Veterans rule!: Hartford pregame

I guess a corollary to the Tomas Kaberle vs. Bridgeport defense bit from last night: Hartford, with Kaberle on the PTO and Mike Kostka down today, has eight veterans on the roster, if I’m counting correctly. Full veterans. Chris Bourque, Ryan Malone, Joey Crabb, Chris Mueller, Nick Tarnasky, Ryan Potulny, Kostka and Kaberle. Not one has played fewer than 400 North American pro games. The Wolf Pack will need to sit three. Bridgeport hasn’t had problems like that in a long time. When it had eight real vets, three of them were Dick Tarnstrom, Markko Kiprusoff and Bob Lachance.

Anyway, Hartford’s three appear to be Crabb, Potulny and Tarnasky. Bridgeport, as was apparent late this week, puts Colton Gillies back in for John Persson. One to scratch each way. From line rushes, it appeared Dallas Jackson was playing left wing, one of eight defensemen dressed for warmup.

BRIDGEPORT
F: Mouillierat-Quine-McDonald (A)
Halmo-Stretch-Zolnierczyk (A)
Gillies-Sundstrom-Courtnall
Gallant-Langkow-Vaughan
D: Ness (C)-Pulock
Czuczman-Mayfield
Pelech-Graham
(Pedan-scratch)
G: Poulin
Leggio

HARTFORD
F: C.Bourque (A)-Mueller (A)-Malone
R.Bourque (A)-Miller-Haggerty
Vaive-Lindberg-Kristo
Jackson-Hrivik-McCarthy
D: Kaberle-Hughes
Allen-Kostka
Bodie-McIlrath
(Stammler-scratch)
G: Desjardins
Skapski

R: Hersey. L: Galvin, Simeon.

(My first road game of the season. Happy to see a game somewhere else.)

Michael Fornabaio