It was a year ago this month (its now being November, and time flying and whatnot) that Alan Quine, going to the net in Hartford, went down behind the goal line, allowing the other five players on the ice in overtime to go the other way.
The breaks evened out so hard tonight that he found himself alone with the other five players on the ice trying to catch up to him. The puck hadn’t gone in behind Christopher Gibson. He put the puck in for Bridgeport.
It comes down to that, pretty much, 10 seconds between Hunter Shinkaruk cutting to his left and Quine going high glove that ended an odd night.
So let’s talk about three-on-three! (I hear you groan. Get back here.)
Quine finds it exciting. Sure. Brent Thompson called him “an elite scorer in this league.” Give him an inch there, he’ll give you the rest of the night off. But it is the kind of chaos where one break — like two guys going to the net, one going through momentum to the boards, and one guy left behind for a breakaway? — is decisive.
“It’s a bit of a mess,” Mike Halmo said. “We really don’t practice it. We don’t really play it too often.”
You know how fond we are in This Space of Thompson’s “That’s not playoff hockey” line. He said something similar Sunday.
“At the end of the day, three-on-three is not real hockey,” Thompson said. “It’s fun for the fans. It’s fun to be part of on the winning end, that’s for sure. At the end of the day, it’s not real hockey, but it’s exciting.”
It’s worth a point in the standings, too, somehow. Might as well go and get it. Took good timing from Halmo and good luck, but Bridgeport got it.
……
All that said, it was, generally, a decent enough game for Bridgeport. In the three-in-three narrative, this one seemed to fall into the “team that played while other was idle is sharper” and the “rested team comes on later” template. Shots on goal aside, the Comets had the better of the play through the first period, but a stick-slash helped Bridgeport get even.
“I’m proud of the effort level,” Thompson said. “They really responded to the challenge tonight.”
The power play had been 0-for-13 before the Ryan Pulock goal. It got another on Justin Vaive’s deflection in the second period (floodgate’s open for Vaive, eh?). And the penalty kill went 3-for-3.
“It was nice to see special teams, both, dialed in,” Thompson said.
Brass was in the house. Speculate away.
Prescout. Andrey Pedan tonight; Aaron Ness on Wednesday.
If Mark Arcobello’s bummed about his demotion to the Marlies, it’s belied by scoring twice with a game-winner like this.
This Wall Street Journal story about the history of “trick(s) or treat(s)” would be cool enough without the reference to an Alberta town that produced one of the greatest Sound Tigers ever.
Interesting: The costliest errors in World Series history, where No. 6 is last night’s. (shudder) (Hat tip: Adam Rubin.)
Speaking of which, off to watch the rest of this. Team’s off tomorrow. See you Tuesday.