They were competitive. They worked hard. They were all over the Pirates most of the third period, shots on goal aside.
But it’s another loss. It’s a point, but it’s another loss.
“We’re in pretty much every game,” Colin McDonald said. “We really didn’t give up much tonight, just a couple of turnovers that ended up costing us. It’s the same thing as last night in Portland … a couple of mistakes, a couple of bad changes, bad reads on the backcheck, that end up costing us.”
Kevin Poulin made a couple of bell-ringers — the first-period stop on Francis Wathier, man, sliding left, kicking up the left leg, rolling — but Bridgeport gets victimized on a couple of turnovers (one when Aaron Ness falls; there was a lot of that today) and on a wacky faceoff bounce.
Hitting the break, the way I went postgame was to wonder whether there’s a little frustration, that this team as it stands should be better than a 12th-place team. The consensus was yeah; the pack’s not all that spread out right now (the Pack, in fact, are fifth, nine points ahead), though.
“I think we’ve (given) away a lot of points,” Brent Thompson said; turnovers, “brain cramps,” focus. “The good thing is our guys for the most part compete hard. We’ve got a work in progress.”
There’s lots to work with. The defense has come along, as a group and individually, despite being young. The forwards seem to have roles pretty well set. (Johan Sundstrom wondered if the beginning of the year was a little more competitive as players fought to establish themselves.)
“Chemistry, I think we’ve got good lines. The lineup’s great,” Sundstrom said. “Everyone just needs to chip in.”
……
Apologies for the delay. Wanted to try to get on the road before it froze. The walk from the parking lot at home was more treacherous than the drive to the parking lot at home.
Sebastian Collberg has an arm in a sling after that spill into the boards Friday. Thompson said he hadn’t talked with Dave Stickney about him yet but it looks more like a week-to-week thing than a day-to-day thing. That’s at least the fourth different malady to hit Collberg this year and cost him games, including at least one in the ECHL. Unreal.
Ryan Pulock’s three weeks are coming to an end, but Thompson didn’t know when exactly he’d be evaluated. They’ll also be checking Matt Lashoff’s progress.
Break time. Here’s a little summary of times and TV listings for the all-star festivities.
Prescout. (No, it’s Hartford, though later in the season it’ll almost certainly mean Syracuse.) Enjoyed the mess at 14:00 of the second: Charlie Dodero called for instigating a secondary altercation against Ryan Bourque. The Pack had been 6-0-1-0 in their previous seven.
Lots of potential for hockey technology in the next little bit. Dodge the Glow Puck references.
Tyler Cowen with an interesting adaptation of Ernie Banks’ philosophy.
RIP, Paul Needell.
And Saturday turned out to be the 50th anniversary of the death of Winston Churchill. Great orator. Great wartime leader. Obviously most importantly, son of a New Yorker.