Twenty-one to go: Hartford postgame

It might be a little premature to get too excited. It’s one game after a couple of clinkers. It’s a big win, for sure, and much-needed, and way better to go into the new week off that than one of those other games.

“We’re not perfect,” Brent Thompson said. “You got strides.”

There’s also the opponent factor. Bridgeport looked good in the preseason… playing Hartford. The Hartford roster’s better than last year’s, but it’s young, and especially young in the defensive zone, and, well, maybe at this point Bridgeport’s supposed to beat this Hartford team.

Ehh, why toss cold water around. It’s a big win, much-needed, with some good signs.

They were way better defending the rush. “We defended a lot harder,” Thompson said.

He was happy with the Holmstroms/Jones line bringing early energy. Ben Holmstrom has always said he likes it better in the middle, and that’s been a good shift the past couple of nights; Thompson likes his reliability there and said it gives Jones a chance to cut off the wing, too.

The rising tide produced some other productive nights, too, like Mitch Vande Sompel’s first pro goal off an awful Hartford turnover into the slot; he also assisted the seventh goal for Scott Eansor (whose pace has plummeted to 88 goals). Forget his goal; thought Kyle Burroughs was doing lots of good things in the defensive end. “(He) was much more engaged,” Thompson said. “He’s one of the guys to lead us (down low), he and Helgeson.”

But maybe the most notable was Michael Dal Colle’s. He scored a goal and put the shot on goal that Burroughs followed.

“It’s nice to get the first one,” Dal Colle said. “I wasn’t shooting the puck enough.”

How would he assess his first few weeks? “Up and down,” Dal Colle said. “Too inconsistent. I need to be more hard on the puck, more assertive.”

“He was moving his feet,” Thompson said. “That’s the big thing. He was moving his feet and bringing that physical energy.” Those allowed him to get chances, Thompson said. He also mentioned that they’d talked about who might help get him going, and Travis St. Denis was one possibility. They worked well tonight.

…..

Team’s off tomorrow. More Tuesday unless warranted.

At this instant, Scott Eansor is tied with Daniel Sprong for the league lead in goals, with Danick Martel also at seven in one more game. Trying to figure out an angle for a midweek feature. Got a couple of ideas. See what shakes out of the ol’ coconut on the off day.

Prescout. (As always, if I do that again this year, hit me.)

Attendance was 3,077. There have been four smaller announced crowds here for Hartford. Not sure how many actually smaller crowds there’ve been.

Laval had Nikita Scherbak and Michael McCarron called up today. Didn’t work out so well in Providence. Up the road, Springfield got its first win. Bridgeport is four points out of a playoff spot. (I’ll probably stop now.)

And good news from Jersey. Great news, actually.

Michael Fornabaio