Thirteen Years Gone: Hartford postgame

So the last day. Poulin’s spectacular, hecklers be damned (we’ll take the sober ones over the drunk ones; that’s a rant for another day). One deflection by a guy untouched at the top of the crease.

They can’t find a way to beat Dov Grumet-Morris, equally stellar, who robs Sundstrom on a power-play glove save that’s not the stop he made diving across to stop Halmo in December, but it reminds you, anyway. (Poulin had one like that, actually; not quite that, either, but it’d remind you.)

I fear the gamer — and since I got to gossiping with some folks down there, it’s lighter in quotage than I’d hoped, but we’ll hope to make up for it Monday — is a little pessimistic, but fact is this team had little experience from the start, got what depth it had picked over, and ended the year providing talent to two different teams in different leagues. That it stayed as competitive as it did is impressive.

It’s over, though, a 76-game slog that finishes up this week with exit meetings, wrap-up of personal business and journeys home. That began for a few guys tonight and will continue over the next few days.

One of them departing now is Brett Gallant: His wife’s due to give birth soon. He went off down the bowels of the XL Center with his gear as the team packed up.

A few minutes later, he came jogging back. Next to him, jogging along: his little boy, Jack. They ran alongside the bus, up and in.

A few minutes later, out they came. They said goodbye to a few other people, including some longtime friends of the team and the blog. And then they went jogging off again toward PEI. And then Jack turned back.

“See you next year!” Jack said.

Darn it, Jack, you kicked up some dust.

…..

So happy Easter. The group, or most of it, will reassemble Monday for the exit meetings, and then it’s summertime.

There are playoff schedules elsewhere, including the traditional 1-2-1-1 in Providence-Springfield. Six of the eight series are 2-3 series, and five of the higher seeds opted to take the last three at home. The exception: Manchester, which’ll take its two at home to start before going to Norfolk.

…..

Because it’s what we do here on this day: The Real Standings:

EASTERN CONFERENCE
NORTHEAST
y-Springfield (3)    37  24  15   89
x-Albany (6)         33  28  15   81
  Hartford           31  33  12   74
  Adirondack         26  40  10   62
  Bridgeport         24  42  10   58

EAST
y-Binghamton (2)     41  27   8   90
x-W-B/Scranton (5)   38  29   9   85
x-Norfolk (8)        30  29  17   77
  Hershey            32  32  12   76
  Syracuse           28  36  12   68

ATLANTIC
y-Manchester (1)     43  22  11   97
x-St. John's (4)     42  25   9   93
x-Providence (7)     29  27  20   78
  Worcester          26  38  12   64
  Portland           19  42  15   53

WESTERN CONFERENCE
NORTH
y-Toronto (3)        40  27   9   89
x-Rochester  (8)     34  34   8   76
  Hamilton           28  36  12   68*
  Utica              28  37  11   67*
  Lake Erie          24  34  18   66*

MIDWEST 
y-Grand Rapids (2)   41  25  10   92*
x-Chicago  (4)       37  26  13   87*
x-Milwaukee (6)      34  30  12   80
  Rockford           31  37   8   70
  Iowa               19  43  14   52

WEST
y-Texas (1)          46  21   9  101
x-Abbotsford  (5)    38  30   8   84
x-Oklahoma City (7)  32  31  13   77
  Charlotte          33  37   6   72
  San Antonio        18  40  18   54

(Usual disclaimers: These convert OTLs to losses and any shootout games to ties. Yes, teams would play games differently under those rules, especially late in the year. This is just translating results backward. Seriously, this is what we do here. Sorry.)

The same 16 playoff teams, though some changes in seeding, most notably at the top of the Midwest. Chicago had three more shootout wins and three more overtime losses than Grand Rapids. An assortment of other seed changes, left as an exercise for the reader, as I’m hoping the garage is still open.

……

More Monday, most likely.

Michael Fornabaio