Soundin' Off

That U.S. team that could barely beat Kazakhstan? Shut out Finland Sunday at the Worlds. The local boys both had two points: a goal and an assist for Max Pacioretty (who’s the fourth-leading scorer in the tournament right now), and two assists for Cam Atkinson.

Slovakia’s 1-0 win over Switzerland keeps things fairly simple in Group Helsinki. Canada, the U.S. and Finland are through for sure. The fourth spot (though not yet the fourth seed) comes down to this: France gets through as the fourth seed if it beats both Belarus and Slovakia in regulation, or else it’s Slovakia.

(That’s quite a lovely box score, by the way. One goal, one assist, three minor penalties.)

Russia beat the Czechs 2-0 to remain perfect and may get some help from Washington (as may Sweden). Oh, and Norway beat the ever-loving heck out of Germany. A six-goal second period. Yikes.

The U.S. plays Switzerland on Tuesday in the last game of the first round and clinches second place with a regulation win, though it needs a set of circumstances to get there with an overtime win. (A regulation win could even take first if Belarus somehow knocks off Canada in regulation. An overtime win and a three-way tie with Finland and Slovakia would go to the U.S., as would a two-way tie with Finland; an overtime win and a two-way tie with Slovakia goes to the Slovaks.)

With one or two games left in the prelims:

Elsewhere in Europe… Holy Blue Moon*.

And… Community on Friday? Darn you, Red Network. (Well, at least it survives.)

*-It’d be unfair to casual soccer fans to say I’m even a casual soccer fan. But in Championship Manager games, I (a) always start with one of the teams from one of the cities in “The Bells of Rhymney“; (2) always try to jump to Manchester City at some point in the game. So Swansea City’s technically “my” EPL team**… but got a soft spot for the boys in Columbia*** Blue.
**-So that’s not bad, either.
***-Columbia hasn’t won an Ivy title in the Big Two Sports since 1968, either. Wouldn’t mind that changing, too.

One of those days: Get in late, get up early, get tied up in some things, get in the car, get the text around the corner from the arena that nobody’s on for the optional skate. Get home again, get a story done, get a rough high school game*, get told at the drive-thru that I ordered something I’ve never ordered in my life… And then get home and get a hit on the ECHL transactions, which have the Sound Tigers picking up Rylan Galiardi from Florida (ECHL) for a presumable PTO upon arrival. Rather than speculate, we’ll see how they look in the morning. Galiardi (T.J.’s older brother) played for Providence on Sunday against Bridgeport.

Likely there’s at least one high school game at Harbor Yard on Saturday afternoon, time and teams TBA, if you want to swing by early.

Fines and suspensions from the pregame brawl in Norfolk on Saturday. One affecting a Bridgeport game: the Admirals won’t have Eric Neilson on Sunday. (Possible they also won’t have Dustin Tokarski? We’ll see. Long way to go.)

Grand Rapids and Detroit re-upped through 2017.

And Sue Simmons, off Channel 4? What (ahem) are you doing?

*-Upset of the high school tournaments so far: That the phrase “son of former New Haven Nighthawks defenseman Eric” does not appear in my gamer tonight.

The Alaska Aces play Friday and Saturday at home, then begin a road trip Wednesday that takes them to three California cities and Las Vegas for eight games in 11 days. The Sound Tigers apparently figure that’s a good way to get Benn Olson playing; he’s being sent to the Aces, which should be official today.

“He’s going to play a lot of games, and obviously he’ll be back and ready to play with us,” Brent Thompson said.

Thompson said he’s always looking, but he doesn’t have imminent plans to bring in a seventh defenseman. One game this weekend, anyway, though you never know.

Up front, Justin DiBenedetto skated for the second practice in a row with Trevor Frischmon and Blair Riley. And Jeremy Colliton joined the group, with Trevor Gillies and Tony Romano. He’ll at least make the trip to Glens Falls.

And though we still don’t know who’ll play in it for Bridgeport, here’s AHL All-Star television details.

Edit: Brett Motherwell to Springfield, PTO.

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.

Just as Bridgeport settles in, Arthur Staple reports that the Sound Tigers are likely to lose Dylan Reese by tomorrow as Mike Mottau returns to Long Island to evaluate an injury. It thus becomes oldish news to note that Benn Olson skated as a forward on Tuesday at Wonderland. The lines were the same as they were Monday.

We’ll have a liveblog on the Manchester game Wednesday, beginning around 6:30.

As mentioned in the chat, Trevor Gillies skated Tuesday. A step in the right direction, to borrow a phrase.

Winnipeg announced it assigned Peter Mannino to Chicago (ECHL).

I’ll post those trivia answers sometime Wednesday.

Also mentioned the new NBC Sports Network* documentary on the 1972 Canada-USSR Summit Series in the chat: Eric McErlain has a review and rebroadcast dates. The parts I saw were fantastic, so I’ll highly recommend giving it a look.

This looks like a heck of an interesting internship.

The United States won’t get relegated at the World Juniors. They’ll play Switzerland on Wednesday, but they don’t have to sweat it. Having to sweat it were Russia and Canada: Russia took a 6-1 lead early in the third, and then Canada scored four to make it a one-goal game… and then Ryan Strome apparently hit a post. Russia held on to reach the final. They’ll play Sweden, which came back from a 2-0 deficit to beat Finland in a — groan — shootout and will try for its first gold since 1981. Canada gets Finland in the bronze medal game Thursday afternoon.

And RIP, Fred Milano.

*-So if it isn’t even Versus anymore, I really, really, really have to stop calling it Outdoor Life Network, then, huh?)

Edit: Just to make it crazier, Brian Rolston suffered a concussion tonight, the Islanders announced. Not counting Nino Niederreiter, who’s technically active but dealing with his own concussion, the Isles are down to 11 healthy forwards and going on the road tomorrow.

A busy morning, one to give you faith in Twitter buzz. The Islanders put Rick DiPietro on injured reserve this morning to clear room for a second call-up. One, expected, was Calvin de Haan. The other, less expected, was Kevin Poulin, who’ll start tonight against Dallas with Evgeni Nabokov not ready to go.

So Bridgeport had to go about replacing them. The rumored goalie was in the opposite net from Anders Nilsson: Nick Niedert, a second-year Danbury Whaler, fresh off a win over Cape Cod after a stint with Pat Bingham in Elmira.

The defenseman wasn’t on the ice for practice but was in the room afterward: Wes Cunningham, who impressed Brent Thompson with Greenville the past couple of years. “We have six defensemen capable of playing,” Thompson said. “It was a concern of, the hole Calvin leaves, to make sure we have that offensive presence. We have it with Donovan, with Ness, with Wishart, but we want that element of puck-moving defense.” He said Cunningham will bring an edge to his game, too. I could have sworn Cunningham’s name sounded familiar. There’s a reason for that.

Last night’s ECHL-transactions reveal, Kael Mouillierat, hadn’t yet arrived. He seems to be a versatile centerman coming to cover for Jeremy Colliton, who still isn’t feeling well, Thompson said, and looked doubtful for Friday at the moment. As of the morning, Tony Romano was in Colliton’s spot between Micheal Haley and Rhett Rakhshani.

Including the injured Chris Langkow, Bridgeport has seven players on pro tryouts at this writing; Mouillierat would make eight. Langkow, Gillies and DiBenedetto all remain out.

Elsewhere, one of last year’s myriad PTOs, Brandon Svendsen, is back with Binghamton.

Hartford looks to be without its leading scorer, Mats Zuccarello.

Alan Hahn’s arrival at MSG, here on Eric Hornick’s blog, notes that he’ll also be involved in hockey broadcasts.

And I feel as if I should have bought HBO just for this.

Injuries to Rick DiPietro and Nino Niederreiter have created NHL opportunities for Kevin Poulin and Tim Wallace, recalled tonight from the Sound Tigers. (The big club also put Andrew MacDonald on injured reserve, right leg, mid-December to early January; they also announced Jay Pandolfo on injured reserve, though he was listed that way on game notes last week at this time). The Islanders say Poulin and Wallace are both emergency recalls.

To be determined what, if anything, that’ll mean for Bridgeport’s roster, but it’s not pressing: Bridgeport doesn’t play until Saturday*. The Sound Tigers had an extra at forward and were hoping that Trevor Gillies will be ready to go this week. Goalie would obviously be an issue if Poulin remains up the whole week, but again, not until Saturday. And lots could change in the meantime: The Islanders play twice before Bridgeport plays again. Nothing on today’s ECHL transactions, for whatever that means.

Isles draft pick Johan Sundstrom is going back to the World Juniors.

The Whale will have several of their games, including three against the Sound Tigers, air on CPTV Sports, tape delayed and edited.

Stan Drulia, former New Haven Nighthawk, moves up from Wheeling to Milwaukee as an assistant to Ian Herbers.

And hey, it’ll be Tuesday before you know it. Chat below at 1:30:

*-Just in case, a reminder that a game originally scheduled for Wednesday was moved some time ago to March 27.

One change on the ice was the addition of defenseman Jamie Fritsch, who’s wearing No. 5 and skating as the seventh defenseman. Rhett Rakhshani skated as an extra forward with Brett Gallant and got quite the bag skate from Bernie Cassell. (One of those where you get winded just watching.) Brent Thompson wasn’t ruling him out for the weekend, but it didn’t appear as if he was planning on him, either. They’ll see how he rebounds from this.

A Uni Watch commenter notes the funny timing: The Mets finally ditch the black, and hours later, the Islander officially unveil this. (Don’t think the music selection on the Sound Tigers’ Facebook page is a coincidence.)

Big words from Mike Santos on the San Antonio Rampage’s struggles.

Too. Much. Cuteness. In. One. Place.

And finally, so where’s the band?

Brent Thompson said Calvin de Haan’s tests showed nothing serious, and though he doesn’t expect de Haan to play this weekend, “it’s good news.” He wasn’t specific about the injury, but he called de Haan “day to day,” said they’ll need to get him stronger. At Wonderland this morning, de Haan didn’t practice and deferred comment to Thompson.

Edit: ECHL transactions say defenseman Jamie Fritsch is coming up from Las Vegas. Fritsch played one NHL game on an amateur tryout after college at New Hampshire. He’s played 15 in the AHL, 13 with Houston, two with Norfolk.

No roster changes. Chris Langkow skated again, before practice and briefly with the team during skating drills. Rhett Rakhshani continues to look better. David Ullstrom was back on the ice, though he twice wound up in discomfort during practice.

A spirited little practice today, with the team split in half, Canadians (plus Anton Klementyev, to even out the numbers, unless they moved Togliatti to Alberta without notice) against everybody else. All kinds of mini-scrimmages: two-on-two across one end of the rink; a particular favorite over the first month where they put the nets at right angles in one corner of the rink; blue-line-to-blue-line three-on-threes; two-on-nones, where the first team to bury two pucks got a point; a shootout, first team to bury seven pucks… I’m forgetting at least one. At any rate, PlanetUSA got the win, despite the best efforts of sniper Brett Gallant (hat trick in the three-on-threes; two goals, including the winner, in the shootout). There was lots of talk about how the U.S. won here in the Canadians’ game, while the Canadians beat the U.S. in baseball last month. I don’t think it makes up for it.

Bruce Landon on the altercations in Saturday’s game at Springfield: unnecessary. (I was kind of hoping to ask de Haan about that, if only indirectly.)

Aaron Voros is with the Whale.

Two weeks, two former Sound Tigers named ECHL player of the week.

And Chris Jones recapped the Jeopardy Tournament of Champions for Esquire’s Web site. Monday night, after watching a competitive first round of the first night of the final, I got a phone call. A few minutes later, I looked up and saw Roger Craig hit the first daily double. I looked up again and saw the second. When I hung up, Craig had something like $43,000. I feel like someone must have felt on Oct. 3, 1951, if he got a call after Branca threw strike one to Thomson.

Two guys didn’t make it through the whole practice today. Well, three, if you count Rhett Rakhshani, who’s making good progress but is still a little ways away. Tomas Marcinko got clipped in the chin; it was a gusher. And Tony Romano went down with back spasms. Both should be OK (though if you’ve ever had back spasms, that’s a relative term). “It shows the guys want to battle hard in practice,” Brent Thompson said. Meanwhile, Benn Olson went the whole way. He is cleared for contact. “He’s looking good,” Thompson said. They’ll do some power-play work at tomorrow’s practice.

And then I walked into the dressing room as the end of “White Blank Page” played inside, with “Little Lion Man” to follow. Nice job, boys.

A nice pickup for the Whale last night: Francois Bouchard to the Rangers for Tomas Kundratek. Today, the Rangers sent former future Sound Tigers defenseman Jyri Niemi to the ECHL.

Cumberland County, Maine, voted to approve bonds to renovate the home of the Portland Pirates.

I truly have to watch this show again.

And RIP, Bil Keane.

The Islanders tweeted in the middle of our chat that Nino Niederreiter and Trevor Gillies will play for Bridgeport on Wednesday morning. Niederreiter is on a conditioning loan, which according to the CBA (13.8) can last up to two weeks. Gillies, it appears, is a straight assignment after clearing waivers.

I think but am not positive that Nieddereiter is technically on the Islanders’ 23-man active roster while he’s on the loan; the “definitions” section of the CBA says he is. (That’d be the clear reason for the Gillies move, for one thing.) More if/as available. Edit: Well, looks like Eric Hornick agrees with that, so I feel better. If so, should the Isles need a forward along the way, it’d force some kind of other move.

Meanwhile here, Brent Thompson said not to expect Benn Olson and Chris Langkow to play this week. They did not practice.

Edit2: Bridgeport has released Dan Kissel from his PTO, per the afternoon press release.

…

Accumulated links:

If you didn’t see the paper today, got a status update from Mark Katic.

A story on Andi and Lane Lambert.

A former Sound Tiger makes Justin Bourne’s list of hockey’s scariest hitters, but click on the link just to see the Dion Phaneuf mosaic. Hilarious.

Reports warned us, and now it’s in motion: ECHL to Orlando.

Ken Levine on Sheldon Leonard and how he saved The Dick Van Dyke Show. I wholeheartedly second the book recommendation at the end of that post. Great read.

These New York Giants season passes are pretty neat.

And Joe Posnanski reimagines an Aug. 24, 2011, St. Louis Cardinals gamer.

Reminder: Live chat tomorrow, 1:30.

The seventh captain of the Bridgeport Sound Tigers is Jeremy Colliton. Another choice would have been quite a surprise.

“It’s a very big honor,” Colliton said, noting as well that it’s an honor to follow Mark Wotton, captain for five seasons, into that letter. “I’ve been here a while, so I’ve got a lot of pride in the organization, in the team here.

“I’m proud to wear it.”

The A’s go to four players. On the road, it’ll be Trevor Frischmon (wearing 28) and Tim Wallace. Here, it’ll be Dylan Reese and Justin DiBenedetto, the lone non-AHL veteran. “To me, you’ve got to breed some young leaders,” Brent Thompson said, crediting DiBenedetto’s character and work ethic. Thompson said he also considers Micheal Haley and Ty Wishart to be part of the team’s leadership, and that he sees enough character in the young players that they can be leaders as well. More in the paper.

It’ll be another week before Colliton actually wears the letter: He confirmed he’s out for the weekend. He said he’s feeling good, but there’s no sense pushing it at the start, especially with another week before Game 3.

So, with Frischmon and Reese in town, they ran roughly like this today (or at least they did in the drill where I took down the D pairs, what with the odd number back there):

Haley-Frischmon-Marcinko
McNeely-Cizikas-Backman
DiBenedetto-Ullstrom-Wallace
Gallant-Langkow-Romano

Donovan-Wishart
De Haan-Reese
Olson-Ness
Klementyev

And the three goalies.

From Today’s Paper: Kevin Poulin comes back, feeling strong.

Syracuse released Brett Motherwell, Lindsay Kramer reports.

Ben Guite feature from Bill Ballou in the Telegram.

And RIP, Steve Jobs, Fred Shuttlesworth and Charles Napier, who’ll always be Duke Phillips*.

*-Hat tip: Jaime Weinman via Alan Sepinwall.