Road game: Bridgeport at Charlotte (1)

By on October 11, 2019 at 5:12 PM
  • Who, when, whatever: Friday, 7 p.m. or perhaps somewhat later after they raise a banner, BoHANglays Coliseum
  • Watch: AHLTV pay-per-view; free version on the AHL’s Facebook page
  • Listen: Mixlr audio
  • Twitters: Alan / the Sound Tigers / the Checkers / Jason Shaya
  • Box score: totally (R: Blandina, Waterstradt; L: Shiley, Wicklum)
  • Game notes: A bit of follow-up from Sunday (and it’s partly geeky). We’d expected, and thought we saw in warmup atop the XL Center, Bridgeport to send out lines reminiscent of what they had started Saturday with, notably Matt Lorito on the left of Otto Koivula and Oliver Wahlstrom, and Kieffer Bellows with Travis St. Denis and Nick Schilkey.

    Then they announced starters, and they announced Bellows-Koivula-Wahlstrom.

    Um.

    Then the teams lined up for the Anthem: Lorito-Koivula-Wahlstrom.

    Um.

    Before the draw, though, Lorito skated off, Bellows went on, and that’s how it stayed.

    Brent Thompson said Tuesday that Bellows-Koivula-Wahlstrom was his intention all along. He was fortunate to notice Bellows at the bench and avoided the minor for improper-starting-lineup (you better believe I was watching the Hartford bench at the first whistle).

    “I wanted to have that group together,” Thompson said. “They did a good job last year in the playoffs. There was a little bit of chemistry there, Kieffer, Wally and Koivy. They generated some offense for us through last year’s playoffs. Seeing that, the skill set, as far as their offensive instincts with each other, thought that might be a good line, and they did a pretty good job.”

    The semi-interesting part, and we really don’t have the backup to it from Wednesday’s practice, is that with Koivula out Tuesday, it was sort of status quo ante, with Lorito opposite Wahlstrom (with Jeff Kubiak in the middle). See how they run tonight (and who’s in, with Koivula and Steve Bernier both termed day-to-day a few days ago).

    (We will likely not see how they run until late this evening.)

  • Meh, what else is going on: Tip of cap to the AHL Hall of Fame Class of 2020, featuring former New Haven Nighthawks coach (and player) Robbie Ftorek. It also included early standout Fred Thurier, along with a couple of the top players from Bridgeport’s era in the league, Denis Hamel and Darren Haydar, who somehow never got here (and by “somehow” I mean played his entire AHL career in the Rumored Conference).
  • Aren’t you supposed to be doing something else:

  • RIP, Alexei Leonov.
  • If this were a regular blog post, what word or phrase would most likely follow “More” at this point: Tomorrow, probably.
Michael Fornabaio