Last practice before Charlotte, looked more or less the same as yesterday, though John Stevens was on the ice (skating with the extras and not taking part in every drill). The change came afterward, as the players all packed their bags to head south. One will go north instead: Eamon McAdam heads to Worcester. The Railers start their season this weekend.
“(Numbers) is all it is. I thought he had a great camp,” Brent Thompson said. “He needs to play. Right now we’ve got guys (Christopher Gibson and Kristers Gudlevskis) who’ll go back and forth. I don’t see him getting any games right now. It’s important for his development. Our goalie coach will be going down there and working with him. He’s got to be ready at any given point.”
Thompson wasn’t going to guarantee that everybody will be in this weekend (not that I’d expect that anyway), but he did say he thought everybody would have a crack at it by the end of next weekend. “I want to get everybody in as much as possible,” he said. “With a limited schedule right now, it’ll be tough.”
Leni and Brent had the truck packed up and were set to start driving not long after practice. The team follows tomorrow.
Bridgeport’s first visit to Bojangles Coliseum; the Checkers were in the big barn the last (and only) time Bridgeport visited in 2010, when Jack Capuano was still in charge. When she visits her grandparents in North Carolina, my cousin Sophia pronounces Bojangles as if it were Spanish. “Bo-HAN-glays.” I suggest it. (I also suggest the sausage gravy biscuit.)
Break up the Golden Knights. (Well-played, Vegas.)
Tip of cap to Shelton’s Dan Orlovsky.
And RIP, Bob Schiller.