This was Friday night, backward.
So-so first period, great second and third.
The reverse theory breaks down, because Yann Danis wasn’t close to the reason Bridgeport lost Friday. But Saturday, Bridgeport’s goaltender kept it alive in the first.
Mannino came in with a good advance, but who knows how it’s going to translate, right? Well, two goals in three games, that’s pretty much a clean translation. (No Babelfishin’ here.)
They withstand the first. (In my head was an old Dave Baseggio quote, this header. Capuano sticks with the lines after a moment of doubt. Jackman plays another strong game and gets another goal. Bentivoglio drives to the net to score at four-on-four. There’s a lot of contributions up and down the list. There were some dicey moments, some toss-the-puck-away nightmares waiting to happen, but every time, there was Mannino.
All they could do was take his assist away.
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Mannino’s assist was the 15th by a Sound Tigers goalie. Dumbly, four have come against a Worcester team. (This is the 21st game against either the Sharks or the IceCats, 3.7 percent of the all-time total of 568 games; four assists of 15 is 26.7 percent of all points by a Bridgeport goaltender. What does that mean? Little.) It was the first BST goalie-point since Billy Thompson, Dec. 16, 2006, against Lowell. None of it means anything if he doesn’t get the assist. Spent almost the whole second intermission on that, so I’m leaving it in. He said he heard his name and wasn’t sure. “It’s more about the win, not that stuff,” Mannino said. His winning attitude disappoints me.
Phil referred us to Kotsy’s Korner, featuring one-time (literally) Bridgeport color commentator Chris Kotsopoulos. We find it, unfortunately, with a sad lead post: Condolences to Kotsy on the loss of his father.
Cam Ward made how many saves? (And thanks to the man who informed about the penalty shot.)
The GMs talked about some possible rules changes at their meetings. Not a fan of the blocked-shot idea. As for the delayed-penalty idea, rather than worrying about what happens six-on-five, I’ve always kind of wondered what it would be like to require a short-handed team to clear the zone before it could freely ice the puck. In other words, the blue line would be like the red line for a short-handed team.
Oops.
Baseball: presented without comment.
With comment: Our old buddy Scott Lauber notes that the Phillies were upset that only the starting lineups were introduced before Game 1 of the Series. It’s not a big thing, but I’m with them: It’s the World Series for crying out loud, and it’s a nice, traditional thing. But did you catch the reason? Fox asked to skip it to make its broadcast shorter. As if the interminable pregame, nonstop commercials and boy-band-assaulted-National-Anthem for a start time well after 8:30 had nothing to do with it.
Spent my afternoon at “Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist”; kind of by default, though I was curious. An OK movie, but probably a rental. Leads were good. Michael Cera’s timing could make the dasher boards funny. I won’t spoil the ending, because really, I can’t. (Almost went to Holy Cross football instead, but I thought the sky was going to open up.)
Capuano wasn’t certain there’d be practice Monday. You are informed as we are informed.