Soundin' Off -- the lifeboat

Moving right along

2009-06-08T16:20:00.002-04:00

The real Soundin' Off has moved, thanks to a new blogging system that brings us more in line with the rest of our chain. The new URL is http://blog.connpost.com/fornabaio/; the old one will not be maintained much longer, if at all.

Thanks for your continued readership.

Posting for fun

2009-03-23T15:58:00.002-04:00

Nothin' swinging here; things are hunky-dory at the real site still, except that I can't get the links changed. Oh well: The links are good over here, and that's why I'm posting: A plug for EastWatch '09, this year's version of the graphical playoff race, as brazenly stolen from the Hockey Rodent in 2007. Complete with box score links and everything.

See you back home.

Soundin' Off, Movin' Out

2007-08-21T00:33:00.000-04:00

Who needs a house out in Hackensack? (Though the shopping's good.)

The original Soundin' Off appears to be back in working order. And best of all, I don't have access to the templates. If I was doing something to mess it up, it won't get messed up again.

Thanks much to ace online editor Jeff Bustraan for putting the pieces back together again amid a busy schedule of his own.

If you have any problems with the new blog, or if you at some point need something off the Lifeboat and can't find it (not planning, at this time, to index the posts since February, the way I did in winter), please e-mail me at mfornabaio@ctpost.com and I'll get on it.

Thanks as always for your patience. The Lifeboat is stowed... again.

Trying to return home...

2007-08-20T15:21:00.000-04:00

Back from a few days away with the little brother and the folks...

The release is out: former Nighthawk Chris Kotsopoulos will be the Sound Tigers' color analyst this year. A radio deal appears to be coming soon.

Former Sound Tiger Wyatt Smith and former future Sound Tiger Wes O'Neill signed with Colorado. Former Sound Tiger Brandon Nolan had trouble at the border.

An anonymous commenter points here to a possible Gordie Dwyer tryout with the Islanders. No confirmation on that; as one Isles person said, "I'm not sure we'd have room." Commenter also asked about the toughness that's been added. Bootland scored 27 two years ago while spending six and a half* of his 77 games in the penalty box. Jackman scored 23 a few years ago with Syracuse, and his 19 last year would have tied him with Regier for fourth on the Sound Tigers. Spiller has played in the NHL, though he hasn't stuck there. They're counting on these guys to be productive, not just protective.

As to whether the toughness makeover will pay off? It's the AHL. You always need more scoring and fewer injuries. The one thing for sure: It'll be interesting around here. Maybe especially against Hartford again.

*--OK, he didn't serve them all, surely, but...

Moving north/south/up

2007-08-15T17:13:00.000-04:00

(This thing didn't post? Oh well -- some updates, anyway)

The Islanders add Josef Vasicek, which should finish things for them, barring a trade. It could well push Frans Nielsen to here full-time until injuries.

-----

Greg Ireland lands on his feet with the ~~Stampede~~ Rampage.

TEAM	Old	New
HOU	Rob Daum (4/18)	Kevin Constantine (5/29)
BPT	Dan Marshall (4/30)	Jack Capuano (4/30)
BIN	Dave Cameron (St. Mike's 5/1)	Cory Clouston (7/19)
PHI	Kjell Samuelsson (6/6)	Craig Berube (6/6)
GR	Greg Ireland (6/15)	Mike Stothers (7/18)
MIL	Claude Noel (Columbus 6/28)	Lane Lambert (7/11)
SA	Pat Conacher (<7/18)	Greg Ireland (8/14)
HFD	Jim Schoenfeld (7/23)	Ken Gernander (7/23)
SPR	Steve Stirling-s	Geoff Ward (5/15)
SPR	Geoff Ward (8/1)	Kelly Buchberger (8/3)
NOR	Mike Haviland-n	Steve Stirling-s
RCK	---	Mike Haviland-n
CLE	---	Joe Sacco (5/7)

n-from Norfolk to Rockford with Chicago's affiliation; s-from Springfield to Norfolk with Tampa Bay's affiliation

-----

RIP, Scooter, a guy I appreciated more when I got older. May there be a cannoli waiting on the other side of the bridge...

-----

And if you're on all the RSS feeds, you may have noticed something different. Will probably give it a dry run the next few days and "relaunch," if you will, next week... And hopefully for good.

Extra exhibition...

2007-08-11T21:55:00.000-04:00

...and like last year at Glens Falls, I guess we won't be there to see it. Bridgeport at Lowell, Sept. 29, 5:05 p.m., on opposite Devils vs. Islanders at Harbor Yard.

l'Italia chiamò

2007-08-10T16:09:00.000-04:00

Eurohockey.net notes that Matt Koalska has signed with Bolzano in far-northern Italy. Obligatory fun with Babelfish: He may be playing soccer, because "'our trainer Doug McKay heads at this player', has asserted the president of the HCB Dieter Knoll."

Look who's back

2007-08-10T13:11:00.000-04:00

Ottawa signs Justin Mapletoft.

Around the league, sort of

2007-08-09T05:59:00.000-04:00

Out of curiosity...

Team	3-in-3	BTB	Standalone
ALB	8	16	24
BIN	9	17	19
BPT	11	10	27
CHI	11	11	25
CLE	6	21	20
GR	6	18	26
HAM	8	17	22
HFD	14	11	16
HER	13	10	21
HOU	8	13	30
IOW	5	20	25
LOW	10	13	24
MCR	10	18	14
MTB	6	26	10
MIL	9	12	29
NOR	7	19	21
PEO	12	13	18
PHI	16	6	20
POR	11	16	15
PRO	15	9	17
QC	5	17	31
ROC	14	11	16
RCK	10	15	20
SA	9	10	33
SPR	10	18	14
SYR	6	21	20
TOR	8	17	22
WBS	6	20	22
WOR	10	15	20

BTW, Jason at the League Office confirms that Dec. 23 is now a mandated off-day, joining Dec. 24 and 25.

Corrections are appreciated, if you notice something. This was compiled rather late at night.

Closing early

2007-08-09T04:37:00.000-04:00

Something that just caught my eye as I sorted for season series... The eighth and final game against Norfolk is Feb. 20; the last Albany game is Feb. 24. That's two out of six division rivalries that will be over and done with seven weeks -- and 22 games -- remaining in the season. Binghamton doesn't end much later, March 12. If Bridgeport needs to make hay against any of those teams, it'd better do it early. (Or it'd better hope it can beat Wilkes-Barre an awful lot in 10 weeks*.)

This will be the earliest a division-rival season series will end, by better than two weeks. In fact, those three series this season will actually end before** the previous record-holder. In 2005-06, Bridgeport played its final Norfolk game on March 11 with a season that ended April 16, comparable to this year's April 13. (The Sound Tigers only had one game with Wilkes-Barre after Feb. 12 that year, but it was April 14.)

*-Opponents after that final Albany game: WBS 5, HFD 3, PHI 3, BIN 2, LOW 2, POR 2, WOR 2, HER 2, MCR 1.
**-"Before," in the Binghamton case, in terms of days-left-in-season, if not by the calendar.

Schedule out

2007-08-07T15:35:00.000-04:00

Random thoughts on the schedule, which at first glance feels a lot better than last year's for wear and tear:

--Two in-and-out trips to Norfolk? Have fun.

--Sundays are at 4 p.m. exclusively because teams wouldn't agree to the 1 p.m. start (and by league rules didn't have to agree).

--Nov. 11 vs. Hershey. Nov. 17 at Hershey. Nov. 21 at Hershey. Gah. (At least Hershey plays games in between. I wanna stay out there Nov. 18-20. Gettysburg, maybe... We'll find stuff to do.)

--March 19 at Worcester. March 21 at Worcester. That'll be an interesting one. Do you stay, or do you go home? It's only two hours, so probably home, but...

--April 12 at Hartford, April 13 vs. Hartford to finish. Just like old times.

--Jan. 16 at Norfolk, Jan. 18 at Philly, Jan. 19 at Albany, Jan. 21 at Portland. That ties for the longest road trip of the season in games. It'll be a tough one in mileage.

--April 2 at Manchester: It's the only trip there, but it caught my eye for a different reason. Bridgeport played there April 2, 2004, too. It was on the road to that game that I got calls confirming two things: The team was off the radio, and the team was getting sued. Not a happy day, so it's weird to see "April 2 at Manchester" again.

--Oct. 20 vs. WBS - and then Bridgeport doesn't see the Penguins again until Feb. 1. And then they see each other seven times after that. (It's seven out of 34 for Bridgeport, seven out of 36 for WBS.)

--One of those seven games is Feb. 29 at Wachovia Arena, Bridgeport's first leap-day game.

--Jan. 12 vs. Springfield, the only trip in: about a quarter of the Falcons could be former Sound Tigers.

--Only ("only") 11 three-in-threes, the fewest in three seasons. There are another 10 sets of back-to-back games. There are stretches with a lot of games packed into not many more days, but there are at least days off in there; that's something that hasn't always been the case in past years.

(Oh, let's not waste a chance for a table:)

Year	3-in-3s	BTBs
2001-02	10	15
2002-03	11	13
2003-04	11	17
2004-05	9	16
2005-06	13	10
2006-07	14	9
2007-08	11	10

("BTB": Two games in two nights with a day off on both sides)

--February 2008 includes three more days off than February 2007. March isn't as vicious, either; there's even a full weekend off, March 22-23.

Get planning...

Bonvie: This is it

2007-08-06T18:26:00.001-04:00

Dennis Bonvie says this is his last season.

As opposed to... ooh, lunch!

2007-08-06T15:47:00.000-04:00

This press release is one of the reasons I so love both the English language and its print conventions. It all makes perfect sense and gets across what it needs to get across... but if you go playing around, there are at least a couple of jokes to be made. Love it. It's like how, a couple of years ago, a team put out a release saying that a press conference would be open to "credentialed members of the media and the general public." It's true, but it's funnier if you group the nouns differently...

This is what happens to me when I'm supposed to be writing about football.

Anyway, the AHL schedule is due out at 11 a.m. Tuesday.

Where's Joe Ferras?

2007-08-02T20:14:00.000-04:00

A: Rapid City, S.D.

And RIP, Tommy Makem.

Horrors, and diversion

2007-08-02T00:55:00.000-04:00

Much love to the Twin Cities, hopes that all our friends and family and friends of friends are OK, and that those who aren't find peace... Pioneer Press and Star Tribune to keep up.

----

On a much brighter note, Geoff Ward followed his old boss (and co-award winner) to Beantown, so the Falcons get former Oiler Kelly Buchberger as their new head coach.

(Hmm... what to do with...)

TEAM	Old	New
HOU	Rob Daum (4/18)	Kevin Constantine (5/29)
BPT	Dan Marshall (4/30)	Jack Capuano (4/30)
BIN	Dave Cameron (St. Mike's 5/1)	Cory Clouston (7/19)
PHI	Kjell Samuelsson (6/6)	Craig Berube (6/6)
GR	Greg Ireland (6/15)	Mike Stothers (7/18)
MIL	Claude Noel (Columbus 6/28)	Lane Lambert (7/11)
SA	Pat Conacher (<7/18)
HFD	Jim Schoenfeld (7/23)	Ken Gernander (7/23)
SPR	Steve Stirling-s	Geoff Ward (5/15)
SPR	Geoff Ward (8/1)	Kelly Buchberger (8/3)
NOR	Mike Haviland-n	Steve Stirling-s
RCK	---	Mike Haviland-n
CLE	---	Joe Sacco (5/7)

n-from Norfolk to Rockford with Chicago's affiliation; s-from Springfield to Norfolk with Tampa Bay's affiliation

Monday roundup

2007-07-30T18:21:00.000-04:00

After 34 fun hours at DeLuca this weekend...

The Islanders are officially coming. The Sound Tigers announced most of their preseason sked. Our man Bernie Cassell is in Finland.

So Anchorage reports that Justin Bourne is on a BST AHL two-way deal. From what I've heard, several guys will be signed, including a few who were at the rookie camp -- Bourne and Tyler Haskins among them -- but Utah will probably do most of the announcing, because they'll mostly affect the Grizzlies. (There's already 13 or 14 guys probably competing for 12 forward jobs before you get to these AHL/ECHL guys.)

What'd I Miss?

2007-07-26T03:46:00.000-04:00

One short week. Much has happened. Much is yet to come. Though not necessarily around here.

So apparently the Devils and Islanders will convene again 52 weeks later for a preseason game at Harbor Yard. (So the Devils say, anyway.) They'll also play at Lowell. No official word from the BST/NYI yet; there may be some jots needed. The game certainly doesn't appear to be on Ticketmaster yet, and IIRC that's how it was "announced" last year.

The long-rumored promotion of Jim Schoenfeld finally happened, and Ken Gernander is the new head coach of the Wolf Pack. Also promoted: Gordie Clark, to director of player personnel. Let it never be forgotten what he meant to that first Sound Tigers team.

Lots of other coaching stuff: Cory Clouston takes over in Binghamton (here's a big Michael Sharp story from the Press+Sun Bulletin), and former Hershey Bear Mike Stothers is the man in Grand Rapids. Maybe we'll see him coach eventually. Thanks to Patrick Williams: Pat Conacher is quietly out in San Antonio and apparently has been for a while. It's deep within a bigger Don Maloney story.

TEAM	Old	New
HOU	Rob Daum (4/18)	Kevin Constantine (5/29)
BPT	Dan Marshall (4/30)	Jack Capuano (4/30)
BIN	Dave Cameron (St. Mike's 5/1)	Cory Clouston (7/19)
PHI	Kjell Samuelsson (6/6)	Craig Berube (6/6)
GR	Greg Ireland (6/15)	Mike Stothers (7/18)
MIL	Claude Noel (Columbus 6/28)	Lane Lambert (7/11)
SA	Pat Conacher (<7/18)
HFD	Jim Schoenfeld (7/23)	Ken Gernander (7/23)
SPR	Steve Stirling-s	Geoff Ward (5/15)
NOR	Mike Haviland-n	Steve Stirling-s
RCK	---	Mike Haviland-n
CLE	---	Joe Sacco (5/7)

n-from Norfolk to Rockford with Chicago's affiliation; s-from Springfield to Norfolk with Tampa Bay's affiliation

Speaking of, the Coyotes have signed Ryan Caldwell and Craig Weller. And not speaking of, the Penguins re-signed Alain Nasreddine. David Masse is back with Rio Grande Valley (CHL) (home of Paul Fixter and Rich Bocchini). I'm pretty sure other guys signed, but I can't find them/those pages crashed my computer/I'm too lazy to look again. (I'm technically not back until the Brakettes game today, so cut me some slack.) In response to some comments, I've not heard anything about Matt Koalska, but he's one of several guys I'm planning on calling in the next few days. And a certain coaching-in-Utah rumor sounds like it's not just rumor. But I guess it's not announced yet. It'll be very nice if -- when? -- it happens.

Elsewhere, our man Dwayne Hay makes a strong move toward the annual Doug Gilmour "I Retire - No Wait I Don't - Do I?" Memorial Award. (He's actually got a long way to go to knock off Sammy Sosa. And Scott Niedermayer and Jeremy Roenick probably have him beat in the hockey division. So scratch that.) Interesting WSJ piece about the Detroit riots of 1967 and what they did to the city.

And finally, Dave Fay of the Washington Times died last week. Tim Leone put together a moving tribute.

Soundin' Off suggests...

2007-07-26T03:16:00.000-04:00

... The Chicago Architecture Foundation's Architecture River Cruise, a 90-minute tour of the Loop from the Chicago River, including both branches. Neat stuff on a few different levels.

... reading the back of your River Cruise ticket. It warns you to be wary of pucks or other equipment that might be launched into the spectator area.

... Steak 'n Shake. Rich Bocchini introduced us in 2002 in Rosemont. Dangerous.

... the Metra and its $5 weekend pass, all-you-can-ride. Hours of entertainment. With a 90-minute ride each way from Joliet to Chicago (down the Rock Island Line -- it's a mighty good road), that was precisely six hours of entertainment for us. There was the 4-or-so-year-old boy in front of us who kept asking his mom questions -- intelligent questions, actually. There was the 6-or-so-year-old girl behind us who told her mom a 10-minute story about a field trip -- in one run-on sentence. There was the dude who kept getting phone calls as we approached LaSalle Street Station; the first (loud) conversation began: "Dude! What's up! Yeah, I just got out of jail!" (The woman next to him got up and moved.) He later talked about his dream of opening up an, um, "adult" video store. Ah, entrepreneurial spirit. And then there was the group that just made the train on our last trip out; half went upstairs, half stayed downstairs, and the women proceeded to have loud conversations between the two levels. (Most of the guys just looked mortified.)

... wearing a green shirt while an Irishman makes a charge at Carnoustie. It looks like you've planned ahead.

... Giordano's. My brother can't find good pizza out there. This place is different -- their stuffed pizza isn't exactly what you're looking for in that regard -- but it's good stuff.

... The El (or the L, or whatever). No urine, no rats, no problem! You still shouldn't make eye contact with anyone.

... Vin Scully. He was on the MLB package calling that 13-9 game last week. Riveting.

... Maggiano's, where the guys at work told my brother to go. It's a chain, but it's good, family-style stuff. Guaranteed leftovers.

... a trip to Springfield, Ill., to visit as many Abraham Lincoln attractions as you can fit in. We made it to the Lincoln Tomb (check out the virtual tour), the Lincoln Home and the Museum (which included a cheesy but endearing Tim Russert fake newscast, imagining campaign ads by the four candidates of the election of 1860; and a video map that showed the progress of the Civil War and each army's situation, one second per week). Fascinating stuff all around. And Lincoln's speeches are always worth reading.

... giggling at your own typos. Because "campaign ads" above originally came out "campain ads," which seems almost Freudian.

... A pit stop in Atlanta. That's Atlanta, Ill.

... buying unleaded plus in southern Illinois, where for some reason -- didn't get to ask why, though I'm suspecting some kind of ethanol thing -- it's cheaper than regular unleaded. Regular unleaded was under $3 a gallon down there; it was around $3.40 near Midway.

... The Sears Tower. Hurry, before it's not the tallest building in the United States (let alone in Chicago) anymore.

... ignoring hockey for six days, just to get away. It was a lot easier this year than last year...

Can he swing from an open thread?

2007-07-17T21:56:00.000-04:00

In response to a request from someone pretending to be one of the greatest Nighthawks, I've added NHL.com to the links. And just in case another Nighthawks great should stop by, I've added the NHLPA, too.

The Amerks mess may be getting worse.

Meanwhile, should be away from the ol' compy for a while. Treat this as an open thread if you'd like, and I know you guys'll play nice. Should be a lot quieter than the last time. Unless Snow joke redacted. But that would just be crazy. I mean, this time around, they have joke redacted before. Of course, Dubielewicz would be joke redacted.

See ya shortly.

Old (school)

2007-07-16T02:03:00.000-04:00

Stuff I've been meaning to post, but didn't:

--No sooner did I write that Alexandre Giroux was still on the pile than he hopped off, signing Friday with Atlanta.

--Brent Sutter is Jersey's new head coach. Masi Marjamaki played for him at Red Deer, and I asked him about Sutter two years ago. It didn't fit the feature at the time, but I saved it just in case. Well, what the heck: "Mean," Marjamaki said with a grin. "He's a good coach. You work hard. Everyone makes mistakes, but if they're working mistakes, he doesn't care. If you work your hardest, he'll like you."

--The IIHF is trying to put together a world club championship to go with a European Champions League. That could be fun. And could a little more prize money available on the other side of the pond -- albeit only to certain teams -- be an incentive to some mid-vet players in the future? A little push over the edge, if you will.... Just idle speculation.

--RIP John Ferguson Sr., former Rangers coach and GM among other jobs.

--Saturday was the 10th anniversary of my first assignment for the Post, the first round of the 1997 CSGA junior, back when I was a free-lancer fresh out of college. Still here (and still covering Little League). Thanks, Mark and Gino...

By appearances...

2007-07-15T17:42:00.000-04:00

The NHLPA has Fata and Regier listed as signed at their qualifying price, $495,000 in the NHL.

Another Johnson

2007-07-12T15:21:00.000-04:00

The Islanders have signed Aaron Johnson (IHDB) and seem to be talking about him in possible Bridgeport terms. Here's a Columbus Dispatch story from June that talks about him after Columbus non-tendered him. Edit: BTW, he's at 291 GP, so he qualifies for one of those semi-exempt vet spots.

The official on Maxime Ouellet is due shortly. I'm intrigued. The guy was on top of the world just a few years ago, a can't-miss goalie. He'll be a good story.

Also, congrats to Bill Ballou on the Ellery Award, well-deserved.

Punch drunk

2007-07-11T18:22:00.000-04:00

No new tough guys, but another goalie on the way. It sounds like the name has been floated out there, so some of you may not need to see the notebook in the morning as we come back after a post-boxing break.

They're waiting to hear back from some guys, and it sounds like they'd be satisfied with what they have up front, if nothing changes.

Some other stuff that's in there:

--Lane Lambert is the new head coach of the Milwaukee Admirals. Lots of white space and a table follow.

--Brandon Cullen will start the road back with Charlotte.

TEAM	Old	New
HOU	Rob Daum (4/18)	Kevin Constantine (5/29)
BPT	Dan Marshall (4/30)	Jack Capuano (4/30)
BIN	Dave Cameron (St. Mike's 5/1)
PHI	Kjell Samuelsson (6/6)	Craig Berube (6/6)
GR	Greg Ireland (6/15)
MIL	Claude Noel (Columbus 6/28)	Lane Lambert (7/11)
SPR	Steve Stirling-s	Geoff Ward (5/15)
NOR	Mike Haviland-n	Steve Stirling-s
RCK	---	Mike Haviland-n
CLE	---	Joe Sacco (5/7)

n-from Norfolk to Rockford with Chicago's affiliation; s-from Springfield to Norfolk with Tampa Bay's affiliation

Deep breath

2007-07-06T22:05:00.000-04:00

A little quieter day around here. It has been quite a week, especially for a team that a) often waited until mid-July or early August before actually signing anybody, b) sometimes hasn't considered "toughness" a necessary component of a player or a team, c) sometimes seemed to think "depth" referred to some swimming pool.

The word is they're not done. They want at least one more forward, another defenseman and almost certainly another goalie. The names aren't certain, but the spots are there.

Here's the officials on Kip Brennan and Tim Jackman. And the BST extended the deadline to apply for their Fan Advisory Board to July 31.

Around the league(s), John Paddock takes over in Ottawa. Denis Hamel signed a three-year AHL deal with Binghamton. The Lightning continue to strengthen the depth with Dan Jancevski, whom our buddy Patrick Williams had rated the No. 1 AHL free agent out there. His No. 3, Joe Motzko, is going to Washington, Lindsay Kramer reports on the blog.

Meanwhile, the fight's about 24 hours away. I'm looking forward to it in almost every way possible.

Busy day all right...

2007-07-05T20:17:00.000-04:00

...continues with Mike Comrie joining the big club. Trent Hunter was one of 29 players to elect salary arbitration, including the Rangers' Sean Avery and Marcel Hossa, and the Flames' (that still sounds a little weird) Eric Godard. Eurohockey points us to Ken Magowan's signing with a team in Germany somewhere.

By the time you read this, I hope, I'll have tried to update those signed/FA lists.

Two more

2007-07-05T18:37:00.000-04:00

...and important ones. They've signed goalie Joey MacDonald, who has posted some big-time numbers in past years, and Darryl Bootland, a power forward. (This according to NHL.com, so maybe the guys don't know it yet. No, this is verified.)

Edit: Kalmikov'd! Bootland has played 321 NHL/AHL games, per IHDB, and just misses the new semi-exempt status.

TSN reports that the big club has signed Billy Guerin. And now NYI confirm.

Like we said about the warranty...

2007-07-05T16:01:00.000-04:00

Allan Rourke, as announced first (before he knew) on NHL.com, is now an Oiler. The Islanders swap a third for a second next year. Edit: the Oilers' release induces BST nostalgia.

From Jason at the League office, the 320 number in the new CBA includes, like the old familiar vets rule, only NHL, AHL, old IHL or European-elite-league-after-junior-age games. ECHL/non-UHaul do not count. And it can be designated nightly. Matt Spiller qualifies. Jackman and Wotton do not.

Veteran move

2007-07-05T12:39:00.000-04:00

The AHL and the Professional Hockey Players' Association extended their CBA today for three years. The most obvious change to the game:

The parties also agreed to a modification of the AHL roster regulation which specifies the number of “development players” on the 19-man playing roster. The modification allows AHL teams to qualify one skater with 320 or fewer games of pro experience as a “development player,” essentially creating another veteran lineup spot.

Two questions strike me immediately, so more (and some counting) later.

Hang in, BTW. Sounds like it could -- just could -- be a busy day. (At the boxing press conference... Should I pitch them on a Kip Brennan-Mitch Fritz bout on the undercard?)

Notes before (and updated after) BBQ

2007-07-04T14:45:00.000-04:00

--Allan Rourke's NHL.com page says he's an Oiler. Allan Rourke says he's not. I'm trusting Rourke. Note that this was true at 2 p.m. and (ahem) isn't warrantied for anything thereafter.

--The Isles' first real splash is Ruslan Fedotenko, just announced a little while ago.

--Tampa got Bryce Lampman from the Rangers for Mitch Fritz. Either Norfolk gets stronger, or Lampman gets a shot he probably deserves...

Drive 55

2007-07-04T04:26:00.000-04:00

It kinda struck me later... Kip Brennan has been around awhile and still isn't a veteran?

Yep: Take a peek back at that IHDB. He has never played more than 55 games in any season, even in junior. Of course, there have been some suspensions along the way, but he has had some injuries, and one ventures there's some bad luck, too. (Random thing that probably only makes me grin: He was traded for Steve Valiquette in junior.)

Another random thing that probably only makes me grin: The draft pick that Phoenix used to take Spiller was the Islanders' to begin with and was traded in the deal that got the picks that were used on Raffi Torres and Ryan Caldwell.

Anyway. Happy Fourth of July.

And Bart... Well... We love Bart*

2007-07-04T00:15:00.000-04:00

So I realized in the afternoon that I hadn't posted yesterday's roundup/quiet-Islanders bit. Rewrote it a little as I slogged through the boxing stories. And then I finally finished and shipped the boxing stories and said, well, haven't checked NHL.com in a while...

Gotta love three names popping up.

Well, they promised toughness. This would qualify. If I've done the math right, Jackman and Spiller count as vets; Brennan is 17 games short.

Meanwhile, Tampa Bay is actually fielding an AHL team this year, with Craig MacDonald probably staying in Norfolk and Mathieu Darche possibly going there, and now today Jay Leach signing... the slap you heard was the good people of Springfield smacking their heads. Sticking with the accidental Beast of New Haven theme, Bates Battaglia remained a Maple Leaf, and Byron Ritchie went to Vancouver. (If only Nolan Pratt had signed.) Some other big AHL signings. The Oilers re-signed Raffi Torres, then got indignant over Michael Nylander.

But I know where I'm going when I get to Chicago.

Lotsa boxing the next few days. Lots.

*-7G08... and I kept yesterday's header, even though it doesn't mean anything anymore, because I love that line.

You want size?

2007-07-03T20:55:00.000-04:00

Not big names, but big boys: NHL.com has wingers Kip Brennan and Tim Jackman and big Matthew Spiller listed under the Islanders' roster. No announcement, but it appears accurate. Average size: like 6-4, 227. This would be a culture shift.

Unconfirmed but out there: There's also this story (thanks to ol' writing' buddy Jonathan) from a coupla days ago that says Pascal Morency is on an AHL two-way.

More later.

23-skiddoo

2007-07-02T16:24:00.000-04:00

The Rangers trotted out Messrs. Gomez and Drury a little after 3 p.m. on the New York Liberty's practice court, both wearing No. 23.

Glen Sather showed them a puck -- logo heads, boilerplate tails. He tossed it.

Drury won and gets to keep Don Mattingly's number. Gomez hasn't decided what he'll wear.

"I don't know if I can go free agent and get my number back," Gomez said.

"It's for sale," Chris said.

Gomez had the answer: "I'll take him out to dinner and get a few drinks in him, change his mind."

(No. 18 is, I think, available as a backup...)

(Bruce Berlet asked Tom Renney if he'd asked Drury about that goal with 7.7 seconds left... "Next question," Renney deadpanned.)

Amazingly related: Another 23, Brandon Nolan, goes to the other side of the Bridgeport-Albany rivalry and signs with Carolina.

More perhaps when I get out of Greenburgh.

---Editing just to add some Drury stuff.

He and his family have a home in California, and that fueled rumors that Drury would look to the West Coast when he became an unrestricted free agent Sunday morning. "People asked that in Buffalo all the time, knowing I had a house in California," Drury said. "My answer was, I had a house in California when I signed a four-year deal to be a Sabre. It's a great offseason place to be."

About leaving Buffalo: "I explained to the writers up there, it would be like a kid from Rochester wanting to be a Sabre, or Batavia or whatever."

BST Non-Free Agent List

2007-07-02T00:31:00.000-04:00

Our Man in Blue mentioned in a previous comment that we should maybe list who's under contract. Good point. Greg Logan put a big-club list in his blog yesterday; add in Jon Sim (can't he play a couple of forward positions, IIRC?), and it looks something like:

(Adds will be in blue).

Left wing -- Jeff Tambellini, Sean Bergenheim, Jon Sim, Ruslan Fedotenko, Chris Simon.
Center -- Mike Sillinger, Shawn Bates, Richard Park, Frans Nielsen, Mike Comrie, Josef Vasicek.
Right wing -- Trent Hunter, Miroslav Satan, Bill Guerin, Andy Hilbert.
Defense -- Brendan Witt, Radek Martinek, Marc-Andre Bergeron, Freddy Meyer, Bruno Gervais, Chris Campoli, Andy Sutton.
Goaltender -- Rick DiPietro, Wade Dubielewicz.
(This includes the RFAs.)

Assuming those guys are all up, that would require five or six additions. Here's what's under contract or qualified for Bridgeport and below:

(BTW, I'm putting some of the new guys with the Sound Tigers for now, though it sounds like they may get a crack at the NHL, depending on the rest of the summer/camp...)

LW -- Sean Bentivoglio, Masi Marjamaki, Jason Pitton, Kip Brennan, Pascal Morency
C -- Jeremy Colliton, Trevor Smith, Sergei Ogorodnikov
RW -- Blake Comeau, Petteri Nokelainen, Steve Regier, Tim Jackman (V), Darryl Bootland (V)
D -- Drew Fata, Jamie Fraser, Dustin Kohn, Andrew MacDonald, ~~Allan Rourke (traded)~~, Mark Wotton (V), Matthew Spiller (V/320), Aaron Johnson (V/320)
G -- Michael Mole, Joey MacDonald, Maxime Ouellet

I'm gonna check on one of those names, actually. Something nagging me. Either way, they say they're committed to lots of depth this time around. We'll see what happens.

(I'll put up a link to both of these lists on the right.)

Look, Marge! A couple of bucks!*

2007-07-02T00:28:00.000-04:00

So Chris Drury comes homeward, and the Rangers remake their middle for $14 million a year (how do you think The Hockey Rodent feels?).... I tell ya, when even Michel Ouellet is getting a mill and a quarter a year, doesn't getting Jason Blake at $4M per for five years look downright affordable?

The forced dismantling on the Island now includes Ryan Smyth to Colorado. The gutsy move got them a playoff round, but that's it. Poti and Kozlov went to Washington, and Zednik went to Florida.

And now that the Rangers have a new Future Captain (tm), Jed Ortmeyer is off to Nashville.

Columbus signed Sheldon Brookbank, the AHL's top defenseman this past year; Pittsburgh re-signed Dany Sabourin, the top AHL goalie of two seasons ago, to a two-year deal after losing him on waivers early in the past season.

BTW (have I ranted on this before?), in today's salary-capped world, shouldn't team policies be changed to disclose contract terms? Not that they don't work their ways out, but they're kind of pertinent.

*-3F16 (how could I forget that one?).

BST Free Agent List

2007-07-01T18:46:00.000-04:00

(And since it was apparently unclear last year, a reminder that season-ending BSTs who aren't on this list were already under contract for 2007-08.)

(Color code: black: unsigned. blue=re-signed with NYI/BST. red=signed elsewhere in North America. bright, bright green=signed in Europe. Italics indicate it's not announced, but either we're reporting it, or some other semi-official source has it. Split color means there's some kind of report saying it's happening.

Group II
Drew Fata - listed at qualifying price on NHLPA.com, July 15
Steve Regier - listed at qualifying price on NHLPA.com, July 15

Group II, Non-tendered (UFA)
Brandon Cullen - Charlotte (ECHL), July 11
Billy Thompson

Group III
Rick Berry - Springfield, July 26
Eric Boguniecki - ERC Ingolstadt (Germany), June 28
Peter Ferraro

Group VI
Tomas Malec - HC Ocelari Trinec (Czech Rep.), May 1

AHL
Gregg Johnson
Jamie Johnson
Ken Magowan - SC Riessersee (Germany), July 3
Brandon Nolan - Carolina, July 2
Stephen Wood - Trenton, Aug. 29

Undrafted
Kyle Rank - WBS Penguins, June 11
David Desharnais

Virtual insanity

2007-07-01T18:41:00.000-04:00

Initial BST report is nothing coming down here today. The big clubs are watching the money fly, or sending it flying themselves: $52M/8 for Briere with Philly, $11.25M/2 for Schneider with the Ducks, $30M/5 for Rafalski from Detroit, and you're probably wondering if you can get in on this. And then the Sharks and Flames ruin 7/1/08 by signing Thornton and Iginla. Oh well.

---

Jeff Hamilton couldn't get a job last year at this time; now, he's got two years at $800k per from the Whalers, TSN reports.

Matt Koalska and Ryan Caldwell were not tendered qualifying offers and are unrestricted.

Two ex-Tigers with one link: Tarnstrom and Grebeshkov sign with Edmonton.

---

It's always fun to see what kinds of names pop up on the free agent list because they technically belong in a group. Evgeny Korolev, for instance, or Dimitri Upper. Remember when Reijo Ruotsalainen was always on the waiver draft list for Edmonton?

---

Went back to Syosset and did a Petteri Nokelainen interview that will run eventually, since we're squeezed for space in Monday's paper. Here's the Isles' update on the scrimmage, to save me some lines-typing. The ice seemed tilted whenever that Bentivoglio-Nielsen-Okposo line was on; Nielsen was Nielsen, and Bentivoglio has impressed me all three times I've seen him with his tenacity and his skills. Fraser was flying; an end-to-end rush set up his team's first goal in the closing seconds of the first, and he kept it going. Gratchev looked good to me in the first, and then I kind of lost track of him. Mole has reportedly struggled this week, but he made some good saves today. Jason Pitton was held out as a precaution with a tweaked groin; no sense taking a chance on July 1.

I told Masi Marjamaki I thought his skating looked good the other day, the first day he had skated. "It didn't feel as good as it looked," he quipped. He figures he'll be ready, though. He said he thought he hurt the hip in one of the exhibition games last year, then really felt it around Christmastime, but "it's over and done with."

And Shakey was disappointed in losing two in a row; the coaching watch is on.

Twenty-Twenty

2007-07-01T18:31:00.000-04:00

It was just about 3 p.m., and I was leaving Syosset with sources out of radio contact. WFAN had the Mets; WCBS had the Yankees; WINS, I don't know when they might do sports. So I went to ~~WHN~~ ~~WUKQ~~ ~~WEVD~~ the Worldwide Leader hoping to hear of any free agent signings, and I found some guy yelling about how we don't care who made the MLB All Star teams; let's pick the Not-Star team, 'cause we care about who stinks this year.

Well, no, we don't. But it was an appropriate time to turn that guy off and go back to 66.

It reminded me of a time in late July of 1995. The Mets were dismantling the remnants of the Worst Team Money Could Buy*. David Cone was on the market again. There were other names rumored to be on the block. I was in Boston with the folks, looking at colleges with my brother. Remember, this is pre-laptops, pre-ESPN News, pre-constant-scroll, and all I had was a cheap hotel clock-radio. And what do I find on what passed for sports radio in Boston, days away from the trade deadline?

Some guy yelling about who should make baseball's All-Ugly team. And some guy calling up to yell how Rawn Kahkovice was the ugliest guy he's ever seen. And no news update for an hour.

I've never been more happy to get back to Connecticut. For all of its faults, WFAN was not gonna give you the All-Ugly team two days before the deadline. Or, heaven forbid, if they were, you weren't more than 20 minutes away from an update.

So happy 20th, WFAN. You're surely not on my All-Ugly team.

*-Ah, Alex Ochoa, before we found out his five tools didn't come with a toolbox...

West Haven to Germany

2007-06-29T23:44:00.000-04:00

Spoke to Eric Boguniecki the other day, and he said he was weighing some European offers. Well, appears he's picked one: ERC Ingolstadt has announced his signing.

Not that he was coming back, anyway. It appears the Islanders don't plan to bring back any of the unrestricted free agents. The shopping list is extensive, but they hope to strike quickly.

Patrick Williams presents his top 20 AHL UFAs.

---

Herbert Vasiljevs feature on the DEL site. Babelfish is always fun.

(Apologies if this posts twice.)

High-traffic areas

2007-06-27T20:57:00.000-04:00

Spent four and a half hours in the car today to get to and from the Island. Must have chosen every single wrong road. Here's how messed up it was: In both directions, the only road on which I didn't slow down? The Long Island Parking Lot Expressway.

So I missed the first session, which included Kyle Okposo. Saw him in street clothes afterward, and darn, the kid is huge; built. And Kimber Auerbach said Okposo put on a move in the shootout so good that Kimber was surprised he could even describe it, let alone Okposo do it: not doing it justice, backhand fake shot, to forehand, back to backhand and roof it. Gah. This is when you quote Charles Barkley: "An education is a wonderful thing, unless you can run and jump over houses."

Drew Fata was in that first group, too. Kimber says he's going to put him on the new Sound Tigers TV this year: "Chewin' the Fat with Fata." Drew's into it.

Wrote on Dustin Kohn, the other big prospect in that group. Yes, even without seeing him. The group I did see included Tambellini, Nokelainen, Comeau, MacDonald, Mole, Fraser. They looked fine. Tambellini's a cut above in this camp, probably everybody up front except maybe Okposo.

Also noted Masi Marjamaki and Jeremy Colliton, who skated on the side sheet, and it was their first skates since the surgeries. Didn't get to talk to Marjamaki, but he looked pretty fluid to me. Colliton looked OK, too; he's been working on the shoulder, but the upper-body strength necessarily falls off when you've got a shoulder immobilized. Still, it's a step forward. Marjamaki is hoped to be good to go for camp; Colliton might still need some re-strengthening.

Full BST house: Capuano, Bingham, Cassell, Sullo, new arrival Mike Burkhead. Howard Saffan was upstairs, but I missed him. Garth Snow and Ted Nolan were around. Daniel Lacroix and Bryan Trottier led the session I saw; Dan Flynn was still there, too.

Met Peter Ferraro in the lobby. (Fortunately, he recognized me, 'cause I was still spacy from the drive.) He had his camp after the Islanders' camp ended. He is waiting to see what the next few weeks will bring. He was very happy with his brother's season in San Antonio.

It was nice to be around hockey. It was nice to be around hockey people. It was nice to be in a rink on the hottest day of the year, especially since our air conditioning broke down Tuesday night.

Will hopefully make it down for at least one scrimmage session... and will hopefully choose better roads.

----

Lunch on the road, never smart. The bill was $6.57. Had time to dig for pennies; paid $10.07. Got four singles as change. Handed back one of the singles and said she had given me too much; it was only 50 cents more. She gave me 32 cents. I blinked and said, now it's not enough; 50 cents. She gave me two quarters. I am still trying to figure that one out.

----

If someone came up to me and needed to know what it meant to be a fan, I might briefly recap the 2006 baseball season, then show them this post from Greg Prince.

Flair from the draft

2007-06-24T03:15:00.000-04:00

Some interesting kids among the Islanders' draft picks... Maxim Gratchev comes from Billerica with a much more interesting backstory in Russia. (The Isles' Web site twice calls him a guy "with flare." Pyrotechnics optional.) And Blake Kessel, little brother of Phil, came to the Islanders at 166.

Boston traded up to take Tommy Cross of Simsbury early in the second round; San Jose grabbed Farmington legend Nick Bonino in the sixth, and Drew MacKenzie of New Canaan went to Buffalo near the end of the seventh. By the way, know what's weirder than kids you covered in high school playing pro hockey? Kids you covered in junior Babe Ruth playing pro ball.

Draft composite

2007-06-23T01:44:00.000-04:00

On behalf of all of us here at Soundin' Off, I would like to thank the people of Columbus for their generous hospitality. We're especially thankful to the Columbus Blue Jackets, the hosts for this wonderful evening, and all their staff, whom we'll not mention by name, although we want them to know we would. We'd like to congratulate the Anaheim Migh... the Anaheim Ducks on their recent Stanley Cup championship, and the Ottawa Senators on being the runner-up, and Buffalo and Detroit for being the runners-ups to the finalists, and to the other 12 playoff teams, and to the other 14 teams, our congratulations for competing so hard. We'd like to congratulate the Hamilton Bulldogs for winning the Calder Cup, and the Hersheypark Happies for coming close to another one, and to the other 14 playoff teams, and 10 of the 11 non-playoff teams. (we're not really allowed to congratulate that one, are we? Anyway.) We'd like to also offer our condolences to Hamilton on the loss of your NHL team. We'd like to thank all the fans for their support, especially all you commenters who are watching right now on your computers at home, at work or at the library. We'd absolutely like to thank the leagues' staffs and the many people who have worked to make this day possible, both here and at other blogs.

OK, here we go. With the 293rd pick, Soundin' Off is proud to select, from...

(What? Really? Can you get... Y-yeah, do that. OK.)

Umm... We've traded our pick to Spillane for a couple of CDs and a Celtic Woman to be named. Thank you. The Philadelphia Flyers are on the clock.

-----

Gretzky still gets 'em going, huh?

With the 10th pick, the Bruins select Claude Julien... (Let's hope all the new sweaters come out looking as close to normal as this one...)

Lots of former Nighthawks: Dave Gagner (dad of Sam), Bob Janecyk and Paul Fenton (scouts)... And it's always nice to see Gordie Clark, even if it's over the TV.

Loved the New Canaan flavor, both real and accidental: Max Pacioretty going No. 22 to Montreal, and Thomas Hickey going to L.A. at 4. (Thomas is NC coach Bo Hickey's given name.)

Word is nothing has changed, and that if it comes to Monday at 5, the Isles will tender qualifying offers to Steve Regier and Drew Fata and will not tender Billy Thompson.

Eurohockey had Justin Papineau to Switzerland and Paul Flache to Germany, but I'm too lazy to look for links. It also had Martin St. Pierre to Russia.

Spent the afternoon blogging the Travelers. The full archive is here. Dunno if anyone will be joining in over the weekend -- they have enough to do, and I'll be elsewhere -- but there it is...

Don King pop quiz: Vocabulary

2007-06-21T20:08:00.000-04:00

My folks were up at Foxwoods a few months ago and happened to walk in on a Don King Productions press conference. Dad said it was "take your daughter to work day," and one of the fellows there had his two daughters with him. He gave them notebooks and told them to write down all the big words they didn't understand. Well, in that spirit after spending time in front of the Arena today...

Define and use in a sentence.

--Hoopla
--Regalia
--Haughty
--Inimitable
--Fait accompli
--Conviviality
--Lumpenproletariat

(By the way, I hope my list of references -- incomplete though it was -- makes it into the paper. It was like watching The Simpsons.)

Two leagues

2007-06-20T23:52:00.001-04:00

On a day the NHL talked about dots and made Jeremy Jacobs its chairman of the board...

...the Untied-No-More International Hockey League (and its six teams, no mention of the Turner Cup) announced its name change and these rules changes:

--No instigator, except in the last five minutes;
--17-and-two for all games;
--Misconducts instead of game misconducts for secondary altercations;
--No hook-and-dive calls allowed, and if a ref considers both, call the dive;
--Tighter standards in the neutral zone, looser standards in the defensive zone;
--Four-on-four OT followed by a three-man shootout.

Hockey, sort of

2007-06-20T00:32:00.000-04:00

Kiddie camp is coming. Who's ready? Who's in withdrawal? Who's pitching draft recaps (that may turn, surprisingly, into draft previews)?

Eurohockey.net says Kevin Mitchell is going to Slovenia*, and Vinny Macri is off to Germany. And the Utah Grizzlies talk about the arrival of Luch Aquino as the beginning of the affiliation. Why not?

Rather than throw short stories onto the Web, the sports staff will be bloggin' from the TPC beginning Wednesday. I'm not up there again until Friday, but I'm hoping someone comes through and asks Dennis Haysbert a Pedro Cerrano question after the pro-am.

Speaking of, arrived in Cromwell this morning to find Chris Elsberry watching the space shuttle undock with the International Space Station. Sean Patrick Bowley arrived moments later, booted up his compy and showed us Celestia, which looks pretty darn sick.

*-Ljubljana, coincidentally a day after I got to wondering about the history of the letter J in European languages. (I wonder about weird things.)

Comeback Kid

2007-06-18T12:24:00.001-04:00

Fighting computer and wireless issues, but know that Sean Bergenheim is coming back to the Islanders. The press release is on its way out, apparently; one-year deal.

Our man in Denver

2007-06-16T00:49:00.000-04:00

Ben Guite has signed a two-year extension with Colorado.

"Ben provided some quality minutes during our stretch run," said Avalanche GM Francois Giguere. "We look for him to continue his role on our team."

Somewhere, a fan club smiles.

They're always putting Ireland down

2007-06-16T00:35:00.000-04:00

Detroit dumped Greg Ireland as Grand Rapids' head coach.

Box o'changes, after the White Space of Blogging Ignorance:

TEAM	Old	New
HOU	Rob Daum (4/18)	Kevin Constantine (5/29)
BPT	Dan Marshall (4/30)	Jack Capuano (4/30)
BIN	Dave Cameron (to St. Mike's 5/1)
PHI	Kjell Samuelsson (6/6)	Craig Berube (6/6)
GR	Greg Ireland (6/15)
SPR	Steve Stirling-s	Geoff Ward (5/15)
NOR	Mike Haviland-n	Steve Stirling-s
RCK	---	Mike Haviland-n
CLE	---	Joe Sacco (5/7)

n-from Norfolk to Rockford with Chicago's affiliation; s-from Springfield to Norfolk with Tampa Bay's affiliation

Would love to tell you something about Greg Ireland as a coach, but, you know, Grand Rapids is part of the Rumored Conference.

VBG to DEL

2007-06-15T01:53:00.000-04:00

Eurohockey notes the departure of Dustin VanBallegooie to Duisburg, Germany. Obligatory fun with Babelfish: Though "Bridgeport Sound Tigers" appears intact in the original, the sentence becomes "Last with the Bridgeport sound of tiger active Canadians receives a contract for the coming season" in translation. And they like their exclamation points on that site!

Jan Hlavac, entwined in both NY teams' histories, is back on these shores with Tampa.

Met Bridgeport councilman Johnny Dye last year when desperately looking for a Nutmeg State Games story. He and Bruce Hargett got me one and were surely enthusiastic about the tennis going on in the shadow of Wonderland. Dye died Tuesday night at 58. RIP.

Lowell's city council approved the deals to keep the Devils and UML at Tsongas Arena.

The QC Flames logo, ladies and gentlemen.

James Mirtle posts the voting for the NHL awards.

(adding) Here's an important survey map. (Tip: Infonaut)

Ex-files

2007-06-11T16:07:00.000-04:00

Wilkes-Barre/Scranton signed Kyle Rank to an AHL deal.

Also, in two languages, Freddy Cloutier is off to Renon, Italia, where Blaine Down played a couple of years ago.

Heeeeeeeeeere, Fishy Fishy Fishy Fishy!

2007-06-10T03:04:00.000-04:00

Spent the night with the Bluefish, but at least got to watch most of the Belmont between pitches. You think, when Hard Spun and Curlin got back across the street to the stables, the other horses were like, "Ha ha! You got beat by a girl"? (The juveniles probably were, anyway.)

Patrick Moran passed on this piece of the D&C, about how Rochester re-upped its dual affiliation. The D&C followed up a day later with this about how the Amerks' and Knighthawks' minority partner is suing Steve Donner. These are always a blast... as long as you're not the one covering them. Parts of this one sound too familiar. A link to the actual complaint is on the paper's Web site, if you've got the free time to plow through.

-----

With my own free time the past week or so, I'd set up a little Micro League Baseball tournament, using the ol' Apple emulator. (The program is a slightly different version than the one I'd had on my old Apple IIc, but it works.) Did it as a 16-team double-elimination tournament; used the top pitcher every game, and let the computer run the games until the bracket finals. With this version, it meant that it would panic and yank pitchers quickly if they ran into trouble, and it would leave them in forever if things were going OK.

For one pitcher, that made it a legendary tournament; I was rather surprised that his team won, but he was incredible. He pitched four consecutive four-hitters; the second one lasted 17 innings. I was stunned the computer had left him in, until I realized that, given the scoreboard when I checked in the eighth, he allowed just one hit over the final 10 or more innings. In that fourth game, the winners bracket final, he hit the game-winning home run in the bottom of the seventh. Then in the championship, he had an RBI fielder's choice, and a two-run home run, which gives him one more fictional homer in two fictional games than he had in a 10-year real career, in which this one year was by far his best, still memorable for one stat in particular.

They beat another team that surprised the heck out of me. That team had one of my favorite all-time players, though he's a favorite of mine for what he did with his first team, not this team, which came out of the losers bracket and avenged its only loss along the way; he closed out their last three wins (and the loss, actually).

Here are the opening matchups, randomly generated. Wanna guess which teams made the final and which players I meant?

1961 Yankees -1980 Royals
1984 Tigers -1978 Yankees
1955 Dodgers-1980 Phillies
1975 Red Sox-1975 Reds
1968 Tigers-1955 Senators
1927 Yankees-1973 A's
1963 Dodgers-1945 Cubs
1969 Mets-1979 Orioles

-----

Cardillo's prediction. Cardillo's gamer. That's called "clutch."

Heeeeey Bulldog

2007-06-08T01:40:00.000-04:00

Eric Manlow and the Hamilton Bulldogs are Calder Cup champions. Manlow joins Ray Schultz as former Sound Tigers who got their names on the little Cup after they left here. And good on Ajay Baines, a good ol' heart and soul kind of guy, for scoring the Cup-winning goal.

Here's a nice read on MVP Carey Price from Hamilton Spectator columnist Steve Milton.

Cappy heads to Bangor, and Bangor's glad to see him.

Ol' buddy Phil Soto-Ortiz was doing today's Masuk softball game on the Internet and wanted me to come on with him. Tried to avoid it, but he insisted, so I gave it a whirl. Masuk had a crazy inning, and it included a bases-loaded, ground-ball error. I remarked that it would have been tough for her to get it to the plate or to turn two, anyway.

Um... Michael... there were two out.

Fortunately, thanks to this blog, it wasn't the first time I've made a fool of myself on the Internet.

Well... happy summer.

You think you know (CT), but you haven't got a clue

2007-06-07T02:15:00.000-04:00

A 6-2 Hamilton win leaves the Bulldogs 60 minutes away from their first Calder Cup. Eric Manlow scored a goal and an assist and was second star. Game 5 is Thursday.

Congrats to Darien's Ryan Shannon, who'll get his name on the Cup with the flighty Ducks. And clutch job for Darien by NBC, which cut back to the Cup just in time to catch his moment with it aloft. (I normally complain about networks cutting away from the Cup for stand-up interviews, but that one with Selanne was by far the best one yet. Usually, you're cutting away from actual emotion to talk about emotion with guys who are still numb; this interview was serious emotion all over his face.)

Tip o'cap to correspondent Bob Farrington, who passed on the Okposo staying in school release at the Gophers' site.

ATL: Craig Berube is again coach of the Phantoms. Eurohockey notes that Bryce Lampman signed with TPS Turku (link in Finnish). It also notes that ol' buddy Dusan Salficky is off to Nizhny Novgorod, that brief Sound Tiger Steve Crampton is off to Germany (German), that Isles draft pick Robin Figren was picked up by the Edmonton Oil Kings in the WHL expansion draft (Canadian English), and -- zut alors! -- that former Nighthawk John Miner is moving from Denmark to France. (Fun with Babelfish: "It (Miner) flew away to Europe which it has furrowed for 16 years with success.")

Combining the last two parts of that, Brent Raedeke's name caught my eye on the Edmonton list. Couldn't find out if he's related to former Nighthawk Mark, but they're both from Regina. But in looking: Red Deer drafted Craig Redmond's kid. (Craig Redmond only played five games in New Haven? Yeesh, did I see them all?)

Didn't actually make it to Willimantic; turns out Eastern Connecticut's athletic facilities are technically in Mansfield (glad I asked). When I went to Lime Rock, I found it hard to believe you could drive for an hour and a half and still be in Connecticut. Know better now: You can drive for an hour and a half and still be in the middle of the state. I always like driving through towns -- or at least seeing signs for towns -- I've never seen. Bolton, Columbia, Marlborough, Hebron: they were dots on a map, or parts of regional high schools and co-op hockey teams. I see Route 66 cutting through some of these small towns and imagine a trail cut through a forest, no matter how much I know it's not true, and that the center of East Hampton looks just a little like Route 34 at the Derby/Orange border.

I don't know why that particularly excites me, but hey.

Had never seen this before, but ECSU had one in the baseball press box: looks like a ladder, but with alternating steps...

Have a fair chance in the next two nights of covering the softball champions of each of our four big conferences. Now if only those winners were all in the same CIAC class, we could play 'em off for the Connecticut Post Cup or something...

Randomly: Fun (well, not for the victims) with unintended consequences from the Freakonomics folks. China suppresses Tiananmen Square so well that references fly over people's heads.

ROTATE!

2007-06-06T04:35:00.000-04:00

Newsday reports that Alexei Yashin is being bought out, after all. Mark Herrmann column supplements.

Mississauga to St. Catharines. St. Mike's to Mississauga. Probably St. Mike's kids to St. Mike's.

Is it truly a good idea for a low-minors team, even in jest, to use the word "move" and "to (another state)" together in a press-release headline? (Especially since "New Jersey Jackals" sounds pretty good.)

SCF Game 3 gets a 2 share. Wait, they left you and me out: So 2.000002.

ESPN's Scott Burnside says (among other things) that the AHL may test one-minute penalties in OT, which is probably fair, unless you take the sudden-death part out of sudden-death OT. (Or, you know, go back to playing actual five-on-five hockey in overtime, but I know, stifle your radical concepts.) He also says the AHL probably wouldn't be the guinea pigs for bigger nets, and good for the AHL. Maybe most interesting: all faceoffs would be at a dot next year. Hmm. Got to see that in action.

AICN's Hercules asks: If Jericho lives, why not Veronica Mars? (Maybe he, Amanda and I were the only ones watching...)

Off to Willimantic tomorrow... again. I tried today but got as far as Rocky Hill before frantic calls from both bosses let me know the game was called. The lightning strikes all around -- as well as the cars off the road -- were a good tip-off. (Two days of Tim Hortons? Caffeine overdose...)

Big man (yes?)

2007-06-05T00:01:00.000-04:00

Hamilton grabs a 2-1 lead. Two goals for Danny Groulx, who has six in the playoffs after scoring none in the regular season.

And did anyone else think that, rather than diving in the opening minute, Chris Neil took that stick in a delicate location? Could be wrong...

Different kind of power play II

2007-06-03T03:35:00.000-04:00

The Hersheyparkers solved Carey Price in Game 2 and won 4-2 to square the final. Hamilton took two leads, but Jakub Klepis scored 42 seconds after the second Hamilton goal to tie it up. Scott Barney (his second) and Chris Bourque put the Bears ahead for good. And check out who assisted on Klepis' goal: Joey Tenute, back from ~~the dead~~ that punctured lung.

As linked above in Tim Leone's gamer: "(Louis) Robitaille and Hamilton's Maxim Lapierre jawed in French and English on their team benches about two hours before the game."

Was just about to settle down for this off-day blog entry when the lights went out. Hurray! Let's all flash back to the days before electricity! Telling stories 'round the fire! Big pot o' boilin' water! Rubella! Our friendly neighborhood electric company said it'd be back by 2 a.m. But hey, you guys*? Not until 2:51.

*-They're gonna turn it on. They're gonna bring you the power.**
**-Oh, I had to.***
***-OK, yeah, this too.****
****-One more, non-Lehrer.

YAY! MARTY! MARTY! MARTY!*

2007-06-01T23:37:00.000-04:00

This Carey Price kid made a routine 46 saves to lead Hamilton to a 4-0 win in Game 1. Lotsa fights at the end, which could lead to some discipline. Did you see Tim Leone the other day, where Bruce Boudreau compared Price to a punk kid name of Patrick Roy? Game 2 is Saturday.

Meanwhile, the Blues today announced the signing of five players, including one Martin Kariya, returning to these shores for the first time since he dumped the puck right at Sebastien Caron in overtime, Game 3, 2004.

*-It's from "The Critic," and it went through my head every time Kariya did something good.

Different kind of power play

2007-06-01T19:04:00.000-04:00

Just turned on the Hershey Webcast to hear John Walton talking about the lights apparently going out at Giant Center (maybe a lightning strike? I missed it) before Game 1. Hmm... feels familiar, somehow.

By the way, it was a year ago today that the Baseggio-Bingham-Lambert coaching staff was let go. Feels like a lifetime ago sometimes...

What season is this?

2007-05-31T22:01:00.000-04:00

So at the Isles' site, Chris Botta mentions how Wes O'Neill probably isn't getting signed. Well, if he's gonna say it... What's gone around quietly here is that the Isles would give him an AHL deal to try him out, but they don't think he's quick enough.

Just so you all know where my head is: Today, I wrote up the Fairfield Prep lacrosse game and talked about a player knocking his opponent "off the puck." Oops. At least Gino caught it.

Prep coach Chris Smalkais is a huge hockey fan. Before the game, I was checking rosters, and he walked past and told me not to write any bad stories about the Senators. One of his fervent hopes is that we'd do more with Shaun Hannah's Sacred Heart Pioneers.

Calder Cup Final begins Friday night in Hershey.

And please check out John's comment on yesterday's post, if you haven't already.

Edit: Lance Galbraith and Idaho are your Kelly Cup champs.

Is he strong? Listen, bud...

2007-05-31T02:04:00.000-04:00

In honor of Guillermo Mota's return from performance-enhanced exile, I'm going on steroids. My mometazone was prescribed, though. Doc says that "spider bite" of mine, from the colo(u)r and the shape* of it, may just be a reaction to something. Or it may be a spider bite. We'll see. Meanwhile, I expect to become a home-run hitter shortly. Or so the hysteria tells me**.

Anyway, contain your excitement over the Bridgeport schedule format, which had all of one huge change: drop two games with Providence, add them to Portland. Great: another 200-something miles or a hotel stay. That'll go over great with the bean counters. On the other hand, still no one from the West, not even Syracuse again, and the Sound Tigers still haven't been to Rochester since Game One. Don't tell the boss, but I'd probably chip in to make a Midwest road trip. Got a couch I can use in Joliet, after all.

(Speaking of whom, I just noticed tonight that one of my brother's old sticks, received as a Christmas gift from a cousin in 2001 or '02, is a Daniel Tkaczuk pattern. Of all people.)

Hartford skips Wilkes-Barre and, again, Binghamton, but the Pack actually gets some variety: Hamilton, Syracuse, Toronto, Houston and San Antonio.

The Eastern Conference alignment is identical to last year's. QC stays in Omaha's spot; drop Rockford into the West and Cleveland into the North.

Here's Kohn, officially.

Oh -- the other thing I meant to mention last night was that the Sound Tigers are taking applications for their fan advisory board, if you're interested. Send an e-mail by June 15 to fanboard@soundtigers.com saying 1) why you're applying and 2) "a brief description of how you think the team can improve in any one aspect." (Don't pick the power play. That job's taken.) You can snail-mail it to the team, too.

Had to kill 20 minutes at Walgreens while I waited for my 'roids today. Some thoughts from walking around:

--Ever since spending time with the Cobys for that big autos story last week, I've had this weird urge to build a model car. Looked around, but no dice. This may take a special trip. And some free time.

--They were piping '60s music over the PA. Have I ever mentioned my position that the Mamas and the Papas' "I Saw Her Again" is the best pop song ever? If not, there 'tis.

--Rather limited magazine selection, but one of the celebrity mags declared that "Shiloh was no accident!" Choose your own adventure: a) Of course not; it was a surprise attack; b) Of course not; Neil Diamond is a pop genius.

*-Foo Fighters: Given the steady quality of the radio hits, underrated or not?
**-Or, also in honor of Guillermo Mota, maybe I'll just try to throw fastballs past people when it's obvious they can't handle my changeup***.
***-Bitter much?

...and pretty things

2007-05-30T03:07:00.000-04:00

You have got to love it, I'm sure, when a kid's junior team announces your signings for you. Regardless, Dustin Kohn is "in the fold," as a confirming source said; the signing team will probably announce it Wednesday. The timing doesn't seem to have anything to do with the announcement that Mike Milbury will no longer be day to day with the Islanders, but who knows. Kohn was the draft pick they had to get done. He'll play a ton in the fall and beyond.

Around the horn: The Pack live. The new Civic Center management types will run the front office, while MSG will run the hockey. Former Pens and Devils coach is the new Houston boss. The Forechecker has some salient points on the NHLPA e-mail spying scandal, which might be one of the weirdest things ever.

Had something else in the middle here, but the computer crashed between saves. (And this is the Incredible Fighting Home Compy, not Incredible Crashing Work Computer.)

Long day covering track at Willow Brook Park. (It seems wrong that I've talked to Ashley Matakevich twice more in the past eight days than I've spoken to Mark Wotton in the past 43, but it's true.) WBP is a pretty solid facility for track; you climb up the 60 stairs (really, I counted once or twice or 10 times), and there's a sizeable press box with power and phone lines. Who needs more?

Well, today, for no obvious reason, the CIAC had New Britain parks and rec keep the press box locked. Fortunately, I found a power outlet on the side of the structure under the press box, so I sat there among the ants and those weird-looking red bugs that explode in a fiery splash when you touch 'em, and I typed up my agate. And fortunately, a couple of maintenance guys took pity and let me into an office to send my story. And fortunately, no Rock Cats or Rock Cats opponents had homered into my windshield, 'cause they made us park behind the outfield at the new ballpark.

Do you care? No, I'm sure. But Tim Hortons was still open on the way home...

I almost went to wamazon.com earlier. (Afraid to do so now, just in case it's weird stuff that makes your computer crash -- again.) I blame it on the track stuff. And this weird spider bite that's changing color. (Just in case, I love you all.)

Back on track

2007-05-29T01:46:00.000-04:00

Kip Brennan is out for the playoffs after that altercation with a fan. Thanks to Stan for finding the clip.

Hartford has sent a press release announcing a press conference about the Pack. Hmm... I'll bet "staying."

Good on Don Maloney for getting another shot at running a show, now in Phoenix. He did good things for the Rangers this past decade.

For Memorial Day, an interesting piece from the Wall Street Journal's online wing about Medal of Honor recipients.

Got us a matchup...

2007-05-26T22:10:00.000-04:00

Hershey (no surprise at all) and Hamilton (a shocker, at least from way afar) will meet for the Calder Cup. Both finished off the series with a 3-1 win (both with an empty-netter, too), and both winning goalies took first-star honors. The final starts Friday-Saturday in the Land of Chocolate.

And since it's been a while -- what, a week? -- since we had a Steve Richmond reference, sportsagentblog.com has this Danny Richmond interview.

At the count of one...

2007-05-25T23:11:00.000-04:00

Chicago stayed alive, apparently; it's still an unofficial final, 70 minutes after the game apparently ended. Niko Dimitrakos had the only goal and Freddie Brathwaite made some 37 saves.

Thanks to the anonymous commenter earlier, who noted this Kip Brennan incident in Wednesday's Game 3 between Hershey and Manchester. No YouTube... yet.

Steve Stirling feature in the Virginian-Pilot.

Rockford won the Colonial Cup in a last UHL hurrah.

Finished my second long story of the summer today: a week with an auto racing team. Most of what I know about cars, I learned from the Beach Boys. That's about the only reason a "pressure plate" reference didn't fly over my head.

Bouncing around

2007-05-25T01:22:00.000-04:00

Andrew MacDonald is in the fold officially.

Omaha to Moline is done; welcome the Quad City Flames. (Maybe. Someday. We never saw Omaha come play the Sound Tigers, so why do I get the feeling that the only way we see Moline is to drive out I-80 from Joliet?)

Albany will have Tom Rowe for a while, and Geordie Kinnear will be his assistant.

Tampa Bay wins the award for the funkiest press release ever while firing an assistant (associate, anyway) coach.

Northwestern Creole French, as perhaps spoken in...

2007-05-24T01:59:00.000-04:00

Utah*? Here's what supposedly makes this better than Pensacola: Quality of the franchise (The E Center, stronger operation); direct flights; later direct flights, which makes it easier to get guys in on short notice. It's not optimal -- there's buzz about the Islanders looking for an ECHL franchise of their own, possibly for Suffolk County, down the road, and they'd certainly have a closer affiliate if there were a spot open -- but that's what it is for this year.

Both conference finals down here are 3-0, with Hershey beating Manchester 4-1 and Hamilton winning 2-1 on goals by Stortini and Locke... Locke? How crazy was Lost? Yeesh. Anyway.

Other stuff: The BST ambassador program is up and running; apply at the link if interested. Barrett Heisten retires. It's been swell, Nashville. And my RSS reader always finds this place (name withheld) that compiles other news sources, similar to OurSportsCentral. This place (not OSC, to be clear) headlined the Bingham release with "Garth Snow named Bridgeport Sound Tigers assistant coach." That would be different.

*-Nick Reynolds**
**-Probably the biggest upset in almost two years on the blog is the lack of Kingston Trio references.

Wherefore art thou Bentivoglio?

2007-05-21T12:31:00.000-04:00

Sean Bentivoglio has signed a three-year deal with the Islanders, the big club announced. (IHDB). He was clutch with Providence after signing an ATO out of Niagara; I had him first star in the game here April 6, when he was 1-2-3 and was stopped on a breakaway.

Meet the new boss...

2007-05-21T00:12:00.000-04:00

Pat's back. He worked hard to get to this level once, and though he couldn't have asked for a better situation than Fort Wayne at a lower level, he's pretty excited to come back. I'm glad, too, 'cause Pat's fun to talk hockey with. That completes the staff. So who's ready for hockey?

On the fifth anniversary of Louie DeBrusk's (Louie DeBrusk's?) overtime goal in Game 6, Hamilton won again in OT, on a Michael Lambert goal, to take a 2-0 lead back to Hamilton. Eric Manlow assisted on the winner. Hershey won 4-1 and took a 2-0 lead as Mike Green scored twice.

Patrick Williams has been all over All Things Lowell this week, including today, as the Sun overviews the mess.

What's a "clutch"?

2007-05-19T22:29:00.000-04:00

The short version after a week on assignment(s) (where sometimes it rains):

The other assistant coach will be in the paper in the morning. Feels like a good move for both sides, albeit an interesting one.

Dieter Kochan will be an assistant coach with the junior-A Marquette Rangers, The Mining Journal says. Islanders assistant Danny Flynn is going back to be the Moncton Wildcats' head coach. Kenny Morrow is sticking around.

Hartford should live, but there are two other teams that also need more time to firm up next year. Several reports have Omaha moving to Quad Cities. Meeting adjourned to Friday. (Quad Cities would be interesting. The rink needs some work to bring it up to AHL specs, but it looks OK from the outside -- drove to Moline during one trip to visit The Little Punk in Illinois. And then once I was in Moline, heck, I had to cross the Mississippi. Spent about 30 seconds in Iowa...)

I was gonna mention how Dave Steckel is a pretty good player, but then pretty much every other Bears player got in the act, too. Hershey's got a lead. And Louis Robitaille got dinged for diving in the last minute: Fill in your own punchline. Hamilton blew a lead Friday, then came back twice to get the lead on Chicago on Dan Jancevski's overtime winner. Garry McKay says Eric Manlow has come back from an awful and out-of-shape start. Geoff Ward is Springfield's coach.

I love the Triple Crown, but NBC's switching from Buffalo-Ottawa to an extended Preakness preview was pretty depressing.

The dark is afraid of Endy Chavez.

Willie Randolph gave the commencement speech at Fordham this morning. Vin Scully was the speaker in 2000, so that's at least two pretty solid choices in eight years. (My brother gets a Hall-of-Fame broadcaster; I got the university president at the university commencement and some depressing, preachy sociologist in the rain at class day. Exciting times. Thank goodness for Marcellus Wiley shooting the silly string all over everyone.)

Found this knocking around YouTube. The 12 guys on the ice are Steve Patrick, Mike Rogers, Tomas Sandstrom, Steve Richmond, James Patrick and John Vanbiesbrouck vs. Clark Gillies, Bryan Trottier, Duane Sutter, Stefan Persson, Paul Boutilier and Kelly Hrudey. If it is 1985-86, Hrudey's hockeygoalies.org bio makes it Dec. 20, 1985 -- and it thus would've been the last game as Rangers for both Rogers (traded that day for Larry Melnyk) and Danny's father. I'll do some research.

Around the horn

2007-05-15T00:41:00.000-04:00

Bridgeport has a new equipment manager, and it's Mike Burkhead, formerly with Columbia (ECHL). Light reading: Bridgeport's release, Columbia's release and its bio.

The Isles profile Jeff Tambellini on the road.

The conference finals are set: Manchester moved on, and Hamilton finished off Manitoba in overtime on Eric Manlow's second goal of the night. The next round's schedules are up on the schedule page; the West begins Friday, and the East starts Saturday at Hershey.

It's upfronts week in TV. The National Broadcasting Company kicked it off. Honestly, except for Heroes and Thursday nights and the odd Giants game, I'm not on Ch. 4 that often. On paper, I don't see anything to change that.

Speaking of television, is it wrong that, when I hear Derek Roy's name, I think of this guy?* And Filip Bondy wonders why nobody covers the Jersey mob on television.

*-No, really, don't click on ANY of those sounds!**
**-Except maybe 2 (probably NSFW), 9, 12, 19.

Breaking the trend

2007-05-13T17:37:00.000-04:00

Hamilton became the first home team to win in the North Division Final and takes a 3-2 lead back to Winnipeg. (Ajay Baines got an empty-netter, they say, at 20:00 of the third, which seems very weird to me -- it's 19:59, or it's not. But anyway.) They waste no time: Game 6 is Monday, and Game 7 would be Wednesday. (It's the same in the Atlantic Division, the only other series going.)

So the Finns tried to make it a game at the end, but Tournament MVP Rick Nash's second goal finished it off as Canada won gold for the third time in five years. Bergenheim was minus-1. Russia got out quickly and took the bronze. The old Tigers did little that appeared on the scoresheet. Here's the final rankings.

And happy Mother's Day, if you're a mom.

Capuano feature: DVD Extras

2007-05-13T15:43:00.000-04:00

Well, 35 inches seems like a lot until you talk to seven or eight people and have all kinds of stuff sitting on the cutting-room floor. Here's some of the the deleted scenes:

--I asked everyone for a Cappy story. Only one person said "nothing printable." (And he was kidding.) Howard Saffan had two, the one that was in there and this one: "He's the most superstitious person I've ever met in my life, to the point of which everything must be the same as the prior night if they won, everything, you name it. The time he drinks his coffee, if he's wearing a headset or if he's not wearing a headset, if he's wearing a certain tie, everything."

--He studied business and physical education at Maine before leaving with a year and change to go for his degree.

--I had a whole section planned about his influences. Then I realized 35 inches wasn't as long as I thought. Here's the raw material of that section:

From Cranston East, where he played for Rhode Island legend Dick Ernst, Capuano went to Kent when he was 15, playing hockey under Tom Army as well as football and baseball. He played three years at Maine under the late Shawn Walsh and assistant coach Jay Leach before turning pro.

Walsh and Leach:
"You watch and learn their focus, their intensity, their preparation, strength and conditioning, every little element they give you to try to become a better player," Capuano said.

"You hear guys that say a team plays with the personality of its coach," Capuano said, "but a lot of coaches didn't play. You always take a little bit of everyone you have. The communication factor."

"Over the years, the way I played as an offensive defenseman: Do I want all my defensemen to jump up in the play? I think D jumping up into the play is something you'll see from our team," Capuano said. "I think sometimes it's a (defensive) deficiency of a forward, he loses the responsibility of his player. That's the way I played. I do want to see that. We'll see our D jump up. We've got some good young prospects, (Drew) Fata, (Dustin) Kohn I think will be here next year, Jamie Fraser.

"The new NHL, the way it is now, there's a lot of four-man attacks," Capuano said. "That's my philosophy. I don't want to take away from our defense, but the best defense gives good offense as well."

--On the "change" at New Year's: "Anybody who knows me (knows) I just try to come to work every day and do the best job I can do," Capuano said. "They asked me to change a little bit of the roles and responsibilities, to change the voice a little bit. Danny took over the (defense and penalty killing), I took over the power play. It was a job they asked us to do, and we did it."

--A bit more from Snow on the choice: "He's been successful wherever he's been, as a coach or a GM. He's earned his stripes," Snow said. "I know the first half of the season, when he was predominately working with the penalty kill, it was No. 1 in the league, so he did a great job there. ... He's a perfect fit to help us develop players to come up and be Islanders."

--"The one thing about this profession, obviously, is to have a very supportive family, especially wife," Capuano said. "She's been a champ. She understands my love of the game, my love to teach and be around the sport of hockey. Without her, I don't even know if I'd be sitting here today."

--He was continually thankful to Wang, Milbury, Stirling, Snow, Saffan, for all the chances he's received the past two years with the Islanders organization.

--Wednesday, Capuano and Bernie Cassell were in Providence to watch the Bruins play Manchester. Thursday, he was looking for a place to watch the Ottawa-Buffalo game.

"If he's not at the rink working, he's sitting there watching a game at night, picking up the X's and O's of each team in the NHL," Cassell said.

--On being a GM in the Coast: "Any time, it's people skills and communication," Capuano said. "A lot of times you're dealing with agents, with players maybe in a little different capacity. You're even dealing with your staff. ... It's something I wanted to do to diversify myself. If I had to go back and do it all over again, I wouldn't change anything."

--A bit more from Steve Stirling on Capuano's early days on the Island: "First and foremost, I'm thrilled for him," Stirling said. "He's a quality individual and a good young coach with a bright future ahead of him. ...

"Behind closed doors, with the coaching staff, he felt a little behind. He shouldn't have," Stirling said. "I think he felt, 'I'll be respectful.'

"Finally at Christmastime I pulled him aside and said, Cappy, it's been three months, and you have too much to offer. He proved to everyone he had something to offer."

One game to go

2007-05-12T23:57:00.000-04:00

Manitoba is really threatening to go all BPT-WBS last year and make it an all-road series. And of course the Moose hope that, if it does go seven that way, it stays to form and the home team wins Game 7. A couple of goals for Patrick O'Sullivan in a victory for Manchester, which takes a 3-2 edge into Monday's Game 6. Chicago finished off the Stars behind a coupla guys named Haydar and Krog.

Mikko Koivu scores in overtime to move the Finns past Russia (Sean Bergenheim gets a major and a game for kneeing Andrei Markov); then Canada roared out early and beat Sweden 4-1. These teams met for gold in 1994, the year before Finland won its only title.

It's Finland's seventh trip to the final since 1992; their only World Championship medal before that was thanks to their silver in the 1988 Olympics.

~~Weird~~ Wired* Magazine has a piece about the guys who test baseballs for MLB and the stunningly loose specs under which they operate. (Hat tip: Phil Birnbaum at Sabermetric Research.) And series-leader Ray Emery, though not named, makes an appearance at the very bottom of the always-hilarious "Sic!" section of Michael Quinion's "World Wide Words" newsletter this week. (Subscribe, even if you do it just for the "Sic!" section. It's good stuff.)

*-"There's no magazine called 'Weird,' is there?" (AABF20)

You never forget... I hope

2007-05-11T22:45:00.000-04:00

I'm in the middle of what I've been calling my longest story since college. It's probably just my longest story in seven years. But still. You get used to saying what you need in 12-14 inches (500 or so words), and spewing 35 becomes a little tricky.

Anyway, Nygel Pelletier assessed something like 72 power plays (23, whatever), including four in the first five minutes of overtime, and that's how Hershey finished off the Penguins tonight. John Walton got through the goal and the series being done and then spent the next minute or so describing how Wade Skolney and Dennis Bonvie were going after Pelletier. "One of the more bizarrely officiated games in the history of hockey," Walton said to begin the postgame show. Alex Giroux scored his second overtime goal of the series on the Bears' second five-on-three of overtime. That's right, their second five-on-three of overtime. Hmm. Both teams had a short-hander. Scott Barney had three goals for the Bears, and Tomas Fleischmann had five points. Marc-Antoine Pouliot had three points for the Pens. And Hershey is the first team through, but it won't know its opponent until Monday or Wednesday.

Hartford seems likely to be back, Bruce Berlet reports. Meanwhile, Callahan didn't play in Russia yesterday because his gear didn't make it to Moscow, reports the Rochester D&C.

From the Toronto Sun, Bryan McCabe reacts to the Ted Saskin canning.

This popped up on eBay: a 1976-77 New Haven Nighthawks season ticket flyer. That opening bid seems a bit steep, but then again, I'm cheap.

The list of what I don't get about the NBA is surely longer than the list of what I get, but somewhere atop that list is the ~~league's~~ association's penchant for leaking awards winners.

Oh shoot

2007-05-10T18:51:00.000-04:00

So the United States falls in a shootout, and Finland moves on to play Russia in the semifinals. (No shootout rant today. It'll just sound jingoistic, and besides, it's not nearly as offensive in an international quarterfinal*. But let's see if Jere Lehtinen gets himself a stamp.) Former Fairfield Minuteman editor and Sound Tigers PR man Andy Hutchison scored the tying power-play goal. (Who? Carolina? No, I don't buy that.) Looks like the U.S. finishes fifth, its best finish since the bronze in 2004. Ryan Callahan went over there for the game, but he didn't play. That's a long trip just to turn around. (Hope he gets the frequent-flyer miles.) The Rangers also said Fedor Tyutin could play for Russia in the semis. Canada methodically beat up on the Swiss and gets Sweden next.

One interesting thing learned today while working on something else: It's likely the Sound Tigers will bring in just one more assistant to go with Bernie Cassell under Jack Capuano. Howard Saffan last week said the Islanders had approved a third assistant if Capuano wanted one.

A tale of two franchises: Dave Baseggio's contract extension in Peoria became official today. (Dave Eminian had it last week.)

Update: Iowa stayed alive.

*-And yes, that last statement itself makes me either hypocritical or jingoistic...

Hip and happenings

2007-05-10T01:20:00.000-04:00

Been waiting on some details on this, but Masi Marjamaki had hip surgery last week. He'd had occasional soreness for a while and had seemed to respond to treatment, but at the end-of-season physical, they decided to go with the MRI and found some trouble. The surgery was apparently done by the same doctor who did DiPietro's, and the hope is that Marjamaki will be ready for the season. It could be longer. From just a couple of people, I've heard about four possibilities of where the injury came from, but that's the deal.

Also, Paul Camelio won't be back as equipment manager. He's looking for something closer to Rochester.

So LaBarbera lives, and so too do the Monarchs. Gabe Gauthier potted the winner in the first minute of the third. And the Pens live, because Kurtis McLean scored (after a call that Jonathan wonders about in his blog ) in the first minute of overtime to dodge the sweep.

Sweden came back from two early deficits and beat Slovakia 7-4. Some damage from two units and some trouble from the other two (including Tarnstrom's), from the looks of the box. Russia (Which now won't go in on the transfer agreement again) shut out the Czechs 4-0. Three goals in the third, and Grebeshkov had an assist. Russia will play the U.S.-Finland winner.

And jeez, how about Lost tonight?

Best. Bobblehead. Ever.

2007-05-09T02:22:00.000-04:00

I'm debating whether Roy Oswalt, courtesy of commenter BCrisp at the Uni Watch Blog, should usurp Kashiwada on the desktop.*

Now that Wade Dubielewicz has an NHL gig, when is Scott Gordon getting one? The Bruins went ahead 2-1 in the series on T.J. Trevelyan's late power-play goal (two penalties in the last three minutes up there...) Jason LaBarbera missed his second game in a row with the knee. Manitoba scored twice in a minute in the second to take Game 3 and make this a WBS-BPT-style series through three, with all road victors. And Chicago, well, they're not bad. Darren Haydar had two assists and is now seventh on the league's all-time playoff scoring list (39-50-89), one point behind both our old pal Gordie Clark (42-48-90) and the legendary Glenn Merkosky (39-51-90). (Stats from the league's nifty "Morning Skate," which doesn't seem to be online anymore...) Jody Gage's 51 goals are the record, and Willie Marshall was 48-71-119 for the all-time assists and points leads.

*-When I sent the link to a buddy, he said that seeing "Astros" made him wonder if it was a Clemens reference. I said no, if Clemens was involved, they'd put him in front of the bulldozer.**
**-And then Ford Prefect shows up...

Dubie Dubie done

2007-05-08T12:45:00.000-04:00

Deal's done: One year, one-way. Newsday says it's for $500,000.

Save the cheerleader, save the Worlds

2007-05-07T20:45:00.000-04:00

Night off after Hamilton and Chicago both won for the second time in their series last night, but a bunch of things around the league today. Joey Tenute of Hershey is out for the playoffs, the Bears say, after he broke a rib and punctured a lung when hit by J.F. Jacques in Game 2. Ouch. (The league retroactively gave Jacques a boarding major and a game misconduct, which only matters for future suspensions.) Joe Sacco will indeed coach Cleveland. (Lake Erie. Whatever.) Former Rangers defenseman Sylvain Lefebvre will be his assistant. The Marlies slashed ticket prices.

Overseas, Canada beat up on the United States to clinch first; they get the Swiss, while the U.S. gets Finland. Russia beat Sweden and faces the Czechs, so Sweden meets Slovakia. The North American teams are expected to play Thursday, Canada first.

Germany won to finish ninth; Denmark beat Italy to leave the Italians in 12th*. Frans Nielsen had an assist. And here's your Relegation Round recap.

*-Dov'e la Vittoria? Except for one fortunate rules change, certainly not in Moscow.

"...you always leave a note"*

2007-05-06T18:31:00.000-04:00

And that's why I wanted to wait until today. Canada needed overtime to bounce the Czechs -- not without a bit of controversy, either -- and so has a two-point lead over the United States instead of three. The Slovaks avoided overtime only on Belarusian desperation -- Belarus pulled Andrei Mezin because it needed three points, not two, and Pavol Demitra put the puck in the empty net for a 4-3 win. Belarusian desperation had worked OK in the second period on the way back from a 3-1 deficit; former WBS Penguin Konstantin Koltsov -- I'll pause while you recover from the Game-7 memory -- tied it. On the other side, Sweden nipped Finland 1-0 (Bergenheim was zeroes-across, while Tarnstrom had a second assist), and Russia beat Switzerland 6-3 (an assist for Kharitonov), outcome never appearing to be in doubt, though Alex Ovechkin picked himself up a one-game suspension.

So it's actually pretty simple now. Two games mean anything. Canada clinches first in the pool with a win of any kind, or just by getting to overtime. The U.S. would win the pool with a regulation win. The first-place team gets Switzerland in the quarterfinals, while the second-place team gets Finland. Meanwhile, and I mean that literally, Sweden and Russia (minus Ovechkin) will meet for first place in the other group. Winner gets the Czech Republic; loser gets Slovakia.

There are also fifth-place games and relegation games. I hear Raimo Helminen may stand up in a luxury box during the Denmark-Italy game to announce his return for Finland. Stay tuned.

Reuters says Russia may actually sign this IIHF transfer agreement.

There are two Western Conference games tonight. Those teams are rumors, so if they inspire us tonight, we may pop back.

*-Is Jason around here? I know he'd get the Arrested Development shout-out...

Shootin' the rock

2007-05-06T01:49:00.000-04:00

It is incredibly weird for me to sit downstairs at the Arena at Harbor Yard. That's where I was for the Connecticut Sun WNBA exhibition game tonight. (It's fine when the story writes itself.) I sat right in front of where the home penalty box would be, give or take, which is about, what, 20 rows down and a section or two left from usual. And the action on the ~~ice~~ court was substantially different. At least I had Chris Elsberry and Jim Fuller there to help me out and talk about killing five-on-threes and pulling the goalie, and especially Elsberry announcing the last minute of play in the periods.

If the Liberty had only trapped, the game was theirs.

But anyway. Mentioning that I saw former BST staffer Gwen Pointer, who's now director of marketing with the Sun, we'll transition back to the ice, like Hershey's 2-0 win over the Penguins in WB. Granted, I'm a lot more lucid this time around, but this doesn't seem nearly as surprising as last year's 3-0 lead did. Maybe it was just from watching six incredible games between Bridgeport and those Penguins; maybe it's Hershey's Cup championship last year with a bunch of the same guys; maybe it's because Games 2 and 3 last year were sizeable victories, as opposed to this year's one-goal game, overtime game and two-goal game; maybe it's Hershey's minuscule edge this regular season; maybe it's seeing it happen last year, in and of itself. But I'm just not as shocked.

Meantime, Hamilton got the drop on Manitoba.

The biggest shock in Russia was that Frans Nielsen took another penalty in Denmark's 4-1 loss to Switzerland, but more on that in a moment. There's all kinds of intrigue in the other group, helped by the United States' 3-0 win over Germany; Paul Stastny had two goals and an assist, and Eric Cole assisted on all three goals. The big score was Slovakia 3, Czech 2, which tightened up the group in a hurry. Switzerland's win eliminated the Danes and the Italians, who lost to Finland 3-0 (nothing for Bergenheim).

Nielsen has six penalty minutes in five games in this tournament. He had 10 in 69 combined AHL and NHL games this year. (Apples and oranges, but still.)

The order has a ways to go, and the Czechs haven't even clinched a berth yet; if they lose to Canada and Germany beats Belarus in regulation, the Germans will sneak in ahead of the Czechs. here's the page with the tiebreaker rules. The overtime/shootout problem makes this tricky, and I'm not even really supposed to be blogging it, so y'know what? I'll wait till tomorrow to sort it all out. Chicken! you cry, and I'll admit it.

Also from Russia, they're extending the transfer agreement between the IIHF and the NHL.

Punch in the gut

2007-05-04T23:33:00.000-04:00

Hershey came back from 3-0 down to beat Wilkes-Barre/Scranton on Alex Giroux's goal in double-overtime. The Bears are up 2-0 with Game 3 tonight up I-81 in Wilkes-Barre. This isn't the time of year to ask why Giroux, who tied the game with 7:29 to go, is in this league, so let's just say he shouldn't be in this league next year. Robert Nilsson had two assists and picked up the third star.

Iowa came back strong in Game 2 and beat Chicago 5-4. Paul Szczechura, a rookie out of Western Michigan, scored twice, with the second proving to be the winner.

So Captain Non Grata notched a hat trick in the second period as Canada came back to beat Belarus 6-3. The Russians wrecked Italy's run at the medal round.

It seemed to me that teams who have scored first in this thing have gone on to lose at an abnormal rate, but that's wrong. In the AHL the last few years pre-shootout, teams scoring first had about a .680-.690 winning percentage, give or take. (In the shootout era, that's up to about .730.) Teams scoring first in Russia this spring have won 21 of the 30 prelim- or qualifying-round games. That's .700.

There were relegation-round games today, but we'll worry about them when someone gets ranked down to No. 17.

Meanwhile, I've been linking a ton off the Variety RSS feed lately, but gotta post this one about Robert De Niro and Bridgeport.

Moscow Nights*

2007-05-03T16:30:00.000-04:00

Nothing tonight in the 'Merican League, but the 'Mericans beat Slovakia (couple of points for Phil Kessel and Brandon Bochenski) and saw the Czechs go down to Germany today. Roman Cechmanek faced just 18 shots. The Czechs still have to face the Canadians and their former countrymen, the Slovaks. (Of course, the Americans still have to face the Canadians and, um, the Germans.) Sweden stood up to a challenge from Denmark, came back from 2-0 down in the first 6:40 and beat the Danes 5-2; Frans Nielsen had but one shot on goal, while Tarnstrom had an assist, and the Jonsson Brothers combined for the first goal. And Finland beat Switzerland 2-0.

Although the Italians could still throw a monkey wrench in at some point, Switzerland-Denmark could be essentially an elimination game Saturday morning.

Hip surgery for Rick DiPietro; he's supposed to be ready for next year.

The Virginian Pilot wraps up seven years of Blackhawks prospects in Norfolk with a few seven-deep lists: memorable moments (headed by the brawl with Lowell, a pic of which was by accident briefly on the lead story), top players, and, um, awards winners.

*-Song's been in my head lately. Don't think it has to do with the tourney...

Some local stuff, actually

2007-05-03T00:05:00.000-04:00

Frans Nielsen gets a pop on the Isles' Web site. Eurohockey.net has Tomas Malec back home to HC Ocelari Trinec. It also has Eric Meloche off to Germany, and maybe most interestingly, it has Gerry Cantlon reporting that Hartford captain Craig Weller will play in either Germany or Austria next year. Bruce Berlet says the same thing in the Courant, along with some fun and straightforward speculation about Ken Gernander taking over as head coach.

Looks like a kooky finish to Game 1 in the East: WBS cuts it to one on a short-hander, then allows an empty-netter, then scores with under four seconds to go -- too late. Robert Nilsson had a couple of points, including the second assist on the short-hander. Elsewhere, Manchester came back strong, and Iowa probably would rather forget this. Two Stars were on the ice for more goals than either goalie.

Remember Jason Cirone? Today, he led Italy to the second round of the Worlds with two goals, including one in overtime. This, notes the AP story, is the first Worlds with overtime in the round-robin; Cirone and Italy would have been dead without it. Germany sneaked past Norway, too; former Wolf Packer John Tripp got the winner. Up in the big time, Canada avoided uproar with a 5-4 win over Slovakia, pending Parliamentary investigation; Rick Nash scored the winner after the Slovaks came back from 3-1 and 4-2 deficits. And Sweden uncomplicatedly beat the tar out of Switzerland. (David Aebischer picked up a misconduct for the Swiss, which doesn't seem very neutral of him.)

Germany, Slovakia and Canada are in the United States' second-round pool. Canada and the Czechs are 2-0; the Americans and the Slovaks are 1-1; Germany and Belarus are 0-2. And as today's result makes it timely to remember, three points for a regulation win, two for an OT win, one for an OT loss.

Still minus-1

2007-05-01T23:23:00.000-04:00

Got to love a country where the Parliament takes time to analyze the captain of the national team. The country, if not the Parliament.

The fans in Bingo don't have Dave Cameron to kick around anymore; Cameron is off to Toronto to coach the St. Mike's Majors again.

Winnipeg advanced with a 4-1 win in Game 7; Jason Jaffray finished a hat trick into an empty net. It's Manitoba-Hamilton in the division final, the first time two Canadian teams have met this deep into the playoffs since those two teams met in 2003.

Providence won, too, to start the second round and keep the momentum going.

Frans Nielsen assisted on the first goal as Denmark advanced to the second round of the Worlds with a win over Ukraine. The United States played a wild but fruitless third period, almost salvaging a point before Jaroslav Bednar scored the winner with 1:08 to go. Former Wolf Pack centerman Chad Larose had scored a short-hander with 6:01 to play, and Andrew Hutchinson had put one in on the power play 1:38 later to tie it. So the U.S. is 1-1 in the second round. Belarus advanced behind five different goal scorers we've never heard of. Russia beat Finland, and Denis Grebeshkov finally made an appearance, assisting on Petr Schastlivy's winning goal. Sean Bergenheim was scoreless and penaltyless. (By the way, did you know that if you change that last number in the name of the PDF file, you can get the second-period summary, for whatever that's worth? Found that one by accident when I almost posted the wrong thing...)

Hadn't known that onetime Ranger Miloslav Hořava had a kid by the same name playing in Sweden, until today: Joe Dumas posted this clip on Eric McErlain's Off Wing Opinion. Take a look. (It's short, so it loads quickly even on dialup.)

And a sad couple of days in lots of different places: RIP, Tom Poston, Zola Taylor (the "lovely dish" to go with the four Platters), and Dabbs (Rev. Alden) Greer.

Day off (except Russia, Ottawa and SJ)

2007-04-30T18:26:00.000-04:00

Robert Nilsson's confidence was never in doubt, was it?

Sunday, by the way, was the fifth anniversary of the longest game the Sound Tigers have yet played, a double-overtime Game 3 at St. John's. Juraj Kolnik won it with 1:24 left in the fifth period. That let me just barely make first-edition deadline, which is amazing considering Newfoundland is an hour and a half ahead of us and the game started at 6 Eastern...

Far across the sea, nothing weird happened, though it came close in one case. Canada beat Norway 4-2, having to come from behind once and needing two goals in the third to break a tie. The Slovaks beat up on Germany late. Sweden beat up on Latvia, though Herbert Vasiljevs had an assist; Andy points out in the comments below how Dickie Tarnstrom's all over the scoresheet. And in a horrific result, Switzerland beat Italy 2-1, though Mario Chitaroni took two penalties, including a cross-checking minor at the buzzer.

Each of the four groups has gone deadly according to the seeds, leaving an elimination game in each group: Latvia-Italy; Austria-Belarus; Germany-Norway; Denmark-Ukraine. A tie would go to the first team named in each of those matchups.

New beginnings

2007-04-30T00:37:00.000-04:00

"That's one thing I've learned, it's a fragile, fragile thing, confidence. They all come here with some talent. To develop that, you need their full attention."
--Dan Marshall, July 17, 2006

The era didn't last that long, but that first part was proven 10 times over this season, in just about any way you'd want to read it.

It's Jack Capuano's team now, officially. In some ways, it was already. He seemed to have their respect and their confidence. The atmosphere was definitely different around that team after Jan. 1. We'll see what they let him do.

Sounds like one assistant to come.

Hartford's done after losing back-to-back games at home, never leading in either game. Good night, Connecticut. (Attendance: 2,266. Wow. Almost was 2,268, but we got sidetracked. Hey, have I said lately how much I hate the NHL's delay-of-game penalty for a puck over the glass from the D-zone?) Manitoba forced another Game 7. And check out who scored with 2:35 left for the Penguins to finish off the Blackhawks in Norfolk. (Get a snapshot of the three division finals that are set already on the league's schedule page for May. Love that Iowa-Chicago: Every other day? You'd think it was pro hockey.)

Elsewhere in the world (PDFs alert), Sean Bergenheim had an assist in Finland's 6-2 win over Denmark. Possible future linemate Frans Nielsen had one, too (it neatly jumped onto the next page, so it took me a while to find it), and he also took a penalty for the second game in a row. Hard to imagine. (I like the cross-checking bit, though.) The U.S. is actually 2-0. Ukraine scored first, and like Italy yesterday to Sweden, it ticked Russia off. The former Sound Tigers again didn't score. And I guess the Czechs beat Austria.*

Next for these teams, the third game of the prelim round, is when the Worlds usually start to get interesting. The Americans, the Czechs and the Austria-Belarus winner go into a six-team group with the top three out of Slovakia, Canada, Germany and Norway. The results of the games already played between those teams carry over.

*-Had to love the so-beautifully-filthy thepensblog.com take on Slovakia-Norway yesterday: "If you care about this game and want more details, Move to Slovakia or Norway." (Also loved their recap of the news the other night...)

Sunday preview

2007-04-28T21:17:00.000-04:00

If there's such a thing as a big but anticlimactic story, it's in the paper come the morning (possibly earlier on the Web). Substantial, but given the events of the past few months, probably no shock.

There's another story I enjoyed doing on Michael Benedosso, a West Point boxer from Milford. Nice kid.

So there'll be a Game 7 in Hartford Sunday night after Providence won Game 6 tonight. The winner will meet an odd foe, because believe it or not, the Monarchs have won a playoff round! The Monarchs have won a playoff round! The Monarchs have won a playoff round! Mike Iggulden's power-play redirection kept it going with 4:17 left in regulation, but it wasn't enough.(!) Iowa finished off first-place Omaha, setting up the first division-final matchup: Iowa-Chicago. Eric Manlow had an early goal as Hamilton knocked out Rochester.

Over in Russia, Canada needed Jamal Mayers' second goal to beat Uwe Krupp and Germany 3-2; anguished cries of "what's wrong with Canadian hockey?" rock the True North. Switzerland beat Latvia in a tuneup for Italy. Speaking of whom, Italy scored first against Sweden, and that seems to have ticked Sweden off; Dick Tarnstrom had three assists. Slovakia beat Norway, which isn't the same without Espen Knutsen.

The night's so long it hurts

2007-04-28T01:16:00.000-04:00

Newtown's Own Peter Zingoni and not Newtown's own Mike Thornton met up with the Tragically Hip. (Tip of (fifty-mission) cap: Patrick Williams)

ATL: The vaguely familiar Chris Lee's* third goal of the playoffs kept Omaha alive on the power play with 2:24 to play in regulation, and then Tomi Maki won it in OT. Grand Rapids won again in overtime, so Manitoba has to win two in a row at home. And eight different Penguins (plus a familiar ninth, with three assists) say it's not so hard to walk into Norfolk and win two out of three. And spoke to someone who was at Providence-Hartford on Thursday who said it was a good one. (I was gonna say "as good as the score indicated," but y'never know what people think of 1-0 games these days.)

*-He played one game for Bridgeport, 1/5/07

"He's in my book club"*

2007-04-27T16:55:00.000-04:00

Over in Russia, a goal and an assist for Sean Bergenheim as Finland starts the World Championships with a win. (Everything's a PDF over there now?) Frans Nielsen didn't figure as Denmark starts the Worlds with, um, a 9-1 loss to Russia. (Neither Denis Grebeshkov nor Alexander Kharitonov figured for Russia.)

Dick Tarnstrom is on Sweden's roster. Beast of New Haven Herbert Vasiljevs is on Latvia's roster, and our old Nighthawks hero Mario Chitar(r)oni is on Italy's.

Elsewhere, one "scary cut" for Rochester defenseman Martin Tuma. The blood led Kevin and Don Lever to compare it to the unforgettable Clint Malarchuk incident. Hearing about the severed tendons reminded me more of what happened to Eric Healey in 1999-2000; hope Tuma comes back as strong as Healey did. (One of my favorite other-team stories, from the 2003 playoffs with Manchester.)

And I've been holding out on this, which probably means I shouldn't post it, but I will anyway. A couple of days ago, comments on the post of the day over at Uni Watch somehow rolled around to the 1997 Mets and their ill-conceived white hats. That led Paul Lukas to post this picture of "the now-forgotten Takashi Kashiwada" (comment No. 118). Now-forgotten? How could you forget America's Favorite Japanese Left-Hander? (OK, he was probably America's ONLY Japanese Left-Hander at the time...)

So yeah, naturally, I have this picture of America's Favorite Japanese Ice Cream Man on my computer desktop now...

*-AABF20 ("You liked Rashomon." "That's not how I remember it.")

Still, you should see the other guy

2007-04-27T01:05:00.000-04:00

(I'm not sure it's driveable)

"It's gonna get worse," the nurse in Honesdale said after all that had happened that night, "before it gets better."

The miserable first few hours of April 27, 2006, that I remember. The few weeks before that...

The funniest part of all this was probably in training camp, or right before, maybe. I was looking back over the 2005-06 Sound Tigers stats, looking for something or other, and one name stood out.

Miles.

What stood out was that I couldn't remember him. Who was he? When did he sign? Why? What'd he look like? What position did he play? What were the circumstances of those five games, 0-0-0 and minus-6?

What was his first name?

A few weeks later, I was looking back for the last time Bridgeport was shut out. It was Game 4 of the playoffs. I couldn't remember a thing about it. My game story tells me a puck went off Jeff Tambellini into the Bridgeport net for the only goal of the night. You'd think it would be memorable. No clue.

Basically, all I know about April 2006, I learned from my blog. And a lot of stuff since then wasn't sticking, either.

Look, I always knew concussions were funny animals. The brain's complicated, and we don't know what it's going to do while it's healing. But I wasn't prepared, and not just because I'd never had one (as far as I know) before. Every few weeks, I'd get a little better, and I'd think, "Whew, thank God, back to normal." And then I'd get a little better again and realize, "Jeez, no I wasn't. But whew, thank God, back to normal..."

Good gravy, eight months I wouldn't wish on anybody: It stunk. And so did I.

It slowly got better, though. Picked up on some things. The haze keeps lifting. I think I'm pretty close to normal again (though I'm reserving judgment). A turning point was mid-January, reading this column during a trip to Philly. None of it and all of it felt familiar. "There have been times I just didn't want to do it because my head just didn't feel right," said Keith Primeau. That was my year. But accepting it made it a little easier to deal with.

------

So why am I writing this down now? I don't know. The anniversary brings it to mind, for one thing. (Weirdly, my ear started to itch Sunday night; dry skin on the scar.) Maybe it's just that old "If I can help one person" bit. In a weird way, covering Brandon Cullen's recovery reinforced in my own mind that I wasn't nuts, that these things can happen.

Head-on-steel-on-asphalt probably guarantees that they happen. Forget about forgetting Jeff Miles: Without a seat belt, I'd be starting my second year of death. You may be a civil-liberties, stick-it-to-the-Man type who can't be told to wear a seat belt. You may be the type who worries about getting out of a car if you have to get out of your seat belt. Hey, I'm right there with you, but do me a favor: Wear it anyway, so you can still be a civil-liberties worry-wart on the off chance your car rolls over.

And God forbid that does happen, remember: Sometimes it gets worse before it gets better.

First one(s) through

2007-04-25T23:26:00.000-04:00

Hershey finished off Albany tonight in five, making the Bears the first team to advance (Attendance: 1,637). Then out west the Wolves became the second with an OT win at Milwaukee.

Sean Hill...

2007-04-20T17:52:00.000-04:00

..."has been suspended 20 games for violating the terms of the NHL/NHLPA Performance Enhancing Substances Program," the league announced today. The Islanders' pregame notes had Drew Fata listed among the possibilities, so maybe Fata makes his NHL playoff debut.

Go Cole Botta

2007-04-19T01:56:00.000-04:00

Had no intentions of posting -- if this were real, we'd be sure to pray for Gaetan Duchesne, for one thing -- but Just Go Here Now.

That's it

2007-04-16T01:53:00.000-04:00

How about Marjamaki potting the winner? He didn't even want to talk about it. He didn't even want to talk about this year. Just a springboard for next year. That sounds fine to me.

SIGNED -- Mark Wotton, Jeff Tambellini, Blake Comeau, Masi Marjamaki, Jason Pitton, Jeremy Colliton, Petteri Nokelainen, Michael Mole, Allan Rourke, Jamie Fraser, Trevor Smith, Frans Nielsen, Sergei Ogorodnikov.
RESTRICTED FREE AGENT -- Drew Fata, Steve Regier
UNRESTRICTED FREE AGENT of one stripe or 'tother -- Rick Berry, Jamie Johnson, Tomas Malec, Ken Magowan, Gregg Johnson, Brandon Nolan, Wade Dubielewicz, Eric Boguniecki, Billy Thompson, Kyle Rank, David Desharnais, Brandon Cullen, Peter Ferraro, Stephen Wood
UNSIGNED DRAFT PICK -- Andrew MacDonald

The initial indication is that they do plan to qualify Fata and Regier. Figure they've got to bring in at least two of those three defense draft picks (MacDonald, Kohn, O'Neill), and there's not a lot of room for defensemen, given the guys who'll be back; bring in one more vet, and there's no room at all.

We'll have a wrap story in Tuesday's paper.

----

Speaking of returning defensemen, the team honored Mark Wotton for his charity and community work before the game, and they introduced E.J. Carfi, a 10-year-old boy from Ridgefield who suffers from Recessive Dystrophic Epidermolysis Bullosa. It's a skin disorder where his body lacks a protein that holds the skin together. Apparently they're trying to get ABC's Extreme Makeover to help out, and you can take a look at the online petition at http://www.petitionspot.com/petition/carfi. Here's a Ridgefield Press story about him.

----

Congrats to Phil Giubileo, who's going to the BST full time in sales to go along with the 'casting. And a fond tip of the cap to Andy Hutchison, who's departing as media relations guru after one year.

----

I (stunk) this year. If given the opportunity, I'll be better next year.

----

Grand Rapids got into the playoffs because of the shootout (caveat, might not play same way, blah blah blah). The Griffins went 8-5 in the bonus round; drop those eight points, and they would finish with 77 points, trailing both Peoria and Syracuse. Go further back and take out the overtime-loss point (GR collected six), and the Griffins finish with 71 points, still behind the Rivermen (79) and Crunch (75).

But the rules are the rules, and the Griffins nipped Peoria by a point. Providence took third and will face Hartford. Omaha won the West. Rochester claimed home ice. Here are the schedules.

----

Darren Haydar finished 41-81-122, which is the eighth-best scoring season in league history and the best since Brad Smyth went 68-58-126 for Carolina in 1995-96. Interestingly, Keith Aucoin and Martin St. Pierre both finished 27-72-99 with 10 PPGs in 65 games.

----

Versus just listed Dallas' playoff record as 1-1-1. Hmm. Excuse me a moment.

----

I've got nothing against orange, per se. Like it on the fly. A little in the trim is nice. For instance, next year's darks for the Sound Tigers -- the new superdeluxe RBK model, like the NHL's wearing -- will be that dark blue with orange trim under the arms. They were on display Sunday.

But the third jerseys, on display Sunday -- and maybe I'm late to the party on this -- will be straight orange.

Hmm. Excuse me a moment.

----

If you remember, bloggin' got a little light around here (or, well, around here) over the summer until you guys badgered me into posting. Expect the same. (Please don't badger too quickly.) We'll see what happens.

The vast majority of the stuff I said last year at this time stands, with the key addition of Mike Pignataro to the list of people -- Gary Rogo, Dave Wells, Bill Paxton -- who gave me space to write. Even as we got squeezed tighter and tighter, it was never a matter of whether to cover it or not, just how much room we'd have. Thanks to them.

And after you've put up with five months of technical difficulties and eight or nine (or more?) months of incoherence, still reading... Thank you.

News, (a hundred-eighty-) five minutes sooner

2007-04-15T13:32:00.000-04:00

The team has its breakup meetings after the game today, so I don't know when I'll actually post something postgame. Here's your lineups to tide you over:

LINEUPS
BRIDGEPORT
F: Marjamaki-Ogorodnikov-Nokelainen
Pitton-Smith-Regier
J.Johnson-Desharnais-Nolan
Magowan/Rank
D: Berry (A)-Wotton (C)
Fata-Fraser
Malec-MacDonald

NORFOLK
F: Brouwer-St. Pierre (A)-Parenteau
Nordqvist-Bolland-Low (A)
Bickell-Dowell-Burish
(Koci-scratch)-Berti-Skille
D: Hendry-Byfuglien
Richmond (A)-Rogers
Barker-Domish

Democracy at work: Fake Team Awards II

2007-04-15T13:26:00.000-04:00

In yet another very, very scientific ballot (10 votes: hey, one more than last year!).....

Fan Favorite was Wade Dubielewicz in a runaway with seven out of 10 votes. (Boguniecki, Fata and Regier all got one.) Can't say I'm surprised. He evolved into a leader and the face of the franchise over four years. He'll be missed, not that anyone who's been around here isn't thrilled about the reason he'll be missed.

The Seventh Player voting was much more spread out -- interesting; last year, it was the opposite -- but Jason Pitton won a nailbiter, and I'd agree with that one. He got three votes on his own with one split between him and Fata. Regier and Marjamaki got two votes apiece; Fata and Nielsen got one apiece, plus that other half for Fata.

Three Stars, again, is Wade Dubielewicz by most measures. He has the most first-star picks (8), tied Tambellini for most second-star picks (7), beats Tambellini on a 5-3-1 system (63-56) and on a 3-2-1 system (40-37). Tambellini was picked more than Dubielewicz (18-17) but played 10 more games. The only other player in the ballpark is Boguniecki.

Pardon the post that used to immediately precede this. It wasn't supposed to go up yet.

Missing the point

2007-04-14T23:33:00.000-04:00

Top Five lost opportunities:

5) WHERE IT BEGAN -- Bridgeport's first really aggravating loss -- not counting Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, which was just a big loss to a better team -- was Oct. 20, when the Sound Tigers went 0-for-10 on the power play and lost in a shootout to Hartford. (1 pt)

4) HAWK-EYED -- Bridgeport took a 3-1 lead Jan. 14 against Providence at home on New Haven Nighthawks day. The Bruins came back and won in a shootout. (1 pt)

3) SLIPPERY SLOPE -- Bridgeport had a nine-point lead, had won eight out of nine... then lost ugly to Philadelphia. Was it the beginning of the end? Kinda. Two nights later, Feb. 23 at Albany, the Sound Tigers blew two leads and lost 4-3. Drew Fata nailed Keith Aucoin after the buzzer. Bridgeport is 7-15-0-2 since. (2 pts)

2) STARTS AND STOPS -- Bridgeport takes a 3-0 lead in the first period Nov. 10 at Philly, then blows it and loses 6-4. (2 pts)

1) HEAVEN AND HELL IN HERSHEY -- Back from 4-2 down, Bridgeport takes a lead with 3:22 to play March 31 on James Sixsmith's second goal -- and then surrenders two goals in 31 seconds. Sure, they come back and beat Albany the next day, but the damage is done. (2 pts)

(Honorable mentions: Nov. 5 vs. Hartford, two goals against in 2:05 and only an own-goal on a delayed penalty; Nov. 15 in the morning vs. Wilkes-Barre, a shootout loss after blowing two leads; March 2 at Wilkes-Barre, finally getting some days off, taking a 3-2 lead before losing 5-3.)

One more

2007-04-14T23:06:00.000-04:00

Not a lot of intensity. Not a ton to write home about. Good little performance by the goalie, which at least gave me something to write about. They were of course stoked downstairs to see the end of the Islanders game, because there's at least something going in the organization.

Just 24 hours from now, it'll be over. Norfolk has something to play for, so it could be interesting for a while at least.

LINEUPS
BRIDGEPORT
F: Marjamaki-Ogorodnikov-Nokelainen
Pitton-Smith-Regier
J.Johnson-Desharnais-Nolan
Magowan/Rank
D: Fata-Berry (A)
Fraser-Wotton (C)
Malec-MacDonald

PHILADELPHIA
F: Kane (A)-Cullen (A)-Giroux
Ruzicka-Potulny-Reid
Greentree-Matsumoto-Ross
Zingoni/Cote/(Powe-scratch?)
D: Parent-Slaney (C)
Timonen-Guenin
Printz-Davis

Wasn't looking too closely but didn't notice Cote and thought I saw Powe in warmups.

Here's the Hershey-Albany schedule.

Elmira moved from the UHL to the Coast yesterday.

Peter Ferraro had a goal as Peoria stayed alive with a shootout loss. If the Rivermen win Sunday and Grand Rapids loses in any way, Peoria gets the spot. If Peoria loses in overtime/shootout and Grand Rapids loses to Toronto in regulation, Peoria -- if I have this added right -- gets in on season series, 9-8. But the Griffins still walk in with a win.

So Wilkes-Barre takes second with a win, or an overtime loss and a Norfolk loss -- basically, finish tied or better. Providence just needs a point, gained by the Bruins or lost by Worcester, to take third in the Atlantic; Lowell lost to fall out and clinch a berth for the Sharks and Bruins.

Rochester and Hamilton play for second place in the North; Rochester just has to get it to overtime. Omaha can win the West Division just by getting its game with Chicago to overtime.

None of this has anything to do with the Icebreaker at Thompson International Speedway, which is gonna take up most of my agate time in the near future.

Vs. Phantoms, phantom no more

2007-04-14T18:43:00.000-04:00

It's a momentous day.

In warmup here, the 'A' is actually on Rick Berry's sweater for the first time. Really.