Horrific stuff out of Boston, where two apparent explosions at the finish line of the Boston Marathon have reportedly left numerous casualties. Hoping for the best.
Bridgeport’s lines were all mixed up this morning at Wonderland, Home of Champions, with Joey Diamond and Matt Watkins both missing for different injuries; Scott Pellerin said Watkins was off to the doctor today while Diamond skated on his own. Whether the lines stay that way — Ullstrom-Nelson-Niederreiter, Persson-Sundstrom-Kabanov, and maybe most notable for two reasons, DeFazio-Strome-Riley among them — may depend on who’s available tomorrow. Pellerin said he wasn’t so concerned about the combinations today, getting guys skating again after a couple of days off skates.
(The third of those combos would be notable first for putting Strome in the middle, and second for moving Scott Campbell out from between those two wingers for the first time since the lockout ended. We’ll see.)
Good weekend for Sean Backman, who became an uncle again and whose alma mater won the NCAA championship. He watched it at a sports bar in Milford that was “predominantly Q-pac-infested,” he said. The Yale seniors this year were freshmen in Backman’s final season. “Just to see those guys do what they did was pretty fun and special,” Backman said. He said he talked a little to captain Andrew Miller, and to Keith Allain: “He’s a big part of what’s going on at Yale,” Backman said. “I couldn’t be more proud.”
Meanwhile, OKC’s Brandon Davidson is the Fred T. Hunt Award winner for sportsmanship, determination and dedication to the game. The man came back from testicular cancer this year.