Soundin' Off

So let’s see. To sum this thing up:

–Kevin Poulin’s good. Jeez. Diving across for rebounds, getting beat only on breakaways and deflections… He’s 10-4. Not bad.

–The PK has bounced back nicely. And while Worcester may be sputtering a bit with the advantage, that’s still 10 consecutive penalties killed for Bridgeport after it went just 3-for-7 to come out of the break. That includes two long five-on-threes and an overtime four-on-three.

–The power play is 3-for-13 in these three games, too. Colliton in front for the deflection on the first, Wotton gets a bit of luck but gets the shot through on the second.

–They’re getting something out of everybody. “The prospects are coming along nicely. They’re settling in to the pace of the league, the intensity, the mental focus you have to have every second out there. Maybe we didn’t understand that at times in the beginning of the year,” Bingham said.

They’re getting a handle on it now. If the season ended today as well as the year, they’d be in the playoffs.

….

Two nights in a row, Bingham did some mixing and matching in the final minutes (it started with about seven to go today). “It’s a matter of shortening the bench, four lines to basically three,” he said. “I’m adjusting on the fly, too. I’m looking to see who’s huffing and puffing.” Bourbeau and Labelle have both fit into that mix both nights. “They probably didn’t play as much as some of the other guys,” Bingham said. “They’re guys who can skate. They win puck battles along the wall.” Hisey, too, Bingham praised for taking hits to make plays and earned time late in the game.

Bridgeport finishes the year 37-32-4-6 for 84 points in 79 games.

A feature from Michigan on ECHL all-star Steve Tarasuk.

Between now and the time the teams meet Sunday afternoon, Providence will have played two road games.

If you have a couple of hours, I highly recommend Joe Posnanski’s Baseball Hall of Fame ballot. (The whole week has been good stuff.)

RIP, Steve Boros and Tony Proudfoot.

….

Favorite blog headers this year. And a couple of favorite posts.

….

So that’s enough for 2010. Had its moments in both directions. (Plus, I had computer troubles and lost pieces of these lists, so add your own thoughts in the comments.)

We said hello to the likes of Len DiCostanzo (full-time), Brendan Witt for a bit, Dylan Reese, Mike Radja, Jake Gannon, Brett Motherwell, Dustin Friesen, Jean Bourbeau, Rhett Rakhshani, Jeremy Yablonski, Zenon Konopka (finally), Rob Hisey, David Ullstrom, Travis Hamonic, Kevin Poulin, Justin Taylor, Joel Martin, Chris Blight, Brandon Svendsen, Trent Campbell, Wes O’Neill (finally), Jon Landry, Eric Castonguay, Mike Sellitto and the Charlotte Checkers. We said goodbye to folks like Matt Broyles, Greg Moore, Brett Westgarth, Scott Munroe, Jon Gleed, Victor Bartley, Trevor Smith, Greg Mauldin, Jeremy Reich, Mark Flood, Tyler Haskins, Sean Bentivoglio, Scott Gordon and the Albany River Rats.

We said goodbye and good luck to the likes of Curtis Joseph, Michael Peca, Kerry Fraser, Nygel Pelletier, Sami Kapanen, Rob Blake, Chris Chelios, Scott Niedermayer, Rod Brind’Amour, Keith Tkachuk, Darcy Tucker, Bill Guerin, Jere Lehtinen, and Marty Demers.

We said hello again to Jeremy Colliton, Olivier Labelle, Ruslan Fedotenko and Donald Fehr.

And Pierre-Alexandre Parenteau went across town. And then Jack Capuano went up.

The hockey world lost people like Pat Burns, Willie Huber, Bob Probert, Brendan Burke, Michel Mongeau, Bobby Kromm, Elie Patrick, Pat Dineen, Wayne Stephenson, John Barbero, Jack Butterfield, Craig Charron, Vic Lynn, Harry Pidhirny, Doug McMurdy and Larry Kelley. The local hockey world lost Jason Proteau and Steven DeLuzio, Kevin Sheehan and Manny Perry. And there’s a banner hanging for one of them: We won’t forget Lt. Steven Velasquez and Firefighter Michel Baik.

The Sound Tigers needed lots of points down the stretch to get into the playoffs. They got them, then couldn’t get the last two to avoid Hershey. And that became the stuff of trivia questions.

The team celebrated its 10th season. We did lots to mark the occasion, too, here and on Twitter (#bst10thyear). We’ve managed weekly livechats. However we’ve communicated, hope you’ve enjoyed it.

With a little more time and a little more need for extra bodies than Bridgeport had just before Christmas, Chris Blight returns from Reading on another PTO. Mike Sellitto was sent back to Danbury.

Blight is out there for warmup, but he looks like the extra. Worcester swapped a couple of centermen but otherwise looks the same. (Edit: actually not: Lizon is scratched instead of Loprieno.) Bridgeport looks identical except for the goaltender. (Nathan Lawson will supposedly be on live with Phil at some point.)

BRIDGEPORT
F: DiBenedetto-Colliton (A)-Rakhshani
Hisey-Ullstrom-Svendsen
Haley (A)-Marcinko-Figren
Bourbeau-Romano-Labelle
(Blight-scratch)
D: O’Neill-Klementyev
Katic-Motherwell
Friesen-Wotton (C)
G: Poulin
Koskinen

WORCESTER
F: Trevelyan-Del Monte-Marcou
Zalewski-Quirk-Cheechoo (A)
Henderson-Desjardins-DaSilva
Loprieno-Marshall-(Lizon-scratch)
D: Moore-Schaus
Petrecki (A)-Sullivan
Irwin-Braun
Leach (C)
G: Stalock
Hutton

R: Charron, Croft. L: Spannaus, Colby.

And I can’t believe I haven’t made this point yet, but Bourbeau-Romano-Labelle is 20-7-27. Lines that add up for $600. (Colliton-Bailey-Rakhshani actually did, but backward. It subtracted, maybe.)

“I really liked the way our D played,” Pat Bingham said. “Our goaltender and D played really well. I thought it was a hard-fought two points.”

Can’t argue. The Sharks are a pretty good team. The Sound Tigers have to fight hard to win here. They did.

They won the second period in 52 seconds — that’s two more second-period shots than they had the last time they were here — and held on tight.

They planned hard for the penalty kill, and they needed it on the five-on-three, then again to start the second and third periods. It worked.

They needed Lawson to make big saves. He did.

They needed guys to play their roles. They did.

They needed a little luck. That’s what Labelle said his was; you don’t draw up the stumbling-defenseman, cut-in-on-goal-line, first-shot-up-in-air, glove-down, slap-while-turning goal. But he’s had enough bad luck around the net to make up for it.

And they came away with a big win.

….

And all of a sudden they’re 3-0-0-1 in the past four on the road, including their first two regulation road wins.

Bridgeport is 5-4 on Thursdays… and they have alternated win-loss from the start. (No, seriously. I wish I’d pulled that out in Charlotte.) These two this year, including the 6-1 loss in the first Charlotte game, were the first Thursday Sound Tigers games since Feb. 17, 2005, at Binghamton, coming out of the all-star break. Two of those Thursdays are Thanksgivings at Binghamton.

Some local color for the ECHL All-Star Game. Milford/Fairfield Prep/Yale standout Mark Arcobello is one pick, along with former Sound Tigers defenseman Jake Gannon and Kalamazoo’s Steve Tarasuk, who’s on a Bridgeport contract.

Former Sound Tiger Wyatt Smith is going to Germany, the Providence Journal reports.

Former Wolf Pack forward Nils Ekman had a stroke at 34. He could be back in three months, which would be nice.

The junior national team beat Germany 4-0. A win tomorrow against the Swiss and the U.S. wins Group A.

Neat photo on Discover’s Bad Astronomy blog.

Quick turnaround. See you in an hour and a half, or whatever it is.

As foretold in the room this morning, there was a Plan B, and it has arrived in the person of Mike Sellitto, just recently relocated from Louisiana to Danbury. He’s wearing the No. 19 worn most recently by Chris Blight. But Jean Bourbeau caught a ride to Worcester and is out there, as well, and he took the rushes, so it looks as if Bourbeau will be OK to go.

So, one to scratch each way. Edit: Indeed, it’s Sellitto for Bridgeport. Loprieno is a scratch for the Sharks, and Braun is starting with Irwin.

Justin DiBenedetto moves up to the spot vacated by both Josh Bailey and Jesse Joensuu since the last time these teams met.

BRIDGEPORT
F: DiBenedetto-Colliton (A)-Rakhshani
Hisey-Ullstrom-Svendsen
Haley (A)-Marcinko-Figren
Bourbeau-Romano-Labelle
(Sellitto-scratch)
D: O’Neill-Klementyev
Katic-Motherwell
Friesen-Wotton (C)
G: Lawson
Poulin

WORCESTER
F: Trevelyan-Marshall-Marcou
Zalewski-Quirk-Cheechoo
Henderson-Desjardins (A)-DaSilva
(Loprieno-scratch)-Del Monte-Lizon
D: Moore-Schaus
Petrecki-Sullivan (A)
Irwin-Leach (C)
Braun
G: Stalock
Hutton

R: T.Koharski. L: Paquette, Lovett.

And if Ryan Del Monte does anything at all, just figure I’m somewhere saying “Ah, Del Monte. Enjoy them, old man. They will be your last.”

–The big club recently made it official that Jesse Joensuu and Dylan Reese are called up before they hit the road for a week and a half.

–Jean Bourbeau was under the weather this morning, so they told him not to come in for the skate. With the other two guys gone, with Jeremy Yablonski not skating and with Dustin Kohn not yet cleared, an absent Bourbeau would leave them at 17 skaters. The plan is for Bourbeau to give it a try tonight at Worcester. Pat Bingham was working on finding a body as Plan B if Bourbeau can’t play. Failing that, Bridgeport would play a man short for the first time in over three years.

Edit: Plan B is apparently Mike Sellitto, called up from Danbury. So I guess it did get him closer to the AHL.

–Nathan Lawson goes tonight.

As has become routine, the paper put together a feature: trivia questions about the news of 2010. I tossed in a couple:

–What team knocked the Bridgeport Sound Tigers out of the AHL playoffs and went on to win the Calder Cup?

A) Scott Gordon/Mike Milbury
B) Steve Stirling/Greg Cronin
C) Howard Saffan/Kimber Auerbach
D) Jack Capuano/Pat Bingham

Not too hard. But you’re not off the hook. (Although some of these feel really easy. Could just be biased.) There’s a little more historical bent to some of these this year (#bst10thyear), though they’re all tied to 2010 in some way. Get crackin’.

(1) Explain the significance: “1-4-2–7″

(2) The streak ended! How many consecutive playoff home games (an AHL record) did the Sound Tigers lose before they finally won Game 4?

(3) True or false: Bridgeport lost more shootouts in 2010 than in any other calendar year.

(4) There’s only one referee who has worked a Sound Tigers game in all 10 seasons. (Just made it in the lockout year and in 2006-07: one game in each.) Name him.

(5) The Sound Tigers began the year with three losses on the first three days of January. One goalie played two of those. Who?

(6) Bridgeport didn’t score more than three goals in any of the first 16 games of 2010. Against whom did they explode for six in Game 17?
(6a) Bonus: Who was in goal for Bridgeport in that game?

(7) Eric Castonguay drove up from Reading on Dec. 4, scored a goal and went right back to Reading. Coming into this season, who had been the only player to score a goal in his only regular-season game as a Sound Tiger?

(8) With Mark Wotton topping 300 games as a Sound Tiger and 800 games in the AHL this year, it strikes us to wonder if he’ll be the last man to wear No. 4. (That’s not to say they’ll ever get to retire it for him, because he might just keep on playing forever.) But who was the last to wear 4 before him?

(9) While we’re on numbers… You know 46 and 48 are the only two numbers under 50 that a Sound Tiger has never worn. But no Sound Tiger has worn 30 since Mike Mole in 2006-07. There’s one other number under 30 that hasn’t been worn in Bridgeport since 2007-08. Which one?

(10) Jeremy Colliton became the third player to play for the Sound Tigers on loan from an NHL club, then return on a pro tryout. Name the first two. Hint: For one of those two, the NHL contract wasn’t an Islanders contract.

(11) The Sound Tigers challenged their team record of scoring power-play goals in nine consecutive games, falling one game short this month. In those nine games in 2003-04, who had the most power-play points?

(12) We had joked about “former Sound Tigers centerman Josh Bailey” because of the Clear Day assignment last year. But then he became an actual alumnus. As noted, he’s the franchise’s all-time leader in points per game, for what those 11 games are worth.
(a) Counting all players, Mike Omicioli is tops with his 1.25 assists per game, five assists in four contests. Among players with five or more games, the leader is Bailey. Who’s the team leaders in assists per game among players with 12 or more games, leaving Bailey out?
(b) Eric Castonguay, as noted, has 1.0 goals per game for Bridgeport, a team record, so to speak. Bailey, counting all players, ranks fifth (0.55). Shawn Bates is third (0.67). Who’s second?
(c) OK, fine: Counting only players with 50 or more games played for Bridgeport, who’s the leader in goals per game?

(13) Bridgeport won all of its 2010 games against two franchises. Name them.
(Hint: Not three. Two.)

(14) Question 14A was going to be “who finishes second,” but there’s too much uncertainty. So we’ll leave it at this: Unless somebody else goes record-setting nuts the next two days, who will lead the Sound Tigers in scoring in calendar-year 2010?

(15) It was only one of the most controversial plays in team history… Bridgeport led Hershey 3-1 in Game 1 of the East Division Semifinals. It was midway through the third period…
(a) To begin, who deflected in the goal that began the Bears’ third-period comeback?
(b) On the tying goal, who took the initial shot, which deflected up in the air?
(c) Who deflected it in?
(d) Who was the referee?
(e) Which Sound Tiger got hauled down 26 seconds later after almost splitting the defense?
(f) Who deflected in the overtime goal?

Answers will post in a few days. I’ll hold comments to let you think in peace. Have fun.

OK, so let’s finish this off. Hope you guys were playing along at home; glad Andy had a good run at most of these.

Here’s the original post.

The answers to the questions in the paper were, of course, the Lowell Devils, and Howard Saffan/Kimber Auer…. no, Hershey and Capuano/Bingham, as you probably knew if you’re hanging out here.

Other answers:

(1) “1-4-2–7″ were shots by period in Game 5 at Hershey, a franchise-low total and an unbelievable evening.

(2) Bridgeport lost nine consecutive home playoff games: the last two in 2004, all three in 2006 and 2009 (including two at Nassau Coliseum), and Game 3 against Hershey.

(3) That’s true, six shootout losses. They lost five in 2006, 2008 and 2009.

(4) The only referee who has worked a Sound Tigers game in all 10 seasons — and I thought you could make an educated guess on this, with how few have been around for even close to all 10 years — is Jeff Smith. (Terry Koharski only missed 2001-02.)

(5) In goal for two of the first three games of 2010: Rick DiPietro.

(6) Bridgeport had six goals against Manchester in Game 17.
(6a) Marty Biron was Bridgeport’s goalie.

(7) Coming into this season, who had been the only player to score a goal in his only regular-season game as a Sound Tiger? Dylan Reese. (Thus, all the qualifiers.)

(8) The last Sound Tiger to wear 4 before Mark Wotton was, in his ATO stint at the end of 2005-06, Dustin Kohn.

(9) The number under 30 that hasn’t been worn in Bridgeport since 2007-08 is 28.

(10) Those first two men to play here on an NHL contract, go away and come back on a PTO: Mike Souza (2002-03 from Chicago on an NHL deal, back the next year on a PTO) and Ben Guite (2001-02, then 2003-04).

(11) The man with the most power-play points during that nine-game PPG streak in 2003-04? Jeff Hamilton, 7-1-8. In fact, if you didn’t say Jeff Hamilton and you didn’t think it was a trick question, dock yourself a point.

(12) Dumb stat leaders:
(a) Assists per game with more than 12 games: Robert Nilsson, 0.68 (54-for-74).
(b) No. 2 in goals per game among all: Jon Sim, 0.77 (20-for-26).
(c) Goals per game with more than 50 games played: Vancouver Canucks sniper Jeff Tambellini, 0.63 (71-for-113).

(13) Bridgeport was unbeaten against two franchises in 2010: Syracuse (3-0) and Lowell/Albany (3-0: 2-0 in Lowell, 1-0 in Albany).

(14) Jesse Joensuu (13-29-42) led Bridgeport in scoring in 2010. Greg Mauldin is second at 14-21-35, but Rhett Rakhshani (10-23-33) gave it a run.

(15) (a) Hershey’s second goal: Francois Bouchard
(b) The initial shot: Alex Giroux
(c) The alleged high-sticker: Mathieu Perreault
(d) Referee: Nygel Pelletier
(e) Almost split the defense (earning a power play): Jesse Joensuu
(f) Winning goal: Andrew Joudrey

Hope you had some fun.

Prescout. Worcester blew a 2-0, first-period lead but won in the bonus round. Condolences to Roy Sommer, whose father died right before Christmas, Eric Lindquist said on the broadcast. Sommer was expected back for the BST home-and-home.

Speaking of bonus rounds, nice job by the Islanders, huh?

As reported by the Whale, a big walkup in Hartford for yet another win.

Pascal Morency returns to the AHL: and he’s on for the game-winning goal. Oh well. Speaking of Morency and Hartford, a glitch somewhere put photos from last Dec. 26 on Sunday’s gamer online, and guess who pops up first?

Should really be asleep. Hoping to find out in the morning (a few hours away) if anybody’s getting called up to go on the trip. Until later.

Nothing really new today. Same 21, including Kohn, and three as yesterday. Plus, school being out, a few youngsters (on ATOs, no doubt). A short practice, with a lot of games this week.

Pat Bingham was very happy with last night’s game. Several levels: The comeback, the belief that they can win every night and aren’t dead when they’re down a couple of goals. Little things, like the forecheck and the backcheck and tracking defensively and shot-blocking and faceoffs. (Asked him about that first period, with just the five shots and four from two players, and he was about as animated as he’s been in a month, talking about all the things the other guys did in that first period that don’t show up on a play-by-play.) Koskinen, not least because, he said, the first goal changed direction a couple of times, and the second goal, on which Bridgeport was a step behind all over the ice, might have changed direction off a defenseman’s stick as well. The penalty kill down the stretch.

Mike Sellitto, the Florida kid who was here in camp, is now with the Danbury Whalers. Which I’m guessing is why his name popped up on Bridgeport’s transactions today, though I’ve got a line in to check.

First time missing an Albany game. Feels weird. We’ll be listening in on Carmine Vetrano on the BST broadcast at AHL Live.

The box will appear here. Two refs tonight, Chris Brown and Francis Charron. From the list of players, it looks like Bourbeau and Friesen are the healthy scratches along with Poulin, but we should await official word. Koskinen was first off the ice this morning.

Pregame notes:

So the Islanders trade James Wisniewski to Montreal. Fisher was the 20th pick in his draft year, so the Islanders get a pick around 50th overall for him (can’t recall exactly if it’s precisely 30 later or if it’s the pick after 30 later). So that’s a bit less defensive depth in the system.

Nice Sean Bergenheim piece from our old friend Mark Pukalo.

Keith Aucoin got a call-up.

And RIP, Alfred E. Kahn (and, adding, Bill LaJoie.

Brian Rolston isn’t in Albany’s lineup. His agent tells Tom Gulitti he doesn’t expect the vet to play for the Devils before he’s placed on re-entry waivers soon.

–Jamie has the Bridgeport starters: Joensuu-Colliton-Rakhshani, Motherwell-Wotton, Koskinen. Goes along with the morning guess that the lines would look similar, but we’ll see how the others look/sound.

–It’s Jeff Frazee for the Devils. Which will I do first: Call them the River Rats, or call them Lowell?

–Game on in Albany.

–Devils grab the lead on a power play with Colliton in the box for a hold. 1-0 about five minutes in. Veteran Chad Wiseman through traffic.

–So that’s four PPG against in the past seven chances over 65 minutes. They’d allowed four PPG in their previous 48 chances over 14 games.

–David McIntyre makes it 2-0 at 7:53 on a wrister.

–All indications are the lines and pairs are the same as Sunday’s, with DiBenedetto in Bourbeau’s spot with Romano and Labelle.

–Still 2-0 after one. No goals for Bridgeport in 80 minutes since the break, and… well, another 53.3 seconds on the other side of the break.

–Shots 11-5 going to the second. Wasn’t refreshing all that often, but BPT seemed to have been stuck on five for at least the last few minutes of the period. Two shots for Joensuu, two for Colliton, and none for anybody else except Reese.

–Second period about to begin, if it hasn’t already (radio delay).

–Brandon Svendsen scores in front at 1:37, cutting the Devils’ lead to 2-1. So Svendsen has back-to-back Bridgeport goals. Didn’t have it handy, but it’s not the longest scoring drought of the season. They went over 100 minutes in the third and fourth games.

–About as quickly as Albany took its lead in the first, Bridgeport ties it in the second. Colliton on the rebound of a Rob Hisey shot (from Jamie’s tweet, sounds like Hisey drew the penalty, too.) 2-2 at 7:30.

–Somebody please get to the PA guy. Keeps calling him “Hissy.”

–Can you believe Greg Moore had no goals yet this year? Now it’s one for Adirondack.

–And Hershey, meanwhile, is not missing the departed.

–Adam Henrique puts the Devils back on top from Anderson at 18:30.

–That’s it for two, Albany ahead 3-2. Big shots edge for Bridgeport, a goals edge (second period, even) but not a lead.

–The junior national team’s game has begun in Buffalo, and the Americans lead Slovakia 1-0 on an early Kyle Palmieri goal.

–Carmine says Haley scores… Light doesn’t go on, but it counts, and it’s tied early third, 1:51 in. That’s seven goals in six games for Haley.

–Rakhshani goes for a trip with 9:03 to go, Albany’s first power play since the first five minutes.

–While the Sound Tigers try to finish up this penalty kill, a note that Joel Rechlicz has three fights in Hershey’s game against Binghamton. Three different opponents.

–Now Hisey goes for a hook with 6:00 to play.

–Sound Tigers kill that off, too. Four minutes left in a tie game.

–On to overtime.

–Svendsen called for a trip in overtime with 2:54 on the clock. Fourth overtime power play the Sound Tigers will face; they’re 3-for-3 (though one was that Wotton high-stick on Kolarik on the rush with two seconds left.)

–Couple of saves for Koskinen, and the Sound Tigers kill their third power play since the 10-minute mark of the third.

–Palmieri cross-checks Rakhshani with 17 seconds left. A brief PP try for the Sound Tigers. Not long enough: On to the bonus round.

–Hisey, Joensuu score on the last two shootout attempts, Stephen Gionta puts one high to end it: Bridgeport 4, Albany 3 (SO). Two comebacks, good PK late, and they get out with two points.

–New Connecticut Whale sweaters: here.

–To go one further on that overtime PK stat: Including overtime, Bridgeport is 7-for-8 killing four-on-threes (two are under 10 seconds), and 4-for-4 on five-on-threes (again, two under 10 seconds).

–Just saw on AHL transactions: Pascal Morency recalled to Houston.

–U.S. wins 6-1 against Slovakia. Two Slovaks tossed for checks to the head. Shots: 57-18. There you go. Until tomorrow.

Let’s plan on meeting at 1:30 and chatting a little.

It didn’t start all that poorly, which’ll get you in the end. Not enough shots, not nearly enough quality shots, not enough traffic, a different look to that top line…

A whole lot of things added up to a 4-0 loss. The power play had been automatic; the penalty kill had been even more automatic. Neither came through Sunday. The Whale gave them the perimeter, Pat Bingham said, and the Sound Tigers “were more than happy to take it.”

Bingham said some Bridgeport reads looked off on the last couple of Hartford power-play goals, and he took the blame if he didn’t give them the proper prescout. Joensuu, stepping onto the top line, said he felt prepared but didn’t like his own start.

Not great. Could’ve been better. They plan on practicing Monday morning if the snowclone doesn’t get them, maybe try some new things, and then they’ll have another try Tuesday in Albany, seeing the Devils for the first time in their new digs.

…

I promised a dumb factoid if Bridgeport scored a power-play goal. It didn’t, but what the heck. If the Sound Tigers had scored on the power play, you might have read, that would have been a team-record-tying nine games in a row with a PPG. They did it once before, in 2003-04. When they did it, the 10th game, the one that broke the streak? It was in Albany. Coincidence. Spoiled.

The Sharks postponed their game early. The Monarchs postponed tomorrow’s game already. The Islanders reportedly tried to postpone but were overruled. This game? Not postponed. No word if there will be any kind of exchange for unused tickets.

Edit: As tweeted earlier and then mentioned nowhere else (thanks, Hank), Nathan Lawson is back down. He was back in the room at the end of the game.

Kevin Oklobzija’s profile of Amerks coach Chuck Weber.

The World Junior Championship is on. The IIHF site has stats and stuff. (The semiannual .PDF warning is in effect.) The United States plays tonight. Nino Niederreiter had a couple of points for Switzerland today.

The weather has global implications: Victor Bartley is having trouble getting to Sweden.

And RIP, Bud Greenspan.