A start

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BRIDGEPORT
F: Ullstrom-Persson-McDonald
Kabanov-Nelson-Niederreiter
Halmo-Sundstrom-Backman
DeFazio-Watkins-Riley
Gallant/MacKay
D: de Haan-Wishart
Donovan-Hamonic
Ness-Landry
Cantin-McIver
G: Poulin
Nilsson
Reiter

Mildly familiar, at least, in a couple of places.

Cizikas was out with what was said to be a minor groin issue. Jason Clark was off skates for undisclosed reasons.

To me the most interesting thing of all was two slots: Persson and Watkins. For all those forwards out there, there aren't a ton of centermen. Scott Pellerin said they weren't necessarily looking to those two guys to fill the gap at center; partly they were needed with Cizikas out for the day, but also, Pellerin has already stressed to the team that versatility is a big benefit.

They have Day 1 in the books, capped by a conditioning skate, then a workout. Insert your favorite Day 1 cliches about who's bigger, who's stronger, who's better prepared. Follow it with a reference to Greg Cronin's "First-day Tarzans, 10th-day Janes" joke. They're under way.

"I was very impressed with the pace of play, the attention to detail," Pellerin said. He thought they were well-prepared as a staff to start off; "We got out of it what we wanted."

Got a few interviews today that'll presumably roll in the paper over the next few days. I'll put up links as we go. For logistical reasons we won't be there the next few days, but we'll keep an eye on what's going on down in Syosset.

.....

This afternoon's ECHL transactions list (yep, they're back at it) has Corey Trivino to the Florida Everblades.

Tomas Marcinko was released from his tryout in Sweden. Noted this morning on Twitter, with help from Elite Prospects what I hadn't yesterday: Scott Howes is in camp with Texas. I'd retweeted the news a long time ago but not sure if it showed up here: Kael Mouillierat is in camp with Abbotsford. Meanwhile, an interesting name in Lake Erie camp: Brad Smyth. Shooter hasn't played on these shores since he returned to Hartford (in a swap of reassignments with Manchester for Joe Rullier) to end 2005-06. Smyth is signed with the new Denver Cutthroats of the Central League, where his coach will be former teammate Derek Armstrong.

Steve Valiquette has been informed that he's the last Bridgeport goalie to win a playoff series. Yeah, he was a little surprised.

And I don't think I ever noted this: RIP, Andy Williams.