hooking), 17:20.
Second Period – 3, Hartford, Byers 1 (Ambuhl), 4:03. 4, Bridgeport, Healey 2 (Nikiforov, Sixsmith), 9:43. Penalties – Owens, Hfd (interference), :48; Bourbeau, Bpt (holding stick), 1:58; Couture, Hfd, major (fighting), 4:59; Gannon, Bpt, major (fighting), 4:59; Gannon, Bpt (hooking), 13:06; DiDiomete, Hfd (roughing), 15:51.
Third Period – 5, Bridgeport, Nikiforov 1 (Friesen), 9:18. Penalties – Sellars, Bpt (holding), 1:21; Byers, Hfd, major (fighting), 8:47; Bourbeau, Bpt, major (fighting), 8:47; Potter, Hfd (slashing), 9:06; Sellars, Bpt (interference), 10:09; Sellars, Bpt (hooking), 14:03; Owens, Hfd (unsportsmanlike conduct-diving), 18:14; Lesperance, Bpt (hooking), 18:14.

Shots on goal — Hartford 9-14-17–40. Bridgeport 7-9-2–18.
Power play opportunities — Hartford 0 of 8, Bridgeport 1 of 5.
Goaltenders — Hartford, Zaba 0-1-0 (18 shots-15 saves). Bridgeport, Munroe (9-8), Koskinen 1-0-0 (start second, 31-30).
Attendance – 1,723. Referee – J. Koharski. Linesmen – Spannaus, Wahl.

At least, I think that’s who the officials were. The numbers checked out, at the very least. And there was some discussion, both at the snack bar and apparently inside, about who actually scored a couple of those goals. But it’s the preseason, and right about now, all those numbers go back to zero.

Enjoyed reading Jonathan Bombulie’s twittering and reading about an attempted head-butt. We just get the twin hook-and-dive coincidentals. Naturally, if you’re following my twittishness, you got the Sideshow Bob reference.

Gregg Johnson joins the local contingent in Houston’s camp. Other Sound Tigers alums headed for the AHL: Jason Krog and game-winner-scorer Drew Fata; Tim Sestito, meanwhile, is battling for a job in The Swamp. (Jaime Sifers is in the mix in Minnesota, too.)

Matt Moulson scored again in an exhibition win over Edmonton. Decent tilt between Joel Rechlicz and Steve MacIntyre.

They’ll be back in town soon.

Meanwhile, Max Gratchev scored again for the Senators against Wilkes-Barre. That game was delayed because of a water-main break.

Edit: Forgot: Michael Russo says Jaime Sifers is impressing at Wild camp.

So Frans Nielsen and now Doug Weight and Sean Bergenheim are banged up already. Get those PTO guys warmed up.

Jesse Joensuu gets featured in Prince Albert.

Minnesota’s first cuts include Jamie Fraser and Peter Zingoni.

Mike Sharp gets some neat Binghamton stuff from Alexei Kovalev.

Fake Brian Burke was genius. Fake Miro Satan was hilarious. Fake Jeff Schultz? You’d better be funnier. (And geez, Ovi’s twits were ghostwritten? Coal in the stocking, people.)

And RIP, Henry Gibson and Mary Travers.

Sorry for the lack of correspondence. Have been battling all kinds of computer problems (neither was working for a few hours there) along with, you know, work. (Annoying stuff.)

Besides, the most interesting Bridgeport-related bit has been Marty Biron’s arrival in Uniondale, which won’t necessarily affect the Sound Tigers right away. At worst, perhaps the Islanders can have their extra goaltenders call games on the radio… Nah, they’ve got a simulcast good to go. (Very sad news about King and Mears, two good guys we’ll miss. You wouldn’t think this will go well.)

(Not sure about the new Newsday site, either. But who am I? Can’t even get my computer to boot up half the time.)

So what else is knew? Well, Brad Lauer is leaving Milwaukee for Ottawa. Here’s a roundabout story: When he was a junior coach, Lauer was once linked in the press to a Sound Tigers’ assistant coach’s job. He took his name out of the running very early in the process, and the assistant coaches that year, 2005-06, were Pat Bingham and Lane Lambert. Well, you know what happened next: The coaching staff got whacked a year later. Lambert wound up as an assistant in Milwaukee; when he got promoted to the lead job, Brad Lauer became one of his assistants. No longer.

Onetime Sound Tiger Olivier Labelle signed with Reading in the Coast. Also in the Coast, former Wolf Pack defenseman Brent Thompson is the new head coach in Alaska.

The Post-Star reports that Adirondack will have a coach soon. The Flyers also signed a bunch of people, including Joey Mormina, Lukas Kaspar and Krys Kolanos.

T.J. Trevelyan, once a P-Broon, goes to Worcester. Danny Bois goes out to the Blackhawks; Daren Machesney to Manitoba. Danny Richmond, son of Steve, re-upped with St. Louis.

Jonathan notes that Nathan Smith and Ryan Lannon rejoined Chuck Fletcher in Minnesota. BTW, talked Thursday morning to Pete Zingoni, who pointed out an interesting coincidence in the new Minnesota front office. Meanwhile, Jonathan also wonders how Andy Chiodo will be received if/when he starts at the south end of Wachovia Arena for Binghamton instead of the north end for the Penguins. The crowd may not cheer wildly. It might not think he’s terrific. Particularly if he wins.

A neat press release: The Thrashers send congratulations to a charter season-ticketholder, one who actually has success in a playoff.

Our man Sean Spillane is bloggin’ away at the Gathering of the Vibes.

Hurray for Mark Buehrle, perhaps an underappreciated ace, and for DeWayne Wise, for that catch. (And for Ramon Castro, who spent a few years down the block.)

An, um, interesting week at Pearls Before Swine culminates with an, um, interesting confluence of probably my three favorite comic strips of the moment.

And RIP writer and teacher Frank McCourt and actor Dallas McKennon and former scout Herb Hammond.