Edit: Probably shoulda waited. Could be a newsy day.
The Sound Tigers have chosen Colin McDonald as the team’s eighth captain. Casey Cizikas will wear one ‘A’, and the other will be split between Jon Landry (home) and Matt Watkins (road).
—Edit again: The league handed Brandon DeFazio a six-game suspension for leaving the bench Wednesday at Hartford. He isn’t eligible to return until the last game before Christmas.
That’s the second-longest suspension to a Sound Tiger (Kip Brennan’s 15-gamer in 2007-08 for punching Geoff Peters). Pascal Morency received a five-game suspension in 2009-10 for coming off the bench to start a fight with Hartford’s Brodie Dupont. Morency had already been assessed a one-game suspension, though, because he’d received an instigator-in-the-last-five-minutes penalty for that fight.
—Yet again: The gist of the reasoning, if I understand correctly, is that it wasn’t looked at as a “legal line change,” but straight-up as DeFazio coming off the bench to start the fight. Using that interpretation, the rule is six games. So that’s what it is.
Getting back to the ‘C’, Scott Pellerin said the team voted and the staff had input on the captains. McDonald’s character, leadership, work ethic made him a pretty clear choice.
McDonald said he was honored. “It’s always a good feeling to know the guys voted, just to have the respect of the guys,” McDonald said. I wondered about coming into a young team with a lot of newcomers from all directions, including Pellerin’s first head-coaching gig. “I didn’t want to act any differently than I normally do. I understood I’d be looked to for that leadership. Pretty much right off the bat Pelly pushed me into that role.” He mentioned the day the team spent with the military in training camp, when he was one of the three players put in charge of a group.
Nothing really changes for him aside from the letter, he agreed. “(Pellerin) just told me I lead best when I’m playing my best,” McDonald said. “I can just go about the way I handle my business and everything else will take care of itself.”
The alternates will help.
“Those guys, they’re strong individually and as a leadership group,” Pellerin said. “I thought they were deserving of being assistant captains. And they all bring different personalities to the group, which I thought was important. You don’t want all the same guys.
“And, obviously, there are other strong leaders in the group, also, who aren’t wearing letters,” Pellerin added. “And that doesn’t change anything. Guys like Ty (Wishart), Nathan McIver, Travis Hamonic, they’re all strong leaders on the team.” On Wishart and Hamonic, who’d started with letters: “It wasn’t anything they did wrong, it’s just how things were evaluated over 20 games. They’re huge parts of our team. It’s not a negative, it’s a positive step.”
So, again, liveblog planned for tomorrow.
Oh, why not, one more: A report from Nova Scotia had Jon Sim on his way to San Antonio on a PTO. (H/T Hundred Degree Hockey). The Rampage announced that tonight, finally… along with Mike Mottau.
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The original post follows
(Ah, the Blue Screen Of Death when you’re trying to blog. And when you’ve got a typing-intensive project, near completion, on the hard drive without a backup. Those are five long minutes until “welcome.”)
The Sound Tigers remained without David Ullstrom and Travis Hamonic today so presumably will be without them tomorrow as well. They’re awaiting word whether they’ll be without Brandon DeFazio tomorrow; nothing yet from the league.
Maybe partly with that in mind, as well as, as Scott Pellerin said, “to take a look at a couple of things,” the tweaked lineup at Wonderland included Max MacKay as the honorary Swede of the day, as well as a Watkins-Cizikas-Riley line. DeFazio skated with Halmo, Gallant and Backman.
No trip up Route 8 for us tomorrow, so join us here for a liveblog at the special 5 p.m. time. (Well, earlier, if not special.) The Devils have their notesy game preview up, featuring a photo that could be duplicated well enough by 7 tomorrow to play one of those “spot the differences” games. (“No ‘C’. Different ad on Poulin’s sweater. The bank on the ad on the boards, it’s been bought out twice.”)
Elsewhere, an excuse to watch “Phineas and Ferb” tonight. Opposite “Fringe,” though. Ah well. Tape away.