He’d been on the ice in a regular blue jersey before when there wasn’t going to be contact to be had, and he’d been on the ice for a full practice before, but today was the first day Mitch Vande Sompel combined the two: full practice, with contact.
“Obviously it’s nice to practice again,” he said afterward at Wonderland. “We’re taking it slow, day-by-day, see how I’m feeling. For my first day with contact, there’s no issue at all. We’re going to ease into it.”
He’s been out since an upper-body injury late in the Feb. 7 morning game at Hartford on a snowy Wednesday (speaking of, ugh, another one coming, great).
Brent Thompson wouldn’t put a timetable on him. He still called Vande Sompel “week to week,” as he has, and said they’ll monitor him day to day.
Ryan Bourque and Casey Bailey sat out; maintenance, Thompson said. Same lineup as the past week otherwise, with Kyle Schempp filling Bourque’s spot and Josh Holmstrom in Bailey’s.
No moves yet around the league with the AHL deadline coming up at 3, and no ATOs yet, either. Providence did make a couple of recalls and release a couple of PTOs; neat story from Mark Divver on them.
Charlotte came from behind yesterday afternoon at the Civic Center to move five points ahead of Bridgeport, which now has played two fewer games. Hartford is nine points behind the Checkers with just 15 games left.
The empty-netter from Friday at Laval is now properly credited to Ben Holmstrom instead of Michael Dal Colle.
Lehigh Valley’s Nicolas Aube-Kubel will miss Friday’s game in Allentown, serving out a check-to-the-head suspension. (Harry Zolnierczyk makes an appearance in that release, too.)
After winning Saturday night in triple overtime, Sacred Heart scored two in the first last night at RIT and won 2-0 to take the series in three games. The Pios’ first playoff-series win in three years sends them to face top-seeded Mercyhurst next weekend.
Stan Capp gets Chris Langkow into Uni Watch.
Swansea City has worked its way out of the depths and into… well, BBC Sport Wales compiled some of new manager Carlos Carvalhal’s recent thoughts. Beautiful.
Jeff Jacobs on emotions and high school sports, with a bit on Drew Booth, the Hall/Southington player injured in a recent game against Conard.
And RIP, Roger Bannister.