Ben Holmstrom and Josh Ho-Sang were both on the ice this morning at Wonderland. Though the lines that ran weren’t unfamiliar, Brent Thompson said they could change, particularly with Holmstrom’s and Ho-Sang’s availability. Mason Jobst apparently is still on his way.
Watched much of yesterday’s Utica-Syracuse game, which turned into an absolute lovefest for Stratford’s Jaime Sifers. (This was awesome to see on the AHL TV feed.) Sifers got a solo warmup lap, got honored for his efforts for veterans, got a ton of playing time in overtime, got the first shootout attempt, got named first star. Not bad. Sorry my only chance to cover him was when he was a high school sophomore.
Meanwhile, former Sound Tiger Carter Verhaeghe led the AHL with 82 points, three points better than Toronto’s Jeremy Bracco, and Verhaeghe tied teammate Alex Barre-Boulet for the league lead with 34 goals (Barre-Boulet played 74 games to Verhaeghe’s 76). Aaron Ness led league defensemen with 55 points and 50 assists.
Elsewhere, despite a controversial waved-off Finland goal in overtime, the United States women’s national team won a shootout to take the World Championship for the fifth year in a row.
We will do The Real AHL Standings at some point this week. I know, you’re all waiting with bated breath.
Edit: Should’ve waited two seconds: Mike Vellucci of Charlotte is the AHL’s coach of the year.
Terrible watching the images from Paris this afternoon. Praying no one’s hurt.
And RIP, John MacLeod.