At least some of the brass is expected tonight. Appears the Islanders will have a roster spot open even with the impending return of Jesse Joensuu, as they’ve announced Michael Grabner will miss at least a week with a shoulder injury.
The spot’s open because they sent David Ullstrom down yesterday. He’ll return to Bridgeport on a line, to start at least, with Matt Watkins and Brock Nelson, coming back after a tough month or so where he hadn’t gotten a ton of time, nor produced much when he did.
“I tried to play it simple. I still had some chances,” Ullstrom said. “Sometimes you get scratched and you start to question yourself a bit, which you shouldn’t do. My confidence got down.”
He started out playing the way he wanted to play, he said, but he got away from some of the little things later on. They gave him some things to work on coming down here, though he said he’d keep that conversation private, though he did say it was an emotional day for him.
“It’s a chance for me to get my confidence back and help the team out here,” Ullstrom said. “I love this group of guys. It’s going to be fun.”
….
John Persson appears to be that game-time decision we were warned about this morning; Kirill Kabanov remained out sick. Combs moves up to the spot Persson held this morning.
BRIDGEPORT
F: Watkins (C)-Nelson-Ullstrom
Combs-Sundstrom-Niederreiter
DeFazio-Campbell-Riley
Halmo-Backman-Huxley
D: Donovan-Wishart
Ness-Landry (A)
Jackson-McIver (A)
(Hill-scratch)
G: DiPietro
Reiter
SPRINGFIELD
F: Howes-Collins-Vogelhuber
Russell – Chaput – Audy-Marchessault
Craig (C)-Joudrey (A)-Hansen
Smith-Moon-Spencer
D: Holden (A)-Goloubef
Weber-Savard
Amadio-Helmer
G: McElhinney
Dainton
R: Hanson, Lewis. L: Murchison, Baker.