One man missing from this morning’s practice: Justin Vaive. Brent Thompson didn’t offer more than upper-body, being evaluated at the doctor, “go from there.”
Lines remained as they were at the end of yesterday (with Connor Jones, the extra forward, in Vaive’s spot). They skated pretty hard, and Thompson said he got what he wanted out of it. “We didn’t earn a day off, that’s for sure,” Thompson said.
Went to Matt Carkner for the veteran’s view on the mini-slump, and after he busted my chops for only talking to him at the bad times (OK, fair), he pointed out that two games ago was an excellent game. “Yesterday we didn’t come out with the extra effort level,” Carkner said. “That happens sometimes. There were a lot of power plays. It was really kind of the opposite of what we wanted. It kind of deflated us instead of giving us momentum.”
(Also, Carkner often speaks in Greg-Croninesque ask-one-thing-get-all-you-wanted paragraphs and I should probably hit him up daily.)
“We’ve been struggling with little things. We’ll take it with a grain of salt. We’re a hard-working team, but we had a game where we didn’t show up, which is not to say Syracuse didn’t play well. … Baby steps. It’s a little learning lesson.”
Three in three coming this weekend. (Holy cro, it’s December.) Bit of a rest advantage for the Sound Tigers at the end. Saturday’s opponent, Portland, plays in Providence on Friday while Bridgeport’s in Springfield; about 45 minutes’ longer ride for the Pirates, if everything’s equal traffic-wise. Meanwhile on Saturday, Hartford will be in Wilkes-Barre before coming here Sunday. (Note that: Sunday’s here. When I typed the schedule up, I had that game in Hartford. It’s not. It’s here.)
Day off tomorrow for most. Though not for us. (Found Killingly. Assume there are as many routes there as from Hartford to Providence.)
Meanwhile, yes, go see this. (Via New Horizons, the interplanetary gift that keeps on giving.)