Great starts: Hartford pregame

So here they are at 1-5-1-1, the worst eight-game start in team history. A loss of any sort today would actually guarantee their worst 11-game start in history, or at least a tie for it in points with fewer wins. The 2013-14 team went 4-6-1-1 in the first 12, and if that’s what you’re aspiring to at this point, well, kind of tough.

They’re without six injured players today, and now two more are out up top, and here they are with a three-in-three against the team with one of the hottest starts in the AHL. Blah-blah excuses, win games, absence creates opportunity. Sure.

But still.

Durandeau, Stevens and Quenneville come in for Jobst, Thomson and MacKinnon. Jared Coreau in net.

BRIDGEPORT
F: Schilkey-Koivula-Holmstrom
R.Bourque-Lorito-Bernier
St. Denis-Kubiak-Durandeau
Bellows-Stevens-McDonald (A)
D: Aho-Burroughs (C)
Wotherspoon-Hutton
Helgeson (A)-Quenneville
MacKinnon-scratch
G: Coreau
Skarek

HARTFORD
F: Beleskey-Chytil-DiGiuseppe
Lettieri-Nieves-Fogarty (C)
Fontaine-O’Regan-Newell
Gettinger-Jones-Meskanen
D: Lindgren (A)-Raddysh
Day-LoVerde (A)
Geertsen-Keane
G: Shesterkin
Huska

R: Gouin, O’Donnell. L: N.Briganti, Pincus.

This should be the box.

Bridgeport scratches (presumed healthy unless noted): Gibson (lower), Hickey (lower), Wilde (ankle), Brown (lower), Fritz (lower), Ho-Sang, Jobst, Thomson, Turcotte (upper), apparently MacKinnon

Elsewhere, the Danbury Hat Tricks are getting going. Christian Gardecki is their PA guy, if you didn’t feel old enough today.

And RIP, Chuck Meriwether.

Michael Fornabaio