HOME game: Utica at Bridgeport

  • Who, when, whatever: Comets at Sound Tigers, Arena at Harbor Yard, 7 p.m.
  • Watch: AHLTV pay-per-view
  • Listen: Mixlr audio
  • Twitters: Alan / the Sound Tigers / the Comets / Ben Birnell
  • Box score: Mostly… actually now yes (R: Deckard, T.Koharski; L: K.Briganti, Hejna)
  • Game notes: They’ve lost two out of three, and they’ve dropped back to the worst start in team history again (9-13-3-1; the 2005-06 team was 10-14-2-0) on a tiebreaker. On the other hand, they’ve won five out of seven. They’ve won three in a row at home. On the other hand, the power play has failed to score in its past 27 chances, 47:16’s worth, the 10th-longest streak in terms of opportunities in team history. It’s 1-for-39. The road streak of 0-for-25 is the seventh-longest in team history, following hard on the heels of the fifth-longest road streak in team history earlier this year. (They scored on their first chance, went 0-for-27, went 2-for-3 in Belleville, finished that game with a miss and haven’t scored on the road since.) On the other hand, at home, they’re only 0-for-12, and that’s where they are tonight. On the other hand, that’s way too many hands. We popped in this morning to avoid not seeing them for two weeks, and it looked similar to recent games. None of the nine injured seemed set to go, but Bardreau, Holmstrom (them in no-contact jerseys) and Carpenter were on for the skate. It’s a midweek game, technically, so old-school Gameday in print and online. As noted in last week’s weekly, this is pretty much the first Monday-night, non-holiday-week home game in team history. Utica got Michael DiPietro back from Vancouver; don’t know if he’ll be here. But I did enjoy him tripping a Twitter search recently when Vancouver announced that G DiPietro, no first name, had been called up; a fan marveled that G DiPietro was still playing, as fan remembered watching him with the Sound Tigers years ago.
  • There is actually rather large off-ice news: Brian Keegan, original Sound Tigers employee, part of the front office since before there was an actual office in the arena (or even an arena), is no longer with the organization. Wishing him all the best.
  • Meh, what else is going on: OMG the fooball. In the rain. (At least it’s 50 degrees.) Think of us tonight. The degree to which this is gonna (be objectionable or inadequate).
  • Be positive: I said they’re only 0-for-12.
  • OK, Carter Verhaeghe scored his first NHL goal Saturday night. Sacred Heart is in the top 20 of the USCHO poll.
  • RIP, Denise D’Ascenzo, Caroll Spinney and Rene Auberjonois.
  • If this were a regular blog post, what word or phrase would most likely follow “More” at this point: at some indeterminate point.
Michael Fornabaio