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October 31, 2008

B1: Bingo

Is it too early to look at the standings? You'd better believe it. But if it's not too early to look at three consecutive Fridays with a disappearing 2-0, first-period lead… Well, why not point out that Hershey has 16 points in 10 games, and Bridgeport has 13 in nine?

Is it too early to look at averages? You'd better believe it. But Peter Mannino's GAA shot all the way up to 0.98; his SP plummeted to .970. And the power play and penalty kill are both top-eight.

Is it too early to get excited? Yup. But this is now, by a game and a half, Bridgeport's best nine-game start in eight seasons.

It's not too early to bank a few points. They've learned too well what it's like later to go without.

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Funky moment with 8:41 left: a big globe balloon, attached to four or five other green balloons, fell out of the rafters onto the ice. Very odd. Very out-of-nowhere.

Hernia surgery for Freddy Meyer, Greg Logan reports. Speaking of, Newsday has a new hockey blog led by Mark Herrmann.

You could have had a game-issued No. 28 Joe Rullier sweater here tonight for $275. You probably wouldn't be able to read the number, but that's beside the point. (He's a free agent, so right now, you can get Joe Rullier for a few bucks more.)

Hartford-Worcester got ugly.

Michael Ryan signed with Carolina and landed in Albany.

Our brother-in-ink Tim Leone is co-writing Bruce Boudreau's autobiography. We expect a review copy.

Good tilt last night between Eric Boulton and Colton Orr, as seen over on Puck Daddy.

And finally, even if I was the only person who watched, I'll miss King of the Hill.

Posted by mike on 10:52 PM | Comments (2)

Greetings from the future

One of my personal e-mail accounts last night had spam advertising one of those potency medications or another. Boring. What wasn't boring: It was dated Jan. 18, 2038.

I felt like writing back. Considering they still had e-mail, no doubt SpamMan could look up my story dated Nov. 1, 2008, send it back to me, and save me a trip up here.

But here we are, in the land of the quick-healing captain (maybe by the Maritime trip?), where a Russian forward wants to go home, a town complete with a surprisingly good parking space (I'm getting towed, I know). Even staying over. The healthy scratches tonight are Joensuu, Morency and, for the first time in a long time, Wotton.

LINEUPS
BRIDGEPORT
F: Smith-McLean-Iggulden
Comeau-Colliton (A)-Jackman (A)
Bentivoglio-Hennigar-Parrish
Pitton-Marcinko-Haskins
D: Lee-Callahan (A)
Fraser-Hillen
Kohn-MacDonald
G: Mannino
(Lawson)

BINGHAMTON
F: Hennessy-Nikulin-Weller
Zubov-Z.Smith-Shannon (A)
Mauldin-Bass-Bois
Johnson-Daugavins-Yablonski (A)
D: D.Smith-Carkner (A)
Bell-Lee
Kudelka-Karlsson
(Schaeffer-scratch)
G: Elliott
(Glass)

R: Chris Brown. L: Goodman, Petrus.

Wotton is a healthy scratch for only the third time in three seasons. No captains in this game, with Hamel out. The Sens came out in these Halloween jerseys that have already given me a headache. We'll see who they scratch and if they keep them on.

Edit: Schaeffer's indeed the scratch. The Halloween uniforms are indeed game-worn and scary.

Posted by mike on 6:49 PM | Comments (6)

October 30, 2008

Traded Specimen

The Rangers have traded Darien's Hugh Jessiman to Nashville for future considerations.

Edit: Part 2 for the Preds sends Josh Gratton back to Philly for Tim Ramholt.

Posted by mike on 4:25 PM | Comments (2)

"It's a strange, strange world we live in"

Did it really take over two years to use that? Wow.

We'll have a pair of Jacks in the story tomorrow, so I cornered Mark Parrish for a moment after practice. Capuano was much more definitive today than yesterday that Parrish will play Friday, and Parrish was excited. So what about this week of practice: Did anything surprise him, was anything tough? Not really, he said.

"Skating, I've been doing it, open-ice, up-and-backs," Parrish said. "Skating around the ice is easy. It's games, getting in battles in the corners, getting back up to speed." A lot of little things. "No matter how hard you work one-on-one, there's little holes, little picks, all that stuff."

Long story short, he feels ready to go.

Capuano wouldn't commit to anything else lineup-wise and said he hadn't decided when or if Nathan Lawson might play in net this weekend. Lawson is already the first Sound Tiger assigned No. 52.

Posted by mike on 2:21 PM | Comments (0)

October 29, 2008

Why can't them?

Man.

Posted by mike on 10:08 PM | Comments (8)