A lot of our lineup guessing from yesterday goes right out the window today: With Valtteri Filppula out for a month, the Islanders called for Tanner Fritz at 5 today. Best option for that kind of role, presumably. (Fritz’s clock at which he’d need to reclear waivers runs out pretty close to the end of the NHL regular season, by my reckoning, whether in games or in time, in case it comes to that. We’ll see.)
Otto Koivula slides into the spot where Fritz skated yesterday. There are some interesting combos with the Marlies in town, including a Kieffer Bellows-Matt Lorito-Mike Sislo line.
While on another assignment today, saw Sacred Heart coach C.J. Marottolo, who reminded me that this is the pro debut for defenseman Joseph Duszak out of Mercyhurst. AHA pride right there.
BRIDGEPORT
F: C.Bourque-Koivula-Bernier (A)
Bellows-Lorito-Sislo
St. Denis – Kubiak – Ho-Sang
Jones-Stevens-B.Holmstrom (C)
D: Vande Sompel-Rathgeb
Helgeson (A)-Burroughs
Aho-Casto
(Cornell-scratch)
G: Smith
Gibson
TORONTO
F: MacMaster-Mueller (A)-Carcone
Engvall-Brooks-Bracco
Timashov-Jooris-Baptiste
Molino-Elynuik-Pooley
D: Sandin-LoVerde (A)
Subban-Liljegren
Rubins-Duszak
G: Hutchinson
Kaskisuo
R: Deckard, K.Anderson. L: K.Briganti, E.Ernst N.Briganti.
Bridgeport scratches (believed healthy unless noted): Cornell, Wotherspoon (upper), R.Bourque (veteran), Eansor, Gionta (veteran).
Scoreboard watching: Syracuse at Charlotte; Providence at Laval. The magic number is 14 after the Penguins’ OT loss last night at Hershey (which leaves the Bears two points back, though Bridgeport has a game in hand — tonight — now).
They’ve updated our blog, which usually means disaster. (Took me all of warmup to figure out how to post something that looks relatively normal.) Lemme know if things look weird.