Josh Ho-Sang assisted on his buddy Josh Winquist’s SportsCenter Goal on Feb. 26, then disappeared for parts unknown. (Look, I’ve told you, I’ve only ever set one foot in Brooklyn.) In 16 AHL games after he turned 21, Ho-Sang put up 20 points. Bridgeport was rolling. Since he left, the Sound Tigers are a .500 team over 19 games, an exact quarter of their season, .500 almost exactly (9-8-2-0), .500 in more ways than one (47 goals for, 47 goals against).
It’d been in my mind to check that, but this postgame Twitter exchange inspired me to do the math. (You probably know I wasn’t being facetious about Connor Jones.) Also worth pointing out that Jones, Travis St. Denis and Kyle Schempp have combined in this 19-game stretch for just 15 games. (Though one returns today. Read on, after a couple of charts of numbers.)
| BPT while… | Games | GF/game | GA/game | Record |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| With Halak, arrival to departure | 34 | 2.82 | 2.38 | 22-9-2-1 |
| Post-Halak | 8 | 2.38 | 2.38 | 4-3-1-0 |
| With Ho-Sang, birthday to call-up | 16 | 2.94 | 2.19 | 13-3-0-0 |
| After Ho-Sang | 19 | 2.47 | 2.47 | 9-8-2-0 |
| With Halak/without Ho-Sang | 11 | 2.55 | 2.55 | 5-5-1-0 |
| Total after Jan. 4 | 42 | 2.74 | 2.38 | 26-12-3-1 |
Shootout goals removed, ’cause that’s how we roll around here
Since Ho-Sang’s departure, Bridgeport’s scoring:
| Name | GP | G-A-Pts (PP G-A-Pts) |
|---|---|---|
| Pulock | 19 | 3-13-16 (0-6-6) |
| Winquist | 19 | 5-8-13 (2-3-5) |
| Toews | 19 | 1-12-13 (0-4-4) |
| Fritz | 15 | 4-8-12 (1-3-4) |
| Dal Colle | 19 | 4-7-11 (1-2-3) |
| Rowe | 19 | 5-5-10 (2-0-2) |
| Verhaeghe | 17 | 4-6-10 (1-1-2) |
| Kearns | 19 | 4-5-9 (2-0-2) |
| Burroughs | 19 | 0-6-6 |
| Lafranchise | 18 | 1-4-5 |
| B.Holmstrom | 19 | 1-4-5 |
| K.Jones | 18 | 3-1-4 |
| Johnston | 18 | 3-1-4 |
| Landry | 12 | 1-3-4 (1-1-2) |
| Nowick | 11 | 3-0-3 |
| Bischoff | 4 | 2-1-3 (1-0-1) |
| Wallace | 7 | 1-1-2 (0-1-1) |
| Cullity | 8 | 0-2-2 |
| St. Denis | 3 | 1-0-1 |
| Leduc | 7 | 1-0-1 |
| Stevens | 5 | 0-1-1 |
| C.Jones | 6 | 0-1-1 |
| Markison | 7 | 0-1-1 |
| J.Holmstrom | 15 | 0-1-1 |
| Halak | 9 | 0-1-1 (0-1-1) |
| Danforth | 1 | 0-0-0 |
| Williams | 1 | 0-0-0 |
| Wotherspoon | 2 | 0-0-0 |
| Harris | 3 | 0-0-0 |
| Schempp | 6 | 0-0-0 |
| Graham | 7 | 0-0-0 |
| McAdam | 10 | 0-0-0 |
The latter list presented more as a curiosity/supplement than anything else.
Halak’s arrival obviously helped prod this team back into the race. Ho-Sang’s for-real arrival might have meant even more. Would guess the latter returns this week. Will it be in time?
….
Margin for error slipping rapidly — a Sound Tigers loss or even shootout win will clinch the tiebreaker for Hershey, which we should’ve noticed last night, leaving the magic number at 1 or 2 or 3, depending — welcomes Hartford for the home finale(?), with that parenthesized question mark still integral until at least Friday. Bridgeport throws out a radically different lineup tonight, scratching Carter Verhaeghe, Winquist and Tim Wallace from last night’s forwards. They throw in St. Denis a few days after Brent Thompson said he didn’t think St. Denis was close (desperate times, etc.), and as was tipped off in warmup last night, they move Jon Landry up to forward. (On the Kearns line, no less.) Colin Markison also returns, and Jake Bischoff’s in on defense to give Pat Cullity a rest at the end of three-in-three.
There’s another tweak, though, that may be a late call: They rushed Toews-Bischoff, Wotherspoon-Burroughs. Toews played with Pulock at New Year’s when Burroughs was away for his grandfather’s funeral; he played with Cullity when Burroughs missed a game to injury on Nov. 5. Otherwise, it’s the first time Toews and Burroughs have been split since Game 2, when Toews was with Pulock and Burroughs was with Lafranchise.
Hartford had Magnus Hellberg called up earlier today for the Rangers’ regular-season closer. Chris Nell is ill, so the legendary Nick Niedert is in to back up.
BRIDGEPORT
F: Landry-Kearns (A)-Rowe
Dal Colle-St. Denis-Nowick
K.Jones-Stevens-Markison
Johnston-B.Holmstrom (C)-J.Holmstrom
D: Lafranchise-Pulock (A)
Toews-Bischoff
Wotherspoon-Burroughs
G: McAdam
Williams
HARTFORD
F: Catenacci-Hrivik (A)-Jensen
Tambellini-Lettieri-Brown (A)
Carey-Fogarty-Ronning
Kovacs-McRae-Stromwall
D: Graves-Paliotta
Gilmour-Hughes
Pedrie-Summers (A)
G: Halverson
Niedert
R: Iverson, T.Koharski. L: N.Briganti, Colby.
Bridgeport scratches (believed healthy unless noted): Gibson (lower body), Cullity, Leduc, Bernier (upper body), Boulton, Cammarata, Fritz (lower body), Gaudreau, Schempp (upper body), Verhaeghe, Wallace, Winquist.
Scoreboard watching (EastWatch ’17): Wilkes-Barre/Scranton at Providence.
Happy 30th to Ben Holmstrom.