It begins with Wilkes-Barre’s 5-4 win over Hershey. Chris Minard had a natural hat trick in a little under nine minutes, trumping Chris Bourque’s three-point night.
(Not that the predictions were really in the paper. I’m thinking Hershey and Norfolk, Bridgeport with a chance to sneak into that discussion if things go right, Wilkes-Barre and Albany in the playoff mix, Binghamton a little better than last year, Philadelphia a wild card. But now, you know, off that one game…)
To answer a few things from the comments, original word was that Jackman was wearing 28, and that’s what he had on the helmet this morning… not that I’ve heard anything about retiring 16, either. Yes, 91 would be the highest number yet. Word is they’ll talk about alternate captains on Friday.
As for the Utah kids, it looked like a good bunch. Dwyer and Ford are a couple of solid defensemen. Haley was scrappy with some skills, didn’t back down. The kids all had their moments.
Ump mentioned not being among the least-penalized teams in the league: Didn’t use this for a story, but take Jackman, Fata, Brennan, Bootland, Spiller and Labelle. Their AHL penalty totals last year were 954 minutes and 67 majors. The rest of the team would have to take only three minors a game to make this year’s PIM total no worse than second-highest in team history; the majors would already be pretty close to second.
And as for Marjamaki, it’s hard to believe a guy can just plummet from “first call-up” to “go back to Finland” in 12 months without help. Counterfactual Fun in this case involves changing the circumstances of last fall entirely and thus affecting his mental state, leading to “What If Marjamaki got any start at all last season?”
Practice moves to Harbor Yard on Thursday… feels like hockey season.