Aren’t we always talking about fourth place at this time of year? Sometimes it’s losing the grip after a team comes back from the brink. Sometimes it’s sneaking in, then quickly falling out.
This is new, though: fourth place from the other side. (Games in hand, percentages, yadda yadda yadda.) Bingo’s win on two late ones at Springfield let the Sens leapfrog Bridgeport by a point. Philly looms, five back.
They have given up 19 goals in 10 games. That would be the story, any other time. You talk about numbers like that, and I think you’re going back to early in the lockout year. And they’re 4-6 in these 10, because they’ve scored only 15 goals in those 10 games (four of them in one, three in another).
You get Iggulden seven shots tonight, you figure one of them sneaks in. You get Jeremy Colliton planted right in Scott Munroe’s face, and you figure one or two of those point shots elude everybody and find the net. None did.
And then Philly gets a bounce off the endboards to win it.
Capuano mixed things up with these new line combos; he said that’s what they used last night, and he was happy with them Saturday and Sunday. (There was one tweak I forgot to ask about: Bentivoglio went in Iggulden’s place for one shift, and after the icing, that’s when Philly scored its first. Iggulden went in Joensuu’s place, and then there was a penalty, and then things went back to the way they began the day.) The team had some chances.
Chances are well and good, but this team needs a couple of wins in a row right about now, and not only for its confidence.
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Hillen and Callahan popped up on the transactions report, but they certainly weren’t in Philly. No word if they’re actually coming or if it was just paper. Hart was definitely still with the team; didn’t see Packard but haven’t heard that he’s going anywhere. Lessard and Haley are expected to practice this week.
Solid Morency tilt. Seven or eight lefts in a row; took the big guy down. The power play did OK right after that, and then they scored on the next rush.
Couple of funky Utah games in Peter Mannino’s first two outings.
Toronto 10, Grand Rapids 5, and it’s not lacrosse. And speaking of Griffins, Darren Haydar passed 500 AHL points.
Through Tom Benjamin: Check out the third note here on Battle of Alberta. NHL home teams are a dink under .500 in the shootout, except for the season when they had to shoot second. You may remember we did something similar last season with AHL numbers, before I got really tired of keeping them and feared that I messed one up and got frustrated before I found out I was right and Howe was wrong… I’ll probably work on it again sometime, but I still think the coin flip would be more fun. “Zenon Konopka, call it in the air.”
And finally, Chris Botta on John Spano.