BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings
HARTFORD, CT – For the second week in a row, the Hartford Wolf Pack has some scheduling normalcy that they can try to take advantage of this week.
Acting head coach, Pat Boller, sees it as a chance to recalibrate the team with just six weeks left in the season.
“Practice was good this week. (We) worked hard, and everybody was a bit upset how the last game went, and everybody is looking to turn things around tomorrow.”
Boller had a practice schedule filled with areas to improve upon.
“We worked on a lot of things. D-Zone coverage, back pressure, and obviously special teams. A little bit of everything.”
Pack General Manager Chris Drury, Head Coach Kris Knoblauch, and Associate Coach Gord Murphy remain in contact with Boller about their team and what they will be doing in the short term.
“There hasn’t been a set conference call, but it has been done regularly before and after (practice). It’s not a set time because their schedule is a little different. We try to get it in and get it done.”
”I’ve talked to (Knoblauch) and Murph with them every day about the team, the players, the games, practice habits; they have a lot they are doing, but we have talked back and forth enough they know what is going on here.
Has the past week allowed them to tinker with some new line combos as part of that effort in getting the team to play a full 60-minute game?
“We’ve mixed things up a little bit,” Boller said but not elaborating on specifics.
SANCHEZ
Rookie James Sanchez from Division I independent ASU has joined the Wolf Pack and played his first game.
“He did pretty well, obviously first game pro feeling himself out a little bit. He got more comfortable as the game went along. He made some plays, had a couple of scoring chances; a lot of positive things. He’s a young kid feeling himself out. It was a good first showing.”
Newly-minted winger, Mason Geersten, will be back from his two-game AHL suspension. Jonny Brodzinski also returns, helping the offensive chance department increase significantly.
Gabriel Fontaine is out with an upper-body injury. He is farther away from returning to the lineup, which unfortunately has happened for the second season in a row.
“He will be out, and sadly it’s likely long term.”
“NEW” NETMINDER RETURNS
The New York Rangers returned goalie Adam Huska from their taxi squad, with Igor Shesterkin returning from his groin injury after an 11-game absence.
Huska has been on an island this season. He’s only played four games, three in Slovakia and one in Hartford in February.
For Boller, it has been a chaotic week. He and Drury have been pulling together a coaching staff that has seen Yale grad and former Wolf Pack player, Jeff Malcolm, add a new part to his resume as goalie consultant to handling the teams’ defense.
Vincent LoVerde had a game on the bench as a coach, and Rangers skills coach, Brook Ballard, was behind the bench Saturday and again Thursday.
INFLUENCES
Boller is in his 13th season with the Wolf Pack. He was an Assistant Coach during the Ken Gernander era until the long-time Pack captain was dismissed in 2016-17. Since then, Boller’s responsibilities have been strictly serving as the Assistant GM handling the myriad of operational details that keeps the trains on time.
When asked about the influence of his time with Gernander, and later, Keith McCambridge has had on him, Boller said, “I don’t know. I’m sure I have picked up a lot of things being around guys like that and other people, and it has helped me the last few days.”
This season has been even more complicated than usual in putting together the 2020-21 season. It’s kept Boller occupied.
“(It’s been) busy. You’ve got to be prepared; be on your toes all the time. You never know what’s going to happen at anytime this season. You gotta think ahead and be ready for anything.”
THUNDERBIRDS
The nearby Springfield Thunderbirds are not participating this season. Boller discussed when he knew they had made the decision not to participate.
“I think more in the latter part of the process, but to be honest, so much was changing at that time. I’m not sure that was a hectic time period and a lot of uncertainty. We anticipated they would be playing, but to be honest, I wasn’t really involved until the end. I’d be lying if I said I knew the date.”
Not adding the Binghamton Devils, who are playing in New Jersey, and the Utica Comets, to fill in 12 games to make for a more palatable 36 game season rather than the 24 they are playing could have made up the absence of the Thunderbirds. It begs the question, why?
“To be honest, Dru (Chris Drury) was more involved in that than I was, so to what extent those were considered or not, and everybody is playing their limited games anyway.”
How about the decision to have all of the team’s games having a 1:00 PM start time?
“That is a factor because of COVID and the desire not to have guys have to spend as much time at the rink because most guys were having morning skates. So, why have guys come for extra meetings (time-wise) was a bigger reason,” Boller said.
HISTORY
Boller was a Division-III college player at SUNY-Canton, R.I.T., and then finally at SUNY-Potsdam. Division-III college hockey in the mid-1980s was a lot different than today’s era.
“A lot of good players came through D3. Keith Aucoin was pretty good, Hubie McDonough and (goalie) Guy Herbert.”
He gained his first experience with the Manhattanville College Vikings, who were then part of the SUNYAC conference and now play in the UCHC conference. During his tenure with the school, his teams were conference champions in two of his three years.
Boller has also coached in the USA Hockey system as an assistant and a head coach in 2013 and 2015 at the Five Nations tourney held in the summer, which is an early barometer for players that could be WJC bound or heading to the USNDTP U-17 or U-18 teams.
HOCKEY DAD
He is also a “hockey dad” and in his spare time. His son, Kyle, is a senior playing for the Division-3 co-op Brookfield/Bethel/Danbury team.
“He’s had a good senior year. I’m proud of him. In fact, I was talking to him (earlier). He’s got a playoff game (Wednesday), and hopefully, they win and play for an SCC championship on Saturday. I haven’t gone to the rinks for obvious reasons, so I’ve been watching it on-line and he understands that.
“I’m very lucky that one of the fathers of one of the players tapes the game and does some play-by-play and sends them to me, so I have been able to see it that way also. Of course, I miss being around the kids at the rink.”
His son is still working on his post-high school options.
“He might go to college or to juniors next year. He’s trying to figure that all out, but he really likes MMA and wants to be a fighter,” Boller said with a laugh. “He has actually trained with Glover Teixeira, the number one contender in the UFC light-heavyweight division.
It was a good night Wednesday for the Boller family. The young Boller was named to All-SCC second team and scored in the 5-3 win over Monroe, Connecticut’s Masuk High School. The team, known as BBD, will play the Division III conference championship game on Saturday against the winner of Thursday night’s other semifinal between New Fairfield/Newtown co-op vs. Milford co-op Bennett Rink in West Haven at 1 PM.
BERZOLLA
The Wolf Pack signed another college grad. Defenseman Zach Berzolla of the Colorado College Tigers (NCHC), where he was the team captain his senior season, joins the Pack.
“He’s a more stay-at-home defenseman-type; more grit, first-play type-of-guy. A good character and was a captain of his team.”
Though he has signed, he won’t dress for a while.
“The whole process is they have to stay in quarantine for a couple of days, then just skating and getting acclimated. It’s not as easy as we had in the past to stick them right in as we have in the past.
He’ll stay with the taxi squad and will see where it goes from there,” commented Boller.
Quarantine has its layers.
“It all depends where you’re coming from; when you tested last, what type of test you took from the other side. It can be three to four days or seven to 10 days.
“It’s all about precaution. We’re not skipping any steps. Everything depends on the testing you took on the other side. There are so many variables.”
Berzolla joins 16 other Division-I players to sign pro deals (18 college players total between Division-I and Division-III). One of those is Patrick Khordorenko’s old Michigan State teammate, Charlie Combs, who signed an ECHL deal.
Combs is also the younger brother of ex-Pack/Sound Tiger Joe Combs.
ANOTHER THOMPSON TURNS PRO
The latest college signee is Tyce Thompson. He signed with the New Jersey Devils on a two-year, two-way, entry-level contract ($900K-NHL 1st Year/$925K-NHL 2nd year)/$70K-AHL both years). The Devils drafted him in the fourth round (96th overall) in the 2019 NHL Draft. He was the Devils’ sixth pick that year.
Thompson (Milford/Salisbury Prep) is the fourth college under-classmen to leave early. He was the leading scorer and captain of the Providence Friars, tallying 25 points in 25 games. He reports to Newark, NJ, to begin his quarantine period and will wear number 12.
Thompson is the son of a former Wolf Pack player and the current Head Coach of the Bridgeport Sound Tigers, Brent Thompson. His older brother Tage (Milford/UCONN) plays with the Buffalo Sabres (NHL).
NOTES
The Wolf Pack game with Bridgeport that had been postponed has now been rescheduled for April 12th at the Webster Bank Arena at 1:00 PM.
Ex-Pack, John Albert, has signed with Rapid City (ECHL) after being cut from Wichita.
Another CT hockey connection:
Niklas Vasiljves (SCC second-team All-Star) and his brother Evan are the sons of former Beast of New Haven forward Herberts Vasiljves. They helped the Cheshire Rams win their semifinal game 4-3 over the Lyman Hall/Haddam-Killingworth co-op. They upset the #1 seed and SCC First team All-SCC player, Aidan Weir, at the Northford Ice Pavilion.
Cheshire plays North Haven for the title on Saturday at West Haven’s Bennet Rink at 4 PM.
RIP
One-time Rangers player, Bob Plager (1964-1967), who played with his brothers Barclay and Bill Plager, and who were synonymous with the early days of the St. Louis Blues from its expansion year (1967) throughout the 1970s, died tragically from injuries suffered in a car accident.
In his post-playing days, Plager held a variety of front office jobs with the Blues. He was the last of the brothers who made St. Louis home after their playing days.
