Things change

So by now you’ve probably seen the blurb in Tuesday’s paper. Bill McLaughlin won’t be back as the voice of the Sound Tigers in the fall.

The backhanded good news is that that’s all. No horror stories. No chilling vision of things to come*. They let him go. Neither side wanted to air it in public. Fair enough. These things happen; we’ll all move on.

I’ll miss him. You get out on the road in this league, and a lot of times it’s him and me. You hang around, you BS, you help each other out, you trade stories and tidbits and URLs. Sometimes, you assure each other of your sanity (Who took the initial shot? Why didn’t he get an assist?). While the wall is always there, you’re friendly if not friends. And when I was stuck at home, I’d listen to the Webcast. The man was certainly one of the best in this circuit.

It’s a shame. I wish Bill nothing but the best. And I wish his successor lots of luck.
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Meanwhile, Winnipeg and Grand Rapids head to a Game 7 tonight. Gotta love ’em. Working the high schools desk tonight (while writing up a coupla features, gettin’ the ol’ byline back in print), but maybe I can turn the speakers down REEEEEAL low and listen to the Webcast…

Portland-Hershey begins Wednesday. A mole who’s seen tape says Portland’s goaltending is gonna cost them. You know I’ve been on the Pirates’ bandwagon most of the year, but it’s kinda hard to pick against the Bears right now, isn’t it? Especially since, apparently, there’s yet another building availability thing keeping Game 7 out of Portland…

Danbury avoids a Game 7: Glad I didn’t stick around the office to wait out the triple-overtime win. The Trashers, having dispatched one old IHL standby, get another, Kalamazoo, in the finals. Home games next Wednesday, Friday and, if necessary, Saturday.

Anybody else getting a kick out of this San Jose-Edmonton series? I haven’t seen nearly as much of it as I’d like.

Michael Fornabaio