Friday will mark 30 days to go in the regular season. Which calls a song to mind. Dredged up a password out of the recesses of my mind to find a place for this: It’s the RETURN OF EASTWATCH. (Yeah, whatever; I’m calling it EastWatch.) Five teams, four spots. Syracuse blew an early lead last night but came back to beat Lehigh Valley in overtime. The point pushed the Phantoms five points ahead of the three-way tie. Everyone in the division has 15 games left except Hershey, 14.
A couple of tweaks from recent days for Bridgeport, with Carter Verhaeghe and Andrew Rowe swapped from yesterday. Just because of the power-play units they used, I’m not sure the changes stick. Plus, Josh Winquist was back on the ice, and he’ll probably play if he can. (Took a puck, I think, to the face early in practice, too, to add injury to illness.)
A reminder that Saturday is a 7:30 start because of the Ladies of Virtue conference. (A reminder that it snowed on the poor Ladies of Virtue last year, too.)
New Hampshire has its succession plans in place: Former Sound Tigers forward Mike Souza will replace Dick Umile after next season.
This USA Hockey vs. the women’s national team situation is quite a mess.
Byron Ritchie has retired, Expressen reports. (Hat tip: Elite Prospects.) Gerry Cantlon mentioned earlier this year, and HockeyDB.com’s where-are-they-now feature agrees, that Ritchie and Herberts Vasiljevs were the last active players from the one brief shining moment that was the Beast of New Haven. And Herbie called it a day last month. The barn’s not there anymore. The team’s gone 20 years. (It’s actually been here for 16.)
And RIP, Bill Walsh.