New math: Camp, Day 1

Camp opened strong with two groups of 21 Monday at Wonderland. And if you divided 43 by two and figured that was roughly right… well, not quite. Scott Mayfield and Adam Pelech were on early this morning with the first group’s defensemen and goalies, and then they disappeared. Turned out there was a reason. They’re playing for the Big Club tonight.

Also missing was Andrew Johnston (two Johnstons and two sets of brothers, Holmstroms and Joneses, on this 43-er-40-man roster), awaiting a medical clearance, Brent Thompson said, but otherwise, they lined up something like — and yeah, caveat, it’s Sept. 28, the D pairs were fluid, apologies on positions in some spots, don’t read into yadda yadda yadda — this:

Group 1
Whitney-Kearns-Beck
R.Johnston-B.Holmstrom-Collberg
K.Jones-Barnes-C.Jones
Paquette-Verhaeghe-Fritz

Finn-Ludwig
Schneider-Leduc
Graham-Nilsson
(Burroughs in red no-contact)

Gibson
Missiaen

Group 2
Florek-Gomes-Vaive
Allen-Quine-Wright
Rowe-Root-Markison
Schiavo-J.Holmstrom-Sylvestre

Cullity-Aneloski
Czuczman-Carkner
Lauwers-Lafranchise
(Burroughs in red no-contact)

Milner
Missiaen

R: (no, just kidding, but it’s nice to bang in a lineup or two again)

Sounds as if they’ll be in two groups like this for at least a few days, with a big roster and a few guys still to come from up top. Missouri, who has several staffers here, opens camp Friday but will still probably have some people here for a few days beyond.

An addition to the Bridgeport staff: As we’d been hearing, Johnny Vazzano joins up as video coach. Trumbull native, a former goalie at Fairfield Prep and Vermont who’s coached high school and prep school teams the past few years. He’ll help out with some goalie drills as well, Thompson said. As an added bonus, he could face his brother this week with Alex on the Wolf Pack’s camp roster.

Meanwhile, far from the Land of Wonder: Yeah, science!

And a fantastic Andy McCullough story on last year’s AL Wild Card game.

Michael Fornabaio