(And I don’t mean the temperature, but darn was it so much nicer and fogless in here today now that the hurricane is gone…)
Seven cuts left one group (without names on the back; get those numbers and faces memorized) in five lines and five pairs:
F: Gaudreau-St. Denis-Bailey
Johnston-Stevens-Fritz
Turcotte-Kubiak-B.Holmstrom
Bourque-Schempp-C.Jones
Dal Colle/Lane/K.Jones/J.Holmstrom
D: Wotherspoon-Burroughs
Toews-Lafranchise
Helgeson-Aho
Cullity-Vande Sompel (red no-contact)
McNally-Cornell
G: Gibson
Gudlevskis
McAdam (went in early)
(The 30th, forward Scott Eansor, remains away on a personal matter; Brent Thompson said he’s expected back Monday.)
Vande Sompel didn’t appear to skip too much if anything. McAdam went in very early, but Thompson didn’t seem to be concerned.
The cuts are all apparently headed to Worcester: six of their contract guys, most locally notably Chris Langkow and Yale’s Frankie DiChiara. Joe Fallon, Willie Raskob, Nick Saracino and Kyle McKenzie were also sent back to the Railers, and Mitch Gillam was released from his tryout. That leaves Patrick McNally as the only Worcester-contract player here.
“With the numbers, we wanted to get down to one (group),” Thompson said. “We wanted the ability to touch on our systems a little more. To try to start building lines and D combinations.” There’s obviously both time and final roster decisions before any of these settle into finality, but still. He said they wanted to balance the offense a bit. “Nothing’s set in stone.”
Last preseason game tomorrow.
Matt Puempel got through waivers to Hartford. Today’s list includes Ville Pokka and Kenny Agostino.
The AHL Guide and Record Book is out: It and the rule book are PDF-available here.
“The Good Place” is brilliant. The little details are awesome.
And RIP, Dunc Fisher.