They pretty much roll four lines, we’ve said once or twice when people gripe about which line goes first or fourth in the pregame warmup.
So tonight happened to be the fourth line’s night offensively in the first two periods, two goals for Ryan Bourque, one for Connor Jones. But they had a pretty effective night otherwise.
“Any night we get three goals, that’s a huge bonus,” Bourque said.
“I think we, from the first shift, felt good together. We produced a lot of energy. Playing with those two, they makes it easy on you with how much they clear space, with Jonesy running in there hitting everyone and (Jeff) Kubiak making good plays out there.”
(It was a fourth-line kind of night, actually: Ville Meskanen and Shawn O’Donnell scored for Hartford. But who were we talking about?)
“They contributed,” Brent Thompson said. “Ryan was on fire tonight. That was probably one of the best games I’ve seen him play. They played a simple game. They were predictable to each other.”
They were back out there late, Jones winning draws, Bourque muscling Steven Fogarty off the puck in the slot, helping Christopher Gibson finish that thing off.
“In the third period, I thought we were relentless,” Thompson said. “The compete was very, very good. The guys were desperate. You could see the desperation in their game.”
….
We all predicted Ryan with more goals in four minutes tonight than Chris has in eight games, right? Exactly.
Three assists for Sebastian Aho. The second one was a beauty, after getting the puck up-ice and collecting a Hartford turnover, finding a seam to give Travis St. Denis a perfect look.
Michael Dal Colle and Scott Eansor aren’t on the trip. Status quo with their lower-body injuries, day-to-day, not believed serious, but logistically, “we have no ice to see if they could skate,” Thompson said.
Prescout. The P-Bruins are hurting (though JFK’s absence is personal). (Springfield (lookit Harry Zolnierczyk) is the last team in the league without a regulation loss. This might be the T-Birds prescout, too — Bridgeport plays a home-and-home with them next weekend — but Springfield hosts Hartford tomorrow.)
Though the Sound Tigers didn’t send further requests on the plus/minus issues in Providence last weekend, the league reviewed them and amended the other three goals. So it is no longer a record-setter for Josh Ho-Sang, only (ahem) minus-3.
Got so hung up on plus/minus that I forgot to mention that the league went with the off-ice crew’s original call on Sunday’s second Bridgeport goal. The assist goes to Vande Sompel instead of St. Denis.
Worcester got a goal from Josh Holmstrom but lost late in Glens Falls. (That is, by the way, the Peter MacArthur who ATO’d for Bridgeport a decade ago. He’s 33.) Woody Hudson had three points for the Railers in last night’s win at Manchester. Evan Buitenhuis made 33 saves and was first star in his first pro start.
Mikko Koskinen won his Oilers debut.
Rasmus Sandin became the first player born in 2000 to play in the AHL. Frightening. (We are getting close to the day when a Sound Tigers player might be younger than the franchise.)
And, if (much) less tragic than that, it has been a tough few days in the newsroom, saying goodbye to many people, including John Nash and Rich Gregory. And hitting closest to home, the departure of Chris Elsberry. Maybe most germane to the blog, Els and I rolled to the Sound Tigers’ first two games together, him driving to Rochester and Syracuse (and Krispy Kreme) (and Tully’s) (and the Otis Poultry Farm). He covered for me in Wilkes-Barre after The Accident. I mean, I could keep going all night, but. We’ll miss him.