Always good to see Mike Cornell, and he’s a good guy to have in the organization, too. Captain at Worcester, and a solid depth guy here.
“It’s the best of both worlds,” he said after the exhibition loss this afternoon. “Until I’m done with hockey my goal remains to play at the highest level I can. I want to be here. I still think I can be an impact guy at this level. Kudos to the organization to have so much depth, so many good young players, that opportunity has been hard to come by. I’m very thankful they gave me another opportunity and, showed some loyalty to me. I enjoy this group, management.
“Being in Worcester, too, is a unique opportunity to live at home and still play pro hockey,” Cornell said. “My goal is to be here. In Worcester, I still get to see my family, too.”
(The little girl is almost 2, another one is on the way.)
Late in the game, Connor Doherty laid a hit into Matt Beleskey. Beleskey retaliated with a slash. Cornell jumped in and fought Beleskey.
“Guys that stepped up, stuck together as a group,” Brent Thompson said.
….
F: Brown-MacLean-Pierog
Hitchcock-Dudek-Durandeau
Eansor-Pond-Bourque
Thomas-Kubiak-Thomson
D: Wotherspoon-Quenneville
Doherty-Cornell
Murray-MacKinnon
G: Skarek
Soderstrom
Erik Brown left the game in the second period after taking a hit from Mason Geertsen that left Brown unable to get up or put much apparent weight on his left leg. Thompson said Brown has to be reevaluated. It didn’t look great.
Game-wise, “a lot to work on, but I think our guys competed extremely hard,” Thompson said. “We have a young group that hasn’t played together very much.” Execution on breakouts, supporting the puck and “a lot of different things systematically” stood out as improvement points. With a preseason group, that’s not an uncommon thing.
“I think the guys that played here, Ryan (Bourque), a lot of the guys, you look at the effort level, and that’s the most important thing we preach. They were working, and they were working together. Sometimes it wasn’t the right things they were doing, but definitely it’s something we can learn from.”
Nick Jones scored both Hartford goals, one coming hard out of the corner to Jakub Skarek’s right and beating his man to leave himself all alone in front, the other after, it appeared, the puck stuck in a wet spot on Parker Wotherspoon in the first half-minute of the third.
Elsewhere, from earlier in the week, the Bruins’ Anton Blidh is out four months with a shoulder injury.
YOU GUYS. Mini Gritty on the zip line, you guys.
And only 10th? (And honestly I might put the other one ahead of it)
More tomorrow at some point.