Attendance was 2,642, but Brent Thompson thought he saw more spectators in the first period. Several in white sweaters.
“If you watch a good hockey team — they’re at the top of the league for a reason,” Thompson said.
“If you’re just going to watch, it’s hard to get going. In my mind, it looks like we got outworked.”
They didn’t defend hard enough last night, and the penalty kill has to be better, Thompson said.
I’d wondered if he thought there were common ties between last night and tonight; is it defending, I asked? He paused a while. “The bottom line, tonight, we got outworked. Plain and simple. … For us to be successful, we need to play our game. It was not at the level we need to be.”
Turnovers didn’t help. They lost coverage and positioning a few times over the course of the day, and the Amerks (who didn’t look like the team playing three in three) even made them pay for it a few times.
End result: Practice tomorrow.
….
We’ll try to get Shane Prince tomorrow. Seven shots on goal for him.
One more time, Bridgeport without Connor Jones the past two seasons, with disclaimers about Halak and Ho-Sang and how other guys probably have similar things because it’s not good to play without your regulars: 9-13-1-0.
Ross Johnston gave it a go in warmups but was ill, Brent Thompson said, leading to the late scratch.
Patrick Cullity made his season debut today in Worcester‘s shootout loss at Brampton. Two goals for Chris Langkow, with the second tying it with 2:09 to go. Eamon McAdam made 33 saves. The Railers are 8-8-2-2.
Newsday’s Jim Baumbach was at today’s Belmont hearing; see his timeline for some details and links to other reporters out there.
Prescout, ongoing at this writing, moments after Steven Fogarty scored your routine three-on-five short-handed goal. (One-on-two, with his teammates changing behind him.)
And a big baseball day for Detroit.