BERLET REPORT FROM PACK / WHALE CAMP – Day 4

By Bruce Berlet

Let the REAL evaluations begin.

After four days of drills, workouts and intra-squad scrimmages that increased the value of some players and devalued others, the Wolf Pack start beating on someone else tonight at 7 when they face the new Albany Devils at the Koeppel Community Sports Center at Trinity College in Hartford.

Coach Ken Gernander said the Wolf Pack will go with “a lot of new faces” — i.e., younger, untested players at the AHL level — so he and assistant coaches J.J. Daigneault and Pat Boller can start to reduce the 41 players still in training camp to a more manageable number. The coaching staff will try to get everyone in at least one of the Wolf Pack’s four preseason games, with several possibly being released or assigned to the team’s new ECHL affiliate in Greenville, S.C.

“There are guys who have showed themselves better in three or four days than others and would have the lead or jump on somebody,” Gernander said. “But that’s why you play the games, to see if they’ve got more to bring or retreat a little when it’s a little more realistic. I think guys have obviously separated themselves a little on the depth chart based on what we’ve seen for four days, but nobody has closed the book on anybody or inked anybody coming out of here.”

Using “a lot of new faces” will be a better evaluations for the younger players.

“You’ll see if someone merits a second game or if a guy can improve his game elsewhere,” Gernander said. “Obviously we have some guys that we have back from last season that we’re looking for to have big seasons, so we have to work them in so it facilities their conditioning, game shape, game readiness and preparedness. All of those things will become more paramount as the week goes on. Of our four games, Sunday (against Worcester) will probably be the closest to our American League opening-night lineup (on Oct. 9).”

The Wolf Pack reached 41 players when forwards Dane Byers, team captain, Kris Newbury and newcomer Jeremy Williams cleared waivers Tuesday. Veteran defenseman Wade Redden, who cleared waivers Monday to free up $6.5 million of the Rangers’ $59.4 million salary cap, will report to the Wolf Pack Wednesday for his first minor-league work in a 12-year pro career. Redden, 23, the second overall pick of the New York Islanders in 1995, became a father for the first time last Wednesday, so that had to contribute to reporting to Hartford rather than trying to land a job overseas. He has played 994 NHL games, including 156 with the Rangers the last two seasons after signing a six-year, $39-million contract as a free agent from the Ottawa Senators on July 1, 2009.

Though Gernander wouldn’t divulge his opening-game lineup, he did say Redden wouldn’t play, which fits in with his decision to give the more inexperienced players a chance to try to impress the Wolf Pack staff and Dean Stork, the first-year coach of the Greenville Road Warriors.

“By all indications, (Redden) is prepared to be here (Wednesday),” Gernander said. “His wife just had a baby, so there’s a lot for him in play right now, so we’ll greet him (Wednesday) morning, sit down and have a good chat with him and get him right to work.”

Gernander said he hadn’t talked to Redden, who didn’t play in any of the Rangers’ preseason games. His last game was a 2-1 shootout loss to Philadelphia in the regular-season finale April 11 that gave the Flyers a one-point edge on the Blueshirts for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. The Flyers parlayed that good fortune into a run to the Stanley Cup finals won by the Chicago Blackhawks, coached by former Hartford Whalers defenseman Joel Quenneville.

“He’s got a lot to sort out and to get through, and he doesn’t need me to muddy the waters,” said Gernander, a father of three. “A lot of these things are things he’s going to have to work through personally or with his family, so let him do those things and we can talk hockey when he gets here.”

Gernander said some of the novelty of scrimmages had worn off and that the players realize there’s a big week coming up with four games in five days, a common occurrence during the season.

“I think they’d like to see how they fare in a little bit more AHL setting,” Gernander said. “I don’t think we had any ‘dog’ scrimmages. They worked hard every day, but I think maybe some of that is catching up to them, too. It’s been pretty demanding the first several days, so they’re looking forward to playing in more of a game-like atmosphere.”

Gernander said parity in Wednesday’s scrimmage was more important than trying to establish line combinations and defensive pairings.

“I think we’ve been pretty close,” he said. “None of the scrimmages have been blowouts, and I think each line has been able to compete with whichever line the opposition put out.”

One interesting line combination Tuesday was second-year pro Evgeny Grachev moving with wing to center for the first time and being flanked by Williams and Brodie Dupont.

“You’ve got a little time to try some different things and play around, so we’ll have to see how it goes,” Gernander said of Grachev’s move.

A position move might light some kind of a fire under Grachev. Last season, the lanky Russian started well in his first North American go-round but slumped badly in the second half, scoring once in the last 38 games, including 0-for-29 at the end. Gernander used Grachev in every conceivable manner to try to shake him out of his doldrums, then Rangers president and general manager Glen Sather sang the 20-year-old’s praises at the start of training camp. But Grachev again failed to maintain a good start and is back in the AHL trying to become more mature and consistent.

Gernander & Co. should get a better read on some players because the opposition starts to be unfamiliar faces. Since training camp opened Saturday, there hasn’t been a single fight, which isn’t all that bad because teams don’t want to start getting damaged goods before preseason games even start.

“I think there are one or two guys who probably will bring a more physical element when they’re not playing against their teammates,” Gernander said. “If the other team comes in with a bit more snarl, it’s a little bit more fire-tested for some of the guys. The scrimmages have been good in that we’ve been able to see certain things as far as skill and passing. But there’s more to the game within the game, and I think this will be a better indicator.”

Barring a trade or injury, the Rangers likely will assign two more defensemen and one forward, though the latter also should increase to two when captain and Trumbull native Chris Drury returns. He is expected to miss the first three or four regular-season games with a broken left index finger sustained when hit by defenseman Matt Gilroy’s shot in a scrimmage.

Gernander knows more important reinforcements are on the way, but “things look pretty good” with the players who have been sent down and what they did last season. That didn’t include the playoffs for the first time in the team’s 13-year history, so that’s a carrot that Gernander is sure to dangle many times in the next six months.

Gernander wasn’t sure how many players he would have on board Oct. 9, when the Wolf Pack host the Charlotte Checkers, their former ECHL affiliate that is one of the AHL’s two new teams. Unlike NHL teams that can carry a maximum of 23 players, AHL teams can have as many as they want, though they usually have only one spare defenseman and one extra forward.

“If there’s just a fraction of a difference between guys in our evaluation, we might keep more (players),” Gernander said. “If it’s clear that a guy would be better served cutting his teeth in the East Coast League, then we’ll make that assess. We’ve always got the room to carry more, but in the past, we’ve always felt it more important that guys play and be game-ready and game shape and gain experience that way.

“But if there’s almost a negligible difference between two guys, we might keep them at the start and see where they fall after a couple of weeks. We’re going to leave all options open. There are guys here on free-agent tryouts, and just because we said we’re going to get to 20 skaters, let him go and find out down the road that he signed with somebody else and we could really use him, that’s no good.

“Our lineup is only going to be enhanced with more guys sent down by the Rangers. But I’m pretty optimistic once we get through this week, some of the evaluations are made and all the final cuts are made that we’ll have a pretty good group.”

Byers Tries To Remain Upbeat

Byers is one of the veterans who will be a spectator Wednesday night after being among eight players assigned by the Rangers on Monday. Byers played in only one Rangers preseason game but earned notoriety when he stepped in to protect Sean Avery, who had been hassled throughout a 5-4 overtime victory to the New Jersey Devils by fellow pest David Clarkson. Now there’s an interesting tri-fecta of guys who like to get under someone else’s skin.

“I would have liked to play more because that first game you’ve kind of got jitters and nerves a bit,” Byers said after his first workout with his new/old team Tuesday. “Throughout the (Devils) game I started to settle in, and I got in it after Clarkson had been all over Avery all game. But it is what it is, and hopefully I’ll work hard down here and get back as soon as possible.”

Byers played five games with the Rangers last season and scored his first NHL goal. That gave him six NHL games since being the Rangers’ second-round pick in 2004. He has 69 goals, 84 assists and 521 penalty minutes in 239 AHL games but made a concerted effort to try to remain physical but take fewer penalties last season, when he had 100 PIM. That came a season after he missed all but nine regular-season games because of a knee injury before returning for the playoffs and being the team’s leading scorer with three goals and one assist in six games.

“I felt a lot more comfortable this year (in Rangers camp) since it’s my fifth year (as a pro),” Byers said. “Now I know some of the guys, so you’re not tip-toeing around the dressing room. It’s not my first time seeing the (Marian) Gaboriks and (Henrik) Lundqvists, so it’s a normal event, which made it a little easier.

“Obviously you look at the numbers, and there are a lot of one-way contracts (in New York). At this time of year, it really is a numbers game. It seems every year they have issues with numbers. There are a lot of guys here who could be in the (NHL) somewhere, but it’s all about getting a shot and an opportunity. (Rangers officials) said to just go down and work on some stuff. They know I can play the game, so they said just be ready when you’re the guy who gets the call.

“There are 29 other teams that will be looking at me and everyone else, so you better play hard no matter where you are and work at getting better.”

Byers demonstrated he had left behind any lingering disappointment when he had a goal and an assist in the Red’s 3-1 scrimmage victory over the Blue. He was set up by former Quinnipiac University standout Brandon Wong and assisted on a goal by Kelsey Tessier, signed to an AHL contract this summer. Marc-Oliver Vellerand, who had played well the previous two days on a line with Wong and Brodie Dupont, had the lone goal for the Blue. … Former Wolf Pack defenseman Mike Mottau, the Rangers’ seventh-round pick in 1997, signed a two-year contract with the New York Islanders. Mottau had 20 goals and 93 assists in 170 games with the Wolf Pack but got in only 19 games with the Rangers before being traded to Calgary, playing with five AHL teams and then spending the last three seasons in the NHL with the New Jersey Devils. Mottau is only the second defenseman to ever play for all three New York area teams (Rangers, Islanders, Devils). He joins Vladimir Malakov

New Logo Being Unveiled Wednesday

Whalers Sports and Entertainment will unveil the logo for the Connecticut Whale to the media Wednesday at 5:30 pm at the Koeppel Community Sports Center. The logo then will be available for viewing by the public as the Wolf Pack, who likely will become the Connecticut Whale around Thanksgiving, open against the Devils.

Donations, in lieu of an admission charge, will be accepted at the door to benefit the Ryan Gordon/Hartford Wolf Pack Community Scholars Fund. The fund is a memorial to young Wolf Pack fan Ryan Gordon, who died in 2006 and asked that a portion of the monies set aside for his college education be donated to the Wolf Pack Community Foundation.

Whalers Sports and Entertainment founder Howard Baldwin, the former owner and managing general manager of the New England and Hartford Whalers, will meet with the Wolf Pack Booster Club before the game.

The Wolf Pack also plays Friday at 7 pm against the Bridgeport Sound Tigers at the TD Bank Sports Center at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, where Wong excelled the last four seasons. A $5 admission charge will benefit Gaylord Hospital in Wallingford. The Wolf Pack and Sound Tigers have a rematch the next night at 7 pm at the Rinks at Shelton.

The Wolf Pack wraps up preseason play against the Worcester Sharks on Sunday at 2 pm at Champions Skating Center. A $5 admission charge benefits Junior Wolf Pack Youth Hockey.

A “Whale of a Season” begins Oct. 9 at 7 pm, when the Wolf Pack open the regular season against the Charlotte Checkers, their former ECHL affiliate and one of the AHL’s two new teams. The next day, the Wolf Pack hosts the Sound Tigers, and special ticket prices for the opening weekend are now on sale for only $15 for both games. The first 5,000 fans to the opener will receive a free commemorative poster and a static cling schedule courtesy of “Click It Or Ticket.”

Tickets for home games are available at the XL Center box office, through Ticketmaster charge-by-phone at 1-800-745-3000 and on-line at www.hartfordwolfpack.com. For ticket packages, group sales and VIP packages, call 860-728-3366.