Soundin' Off

Snowy here, anyway. Though that might be sleet.

Edit after a night of high schools: The Islanders called up Anders Nilsson late this afternoon to spell Al Montoya.

Breaking a thing or two out from the chat today and adding a link or two:

–Russ Sinkewich has joined the team on an AHL contract. Brent Thompson had him in Alaska last year and compared him a bit to a right-handed Brandon Gentile: big defenseman (6-3), “rock solid,” “moves well. We need that physical presence he brings.”

So that made 10 defensemen today, and Sinkewich, on an AHL deal, becomes a candidate for the Clear Day list. How that’ll shake out, particularly 10 defensemen: “You never know. Going into this time of year, you never know what’s going to happen: injury, call-ups,” Thompson said. “I’m sure it will all work itself out in the next week or so.”

The 10 included Marc Cantin (paired with Mark Katic), and Yannick Riendeau was at forward with Tony Romano and Brett Gallant. Apparent number assignments: Sinkewich 32, Cantin 37, Riendeau 40.

A couple of recent alumni notes off the transactions list: Marc-Olivier Vallerand latched on with Rockford on a PTO, and Houston sent Benn Olson to Ontario (ECHL).

Elsewhere: Indeed, a pretty amazing video. (H/T: Phil Plait.)

And RIP, Davy Jones.

Newbies Yannick Riendeau and Marc Cantin hadn’t yet arrived when the Sound Tigers practiced Tuesday at the Wonderland of Ice. They should be in later today and practice Wednesday, Brent Thompson said. They’ll join a pretty full house; there were 14 forwards and eight defensemen out there. Thompson said he plans to keep everyone around until Clear Day on Monday and then see how things shake out. “I believe in the group we have,” Thompson said. “I don’t want to change anything.” Hey, 18-1-0-2 in the past 21, hard to blame him.

All hands on deck, otherwise. Mark Katic is ready to go, practicing on a defense pair with Brandon Gentile. Rhett Rakhshani, skating with Justin DiBenedetto and Jeremy Colliton, appears ready as well. Brett Gallant is cleared, so it’s just a matter of getting in game shape. (The coaches put the returning trio through some hard work after practice.) That leaves an injured list of… nobody. Boy, is that weird to say. The organization’s list is Rick DiPietro and Dylan Reese, and that’s it. Been a while. Friday would be the first game without losing a man-game to injury since Oct. 10, 2009.

All the best to Jean Beliveau and family.

The Whale and Worcester are playing a game this morning, headed to the third period at this writing. Mike Vernace has an assist in his Hartford debut.

Mike Busniuk and the Ferraro brothers are going into the Binghamton Hockey Hall of Fame.

And RIP, Jan Berenstain.

Reminder: We’ll chat Wednesday at 1:30. Probably on this post.

A couple of organizational notes as we get closer to the deadline:

–Mark Katic has been activated from injured reserve and sent to the Sound Tigers. Strictly from the text of the CBA, it seemed that had to happen today to make him eligible to play in the AHL this year. There were whispers floating around here that that might not be the case, that being on injured reserve since camp might affect that. This makes the whole argument moot, but I’m curious if there was anything to that; had no word from anyone official.

–Brian Rolston cleared waivers at noon, which adds him to the list of players eligible to be sent down before 3 p.m. today.

–A bit from elsewhere in the AHL Eastern Conference: Norfolk appears to pick up defenseman Keith Aulie from Toronto.

2:15 — By my count, that list of players eligible to be sent down is Rolston, Cizikas, Ullstrom, Niederreiter (though he’d surely have to go to junior), Martin and Hamonic. And before you ask, I have heard nothing about them considering it with the latter two, but I’d never have expected to see Okposo and Comeau three years ago, either.

Meanwhile, TSN reports that Mike Connolly, one of Worcester’s leading scorers, has been traded to Colorado in the Winnik/Galiardi/McGinn trade.

2:40–Non-deadline, but here’s the damage report from Providence after Saturday’s game; Mark Divver reports an upper-body injury to Anton Khudobin, suffered in the first period.

2:55–Reports flying about an Islanders-Bruins trade. Arthur Staple has Mike Mottau and Rolston going to Boston. Interesting that the B’s take him as a throw-in rather than paying $3,375 to claim him for nothing three hours ago. Awaiting the return.

3:01–TSN I think said it’s Yannick Riendeau and Marc Cantin coming back. Will seek confirmation. Edit: Staple has those two as well.

Riendeau and Cantin have both been up and down to the Coast this year. They’ll at least add a little bit of depth after losing those two bodies in Mottau and Rolston. Riendeau had ridiculous numbers in the QMJHL, but then again lots of players do.

3:20–The Islanders confirm that those two are assigned to Bridgeport but haven’t said anything about who else may be coming (or, after losing two guys off the NHL roster, going).

3:40–Told that Casey Cizikas and David Ullstrom should be eligible for the Clear Day list next Monday. They’ll remain up with the Islanders but were sent down on paper before 3 p.m. Meanwhile, here’s P.A. Parenteau’s quickie Twitter scouting report on Riendeau.

3:55–Cantin, I finally notice, played with Cizikas last year in Mississauga.

4:10–Got a couple of minutes with Brent Thompson. Will save quotes for the paper, but his quick impressions/research on: Cantin: mobile with an edge; Riendeau: pure scorer who can make a play. To be seen how they fit in here; “take it day-by-day.”

Assuming Katic is ready, at the moment, that gives Bridgeport eight contract defensemen (including Landry and Oleksy on AHL deals) and Brandon Gentile on a PTO. Including Rakhshani and Gallant, that’s 15 contract forwards (including Howes, Mouillierat, Riley and Gallant on AHL deals) plus Marc-Olivier Vallerand on a PTO. Don’t believe the Islanders have any emergency recalls, so the only players up there eligible to come here are Cizikas and Ullstrom.

Other guys sent down on paper include Eric Tangradi and Brad Thiessen to Wilkes-Barre, from Jonathan Bombulie, and Dmitry Orlov to Hershey, from John Walton.

5:30–AHL transactions have Bridgeport releasing Vallerand.

Brent Thompson gave Tony Romano a pop Saturday night for his work on the power play, and there he was again Sunday, involved in two key goals in yet another come-from-behind Bridgeport win.

Kind of a crazy week for that guy. A week ago today, he’s in the suburbs of Chicago. Today, he’s got two points, three for the weekend.

“I’m so happy to be back around this team right now,” Romano said. “The atmosphere in the room is phenomenal. I’ve never been around a team with so much confidence and ability to come back.”

Ah, yeah, that. Albany got a couple on the power play — one through bodies, another when Keith Kinkaid caught the Sound Tigers changing and the Devils got a pass through a defender — and took a 2-0 lead to the third. The Devils kind of flipped the script on Bridgeport, keeping pucks in, getting pucks deep and using their speed to keep them deep.

Bridgeport got things going in the third.

“We started playing our game,” Aaron Ness said. “We got back to what we’ve been doing to get us wins all year.”

Ness kept a couple of pucks in the zone, got it deep to Scott Howes the second time and one-timed home the return pass to tie the game. But things got going with the fourth line, Marc-Olivier Vallerand, Romano and Trevor Gillies. They won a defensive-zone draw, got the puck up the ice, and after Romano’s right-circle shot, the wingers crashed the net.

That began a period that was a far cry from that second period, when “we got away from what makes us successful,” Gillies said. “Chip it in. Slash it in, (work) down low in their end. We were too soft to play against.”

Gillies put home the rebound to make it 2-1. Ness scored a couple later. Bridgeport has a point in eight in a row, in 20 of 21.

….

Programming notes: The team’s off Monday, but we’ll be following the trade deadline, and I’ll probably toss some kind of post up to track trades of local interest (assuming some happen). Also, I’ve had to reschedule an appointment right into the chat window, so we’ll do the weekly chat Wednesday at 1:30 instead of Tuesday.

The deadline can obviously change some things. The Sound Tigers were hopeful this week of having Rhett Rakhshani ready for next week, so that would lengthen the lineup. Tomas Marcinko is again eligible to play, returning from suspension. Brett Gallant had been making progress. We’ll see how they line up Tuesday.

Romano’s loving playing on the power play. “Hopefully we can keep it going,” he said, “keep getting some offense from it.”

It is quite early to be hyperanalyzing — oh, I figure we’ll start next week; 20 games to go — but the Sound Tigers are just one point behind Hershey, which has the fourth-best record in the conference. (Obviously the Berkshire League champ would play as the third seed in the playoffs, and the leader right now is Bridgeport by two points and a tiebreaker over the Whale.) Imagine that two months ago.

A note that Jamie has been waiting for: This was win 30, non-shootout-win 26… which matches last year’s 80-game totals.

Prescout. Oh, wait…. (Come on. Haven’t used that one in a while.)

Is it me, or is every Bridgeport opponent either coming from or going to a game against Manchester? It’s like they’re the Cornell to Bridgeport’s Columbia. The Expos and Phillies (I think it was them, anyway; getting old) to Bridgeport’s mid-1980s Mets.

Around the league, Norfolk has won nine in a row, a team record.

More tomorrow.

Trade deadline’s just over 24 hours away. The Sound Tigers appear set to go with the same skaters as yesterday in slightly different array, with the swap in goal. Pairs as they finished last night. Gentile again took the warmup. Albany is missing the two players who were injured Monday, among others. Baier looks like Albany’s scratch. Edit: Indeed, they are the last scratches.

BRIDGEPORT
F: McNeely-Frischmon (A)-Backman
DiBenedetto (A)-Colliton (C)-Riley
Howes-Mouillierat-Haley
Gillies-Romano-Vallerand
D: de Haan-Wishart
Donovan-Oleksy
Ness-Landry
(Gentile-scratch)
G: Nilsson
Poulin

ALBANY
F: Tedenby-Zalewski-Gionta (C)
Whitney-Mills (A)-Zharkov
Hoeffel-Zajac-Sislo
Berube-Nagy-Stoesz
D: Kelly-Gelinas
Burlon-Corrente
Young-Harrold (A)
(Baier-scratch)
G: Kinkaid
Frazee

R: Cozzan, R. Fraser. L: Briggs, Colby.

Sorry, fixed: working off an old list on that last linesman.

Ryan Fraser is working his last game of the season today. Good reasons: work responsibilities, along with the impending birth of his first child. We’ll see him in the fall.

It didn’t look like their night for a while. Chances weren’t going. Anton Khudobin was making saves. The Bruins built themselves a lead.

It wasn’t big enough. No Cizikas, no Ullstrom, no great shakes for once from the goaltending: No biggie.

Blair Riley takes a cross-check and takes offense. “He’s been great for us from the beginning,” Jeremy Colliton said. “He plays extremely hard, and he sticks up for his teammates. The past few games, we’ve seen he’s got some hands, too. He did help get us going.”

Tony Romano puts a shot toward the net that caroms over to Justin DiBenedetto for the first goal of the comeback. Tyler McNeely steals the puck and gets it to the net with Sean Backman and Trevor Frischmon. Sweet behind-the-back pass from Scott Howes to Micheal Haley. Haley gets another one, off a defenseman’s stick.

And then after Providence ties it up again, DiBenedetto battles through the guy behind the net… “I Kind of thought he was going to get it to me. I knew what I wanted to do with it,” Colliton said. “I was just praying it would come out on my side.”

It did. Colliton backhanded it in upstairs, off Michael Hutchinson and in. Bridgeport held on, a team effort all around.

….

Colliton’s 200th point kind of happened twice. He had gotten credit for an assist on DiBenedetto’s goal, but it turned out to belong to Aaron Ness. The real 200th was a little better than a second assist. “To get to 201, you’ve got to get to 200,” he said. Good to get it in a win, he said. Second place is Rob Collins’ 163, which of course was the team record for almost five years.

Calvin de Haan got himself back to work, and he said he felt fine. “I was a little hesitant. I was nervous, my first game,” de Haan said. “That’s expected.” He said he got his legs under him as the game went on and settled in. “It’s good to be back.” He started on the right side with Aaron Ness, but then he switched places with Jon Landry, going to the left side with Ty Wishart, his usual partner much of the season. “We wanted to get him back with Wishart,” Thompson said. “It helped him settle down and helped Wish settle down. Landry helped Ness settle down; I thought Ness was a little scrambly early on.”

Never asked about it, but Landry played a shift at forward on the second-unit power play in the first period. Haley played in that spot in the third period. That worked out.

Six home wins in a row ties for third in team history. But Blair Riley’s goal-scoring streak ends at two.

Not sure what happened to Anton Khudobin after the second period. He was still at the bench, which was two men short for the third, Bobby Robins (didn’t see anything happen to him, either) and Kevan Miller (who took a few punches from Riley).

Prescout. Albany’s just four points behind Bridgeport and Hartford, which lost tonight at Springfield.

Wilkes-Barre is down to Patrick Killeen in goal after Scott Munroe got hurt tonight.

And RIP, Billy Strange.

Calvin de Haan makes his return a little later than the initial four-to-six-week prognosis, but in time for the stretch run at least. He also returns, at least according to initial indications, on the right side with Aaron Ness. Brandon Gentile was on for warmup, and newcomer Marc-Olivier Vallerand had made it in, so there’s one to scratch for the Sound Tigers. If Vallerand plays, and that seems to be the bet, it’ll be his AHL debut. Edit: Gentile, indeed, scratched.

BRIDGEPORT
F: McNeely-Frischmon (A)-Backman
DiBenedetto (A)-Colliton (C)-Vallerand
Howes-Mouillierat-Haley
Gillies-Romano-Riley
D: Landry-Wishart
Donovan-Oleksy
Ness-de Haan
(Gentile-scratch)
G: Poulin
Nilsson

PROVIDENCE
F: Ridderwall-Hamill-Tardif (A)
MacDermid-Whitfield (C)-Robins
Sauve-Arniel-Cunningham
Riendeau-MacKinnon-MacDonald
D: McIver (A)-Kampfer
McKelvie-Miller
Warsofsky-Cohen
G: Khudobin
Hutchinson

R: Luxmore. L: Galvin, Colby.

T.J. Luxmore works a Sound Tigers game solo for the first time. He had one road game and one home game before, both times with a partner.

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.

They’ve set something of a standard the past two months. So-so doesn’t cut it for them, even if it almost cut it on the scoreboard.

“When the other team outworks you, it’s not good enough,” Brent Thompson said. “I’m not going to say it was the whole game, but they outworked us the majority of the game.”

There wasn’t much momentum. They didn’t get pucks back when they got them deep; they seemed to be going east-west sometimes when they could’ve gone north-south, and it cost them position if not always possession. They had one failed clear that ended up in the back of their net.

Jeremy Colliton called it “a little scattered.” They’ll try to pull it back together tomorrow night.

….

Road winning streak ends at eight; first one since New Year’s Eve in Wilkes-Barre. Winning streak ends at five. Anders Nilsson’s winning streak ends at nine. But Blair Riley’s scoring streak rolls on.

Thompson said Calvin de Haan is possible for Saturday; Mark Katic, probably not. “I wish I could put Marcinko in,” he joked. Well, the sentiment wasn’t a joke, actually. Two games to go on that suspension.

Bridgeport played 142 minutes, 28 seconds without allowing a goal, back to the Hershey five-on-three goal Sunday. Nilsson’s personal shutout streak of 141:41 (he was off the ice for a crazy long time on a delayed penalty Monday) would have passed Peter Mannino’s post-lockout individual record, if not for that pesky streak Kevin Poulin went on to start January.

The net rippled on Dane Byers’ shootout attempt, leading off the third round. Officially, it’s because the puck clipped it as it went past, wide. Byers asked Chris Cozzan and the linesmen to take a look and see if they could find a hole in the netting. They did not. A few fans yelled for a replay. Wrong arena. Five of the first six shooters appeared to miss the net (Paul Dainton gloved Tony Romano’s shot), and then five shooters in a row scored before Kael Mouillierat hit the post to end it.

Prescout. Worcester had a crowd over 10,000 for an appearance by the Patriots’ Rob Gronkowski. I’d say “Providence sent them home unhappy,” but got to figure Bruins fans make up a bit of that 10,000, between the proximity and the Patriots thing, so. Providence sent some of them home unhappy, and some home happy. Some probably were just on sugar highs. I’ve painted myself in a corner here.

Always nice to see Fran Sypek.

Casey Cizikas played 11:33 in his NHL debut.

Big NHL deal sends three Devils to Minnesota for Marek Zidlicky. Two and a half days to the deadline.

To save a bunch of commenters saying “Olson was traded to Houston,” summary of the day so far, and we’ll tack lineups on here around 6:45 with anything else in between:

–Benn Olson to the Aeros for future considerations. He’d barely played here since the new year, and with the bodies coming back, it didn’t look as if he was going to play much, either. So, probably good for both parties.

–The team let Dallas Jackson go from his PTO.

–Columbus called up Greenwich’s Cam Atkinson, so Bridgeport will miss him tonight. Or maybe Springfield will miss him. Whoever’s running the CBJ Twitter feed has been answering questions all day. Some of the responses are priceless; Some of the questions, even more.

More after a car ride.

More after the car ride: Bridgeport made official three more AHL contracts, Kael Mouillierat, Scott Howes and Jon Landry. They’ll all be eligible for the Sound Tigers’ Clear Day list on March 5.

Neither Calvin de Haan nor Mark Katic will play tonight. If you do the math on all the ins and outs and suspension and guys-who-didn’t-practice this week, you’re left with 18 skaters for Bridgeport. That’s apparently who’s in tonight. We’ll toss the lineups up after warmup. Which, if I remember that the game’s at 7:30 instead of 7, will be around 7:15.

And here they are.

BRIDGEPORT
F: Howes-Frischmon (A)-Riley
DiBenedetto (A)-Colliton (C)-Backman
Ullstrom-Mouillierat-Haley
Gillies-Romano-McNeely
D: Landry-Wishart
Gentile-Donovan
Ness-Oleksy
G: Nilsson
Poulin

SPRINGFIELD
F: Giroux-St. Pierre-MacLeod
Byers (C)-Joudrey (A)-Kubalik
Calvert-Garlock-Mayorov
Spencer-Mair-Bogosian
D: Amadio-Goloubef
Cullity-Ruth
Regner-Prout
G: Legace
Dainton

R: Cozzan. L: St. Lawrence, Galvin.

Springfield doesn’t put the letters on their warmup jerseys. I’ll add them if I can.

Bridgeport released Riley Gill tonight.

Afternoon edit: The Islanders sent Aaron Ness down this afternoon. Edit2: Cizikas up (possible NHL debut to come), Poulin down as well. Edit3: Kael Mouillierat’s agent says he’s agreed to terms.

Tim Wallace had just gone onto the ice at Webster Bank Arena for a skate after the Sound Tigers’ practice when Brent Thompson, phone to his ear, bolted out from his office to the rink.

The Tampa Bay Lightning had claimed Wallace off waivers before the noon deadline, sending him to the Gulf Coast instead of Bridgeport.

“It’s nice, obviously, a good thing that another team likes you,” Wallace said. “It’s been a whirlwind of a couple of days. I’m just going to take it one game at a time from now on.”

Wallace (this was about 12:45) was just leaving the arena and had talked to his agent but not anyone from the Lightning yet. He has a familiar face waiting for him: Nate Thompson, a good friend from back home in Alaska.

(We’d say “former Islander Nate Thompson,” but it’s Tampa; they’re all former Islanders.)

Unless I’m forgetting or misinterpreting something, the timing seems to pretty much eliminate him from coming back here. He’d have to be in the minors Monday at 3 to be sent down this year, and to do that, he’d have to be placed on waivers by Saturday and claimed by the Islanders and only the Islanders. So, good for Wallace.

(Without Klementyev, including Koskinen, not including the two in junior, and now without Wallace: 43 NHL contracts? I should recount those at some point.)

And so, Bridgeport is stuck with the cast that has won 16 of the past 18. For now. It’s logical, as Arthur Staple tweeted Wednesday, that a call-up could be coming; there didn’t seem to be a tip here about who might be going. The forward lines looked a smidgen odd, actually, until someone pointed out that Tomas Marcinko, skating with Justin DiBenedetto and Casey Cizikas, was probably a placeholder for No. 36. Well, neither Marcinko (three-game suspension announced Wednesday afternoon, if you missed it) nor Wallace will be available Friday in Springfield.

With Ty Wishart back, Bridgeport released Wes Cunningham from his PTO. Brent Thompson said he thought Calvin de Haan could play this weekend, and — “big maybe” — Mark Katic was also possible. They don’t plan to rush Rhett Rakhshani back; he seems to be doing well.

The team announced Blair Riley’s and Steve Oleksy’s AHL contracts.

Afternoon edit: Tomas Marcinko receives a three-game suspension from the league for Monday’s boarding penalty. Of note, both of the other guys who were suspended will miss a Bridgeport game: Cody Bass for a hit against Hartford, and Nathan Perkovich for his hit on Mark Parrish.

–Benn Olson is going to the ECHL again to play some more games. He’ll serve the last game of his ECHL suspension tonight, then play four games in five days for Greenville, expected to return here a week from today.

–The Islanders announced they’ve placed Tim Wallace on waivers, and they sent Ty Wishart to Bridgeport. (Not here this morning.)

–Calvin de Haan, Mark Katic and Brett Gallant continue to practice. Brent Thompson wouldn’t say yes or no on any of them yet, but they’re in the conversation again, at least, for lineup spots, depending on what the doctors and the management say in the next few days.

–Thompson said he doesn’t expect Rhett Rakhshani to play this weekend, but he said Rakhshani rode the bike today and was feeling OK.

–Blair Riley’s agent spilled the beans Tuesday night: Riley has signed an AHL deal, and we’re told today that Steve Oleksy joins him. It’s likely that others follow in short order.

Lines today were basically Monday’s, with the exception of Trevor Gillies in the spot normally held by Tomas Marcinko. Given the facts above, nothing else unexpected.

Meanwhile, Columbus, banged up in goal up and down the organization, gets Curtis McElhinney as part of a trade for Antoine Vermette. You can’t make this up: McElhinney’s out injured.

This, from this week’s Saturday Night Live, gets me every time.

A darn good class for the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

And happy 32nd anniversary.