Welcome to Pulock: Adirondack pregame

Obviously the whole “Foam” thing was a ruse to get Ryan Pulock a home game. A sop for the fans who suffered all year. (Or something.)

Pulock arrived in time for this morning’s team picture and will make his pro debut tonight against Adirondack. The AHL return of John Persson follows a flurry-of-transactions day. If you missed it on Twitter, the Isles have sent down Persson, Matt Donovan, Mike Halmo, Johan Sundstrom, Scott Mayfield, Brett Gallant and Justin Johnson. (All but Persson won’t play today.) The Sound Tigers have also released Jesse Root and Guy Leboeuf from their amateur tryouts; they’ve got academic stuff to wrap up. (Stupid smart kids.) ECHL transactions say Matt Mangene and Joey Diamond are on their way back from Stockton.

So it’s a slightly different Bridgeport roster from yesterday, and with Stockton about to start the playoffs, it could be slightly different again come the rematch Friday up in Glens Falls.

The AHL/PTO/ATO thing in the lineups will take a hit today because they’re not listed in the Phantoms’ game notes and a large number of them had no transactions this year. (Tommy Serratore, for one, is an ATO in his pro debut.) Online, the opening-day roster players are simply “added,” but you can typically tell a guy’s contract status because it’ll say he was “reassigned by the Islanders to Stockton” or something. Most of Adirondack hasn’t moved. Bridgeport, of the 30 guys listed (including Leboeuf), only three (Reiter, Finley, Bruton) didn’t have a midseason transaction. Edit: Strike that: Reiter was here all year but signed an NHL contract during the season.

(AHL SPC italicized, PTOs bolded, ATOs underlined)

BRIDGEPORT
F: VaughanLangkowHickman
Walters-Quine-Harris
Persson-Crus Rydberg-Bruton
AntipinHolmstromGagnon
D: Finley (A)-Burroughs
Ness (A)-pulock
Pedan-Graham
(Newton-scratch)
G: Trudeau
Poulin

ADIRONDACK
F: Straka-Flanagan-Holmstrom (C)
Brown-Bordson-Noebels
Whitmore-Cousins-Alderson
Serratore-Goumas-Eddy
(Johnston-scratch)
D: Manning (A)-Lamarche
Hagg-Alt
Lauridsen-Delisle
G: Chubak
Capobianco

R: Rank. L: Colby, Redding.

Bridgeport was 1-4 in its first five games on Mondays, but it’s 7-2 since. #analysis

This is the makeup game of “Pucks and Paws,” in which fans were permitted to bring their dogs. (“Bring everyone, bring your dogs, because we’re gonna win.” –John Anderson, what, May 31, 2002?) Apparently at least one person has made sure to use his dog’s ticket, as there’s one set of yipping coming across the rink.

Let’s try this again, since they’re all back: First Bridgeport game for ref Garrett Rank; interesting story there. Solid veteran linesmen to go with him.

Michael Fornabaio