Trial by judge

The line swap was just a little curious this morning, but it turns out there was a reason: Jack Combs was in Brandon DeFazio’s spot today because DeFazio’s suspended for the collision that injured Gabe Guentzel on Saturday. The league called it a slew-foot after Norfolk sent tape. He’ll miss this Saturday’s game against Portland and be eligible to return Sunday.

Sean Backman didn’t practice due to “an off-ice commitment;” as Scott Pellerin called it. (But Backman had tweeted about it last night and appeared to be back in the building before practice ended. Told his civic duty is fulfilled.) Nathan McIver was reportedly on the ice earlier; Johan Sundstrom remained out.

Portland was supposed to be in Providence on Friday before coming down here Saturday; Friday’s game is off, postponed to Monday, because of Snowpocalypse XLVII or whatever we’re up to (Gah). So, belated preliminary prescout. They’ll both have a full week off. Portland captain Alex Bolduc cleared waivers but, at least as of this writing, hadn’t been sent down from Phoenix.

Edit: Springfield-Albany is postponed Friday as well.

Jonathan Audy-Marchessault was sent back to Springfield yesterday, and today, the Falcons get back Ryan Johansen.

Good point.

Fun stuff. Pretty sure I’ve seen the Russian one on some Sesame Street special or another, which fueled my absurd love for the letter Я. The Swedish was incredibly trippy for me. (New tag: “Why can’t we speak Swedish?”) Tossup: Which is trippier, Swedish alphabet or Dutch Pinball Number Count?

Michael Fornabaio