The Binghamton Devils. Let’s get the joke out of the way: Glad the Devil from the The Joker’s Wild finally got work again after all these years. (I finally saw Quiz Show this summer, only 23 years late, and I swear Christopher McDonald was more Jack Barry than Jack Barry ever was. Enough time has passed; let’s get McDonald to do The Joker’s Wild movie now.)
ANYway. First time I’m missing an opener. Painful. Doubly, really: ISP issues (SNET/ATT/Frontier/whoever) are hampering my accessing The AHL Live, so we’ll be listening to Alan and following along on Twitter with him and the team and the Diablos, who will be the “Senators” or “Albany” at least once tonight. And we miss Grady and Josh greatly, but we sure won’t hold that against Rob.
Alan tipped off the debut of Scott Eansor tonight, which was somewhat unexpected. John Stevens came off after practice and had a chat with the trainers and Brent Thompson yesterday, and he’s apparently the one out tonight, so some dots seem connectable.
Christopher Gibson puts his eight-game winning streak on the line tonight.
The box will be here. First Bridgeport game for referee Jesse Gour. Also, gave a deeper look yesterday to the AHL’s officials roster and saw that Dmitrii Antipin, one of the 2014 ATOs at the end of that lost season, is listed as a linesman this year. That goes along with Corey Syvret, once under contract to Bridgeport though he never played here, becoming a referee this year.
RIP, Connie Hawkins.
More closer to gametime.
BRIDGEPORT from the team
F: Dal Colle-Gionta-Bernier (A)
Gaudreau-St. Denis-Bailey
Bourque-Eansor-Fritz
Johnston-C.Jones-B.Holmstrom (C)
D: Toews-Burroughs
Vande Sompel-Lafranchise
Helgeson (A)-Aho
G: Gibson
would figure Gudlevskis
The team tweet lists the last two D pairs the other way around. They were more often as above this week from what I saw, though MVDS-Lafranchise in particular sometimes went the other way. We’ll see. (See, since I may have a temporary ISP workaround.)
BINGHAMTON
F: Blandisi-Kearns-Lappin (A)
Quenneville-Kennedy-Speers
Pietila (A)-Rooney-Bastian
Baddock-Cangelosi-Thomson
D: Strait (A)-Jacobs
Kapla-Loov
Erixon-Dyblenko
G: Blackwood
Wedgewood
R: MacDougall, Gour. L: Everett, Ritter.
–Gionta wins the draw from Kearns, and they’re off in Bingo.
–The center-ice logo is upside-down from the original press-box vantage point, which means it’s upside-down on AHL Live. I’m not sure why. First PP to Binghamton as Helgeson gives Rooney an extra shot along the boards.
–Bridgeport’s first power play follows on a Binghamton slash. Aho and Toews on the first unit with Toews on the right half-wall.
–Devils break out right away against the second unit, with Gaudreau back. Gibson makes a stop, tries to move it, but the whistle blows. Rooney beats Fritz on the right-circle draw, Blake Pietila fires it top-left corner, and Binghamton leads 1-0 on a short-handed goal at 8:48.
–Johnston and Thomson start the season off with a spirited one after a hit on Aho. Johnston finished it with a right.
–Penalty shot as Toews hooks Bastian, led on a breakaway by Blandisi. Beats Gibson glove-side to make it 2-0 with a little over four minutes left in the first.
–Quenneville hits Eansor a little late. Bridgeport’s second PP, minus-1-for-1.
–St. Denis, Bernier and Bailey with Aho and Toews on that first PP unit, which gives up a two-on-one off the hop; puck bounces away on the left-to-right pass. The second unit also included Vande Sompel, Dal Colle and Johnston in front with Fritz and Gaudreau.
–Bastian stretched early, too; Gibson stopped him. Tough to tell exactly where he got lost. He’s up-ice as Bridgeport gets the puck back into the Devils’ zone; maybe he just stayed there behind Toews. Burroughs stepped up on Blandisi as Bridgeport had three forwards up, somewhere in the middle of a change.
–Third Bridgeport power play on the second interference minor against Eansor, this one by Tim Erixon.
–Interrupted by a Fritz slash. Alan does a read for Frontier. I suppress a laugh.
–Jones slash on Quenneville’s stick will extend the power play (though off the draw they nearly spring Fritz up the right wing. He gets a shot from the top of the circle, stopped).
–Eansor stopped mostly alone after two Devils collide. The penalties all finally expire: Still 2-0 Devils with 11:20 left in the second.
–Gibson makes a stop on a three-on-one after Fritz loses it spinning back after failing to get the puck in.
–PA calls them the Senators. Crowd roars. Love it.
–Blandisi gives Gionta a cross-check on a four-on-four that’ll give the Sound Tigers a 47-second four-on-three.
–Bernier put a redirect wide and tossed his head back. Bailey stopped on a scramble. A five-on-four now.
–Still 2-0 Binghamton after two. Outshot the Devils 13-6 in the second but didn’t beat Blackwood.
–Gibson has to stop Tim Kennedy on a two-on-one 2:40 into the third period. A minute later, Nick Lappin’s point-blank shot hits the crossbar. The Devils asked for a review on it. No goal after the refs give a look. It’s an official challenge, apparently, as they charge the Devils their time out.
–Elsewhere, Alex Ovechkin had four goals and Nathan Walker got his first.
–While Binghamton’s plugging its replay sponsor, St. Denis gets led on a breakaway on a four-on-four. Blackwood gloves his backhander.
–A 16-second four-on-three to come for Binghamton with Vande Sompel sent off, 11:36 left.
–Back to even strength. Bridgeport has never been shut out in an opener, nor in the second game of a season. (Game 3 of 2013-14 was a 3-0 Manchester win.)
–Eansor, who’s had a day, tips in Vande Sompel’s shot from the blue line, and it’s 2-1 Binghamton with 8:13 left.
–The lines are a little mixed. The top line is intact, but Eansor was out with St. Denis and Bailey for the goal. Jones was with Bourque and Fritz.
–Now Johnston-Jones-Holmstrom, so we’ll keep an eye out for Gaudreau.
–THE FOG! THE FOG! DEJA VU. (Bridgeport played the first Binghamton Senators game in 2002. The fog rolled in at the end of regulation. Rick DiPietro lost a puck in it in overtime.)
–Gibson out with 1:20 left.
—Binghamton 2, Bridgeport 1, final. Gibson’s first loss since March 11, 2016, not that it’s much on him.
–Positives, Brent Thompson said. “We took over the game in the second period,” he said. “I thought we really applied pressure. They hung on. Some young guys stepped up. The defense — it’s a tough place to play.
“In no way are we satisfied.”
Chance-wise, he sounded satisfied, though he thought some guys might be kicking themselves for what didn’t go. “I thought our power play got some great looks,” he said. “For me, the power play had some good movement. I’d like to see things done a little quicker. … We can clean up some puck management.”
He expects Stevens to be available in Charlotte. “Obviously we missed him. That’s a big void.”
Not positive when they’re next on, but more then.