HARTFORD, CT – The New York Rangers made their first round of cuts on Thursday and Friday, sending plenty of players to the Hartford Wolf Pack.

Physicals for these players will be Sunday, with training camp beginning on Monday, with the lineup in flux with more cuts in New York coming until the regular season starts.

Among the forwards returning to Hart City are; Tanner Fritz, Austin Rueschhoff, Patrick Khordorenko, Bobby Trivigno, Alex Whelan, and Cristiano DiGiacinto. Newcomers include off-season signees Zach Jordan and Ryan Lohin. Also making their way to Head Coach Kris Knoblauch’s training camp are Junior draftees Ryder Korczak, Matt Rempe, and Swedish import Karl Henrickson.

Heading to training camp after being sent to Hartford by the Rangers are Defensemen returnees; Zach Giuttari, Matthew Robertson, Brandon Scanlin, and Hunter Skinner. Newcomers and off-season signees include Louka Henault, Blake Hillman, and Luke Martin.

The club also assigned goaltenders Talyn Boyko, Parker Gahagen, Olof Lindbom, and Dylan Garand.

Unless something unusual happens, the four goalies are earmarked with different destinations. Garand is ticketed for Hart City, while Gahagen and Lindbom are likely headed to the franchise’s ECHL affiliates, the Jacksonville Icemen. Lindbom may go back to Europe or be one of the two potentially reassigned to another ECHL club. Because of his age, the 6’8 Boyko will be heading back to junior and the Kelowna Rockets (WHL) at the end of camp. The NHL contract agreement with the CHL (Canadian Hockey League) mandates that 19-year-olds cannot play in the AHL until their junior season ends.

Newcomer forwards C.J. Smith, Turner Elson, defenseman Andy Welinski and returning top player Tim Gettinger must pass through waivers before they can be formally assigned to Hartford.

Adam Edström, a 21-year-old, 6’4 center, heads home to play for Rögle BK (Sweden-SHL) on loan from the Rangers. Surprisingly, also sent to Europe was last year’s first draft pick Adam Sýkora. He also returns home to play for HK Nitra (Slovakia-SLEL) on a loan basis. The thought was that the 18-year-old, the first overall selection in the CHL Import Draft, would be heading to the Medicine Hat Tigers.

Brennan Othmann was returned to juniors and the Flint Firebirds (OHL).

The Wolf Pack’s roster currently has four goaltenders, seven defensemen, and thirteen forwards. Several of these assignees will be heading to Jacksonville with only so many openings for GM Ryan Martin and limited ice time available for the recently arrived Knoblauch and his staff to carry on the roster.

Monday, the team will release the training camp roster. As of late Friday, the team was still finalizing those players they will invite to camp on Professional Try-Out contracts.

Given the collapse in the second half of last season, this training camp in Hartford is expected to be highly competitive with a comprehensive screening of the competitors.

The Rangers presently have 34 players still in training camp, including 20 forwards, 11 defensemen, and three goaltenders on the roster.

Another round of cuts is expected either late this weekend or as late as mid-week after the team plays in Boston against the Bruins. A final cut to get to the CBA-mandated roster of 23 and keep within cap space compliance will occur just before the season starts. Final rosters must be submitted by October 9-10 to certify all contracts.

The Rangers will likely go with 22 or 23 players depending on those two factors’ status.

Several players are informally skating at the XL in preparation for the opening of training camp. Ice was laid down ice last week.

The Wolf Pack will have a closed-to-the-public exhibition game next Thursday in Bridgeport against the Islanders and then have a game against Bridgeport at the Koeppel Community Center at Trinity College next Friday (6 PM). It will give fans their first look at the Wolf Pack as part of the Annual Ryan Gordon Foundation event with a suggested $5 donation.

NOTES:

The Rangers have already sent two players back to juniors. Bryce McConnell-Barker was sent to Sault Ste. Marie (OHL), where he had current new Hartford assistant coach Jamie Tardif as his assistant coach last year.

Also returning to junior hockey is third-round-draft-pick forward Jayden Grubbe. He goes to Red Deer (WHL), where he will captain his Rebels team again for the second year in a row. He is WJC eligible, whose 20th birthday is a week after the tournament ends.

Former Wolf Pack/Bridgeport Sound Tiger Matt Lorito and his wife are expecting their first child shortly, so his next hockey destination is on hold. Instead, expect he will likely head to Europe as an injury roster replacement/last import quota player.

Jake Elmer is the only other ex-Wolf Pack from last season who is still waiting on a new destination. He is said to be unofficially heading to the Greenville Swamp Rabbits in South Carolina, the former ECHL affiliate for Hartford.

Released and assigned to AHL camps were ex-Pack’s Ty Ronning (Minnesota-Iowa – AHL), Darren Raddysh and Daniel Walcott (Tampa Bay-Syracuse-AHL), and Peter Diliberatore (QU) and Mason Primeau, nephew of ex-Hartford Whaler Keith Primeau, who both head to (Vegas/Henderson-AHL).

After singing with Adirondack Thunder (ECHL), Luke Stevens (Yale) signs a training camp try-out PTO with the Coachella Valley Firebirds (Palm Springs)-AHL and Callum Booth (Salisbury Prep) (Seattle/Coachella Valley-AHL).

Goalie Spencer Knight (Darien/Avon Old Farms) signs a one-year ELC contract extension with the Florida Panthers.

Jeff Kubiak was sent to Bridgeport by the New York Islanders. They signed Matt Maggio, a fifth-round Islanders draftee this past summer in Montreal, from Windsor (OHL) to a try-out PTO deal. He is a younger cousin of former Sound Tiger and Ranger draftee, the retired Daniel Maggio. He signed a provisional contract with the Adirondack Thunder (ECHL) to cover his bases last week.

Another junior PTO signee for Bridgeport is Daylen Kuefler from the Kamloops Blazers (WHL).

Shane Sellar (Canterbury School-New Milford) signs a try-out deal with the Hershey Bears and already has a contract with the Reading Royals (ECHL) to start the year.

AHL players to Europe have risen to 108 as ex-Pack as Josh Wesley, the son of former Whaler Glen Wesley departs the Springfield Thunderbirds for HC Litvinov (Czech Republic (Czechia)-CEL). He is the first Thunderbird from last season to go to Europe, and now 29 of 31 AHL teams have lost at least one player overseas.

Former Wolf Pack Tyler Brown is named scout for the Barrie Colts (OHL) covering the GOJHL after being the head scout last year for Stratford (Ontario) Warriors (GOJHL) and was a regional scout for Nanaimo Clippers (BCHL) as well.

If this report from Eliott Friedman of Rogers SportsNet is on the mark, the NHL and AHL future will change in a big way salary-wise in two years. He is usually very accurate with such info.

The league’s salary cap, which will set a record of $82.5 million this year in the 2022-23 season, could rise around nearly $10 million over the next three years, sources told Friedeman and SportsNet, the Canadian TV rights holder. However, teams have reportedly been given guidance on the cap’s future, and upward is the word.

Our long-time source confirmed this is the word on the street.

“I’ve heard its going up, how much and when, I’m not sure, With the TV deals kicking in, the money will start coming in.”

According to Friedmann, the cap could elevate another $1 million in 2023-24, then jump up another $4 million in each of the following two seasons.

That would place the spending limit at approximately an astonishing $92 million by 2025-26.

In addition to the cap, the NHL will have a spending floor, which is $61 million this year. That would primarily affect the Arizona Coyotes, who will play at the new 5,000-seat college-level ASU-Arizona State University Mullett Center starting this year for the next three years. How they can exist in that world is anyone’s guess.

“I don’t have first-hand knowledge. In the short term, they’re staying in Arizona in Phoenix. Long-term, they have challenges as they always have. Some of this is above my pay grade. If all goes well, you’re still looking at five years for this team. They’re committed to the (ASU) arena for three years, and IF Tempe approves their new building plan, and that’s not a given, a new building will still take two years to build, despite the good weather for construction out there.

The other factor is fielding a competitive, winning team, which they don’t have presently. The current new building handicaps them from signing free agents.

Players want to be paid, and they want a winning team, and they will wrestle with that, and that’s part of the equation going forward,” remarked our source, who requested anonymity.

The league instituted a $39 million cap for the 2005-06 season. However, the cap has risen steadily before freezing at $81.5 million for the three pandemic-affected seasons, beginning with 2019-20.

The NHL hit $5.2 billion in revenue last season on the strength of the new media deals as they returned and finally had a full schedule. The league took in $5.1 billion in revenue 2018-19, and the escrow is still a thorny and complicated issue.

Disney, owners of ESPN/ABC, is paying the league $400 million annually, while Turner Sports, the other holder of the US broadcast rights, is forking over $225 million per season. Both were seven-year deals signed last year.

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HARTFORD, CT – Pro Hockey has a Russian problem.

NHL teams playing in the Czech capital of Prague next month have been told their Russian players are not welcome.

The Czech Foreign Ministry informed the NHL of its position resulting from the Russian invasion of Ukraine. However, the ministry declined to say whether the NHL’s scheduled regular season games between the Nashville Predators and San Jose Sharks on October 7th and 8th at Prague’s O2 Arena in the Czech capital will honor the request and exclude Russian athletes.  The travel rosters have not been finalized, but Nashville’s roster includes Russian forward Yakov Trenin, while San Jose’s includes forward Evgeny Svechnikov. Defenseman Nikolai Knyzhov won’t be an issue as he is unavailable for the Sharks anyway, as he is out with a torn Achilles tendon.

“We can confirm that the Czech Foreign Ministry has sent a letter to the NHL to point out that, at this moment, the Czech Republic or any other state in the (visa free) Schengen zone should not issue visas to the Russian players to enter our territory,” Deputy Foreign Minister Martin Smolek said in a statement.

The ministry added it informed the league “about ongoing negotiations about banning entry for those citizens of the Russian Federation who already had received valid visas before.” It said a ban on Russian athletes in sports events in European Union countries was also recommended by EU sports ministers in Brussels, where the EU is located and part of its sanctions on Russia.

The Czech Republic (Czechia) was one of the first EU countries to stop issuing visas to Russian nationals following the February invasion of Ukraine. Exceptions include humanitarian cases and people persecuted by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s regime.

The NHL is returning to Europe for its first games outside of North America since the start of the pandemic.

Besides the two games in Prague, the Colorado Avalanche and Columbus Blue Jackets will play another two games in Tampere, Finland, on Nov. 4-5. The Finnish government’s position on Russian players was not immediately clear. However, they have applied for NATO membership, so anything that might jeopardize that will be avoided.

Czech native and former NHL great Dominik Hasek has led the opposition to Russian players coming to Prague since the games were announced in April. Hasek, virulently anti-Russian, approached the upper house of Parliament, the Senate, in the Czech government, and the Foreign Ministry about the issue.

“It’s very important for the support of our Ukrainian ally and safety of our citizens,” Hasek said in an interview for a Russian broadcaster. After it was not aired in Russia, he had it published in the Czech media.

“Yes, we don’t want any promotion of the Russian aggression here,” Hasek tweeted after the ministry’s move. “We’re guarding our lives and the lives of our allies in the first place.”

NHL President Gary Bettman and his AHL counterpart, Scott Howson, have a growing dilemma. On the surface, the NHL cut all ties with Russia at the onset of the invasion. They have remained silent since. However, a handful of Russian/Belarussian players were drafted in Montreal at the annual draft.

Several present and past players have signed in Russia, Belarus, and China at the AHL level. It’s a major problem. The more the war drags on, and the more war crimes mount, the more difficult it becomes for Mr. Bettman and Mr. Howson to do nothing. Public indignation will force their hand.

With a new season rapidly approaching and the war dragging on, mass graves have recently been found. It must be noted that not all Russian players are pro-Putin, for example, New York Ranger forward Artemi Panarin. However, the issue with professional record chasing there’s long-time top-performers Alexander Ovechkin and Evgeni Malkin, their positions become more problematic by the day.

(An ESPN story was used in the formation of this piece)

GARRETT BURNETT

Last year, the Hartford Wolf Pack lost the second alumnist to pass away in Garrett Burnett.

He alternated between Burnie, and Rocky, as his nicknames. The circumstances under which his career ended were very sad.

For the first time, we can reveal, with his permission, what happened.

Former LNAH teammate and member of the ex-Wolf Pack community now retired, Brandon “Sugar” Sugden, his close friend, is still emotional about it all these years later.

Burnett was out with friends one night in the off-season in Delta, BC, just outside Vancouver. The group was hassled, and words were exchanged.

The parties went outside to settle their differences.

The Crown, the Canadian legal system in its investigation, said in the ensuing melee had always reported Burnett was hit over the head with a chair and suffered debilitating injuries that left him a shell of his behemoth 250-pound frame.

Sugden said that wasn’t entirely the case – Burnett had been shot in the head.

The security footage of the fight went missing, and not to this day had it ever been produced by the establishment in question, or had anyone ever been charged in the attack.

So the cover story about the chair was made up by authorities, hoping somebody would come forward to authenticate or provide convincing, authoritative evidence and testimony to the incident. But, sadly, no one did.

Sugden, at the time, was informed of how severe Burnett’s situation was.

He arrived at his friend’s bedside, completely unprepared for what he saw.

“I saw all those tubes and wires coming out of him. I didn’t even recognize him.

“I had to walk out of the room, (compose) myself, and go back in and be with him.

“The doctors said his being such a strong athlete likely saved him. It was a horrible, awful time.”

Burnett survived initially but was left with severe injuries that forced him into rehab to re-learn his motor skills.

He passed away last year.

Let’s hope during the Wolf Pack celebration being planned for later this year, they include a nice tribute to Burnett.

NHL

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BY: Kelly Masse, Hockey Hall Of Fame

TORONTO (June 14, 2022) ­– Frank Seravalli, President of the Professional Hockey Writers’ Association, and Chuck Kaiton, President of the NHL Broadcasters’ Association, announced today that Al Morganti would receive the Elmer Ferguson Memorial Award for excellence in hockey journalism. In addition, Bill Clement will receive the Foster Hewitt Memorial Award for outstanding contributions as a hockey broadcaster.

A Boston University College of Communication graduate, Al Morganti began his journalism career at the Boston Globe. His original voice and passion for hockey led to beat writer jobs at the Atlanta Constitution, covering the Flames, and the Philadelphia Inquirer, covering the Flyers. Currently a co-host on the WIP Sports Radio morning show in Philadelphia, Morganti also provides pre and post-game analysis for NBC Sports in Philadelphia and has covered international sporting events worldwide.

“The Hockey Hall of Fame has a long history of recognizing players who were dominant forces over a concentrated period of time. Think Eric Lindros, Pavel Bure, and Cam Neely. That is the level of impact Al Morganti had in hockey writing circles,” Seravalli said. “For a decade and a half, Morganti was a true difference-maker. Philadelphia Flyers fans were privileged to read Morganti in the morning in the Inquirer, followed by fellow Elmer Ferguson Memorial Award winner Jay Greenberg in the Daily News in the afternoon. So back and forth they went, toe-to-toe every day for 10-plus years. Morganti was a superstar staring down stringent deadlines with witty and informed copy that had enough ‘bite’ to satisfy the appetite of a hard-nosed and hockey-crazed city.”

After an 11-year NHL career as a player, including two Stanley Cup championships, Bill Clement successfully transitioned into the world of broadcasting. His knowledge of the game and ability to connect with viewers has made him one of the most recognized voices in hockey. The Quebec native has broadcast four Olympics and more than 20 Stanley Cup finals and heard on ESPN, NBC, ABC, TNT, CTV, CBC, and Rogers Sportsnet.

“Bill Clement’s long-time consistency, glibness and professional approach to bringing hockey fans in the United States and Canada the nuances of the game make him extremely worthy of this distinction,” said Kaiton. “No color analyst has done more US National broadcasts than Bill (1002), and his 21 years of covering Stanley Cup playoffs are a true credit to the quality of his work.”

Morganti and Clement will receive their awards at the “Hockey Hall of Fame NHL Media Awards Luncheon” in Toronto on Monday, November 14, 2022, and their award plaques will be displayed in the Esso Great Hall at the Hockey Hall of Fame alongside past award recipients.

As selected by their respective associations, recipients of these awards are recognized by the Hockey Hall of Fame as “Media Honourees” – a separate distinction from individuals inducted as “Honoured Members.” Honored Members are selected by the Hockey Hall of Fame Selection Committee.

The 2022 Hockey Hall of Fame Induction Weekend begins on Friday, November 11, 2022, culminating with the Induction Celebration on Monday, November 14, 2022. This year’s inductees will be announced on TSN on Monday, June 27, 2022.

Named in honor of the late Montreal newspaper reporter, the Elmer Ferguson Memorial Award was first presented in 1984 by the Professional Hockey Writers’ Association in recognition of distinguished members of the hockey writing profession whose words have brought honor to journalism to the game of hockey.

Named in honor of the late “Voice of Hockey” in Canada, the Foster Hewitt Memorial Award was first presented in 1984 by the NHL Broadcasters’ Association in recognition of radio and television industry members who have made outstanding contributions to their profession and the game of hockey.

HOCKEY HALL OF FAME

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HARTFORD, CT – Ty Ronning had the shootout winner, while Keith Kinkaid made 41 saves in regulation, and stopped three more in the shootout as well as a penalty shot to lead the Hartford Wolf Pack to a 4-3 win over the visiting Hershey Bears.

“I was coming down and wanted to change the angle a little bit. I had been chatting with our goalie coach Jeff Malcolm, as I haven’t been in a lot of shootouts and I learned a little bit from him. Just come in on that angle and see what was open. I like to go to my backhand to open him up and I was fortunate enough to score,” Ronning said.

The Wolf Pack will play a rare Monday night game against the Utica Comets, coached by legendary former Hartford Whaler Kevin Dineen. This game is a COVID-19 rescheduled game from December.

“The same story as last night,” commented Pack Head Coach Kris Knoblauch. “We came out with a good first period, an awful second period, held up well in the third period, overtime, and the shootout to win it.”

54 seconds into overtime, Kinkaid made a big save on Brett Leason. Kinkaid was run over by Brett Leason but did not get a call, and he snapped. Despite firing his helmet and his stick in the ref’s direction after the first whistle, Kinkaid was not given a penalty.

His stellar netminding all night was well appreciated by Ronning and Knoblauch.

“Many of the game’s saves were phenomenal. They had a couple backdoor plays and for him to reach back and make those saves and get in front of them. He does that on a daily basis. We have to do a better defending in front of him.”

THIRD PERIOD

In the third period, Mark Vecchione tied it at three on a pass from Leason off an intelligent play from Alexei Protas for his 13th goal at 8:57. The Wolf Pack did not fall behind because of Kinkaid’s play, preventing Hershey from getting their franchise 3,000th AHL win at his team’s expense.

“He (Kinkaid) faced some Grade-A scoring chances and made some important saves for us late in the third.”

“Little things are important, and sometimes we get away from that and that makes game management tough (for ourselves). It’s a big part and we’re coming down to the end of the season and everything is intensified,”  remarked Ronning.

SECOND PERIOD

The second period was all Hershy who held a 21-4 shot advantage over the Pack, who have been outshot 50-9 in the two games in the second period.

“We’re an even younger team now, “Knoblauch said, “We’re an inexperienced team and a fragile team right now. When things aren’t going well, they snowball for you. Guys start to question themselves and wonder aloud.”

Ronning elaborated on his coach’s thoughts.

“Time in the game of hockey is about momentum. It can sway from us and be a challenge. When we allow our opponent to shoot so much more (than us) overall, it’s a challenge to keep that momentum, keep things simple and let the play develop.”

The Wolf Pack felt pressure right off the bat in the second period. At 1:09, ex-Pack Dylan McIlrath was stopped twice by Keith Kinkaid.

STRONG BETWEEN THE PIPES

Hershey’s Mason Morelli was awarded a penalty shot at 6:40 when he was pulled down by Zach Guittari. The last penalty shot was on April 7, 2021. It was stopped by Tyler Wall.

The Pack went up 3-0 as Anthony Greco scored his team’s best 15th goal (and 42nd point) on the power play, and back came the Bears.

First Garrett Pilon got his 16th goal from Bobby Nardella. Then Morelli tallied his sixth goal at 16:26 even after Alexeev broke his stick on a point shot attempt. They smartly used the power play to their advantage as Matt Loritio clipped Cody Franson behind the net at 13:36 earning him a double-minor when Franson was bleeding on the play and that opened the door and turned the game around.

Entering the game, the two teams are separated by just a .05 winning percentage point in the AHL Atlantic Division standings for fourth place and the last playoff spot. The previous five weeks of the regular season have begun with the struggling Wolf Pack losing five of their previous six.

SCORING

The first goal came to Hartford as they went down up top to score on their first power play. Zac Jones started the play down low, controlling the puck. He got it to Lundkvist near the blue line, then advanced it over to Matt Lorito, who in turn sent a cross-ice pass to Greco on the left-wing. Greco then put a shot on the net allowing Merkley to collect his first goal as a member of the Wolf Pack. It was his 13th of the season at 12:54, just 19 seconds into the man advantage.

They went up 2-0 as Alex Whalen snared a rebound on Jarred Tinordi’s shot that went wide to the short side. Still, he had inside position on Franson, and then-rookie Cristiano DiGiacinto escaped his check and backhanded his sixth by Pheonix Copley at 14:28.

Kinkaid was sharp in the first stopping Mark Vecchione and Kody Clark with 1.4 left even after losing his stick.

LINES

Merkley-Fritz-Lorito
Ronning-Greco-Khordorenko
Richards-Rueschoff-Pajuniemi
DiGiacinto-Whalen-O’Leary

Tinordi- Guittari
Jones-Scanlin
Robertson- Lundkvist

Kinkaid
Huska

SCRATCHES

Skinner
Gettinger (upper-body. likely out until next Wednesday)
Girduckis
Reunanen
Taylor

NOTES

Hershey’s Kody Clark is the son of ex-NHL’er Wendel Clark, and his uncle Kerry was a member of the Springfield Indians and Portland Pirates. His elder cousins are former NHL players, the former Rangers/Red Wings tough customer Joe Kocur, and ESPN college hockey analyst Barry Melrose.

Hershey forward Drake Rymsha is the son of former New Haven Nighthawk Andy Rymsha. He was cut as he was caught up high by a shot by Zach Guittari late in the second period. After medical repairs, he returned as did Franson in the third.

The Wolf Pack’s Justin Richard saw his alma mater, the University of Minnesota-Duluth, get eliminated from the NCAA tournament by Denver University 2-1. The only goal scorer for UMD was Darian Gotz, the nephew of former Wolf Pack great player and head coach Ken Gernander.

Michael O’Leary’s Notre Dame Fighting Irish lost 1-0 to Minnesota State in their NCAA Regional game.

The Quinnipiac University Bobcats have a Sunday date with Michigan in the Allentown, PA Regional at the PPL Center, home of the AHL Lehigh Valley Phantoms.

LACK OF HONOR FOR THE 2000 CHAMPIONSHIP TEAM

The organization committed an unforced error in tonight’s promotion to honor the 2000 Wolf Pack Championship team.

It was wrong that even sound cost-efficient ideas were ignored and nothing was done.

With the pandemic now waning, it would have been a home run to celebrate Hartford’s ONLY championship team in the city’s history.

A whole generation of fans have no living memory of the 2000 Championship team, and the organization should at least honor the names of Armstrong, Smyth, Hall, Labbe, Tuzzolino, and Gernander.

The Hartford Yard Goats, the city’s Double AA Eastern League baseball team, do more than the Wolf Pack do to honor the City’s hockey history. They do a superb job every year with “Whaler Day.”

A tweet of a picture is not enough and is grossly negligent for the city’s only championship team.

How about retiring some numbers? How about honoring the all-time leading scorer #11 Brad Smyth (382 points), who was the team’s only 50-goal scorer. That should have been done three years ago with time on a Saturday night to retire the number. He then entered the AHL Hall of Fame the following Monday. Clearly not right.

#17 Derek Armstrong, the only player to crack the 100-point barrier, won a regular season and post-season MVP Awards; now his number is being worn, by a fourth-line PTO winger (Abbott Girduckis). He’s likely to be released soon because of player numbers, not performance, and who’s played just five games (scratched the last two). No disrespect is intended, but nobody should be wearing that number.

How about Jason LaBarbera’s #35? He won a regular season MVP and holds every team goaltending record and is now the Calgary Flames (NHL) goalie coach.

Just Gernander’s #12, which is highly deserved; hangs in the rafters.

In the league just 21 years, Grand Rapids is retiring TWO numbers shortly. Jeff Hoggan #10 and former Whaler draft choice Michel Picard’s #7, but the Pack in 25 have only Gernander’s number retired.

Not nearly good enough.

CONGRATULATIONS

CONGRATULATIONS are in order for the long-time ex-voice of the Wolf Pack, Bob Crawford, who has landed on his feet with the NHL Production Offices.

He spent the last year as the voice of UCONN hockey on CBS Sports OnLine and for select CW20 games that air locally in the just concluded Hockey East season after spending 24 years as the voice of the Pack.

Alex Thomas, the new voice of the Wolf Pack stated that Team Equipment Manager Craig Lewis recently did his 900th game. Congrats to Craig and his family.

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STORRS, CT – It will be a whole different Boston College (BC) team from when these two teams hooked up on December 14th.

It’s still a “David versus Goliath-like” situation for UCONN and their Head Coach, Mike Cavanaugh. He and his Huskies are not only facing off against BC, but in BC, they are also facing off against the number one ranked team in the country for the first time in their short Hockey East tenure.

“That’s not how we’re going in, like David versus Goliath. Though I would like it to turn out how it did for David,” Cavanaugh said with a sarcastic laugh.

“They’re number one?“ He said, feigning faux surprise. “We can’t get caught up in that. We’ve played many times. It’s a game. We have to play very well and not focus on our opponent. Respect our opponent. We know how good they are in goal and how strong they are on defense; with the addition of (Jack) St. Ivany and upfront, they’re as dangerous as any team in the league.

“We play well in all three zones, and that’s going to be our mantra going into tomorrow night, and we’re not playing like that. We deserve to be in this league; we have proved that. We respect that team, and we can win.

“If we have our B-game against them and expect to win, it won’t happen, but if we have our A-game and they have their A-game? I like our chances,” a confident Cavanaugh said.

He called the contest “a major midterm hockey exam of a game,” speaking of the twin 4 pm games starting Friday afternoon at Kelley Rink in Boston and then Saturday afternoon at Freitas Ice Forum in Storrs.

ENTERING THE WEEKEND

Fourth-place UCONN has a .500 record at 5-5-1. They are a percentage point ahead of fifth-place, Providence College.

Sporting an 8-2-1 BC trails only first-place UMASS, however, as of last week, the Eagles have five games in hand over the Minutemen.

The Hockey East Player of the Week was UCONN junior Jonny Evans. Last weekend, against an injury-depleted University of New Hampshire team, Evans and his linemates, Jachym Konedelik and Vladislav Firstov combined for 14 points. They will now face a full-powered BC lineup. The Eagles feature three World Junior Championship Gold medal team winners. They are goaltender Spencer Knight, defenseman Drew Helleson, left-winger, Matt Boldy, and silver medalist from Team Canada, centerman Alex Newhook.

“We came out of our shell last weekend and scored some goals which we needed to do. To beat Boston College, we’re going to have to score goals.

EVANS AND THE POWER PLAY ARE KEY

“He (Evans) has had a terrific year for us so far; he has to keep working hard. The biggest thing and jump he has made is that he has become a 200-foot player. He has always been a good (offensive) player; he played defense, but now he has put both things together at both ends of the ice, and that makes him a top-notch elite player.”

Evans now has a point in nine of eleven games this season and leads the team in scoring (six goals and seven assists) with four multi-point outings and tied for sixth-place in Hockey East with Zach Solow Northeastern.

UCONN’s power play was operating at an anemic 7.1%. That ranks their PP dead last in the conference, but it sprung to life with the return of Firstov and at 17% has moved up to seventh overall.

“To be effective, you can’t be afraid of their (ability) to score shorthanded. We or trying to force plays on our powerplay; we’re taking what they give us, winning puck battles, and if the puck doesn’t go in the net, we have won the puck battles and retrieve the puck and try again. When we come up with the ice, we have to manage the puck well and not turn it over in the neutral zone.

Knight (Darien/Avon Old Farms), their undefeated (7-0-0) goalie, and Florida Panthers draftee leads the Eagles. He also is tops in college hockey with a 1.71 GAA and a .948 save percentage.

Knight presents challenges in his technique and size, but his intangible comes from playing the game. “He is technically sound; has great size, but it’s his mental makeup,” Cavanaugh said. “He is unflappable. He doesn’t get rattled too often in a game. That being said, you go and put shots on him, get traffic in front, take away his eyes, and win those battles in the blue paint area if you want to score goals on him.”

The BC defense was already stacked with Helleson’s return from the World Juniors and Marshall Warren, then added a second-semester transfer from Yale University (ECACHL) in Jack St. Ivany, a fourth-round draft pick of the Philadelphia Flyers, going 112th overall in 2018.

Cavanaugh discussed one of the challenges UCONN will face this weekend against such a powerhouse of a defensive lineup.

“(The BC defense corps) is very good, but we can’t change the way we play offensively. We have to manage the puck well because they can transition from defense as quickly as anybody else in the league. Managing the puck in the offensive zone and neutral zone, we have to reload those forwards, and that’s going to be very important.”

UCONN can boast of plenty of strengths.

Coming into this weekend showdown junior forward, Carter Turnbull broke out of a mini four-game slump with a hat trick and six points last weekend against New Hampshire.

Cavanaugh worked on things with Turnbull that made a significant and immediate impact on the hardworking, very opportunistic scorer.

“We didn’t work on any specific part of his game. At times, Carter waits for the game to come to him. He’s a player who has to seek the puck and use his feet to make plays. That’s when I think he is most dangerous for us,” said Cavanaugh.

The Huskies will gladly welcome back Kale Howarth, sidelined for three weeks with an upper-body injury. UCONN will need to make some lineup decisions about who will lace them up with a completely healthy lineup.

“Kale brings a lot to our lineup five-on-five, winning faceoffs, and his size was happy to have him back. That’s the hardest thing about the sport; we put players in the stands,” Cavanaugh said.

“You have 100 guys on the sidelines. In baseball, they all dress, and basketball, everybody dressed and never played. We put guys in the stands, and it’s always tricky because of the matchup of the team we’re playing; who is playing well at that time? A lot of things go into it. After this, I’m going to sit down with my staff and put together the best lineup we can for tomorrow night against the BC Eagles.”

Finding lineup balance on the ice that leaves some players sitting is a challenge for UCONN heading into the weekend.

“There isn’t a coach in the country that doesn’t want diversity in their lineup. Rarely do you have three physical players on one line. You want that diversity of physical and skilled players. You have good guys at hunting the puck and opportunistic players; you mix and match to make the best lineup you can make most effective for your night-in and night-out.

“It’s a balancing act all season, and I hope we have the right combo tomorrow night.”

The Hockey East conference announced it was tossing out the initial league composite schedule. Going to a scheduling matrix on a week-by-week basis is just another obstacle for Cavanaugh and his staff to contend with in a season overflowing with obstacles and hurdles.

“It’s something we never had to deal with before. We’re all in the same boat. It’s better because, in some ways, instead of speculating, we have a schedule, now we’re supposed to play Merrimack this weekend. Will the series happen? We played UMASS already, so now we wait till Tuesday to see what happens. So when the schedule comes out, we’ll play whoever is on it.

“It’s a part of the way of life (now). If my wife hands me a change on our schedule, I’ve got to handle that curveball, or it is gonna be an unhappy week. We can’t get too worked up about it,” remarked Cavanaugh.

There are seven weeks left in the Conference’s regular season where all eleven teams will make the postseason that has yet to define a post-season format.

The NCAA Regionals and Frozen Four are still on, but the usual regional city has all been scrapped, but for now, Cavanaugh is focused on the weekend ahead of him and his team.

“It will be exciting to play Boston College again. We had a great series when we played them last time. They were down a couple of guys, and we were down a couple of guys. It’ll be fine to tee-it-up against the Eagles this weekend.”

NOTES:

Saturday’s game will be televised locally on CW20 with Randy Brochu doing the play-by-play and a very able color guy, the only voice of the Hartford Wolf Pack, Bob Crawford.

Bob Joyce will handle the play-by-play for the radio broadcast on ESPN radio (97.9 FM) and Adam Giardino.

Coach Cavanaugh could have a chance to play for win number 100 on Saturday. A win for UCONN women’s basketball coach Geno Auriemma on Saturday will be number 1,100.

Former UCONN Husky, Ben Freeman, was released from his contract by the Wheeling (WV) Nailers (ECHL).

The post CANTLON: UCONN & COLLEGE HOCKEY’S BEST first appeared on Howlings.

HARTFORD, CT – The UCONN Huskies close out the Hockey East regular season on Friday night on the road at the Tsongas Center to face the number 12 nationally ranked UMASS-Lowell River Hawks at 7 PM (ESPN 97.9 and WILI 1400 AM/FM 95.3).

The Huskies split last week with UMASS-Amherst where UCONN clinched a spot in the postseason Friday in fantastic fashion with a late-game comeback 3-2 victory over the Minutemen.

Last Friday, sophomore Marc Gatcomb tied the game up with 1:31 left and classmate Kale Howarth buried the game-winner with 8.7 on the clock to lift the Huskies to a 3-2 win in front of 6,666 fans at XL Center.

UCONN missed the Hockey East tournament last year and this week is the anniversary of their only home playoff series with Vermont four years ago.

The Huskies’ playoff seeding is still to be decided with a home-ice playoff series is still up for grabs. If UCONN gets a win or a tie on Friday night against the River Hawks, they will host a playoff series at the XL Center next weekend.

The other scenarios are too mind-numbing suffice to say the Huskies could finish between as high as third or sixth in the conference.

Tonight’s game is the third meeting this season between the Huskies and River Hawks. UCONN earned a 3-3 tie at home and won 2-1 o0n the road in a weekend series split back in November. The Hockey East series between the schools the Huskies are 5-6-2 against the River Hawks. UCONN record is 3-3-0 at Tsongas Center.

UCONN (12-9-2 HEA, 15-14-4 overall) the conference mark of 12 wins and 26 points are the most for the program since joining Hockey East in 2014-15. The Huskies enter the weekend fourth in the Hockey East standings and UCONN’s best-ever Hockey East finish was tied for fifth in 2017-18.

The Huskies have seven players who have scored 20 or more points this season, the highest number since the 2010-11 season, but no players in the conference top offensive categories.

Senior Benjamin Freeman has been on fire taken over the team-lead in scoring with career-best 29 points on the year on seven goals and 21 assists.

Over the month of February, in seven games, Freeman led the team and was fourth in Hockey East with 13 points three goals and 10 assists and earned conference Player of the Week honors two weeks ago.

Senior defenseman Wyatt Newpower is fifth among Hockey East blue-liners with a career-best 22 points on three goals and 19 assists. He leads the Huskies with a plus 24 rating, which ranks sixth nationally.

Newpower has the most points by a Husky defenseman since 2015-16 when freshman Joseph Masonius had 21 points. Prior to that, defenseman Alex Gerke held the top spot with a 25 point season in 2011-12.

Sophomore Carter Turnbull scored his 12th goal of the season last weekend, matching senior Alexander Payusov for the team lead. Turnbull is second on the club with 24 points on the strength of 12 goals and 12 assists easily surpassing his rookie season total of seven points.

Freshman Vladislav Firstov has 23 points on 11 goals and 12 assists and he ranks sixth among Hockey East rookies in scoring nine assists

Then there is a final troika of players in the 20 point category includes sophomore Jachym Kondelik has tallied 22 points on eight goals and 14 assists. Alexander Payusov has 12 goals seven of which have come over the last seven games and sophomore Ruslan Iskhakov nine goals and 12 assists each have 21 points.

NOTES:

-Former UCONN Husky Joe Masonius goes from Norfolk (ECHL) to Greenville (ECHL).

-UCONN got a commit this week for 2021 from Joe Pascucci (North Andover, MA) currently at the Governors Academy in New Hampshire. The 6’2 180 lb. rearguard is completing his second season at the school.

-David Andreychuk, incredibly no relation to the former NHL’er Dave despite their last names are spelled exactly the same as Gunnery Prep (Washington, CT) makes a commitment to St. Lawrence University (ECACHL) in 2021-22.

I wonder how much wood would an Andreychuk chuck if he
could chuck wood !!?

-The New England prep school playoffs are underway with the championships for the three divisions will take place on Sunday afternoon at Trinity College in Hartford at the Koppell Community Center after being in New Hampshire at St. Anselm College, the last three years.

In the Open Division, Hotchkiss (Lakeville) was knocked out by the score of 5-2 by Dexter Academy featuring John and Matt Fusco, sons of former Whaler, Mark Fusco.

Salisbury Prep got the best of Kimball Union 7-4 and they will meet the top-ranked Avon Old Farms squad, 6-3 winners, over Noble and Greenough.

The two teams will meet Saturday in the semifinal at Jennings-Fairchild Arena at AOF at 3:30 PM.

The Open Final is scheduled for Sunday at 5:00 PM.

In the Large Division, Brunswick School (Greenwich) thumped Milton Academy 7-1 featuring Beanie Richter, son of Rangers goalie great Mike Richter.

Loomis Chaffe (Windsor) edged Deerfield Academy 4-2.
Loomis travels to Greenwich Saturday at 2:30 PM for their semi-final matchup.

The Large Division final is Sunday at 2:30 PM.

In the Small Division, Pomfret knocked off St. Mark’s 4-3. In the other game, Groton School (MA) was the winner 6-4 over Tilton Academy.

Pomfret on Saturday will make the drive over two hours near the New Hampshire border to play Groton at 3:00 PM.

The Pomfret team features Mike Baseggio, son of former Yale player, New Haven Nighthawk and Bridgeport Sound Tigers head coach, Dave Baseggio, currently a Pro Scout for Anaheim.

The Small Division Final is Sunday at 12:30 PM.

-The newest college hockey conference will have an old well-established moniker.

The seven schools leaving the WCHA will begin to play in a newly branded CCHA (Central Collegiate Hockey Association) starting in 2021-21. They have retained a legal firm to start the process of formalizing the name and begin branding efforts so when all the pro forma legal documents are set up the conference and completed the conference can begin.

The schools to be the original seven will be; Bemidji State (MN), Bowling Green (OH), Ferris St. (MI), Lake Superior State (MI), Michigan Tech, Northern Michigan and Minnesota State-Mankato.

That will leave the WCHA with just three teams, two from Alaska. The University Alaska-Anchorage Seawolves and University Alaska-Fairbanks Nanooks, who are likely to merge as one hockey program considering major state fiscal issues in Alaska. The other school is Alabama-Huntsville as the surviving conference members.

This will allow likely be the formation of a true Western-based US college hockey conference where the hockey numbers at the youth level are at the highest point in the country in addition to junior league players.

Schools that could be a part of that conference would include the current Division I independent, the Arizona State Sun Devils, who will have a brand new on-campus building by next fall.

Then some new programs that could emerge include from LA in USC and UCLA, UNLV in Nevada, University of Washington. Air Force Academy, already in Division I play in the AHA conference would be best suited to be in this conference,

There could be some wide cards as well, but the future is West for college hockey.

The post CANTLON: (3/6) UCONN CLOSES OUT REGULAR SEASON AT UMASS—LOWELL first appeared on Howlings.

BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings

BRIDGEPORT, CT – Tim Gettinger scored a stupendous shorthanded goal and had an assist to pace the Hartford Wolf Pack to a solid 4-1 road win to break a modest two-game losing streak over the Bridgeport Sound Tigers before 5,427 at the Webster Bank Arena.

“We did a very good job today because it’s much easier to play when we have all four lines going as we did today,” remarked Wolf Pack head coach, Kris Knoblauch.

Nick Jones also contributed a goal and an assist while Darren Raddysh had two assists and ended the three-in-three weekend on a positive note with three periods of solid play.

The Wolf Pack record improves to 30-14-6-5 (71 points) and they are in second place in the Atlantic Division, just one point behind the idle Hershey Bears who hold a game in hand.

The winner of the Providence Bruins and Wilkes Barre/Scranton Penguins are three points behind the Wolf Pack.

Bridgeport’s record slips to 19-30-5-2 (45 points) are in last place in the Atlantic Division and 30th overall in the AHL.

In the third period, the Wolf Pack extended their lead to two goals.

With team captain, Steven Fogarty in the penalty box, Nick Jones took his place on the PK and hit Gettinger with a lead pass.

The rest was all Gettinger.

He motored up the right-wing side past Josh Ho-Sang who was trying to defend him.

Gettinger blew by him, pulled the puck in around Sound Tiger goalie, Jared Coreau, and did a backhand-to-forehand in mid-air a la Bobby Orr, and tucked his 13th of the season into the net at 6:16 and gave the Pack a 3-1 lead.

“Jonesy hit me right in the middle (of the ice) and I was able to drive to the net on the backhand. That was a big goal to keep us moving forward,” Gettinger said with humility and modesty.

Upon further prodding, he would let a smile sneak across his face.

“When we see a forward playing D like that, we try to take advantage of it. I was able to lower my shoulder and got a good head of steam going to the net…the rest was a blur, to be honest.”

Reunited with his original linemate from the beginning of the season, Jones, who was shaking his head, and marveled at the play.

“He was able to drive so fast, it was amazing he made a move going that fast. Just a hell of a play.”

Gettinger was very happy with the team win.

“We weren’t very happy how the first two games this weekend went. Friday we weren’t at our best. Last night we did a lot of good things, but it wasn’t enough. Tonight, we put it all together. We came out and wanted the two points and we picked up the win.”

As the architect of the team, Knoblauch got the desired results.

“They really seem to like one another and putting the line back together, we got exactly what we wanted out of it.”

The Wolf Pack got another specialty team goal. Nick Ebert took Matt Beleskey’s pass and waited at the right point patiently as Fogarty moved in to screen Coreau along with defenseman Grant Hutton.

Ebert whistled a wrist off the cross bar and in for his fifth goal and the second Pack powerplay tally of the afternoon.

“Really good play all-around. You get a better chance when you take away a goalie’s eyes,” commented Knoblauch.

The Wolf Pack jumped out to a 2-1 lead with all five players getting touches of the puck.

The whole series started on a smart dish off by Patrick Newell as Darren Raddysh saw an opening along the right-wing boards. He took the pass and filled in the gap, motored to the net, and put the puck to the net.

Gettinger got the first crack at it. Jones, as semi-trailer from behind the goal line, reached out on the loose puck and put it in out in during the mad scramble. It was his eighth of the season to match his jersey number at 5:29.

“It was a nice play all-around to get to that point. I just saw the loose puck. Everyone was hacking and whacking at the puck. I got the last one,” Jones said with a laugh of his first AHL game-winning goal.

The Sound Tigers, with the 30th worst powerplay which has awoken over the last two games, connected on their first chance of the game.

Sebastian Aho was at the right point and spotted Ho-Sang wide open at the Wolf Pack goal line. The shot was deflected on a tip try by Nick Schilkey.

Ho-Sang got the puck and darted around the net.

Ho-Sang completed the wraparound attempt for his third goal at 13:10.

The Wolf Pack answered back with a powerplay goal of their own. It will be in contention for the Wolf Pack goal of the year before Gettinger’s goal.

After the Sound Tigers’ Jeff Kubiak blew out a tire on a rush attempt, Raddysh picked up the puck and put a short pass to Vitali Kravtsov at center ice.

Kravtsov weaved thru the middle of the ice and as he crossed the Sound Tigers blue line and put short pass in Vinni Lettieri’s wheelhouse.

Lettieri let loose a vintage one-timer on a 40-foot shot that went to the short-side, on Coreau’s stick-side who seemed shocked at both the power and speed of the shot for his team-leading 24th of the season at 15:08.

“It was a great shot off of two nice plays, and we have to have the powerplay working. You can’t rely solely on five-on-five scoring all the time. We could have had some more points this weekend if we capitalized on them (powerplays), even possibly a win on Saturday,” said Knoblauch.

Newly acquired goalie Jean-Francois Berube, in his second start for the Wolf Pack, kept things steady in the first period especially on an early breakaway by the Islanders 2019 first-round pick Simon Holmstrom with a clear shot, but a rolling puck Berube calmly stopped it.

He then took away a short-side attempt from Oliver Wahlstrom off a blast from the left-wing faceoff circle that made the difference for the Wolf Pack and two of the toughest of his 18 saves for the game.

“That save was crucial because if they score on that breakaway might be a whole different game for us. He’s veteran has Calder Cup experience. We’re glad to have him,“ remarked Jones of Berube’s first win as a member of Hartford.

The head coach thought the early part of he game set up the rest of the game.

“It really could have gone haywire early had they got the goal on a broken play really and JF was right here for that breakaway early on

LINES:

Fogarty-Kravtsov-Beleskey
Jones-Newell-Gettinger
O’Regan-Lettieri-Gropp
McBride-Dmowski-Ronning

Hajek-Raddysh
Ebert-Geersten
Crawley-LoVerde

SCRATCHES:

Boo Nieves – Upper-Body – Out Indefinitely
Yegor Rykov – Healthy – Seventh time in the last nine games.
Jake Elmer – Healthy
Gabriel Fontaine – Shoulder Surgery – Season Over

NOTES:

The Sound Tigers have now lost four in a row (0-3-0-1).

On the powerplay the Wolf Pack are 28th at 12.8% the Sound Tigers 30th at 11.3%.

On the PK the Wolf Pack is 5th best if the AHL at 85.3% and the Sound Tigers at 10th at 83.6%.

Two good things in yesterday’s Rangers 3-2 win over San Jose.

First, the Rangers won extended their recent record to 7-1 all with Igor Shesterkin in goal. The other is they are four points out of the playoff race for the second wild-card spot.

The bad thing, Phil DiGuiseppe played his tenth game which now requires the Rangers to pace him on waivers if they want to send him to Hartford. So, he will be in New York for the rest of the season.

Ex-Pack Shawn St.-Amant has signed a PTO with Chicago.

Ex-Pack defenseman Hubert Labrie was released from his deal by Belleville and assigned to parent Ottawa.

Two ex-Sound Tigers are on the move the brothers Holmstrom. Ben goes from Norfolk (ECHL) to Cincinnati (ECHL) and Josh exits Norfolk for Wheeling (ECHL).

They’re not related to the current Sound Tiger Simon Holmstrom as he is from Sweden, they’re from Colorado Springs, CO.

Not only players or coaches get recalls, but so do team’s staff.

The only voice of the Wolf Pack, Bob Crawford, gets his second recall to do a Rangers game. The first one was at MSG this one will be on the road at the Bell Centre in Montreal on Thursday.

The regular Rangers radio voice, Kenny Albert has a broadcast conflict and Crawford will have Rangers great from the 1970 and 1980’s Pete Stemkowski alongside to provide color commentary.

While the English language Canadiens broadcast on TSN 690 can be heard here at night you can go to the Rangers website and click on the audio section to catch the broadcast.

The game is being bumped off ESPN radio 98.7 to 1050 AM which is not a very strong signaled station the Rangers radio home because of a scheduling conflict.

Montreal will put out the Bienvenue sign for Crawford.

The post CANTLON: WOLD PACK DROP SOUND TIGERS 4-1 first appeared on Howlings.

BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings

HARTFORD, CT – The Lias Andersson saga has taken a new turn.

The New York Rangers have loaned Anderson, who’s currently under team-imposed suspension, to his old Swedish team HV71 for the remainder of the year.

This move is similar to what the organization did with another somewhat disgruntled player, Vitali Kravtsov when he was returned to Russia after five lackluster games. He left on October 28th and returned back to North America on December 13th.

Clearly, the situations are very different with the only common denominator being that they are both high first-round draft picks.

Cantlon Corner learned on Friday from two NHL sources that Andersson is more likely to be dealt come draft time when next years cap number is known.

In an HV71 team issued a press release on Sunday confirming Andersson”s return.

“Lias Andersson comes most recently from the New York Rangers organization but will be loaned to HV71 for the rest of the season.

We are, of course, very pleased that Lias will play in HV71 again. He is an incredibly good hockey player, a wonderful guy and he knows the club well after his years in Jönköping.

We have had a good dialogue with the New York Rangers throughout the process and thank them for making this solution possible,” said Johan Hult, sports manager at HV71.

Lias Andersson joins HV71 on Monday and will get some workouts in his legs before it’s time for games. But the gold hero from 2017 is happy to be back in Jönköping.

Andersson added his own sentiments.

“I am grateful that it was possible to solve in such a good way and look forward to wearing my HV shirt again. I have many good memories from my time in HV71 and will do everything I can to make the club successful,” said Lias Andersson.

Previously, Lias Andersson has played three seasons in HV71 and crowned his last win with an SM gold medal in 2017.

Andersson, requested a trade back on December 19th when the team returned home from a road trip to Charlotte, North Carolina.

Andersson was demoted to the AHL on November 17th after playing just 13 games. He missed one game due to injury. He amassed just four goals and five points. Three of those points came in one game against the Binghamton Devils on December 7th, meaning he registered just two points over the other 12 games. He was scoreless in his last six games with the Hartford Wolf Pack.

Andersson played just 74 games in Hartford registering 15 goals, 24 assists (39 points) over three seasons. While in New York with the Rangers, he played just 66 games with a disappointing three goals and nine points.

Andersson’s last game with the Rangers was against the Florida Panthers where he played just 3:43 in the game. His career-best time on ice is 16:09.

In the past two years, he has amassed just four multi-point games while in Hartford. Prior to the Binghamton game, his last was against the Providence Bruins last season when he was recalled and managed just six points in 42 games with the Rangers.

A natural center, Andersson played wing at times, but since his reassignment to Hartford, he has been playing strictly center.

Andersson’s last game in Charlotte was bad. He had a minus-3 with just one shot on goal. It wasn’t just Andersson, was not the only Pack player who struggled in that game. The entire team did.  He flew back with the team that Thursday and sometime between then and Friday morning the decision was made.

Andersson’s agent called the Rangers and informed them of the trade request

While in Sweden Andersson gave an interview with the Swedish sports news service SVTP Sports (their version of ESPN/TSN)

Credit to Uffe Bodin, Editor-In-Chief of newsme.com for the twitter post with this translation.

This troubling tweet raises some serious questions and cast some serious aspersions and insinuations that could have profound impacts going forward for Andersson whether he returns to the Rangers or for any organization that might be contemplating acquiring him.

So was Andersson injured toward the end of his self imposed departure from Hartford?

What was this alleged incident that occurred that made things untenable for him to stay in Hartford?

His assertion about feeling safe depicts some untoward work environment in Hartford, was there any?

The Rangers have publicly never commented on any of his assertions.

The post CANTLON’S CORNER: (MON) ANDERSSON LOANED TO A TEAM IN SWEDEN first appeared on Howlings.

Week chock full of Norfolk ahead

BY: Jordan Kuhn, Greenville Swamp Rabbits

GREENVILLE, SC – The Greenville Swamp Rabbits took on some of the top teams in the South Division this past week and saw mixed success. While Greenville scored the first goal in all three games, they came away with one win in the three-games in four-days stretch.

The Swamp Rabbits traveled to Atlanta on Thursday evening to take on a surging Gladiators club that was looking up at Greenville in the standings. Patrick Bajkov got the scoring started for Greenville in the very early going, but other than that, ran into a brick wall known as former teammate Chris Nell.

Nell made up for his early mistake by making 46 saves, and the Gladiators received timely scoring, including two goals in the first period, to erase the lead and go on to the win. The Swamp Rabbits put up a season-high 22 shots on goal in the third period in the losing effort.

Friday saw the Florida Everblades come to town, ranked second in the South Division. Success against the ‘Blades has been few and far between over the past few years, but this night was one to remember. Up 2-1 thanks to goals by Nathan Perkovich and Ryan Black, the Swamp Rabbits poured it on in the third period.

Dylan MacPherson, Jake Horton, Adam Rockwood, and Kamerin Nault all scored to rout the Everblades at the Bon Secours Wellness Arena, and Jeremy Helvig made 42 saves in the win.

As if the schedule couldn’t have gotten more difficult, the top-ranked South Carolina Stingrays came to town on Sunday afternoon. Perkovich once again started the scoring for the ‘Bits, but South Carolina scored twice unanswered to take the lead for good, and limited Greenville to just 23 shots on goal with their relentless puck pressure style of play.

1/9 at Atlanta Gladiators – L 3-1
1/10 vs Florida Everblades – W 6-2
1/12 vs South Carolina Stingrays – L 2-1

UPCOMING GAMES
Greenville Swamp Rabbits at Norfolk Admirals
Wednesday, January 15 – 7:30 p.m.
Listen Exclusively on ESPN Upstate — Watch

Greenville Swamp Rabbits vs Norfolk Admirals
80s NIGHT
Friday, January 17 – 7:05 p.m.
Tickets — Listen — Watch

Greenville Swamp Rabbits vs Norfolk Admirals
DC COMICS NIGHT + FAMILY FOUR PACK
Sunday, January 12 – 7:05 p.m.
Tickets — Listen — Watch

PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Adam Rockwood – 3 GP | 1 G – 2 A – 3 P
With his three points this past week, Adam Rockwood continued his point streak to six games and moved into a tie for third in rookie assists. His two points on Friday night helped the Swamp Rabbits rout the Florida Everblades.

RABBIT TAILS

• Forward Adam Rockwood has rocketed up the rookie scoreboard. Among rookies, he ranks tied for seventh in overall scoring, tied for the third-most assists, and tied for the second-most power play goals (2).
• The Swamp Rabbits’ aptitude in shorthanded situations continues to shine. Their eight shorties rank tied for the third most in the league, only behind Orlando (9) and Worcester (10).
• Greenville’s scoring outburst on Friday gives them a +6 goal differential in the third period.
• Heading into the week in Norfolk, the Swamp Rabbits are tied for sixth in the Eastern Conference standings with the Adirondack Thunder.

SOUTH DIVISION STANDINGS

1. South Carolina Stingrays (27-5-4) – 58 pts
2. Florida Everblades (22-11-4) – 48 pts
3. Greenville Swamp Rabbits (18-19-2) – 38 pts
4. Orlando Solar Bears (14-15-5) – 33 pts
5. Atlanta Gladiators (16-19-0) – 32 pts
6. Jacksonville Icemen (12-18-4) – 28 pts
7. Norfolk Admirals (11-23-4) – 26 pts

*standings as of 10:00 a.m. on January 13, 2020

The post KUHN: SWAMP RABBITS WEEKLY #14 first appeared on Howlings.

HARTFORD, CT – The Hartford Wolf Pack will entertain the Charlotte Checkers Friday night before departing for four games on the road over the next two weeks. They will not return home until January 24th against the Bridgeport Sound Tigers.

The Wolf Pack winning streak grew to five-games and in the process, tying their season-best mark after a 2-1 win over the Hershey Bears at the Giant Center before 10,240 on a Wednesday night.

Hartford’s leading scorer, Vinni Lettieri, has six points in his last five games. He also has scored a goal three straight scored the game-winning goal, his 14th, with 53.9 seconds left in the game. Goalie Adam Huska stopped 26 of 27 shots. The Wolf Pack was held to just 15 shots but made the two that scored led them to victory.

Boo Nieves continues his strong play and has garnered seven points in his last six gamers.

The Wolf Pack holds the top spot in the Atlantic Division with a record of 22-8-2-5 (51 points) and now are four points ahead of Hershey and six ahead of the Providence Bruins.

For Hershey, this was just their second loss in their last 15 games.

The team has undergone some serious roster changes in the past month and with the exception of a small blip of a five-game losing streak, they have maintained a strong level of consistency at home, late in games, and against key divisional rivals.

The Wolf Pack are 15-1-2-5 at home and are unbeaten with taking a lead after two periods at 14-0-1-2. They’ve won all five games thus far against Providence who they were battling for first place before being supplanted by Hershey.

LIFE WITHOUT IGOR

Goaltender Igor Shesterkin is on recall by the New York Rangers and made his NHL debut with a 5-3 victory against the Colorado Avalanche. Shesterkin got off to a tough start giving up goals on his first two shots. To be fair, all three goals he surrendered he wasn’t totally responsible for. One was a tip-in, another a breakaway from Nathan MacKinnon and a wide-open goal on the right-wing.

Shesterkin followed that up with a superb showing stopping 46 of 49 shots in a 6-3 win over the New Jersey Devils as ex-Wolf Pack, Tony D’Angelo piled up five points, including the first hat-trick since the Hall of Fame Brian Leetch (Cheshire) had in a playoff game in 1995. It was only the third in team history and the first two were Reijo Ruotsolainen (1982) and Dave Maloney (1980).

Shesterkin was very sharp in the third period stopping a pair of scoring chances from Avalanche defensemen Samuel Girard and Calder Trophy candidate, Cale Makar.

No doubt Shesterkin will have a long NHL career, but the Rangers also have two competent, capable NHL goalies in future Hall-of-Famer, Henrik Lundquist, and ex-Pack, Alexander Georgiev.

Carrying three goalies is difficult at any level of hockey, with one netminder always on the outside looking in, and likely unhappy.

The Rangers have been anticipating their fifth-round draft choice in 2012. He had superb KHL numbers and has finally arrived in North America.

Shesterkin’s deal to come to North America was struck in the spring when the Rangers negotiated a European (KHL) clause in his deal that kicked in at halfway mark of the AHL season. It was eclipsed by several games, and the NHL season clause has been met, and he could return to Russia without penalty.

The NHL trade deadline is February 24th, just seven weeks away. Lundqvist’s age, salary, and no-movement clause make it HIGHLY unlikely he’s going anywhere, and the market for Georgiev isn’t clear at this point.

Shesterkin is likely to see more action at the NHL level. It is possible but perhaps unlikely, that Shesterkin, who does not need to pass through waivers, will get sent to Hartford to playing time when Lundqvist and Georgiev are in the net.

There will be a lot of rumors and a lot of news coming out of New York that will effect Hartford as the deadline approaches and the Rangers decide if they should be a buyer or a seller at the deadline and how to supplement the success currently going on in the Connecticut capital.

MESSAGE FROM SWEDEN

Lias Andersson was last seen departing on a plane from Bradley International Airport after the Wolf Pack’s two-game road trip to Charlotte.

He hasn’t been seen since until the next day after he’d left the team that through his agent it became public that Andersson had requested a trade. He was suspended by the Rangers and there has been radio silence until Wednesday.

Andersson gave an interview with the Swedish sports news service, SVTP Sports (their version of ESPN/TSN).

Uffe Bodin, the Editor-In-Chief of newsme.com, tweeted this translated information.

The troubling tweet raises some serious questions and cast some serious aspersions and insinuations that could have profound impacts going forward for Andersson having any hope of returning to the Rangers or to any organization contemplating acquiring him.

Was Andersson injured toward the end of his self-imposed departure from Hartford?

What was this alleged incident that occurred that made things untenable for him to stay in Hartford?

His assertion about “feeling safe” depicts some untoward work environment in Hartford, was there any?

Is he using the team-issued suspension after leaving the team as some faux reasoning for sitting in Sweden and not practicing in Hartford or Cromwell with the Wolf Pack?

Was he handling or coping with the rigors of pro hockey and being a number seven overall draft pick very well?

Based on his play and this move the answer would be no.

Andersson could be making a fatal career mistake here.

The NHL is a very closed society. While the teams are on ice rivals and there’s a union as a league and when one seeks to overturn the order of things, they don’t like it very much.

Especially from a player in his first three years of an NHL deal that he and his agent signed off on and approved by both the NHL and the NHLPLA.

Teams are not likely to take on a player who jumps ship when he’s under-performing at the NHL and AHL level on an entry-level contract.

There is hockey graveyard littered with first-round busts and players whose ego’s got the better of them.

Andy, as he was known, was not a malcontent by several accounts, but self-imposed pressure to live up to his number seven overall status is a part of the equation that has him in Sweden and not Hartford.

One veteran NHL scout said on the condition that they not be named, about Andersson.

“I spoke to our GM about him, and he said, ‘It’s not his fault he was drafted seventh when maybe 27 or 37 was more appropriate. He has to understand that he isn’t a top-six forward, but a bottom-six forward. I think he’s a salvageable player at age 20, but he has to change his self-appraisal of his skill set.”

On what could be likely his last ever Wolf Pack goal, he was contemplating a Filip Forsberg (Nashville) move on a breakaway coming off the right-wing.

For Andersson, if he’s to have an NHL career, this walkout needs to end immediately.

NOTES:

The Bridgeport Sound Tigers made an AHL deal with the Utica Comets where they sent oft-injured forward, John Stevens Jr. to the Comets for future considerations. Stevens is the son of ex-Hartford Whaler, AHL Hall of Famer, and current Dallas Stars, Assistant Coach, John Stevens Sr.

Drake Rymsha, the son of ex-New Haven Nighthawk, Andy Rynsha, was sent from Ontario (AHL) to Ft. Wayne (ECHL).

How about trading your nephew?

All-time Wolf Pack great, and head coach, John Paddock, who’s the current GM and VP of Hockey Ops for the Regina Pats (WHL) sent his nephew, Max, to the Prince Albert Raiders yesterday. That won’t be awkward at the Christmas Table

Goalie Nick Malik, the son of ex-Whaler, Ranger, and Beast of New Haven defenseman, Marek Malik, is leaving home for North America.

He played primarily with HC Frydek-Mistek (Czech Republic Division-2) where his father is the assistant coach this season. His Czech Elite League (CEL) rights are with HC Ocelari Trinec where he played two games.

The younger Malik got in some time for the Czech Republic WJC team in the just-completed tournament but has decided to head to the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds (OHL) for the rest of the year.

The Greyhounds drafted him in the CHL Import last June in the first-round (50th overall). All CHL teams are involved in the draft.

He was eleventh pick (168th overall) in the NAHL Draft by the Muskegon Lumberjacks as well last year

Ethan Cardwell, the nephew of former New Haven Knights, Matt Cardwell, was traded from the Saginaw Spirit (OHL) to the Barrie Colts (OHL) as part of a five-player trade at the junior trade deadline.

Logan Stephenson, the son of former Whaler, Bob Stephenson, goes from ASC Corona Brasov (Romania-EBEL) to HKM Zloven (Slovakia-SLEL) for the rest of the season.

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