Adam Pelech in the house. Arthur Staple wrote the story last night on his comeback from surgery for thoracic outlet syndrome. We talked further; story in tomorrow’s paper. No 4-10 reunion yet, though: The Islanders recalled Scott Mayfield this morning after losing Calvin de Haan to a first-period blocked shot last night.
Marc-Andre Cliche and Kyle Burroughs both appear set to return this weekend; wearing real-boy colors instead of no-contact red today. Cliche was in the Justin Vaive/Sebastian Collberg spot alongside Justin Florek and Ben Holmstrom. Vaive and Kevin Czuczman weren’t on; Brent Thompson said Vaive is week-to-week, while Czuczman’s day-to-day.
Jesse Graham was sent to Missouri. “So he plays games,” Thompson said. “Jesse Graham’s obviously a young guy with a future with us. We’ll make sure he gets games. With Pelech coming down, with Burroughs coming off the injury, we’ve got nine D right now, we thought it’d be the best thing for him to play games.”
Only seven defensemen on the ice this morning, though, with Czuczman sitting out, Mayfield up and Luke Juha released from his ATO and going back to school. Sounds like Juha made an impression in practice, though.
Player of the Week Alan Quine: “Any time you can be recognized like that, it’s an honor. It’s a credit to the whole team, my linemates, everybody I’ve been playing with.”
Semi-remarkable fact: Last night’s fight was the first for Ryan Pulock, in the WHL, in professional hockey or, reports our man Ray, back to Junior A. That’s semi-remarkable enough, but he’d never even had more than four penalty minutes in a game, and even that only five times in 403 WHL/AHL/NHL games (including playoffs) going into last night. His only four-PIM pro game was his last in the AHL before he went up.
Bridgeport will miss Jay Rosehill this weekend. (Dean Chynoweth’s suspension was for this.)
Both the Islanders and Rangers lost key defensemen blocking shots last night: Brady Skjei got called up from Hartford after Ryan McDonagh was hurt last night.
Alex Carpenter’s goal in overtime gave the United States gold at the Women’s World Championship. Three in a row for the Americans.
And RIP, Tom Fujitani and Mike Sandlock.