BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings
HARTFORD, CT – The Hartford Wolf Pack kick off the 2019 portion of their schedule with a pair of home games and then take to the road for the next three away from the XL Center.
Friday night’s game features a rematch against the Springfield Thunderbirds. The game is not likely to a repeat of their highly entertaining, wild, 6-5 OT win on Sunday.
Following that encounter, the Lehigh Valley return to Hartford on Saturday night with a new coaching staff. In just his third season of coaching, Kerry Huffman was elevated to interim head coach after Scott Gordon was promoted to the parent Philadelphia Flyers. Huffman’s new assistant coach is a very familiar hockey name, Terry Murray, who coached at Lehigh Valley in their first two seasons.
On Sunday, the Wolf Pack are on the bus traveling to Providence to face the Bruins. The Pack starts the weekend a mere point ahead of the Baby Bruins (34 to 33) in the Atlantic Division and their record is at the .500 mark at 15-15-2-2.
As of Thursday, the team is at the halfway point of their 76 game schedule, and the Wolf Pack are sitting five points out of a playoff spot. Utica holds the eighth and final playoff spot in the very tight Eastern Conference.
On the rematch with Springfield, head coach Keith McCambridge was mindful of last Sunday’s contest. “You always want offensive production and to be on the right side of it. We also had a lot of really good identity (collectively and individually) in the past two games.”
One area of growth that McCambridge likes is how the team has responded to opponents scoring or taking a lead.
“In the past, sometimes the team would let the bottom drop out. Now, we see when they get scored on, it’s ‘OK. we’re gonna get the momentum back on our side.’ You’re not always going to be leading in a game, and the team, as a whole, whether we’re up or down has maintained playing the same way.”
The trio of Peter Holland, Matt Beleskey, and rookie Ville Meskanen have been a big part of the team’s offensive output.
“’I like that line a lot. It has produced very well for us lately, and the Fontaine line has produced for us too. Bobby Butler gave us two solid games and scored important goals and Dawson Leedahl had a solid game for us. These guys had lots of minutes with our injuries and suspensions that everybody took.”
Lias Andersson, the Rangers first-round draft pick and one of the team’s prized prospects, was sent down to Hartford to try to jumpstart his game. Over his first two games back, he has no shots on goal and posted a minus-4. Clearly, some work needs to be done.
“For the first few games, a player is trying to find his game because they’re going to go from playing an average amount of minutes to getting a heavy workload,“ McCambridge said.
In Andersson’s first game back, he was double-shifted when the team went to an 11 forward-7 defensemen lineup due to the suspension and injury issue,
“They got to take a bite out of that apple, so to speak, with the increased ice time, so they have to make adjustments. Every player, forward or defenseman, is different with different personalities when they come down (from the NHL to the AHL). It’s on a case-by-case basis in how to read and adjust the player and to get them back to their game-level. We have got to remember, he’s still 20-years-old, and everybody forgets that. He has a bright future ahead of him. This is just a part of the process of development.”
It seemed that Andersson overhandled the puck and had his shot go wide that allowed Springfield to transition quickly with two passes setting up Anthony Greco, who scored on a breakaway goal.
McCambridge jumped to his defense.
“I think that’s more rust. I think he’s playing 22-25 minutes after playing with the Rangers where the NHL is a whole different animal with wins and losses and ice time that’s available. I chalk that up to rust.”
The organization hopes for a strong weekend not just from Andersson, but from the entire team.
NOTES:
The AHL announced the starting lineups for next month’s AHL All-Star Game in Springfield. Congratulations to defenseman, John Gilmour, for his being named to the Atlantic Division AHL All-Star squad for the second year in a row.
The Wolf Pack’s all-time leading goal scorer, Brad “Shooter” Smyth, and former New Haven Nighthawk, and Hartford Whaler, John Anderson, will be inducted into the AHL Hall of Fame along with Murray Eaves and Canadian hockey icon, Don Cherry.
Dustin Tokarski will start in goal for the Wolf Pack Friday night.
The training staff had their collective hands full this week. The flu bug struck the Pack locker room and will force lineup challenges all weekend.
“The staff has done a very good job at dealing with this. Its never easy, but they have really kept on top of this,” said McCambridge.
Shawn O’Donnell is already dinged up from a pre-game injury. He has been hit with the flu. Steven Fogarty, whose coming off of a suspension has been felled by it as well and will be a game-time decision if he can go. Assistant Captain, Rob O’Gara, is battling with a hoarse voice.
Cole Schneider and Tim Gettinger are coming off of concussions and are expected to at least to play one game during the weekend.
Vinni Lettieri has achieved the facial laceration hat-trick. He has received stitches for a cut on his face and will return to his University of Minnesota days and will wear a full-face-shield this weekend. He took a stick to the nose in Rochester; a puck under his eye on Bridgeport and caught a skate to the face against Springfield.
Ex-Pack, Bobby Sanguinetti, departs HC Davos (Switzerland-LNA) after the Spengler Cup and signs a standard player contract deal with the Charlotte Checkers.
Alex Kile, who played two games with the Pack this year, signs a PTO with Laval.
Ex-Pack, Tom Pyatt, was involved in a four-way deal between Ottawa and Vancouver. Pyatt leaves the Canadian capital for Vancouver. He was then assigned to Utica. Coming back from the Canucks is ex-Sound Tiger goalie, Anders Nilsson.
Ex-Pack, Matt Carey, has moved from Karlskrona HK (Sweden-Allsvenskan) to Rogle BK (Sweden-SHL) for the remainder of the season.
Ex-Pack, and ex-Sound Tiger, Mark Lee, signs with ASC Corona Brasov (Romania-EBEL).
Ex Sound Tiger, Ty Wishart, was released from his contract by HC Dynamo Pardubice (Czech Republic-CEL).
Liam Murphy (Killingworth/Avon Old Farms) was traded from Acadie-Bathhurst (QMJHL) to Chicoutimi (QMJHL) at the QMJHL Christmas period trade deadline.
Ex-Sound Tiger, Jake Newton, after the Spengler Cup with Nuremberg (Germany-DEL), signs with JYP Jvaskyla (Finland-FEL) for the remainder of the season.
Ex-Pack, Zdnek Bahensky, goes from ASC Corona Brasov (Romania-EBEL) to HC Mulhouse (France-FREL).
