Starting right: Monday notes

Good first day? “Great first day,” Brent Thompson said. “I’m happy with the effort level. Obviously a little rust, whether a day of travel or coming in from wherever.”

Having a bunch of bodies is good in a couple of ways at the moment. One is, as Thompson said, competition: They feel they’ve got depth, and battling for spots is not a bad thing.

The other is that they had a few guys out today, some of whom were also out on the Island, Michael Dal Colle, Travis St. Denis and Eamon McAdam. Mitchell Vande Sompel joined them in street clothes this morning. “Just taking care of some little nagging things or whatever,” Thompson said; day-to-day.

They have time, I said. “Well, not before (this week’s preseason) games,” Thompson said. “Before the regular season, yeah.”

Scott Eansor, also, is home on a personal matter.

Connor Jones did double duty, then, to make three lines in both groups. Read EVERYTHING into these combinations:

Group 1:
F: Saracino-Stevens-C.Bailey
DiChiara-Schempp-B.Holmstrom
K.Jones-C.Jones-Langkow
D: Toews-Burroughs
McNally-Raskob
McKenzie-Cornell
G: Gudlevskis
Gillam

Group 2:
F: Johnston-Gaudreau-Fritz
Lane-Kubiak-J.Holmstrom
Turcotte-C.Jones-Bourque
D: Lafranchise-Cullity
Wotherspoon-Aho
Helgeson
G: Gibson
Fallon

R: (just kidding). L: (really, stop that).

Elsewhere: Adam Erne and Matthew Peca are among those sent to Syracuse (so was Alex Gallant the other day). Jaime Sifers was sent to Utica. Mark Flood is on a tryout with Manitoba. Tommy Cross and Jesse Graham are among those on waivers.

Scott Mayfield lost the hair last week for a good cause. (Solid tweet, NYI.)

And RIP, Bob Goring.

Michael Fornabaio