Read this morning’s news with kind of a split reaction. If I hadn’t only used “Oh That’s Bad/No That’s Good” in print a few months ago, I’d have probably gone to it…
–Those games with Houston and San An (one home-and-home apiece), and the addition of an extra home-and-home with Springfield (four whole games! we’re on a roll), come at the expense of games with Wilkes-Barre, Hershey and… Manchester, the only game with Manchester. Sniff. The only other time the Sound Tigers didn’t play a conference foe? Manitoba, Year 1.
There are, meanwhile, still six games apiece with Lowell and Portland.
From the League:
–18+2. I hear coaches rejoicing.
–One-minute minor penalties in overtime. (Carryover time may be cut in half, but Jason Chaimovitch informs us that full details of those cases will be ironed out later.)
–The Rule Book has been “(brought) closer in line with the NHL’s,” which (shudder) includes the dreaded penalty for a puck shot over the glass from the defensive zone. Oh well. Fun while it lasted. The automatic major for an accidental high-stick that draws blood has been reduced to a double minor, like the NHL. The AHL also adopted the NHL’s new, more explicit warnings about making contact on an icing-touchup race, as well as the rule that keeps the faceoff in the offensive zone if a shot goes off a post and out of play.
And we’ve also heard, as Dave Eminian reported yesterday, that the 72-game schedule was voted down.
Hershey president Doug Yingst, Norfolk VP Mark Bernard and ref Terry Koharski received awards from the league, too.
Belatedly: Here’s where Daine Todd’s going: the University of New Brunswick, from where Rob Hennigar is coming. So Todd may well play against some Sound Tigers in September…
Early reactions to the schedule formats: John Walton likes the diversity on some teams’ that he’s seen; Lindsay Kramer seems to find Syracuse’s dull.
Starring today on The Wire: Todd Bertuzzi and Andrew Raycroft.
And RIP, Soviet Hall of Famer Viktor Kuzkin.