Here’s a brief valedictory from Ben Walter, who’s going back with Kerry Gwydir and Eric Cairns to the Island:
“It’s early in the season. We’re not going to get too hard on ourselves. We’re still getting 40 shots a game. If we keep doing that, pucks are going to start going in.”
Walter almost had one in the third period tonight, on the power play (0-for-6, seven shots while surrendering two), but it hit either Sean Bentivoglio or Brian Lee in front. No go.
“I don’t think our record reflects the way we’ve been playing,” Jack Capuano said.
That’s possible, too. They did look good tonight. We’ve talked, probably too much, about those third periods (outshot in this one despite trailing).
It’s early enough that you can still kind of focus on what Capuano has called the “process,” establishing the identity, working, playing to the system, and all that, and not focus so much on the results. But four losses in a row in what could be a very competitive division by the end, that won’t help, either.
They talked a lot this week about shooting the puck. They did. And they even scored two beautiful goals, Nielsen as Nycholat dropped him in front of the net, Comeau cutting through half of Broome County.
But that was it.
Off to Hershey, to see if they can beat Freddy Cassivi again…
BRIDGEPORT
F: Bentivoglio-Walter-Jackman (A)
Tambellini (A)-Nielsen-Bootland
Comeau-Colliton-Regier
Brennan/Morency
D: Fata-Spiller
Fraser-Wotton (C)
A.MacDonald-Rullier
BINGHAMTON
F: Hamel (C)-Bass-Bois (A)
Zubov-Hennessy-Dimitrakos
Donati-Mapletoft-Mauldin
Weller/Yablonski
D: Kinch-Carkner
Nycholat (A)-Lee
Amadio-Waugh
Mark Wotton is on baby watch and riding with Kimber Auerbach.
It’s Walter for Bergenheim, apparently.
Numbers fun: Binghamton’s first line above is 17-16-15; the third is 10-12-14.
Quite a different Bingo team. Figured they’d be better, but still.
Violence report: Pascal Morency was under Geoff Waugh’s skin on his first shift. They fought when they got out of the box after matching minors. Kip Brennan went twice with tough Jeremy Yablonski. The first, after Yablonski hit I think Jeff Tambellini, was a big one. Brennan got a couple of rights in, then got the right free again and threw four or five more that I think landed. Yablonski (old buddy of BPT equipment man Eddie Summers) tossed a big right uppercut that just missed, and then he got in a good left and a good right before Brennan threw a right back. They clinched near the bench, and Regier patted Brennan on the head. The second came after Yablonski threw a big hit on Andrew MacDonald behind the goal line and didn’t amount to much, but presumably because Brennan had come in from the top of the circle, Francois St. Laurent gave him an instigator and a misconduct. Brennan tossed his helmet in the air as he went to the room. Then Drew Fata and Danny Bois fought late in the second, got the helmets off and threw a couple before they slipped down, popped back up at a distance, and were sent off.
Speaking of, how did we get out of here with no five-on-threes?
Prescouting. (I’m interested in that third-star appearance for Brandon Nolan.)
Heavy reading: Former Bingo stud Jason Spezza gets richer. (Fill in your own punch line.) The big club there modifies the Uniform System (tip: Tournament of Logos.) If you missed Uni Watch today, a crazy night in college football. Troy Crowder spends more than one night in Bangkok. Hey: Robert Nilsson is tired of going up and down.
This is the BCVMA, and a relatively new (I think) addition is a group of monuments outside the northwest* corner of the building; noticed it after parking today. The monuments are about four feet high, with black marble tops, with room for about 300 names apiece. One whole monument is full of names of locals who died in World War II. There are a bunch from the Civil War, lots from World War I and Vietnam and Korea, a couple from the Mexican-American War, one from the Battle of Little Bighorn (poor guy is lumped into the Spanish-American War). One, Mark W. Payne, died at the Marine Corps barracks in Beirut. Two, Lester R. Stone and Lawrence D. Peters, were awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for their service in Vietnam.
One monument is blank. Here’s hoping it stays that way.
*-I think — I get geographically discombobulated in this city somehow.