Back to work with 13 forwards on the ice. Ross Johnston, says Brent Thompson, will be out “unfortunately a lot longer than we expected,” six to eight weeks the estimate after further evaluation, with whatever lower-body injury he suffered on the way into the boards Sunday. Alan Quine still doesn’t sound like a really long-term issue, but Thompson doesn’t plan on him for this coming weekend.
Kirill Petrov, out of non-contact red, skated as a fourth today on what was the second line the other day, Wright-Root-Beck. (Petrov declined an interview request, citing the language barrier. I tried to convince him that his English was a lot better than my Russian, to no avail. He said something in Russian; I thought my “huh” proved it, but oh well.)
Think George Richards in Miami first reported that veteran forward Dave Bolland is going to Portland on conditioning. (Florida called up Rocco Grimaldi.) The Pirates are here Saturday and Sunday; they’re home for Springfield on Wednesday first. Whenever he plays, it’ll be Bolland’s first AHL game since the 2008 playoffs. In eight games for Norfolk against Bridgeport in 2006-07, Bolland was 2-5-7 (2-1-3 in one game alone), but he also had a high-sticking major, drawing blood from Frans Nielsen, in a game here that helped lead to a couple of power-play goals. Ancient history is fun. Corey Crawford was 5-1 against Bridgeport that year. Troy Brouwer was 8-2-10 in eight games; Martin St. Pierre, 2-8-10 in seven. Brandon Bochenski was 5-3-8 in four, but I still don’t get how Zach Parise didn’t at least make the all-rookie team in 2004-05. (Haven’t broken that one out in a while.)
With the Rangers set to call up Brady Skjei, Hartford brought up two defensemen from Greenville, including onetime (literally) Sound Tiger Sean Escobedo on a PTO.
And RIP, Glen Sonmor and Phil Pepe.