Crawford's Pack Report: Week in Review
Disappointing Ending, but Another Fine Season
Tuesday, May 1, 2007 - 5:30 PM
A disappointing ending, but a good, hard battle, and another fine season.
The Wolf Pack and the Providence Bruins were very evenly-matched, and I don’t think it’s any surprise that a matter of just one goal separated the two teams in the final result.
It certainly could have gone either way, and I think that generally the Pack played well enough to win, but give big credit to the P-Bruins. After losing Game Five in their building they faced an uphill climb that only two other teams have made successfully in the 70-year history of the AHL, having to win Games Six and Seven on the road, and they got it done.
I think if the Wolf Pack have any regrets about how things shook out in the series, they’ll look back at Games Four and Six and wish they could have those to do over again. The Pack dominated Game One and Game Three, and I think Games Two, Five and Seven were up for grabs, but the Wolf Pack club came out as a shell of itself in Four and Six. We didn’t see the Pack get outplayed badly in more than a handful of games this year, but they seemed way off their game from the beginning of Game Four, which ended up in a 5-1 loss, and nervous and uptight with a chance to knock the Bruins out in Game Six.
The Bruins, to their credit, seemed to gain major confidence from their Game-Six road win, but I don’t think you could have asked much more out of the Wolf Pack than they gave in Game Seven. They more than doubled the B’s up in shots on goal, 44-21, and controlled the third period to the tune of a 17-5 shots advantage. The Bruins bent but did not break, though, and after the Pack had won their first-round series in seven games last season, they didn’t have quite enough in them to pull it off again this time around.
It was the fifth Game Seven in the Wolf Pack’s 10-year history, and the franchise is now 3-2. Interestingly, this series marked the first time the Pack had ever been forced into a Game Seven. The other four times it had always been the Wolf Pack that had won the previous game to set up Game Seven.
Despite the downer of a finish, the series certainly wasn’t without highlights. The 11 points each generated by Nigel Dawes and Alex Bourret tied a franchise record for most points in a single playoff series. Only Marc Savard’s one goal and 10 assists in the seven-game Eastern Conference Semifinal triumph over the Worcester IceCats in 1998, the first year of the team’s existence, has equaled the offensive output of Dawes and Bourret. And Al Montoya’s 1-0 shutout in Game Five was only the third 1-0 postseason win in franchise history, and the first-ever on the road.
As depressing as it is for the summer to have started already, it’s hard not to feel good about what this Wolf Pack team accomplished in this tenth-anniversary season. It looked a little bleak early, but from about Thanksgiving on, this club was among the most energetic and dynamic that I have ever been around.
Ryan Callahan was terrific almost from the beginning, and turned out to be as good a prospect as has ever come through the Wolf Pack. He hasn’t missed a beat, either, since getting his summons to the NHL, continuing to impress on a nightly basis as the parent Rangers chase Stanley Cup glory. Dawes took his game to a new level after Callahan left, and looks to me to be ready for full-time duty in the Big Show. And Bourret turned out to be a great acquisition, especially as a 20-year-old acquired for 28-year-old Pascal Dupuis. Like Dawes and Callahan, Bourret isn’t very big, but wow, can he pass the puck! Not a bad finisher, either, and he likes to bang and play the body, which many of the Rangers’ recent draftees seem to have in common.
The Wolf Pack’s depth on defense was tested, after Dan Girardi graduated to the big club and Ivan Baranka and Jake Taylor went down with injuries, and was shown to be solid. Corey Potter clearly proved himself to be a young player on the rise, Dave Liffiton took to an expanded role with no hiccups, and Bobby Sanguinetti made a nearly seamless jump from the OHL late in the season.
There is justifiably a lot of excitement around the Ranger organization about all the sharp young talent that is bulging the depth chart. Callahan and Girardi are already making big impacts in the pressure cooker that is the NHL playoffs, as are fairly recent Wolf Pack products Fedor Tyutin and Jed Ortmeyer, and with the Pack taking the youngest team in the AHL this year to 47 wins and 98 points, it would seem that the future will only get brighter.
Before I turn it over to reader inquiries, a quick note. I’ve been asked by several fans if I knew anything about former Wolf Pack Garrett Burnett, who was severely injured in an off-ice incident in the Vancouver area the day after Christmas. I didn’t, other than what I had read in one article about the incident on tsn.ca. With unfortunately having more time now to search for things, however, I found a newer article in a British Columbia paper, which makes it sound like he is doing pretty well and on the road to at least a partial recovery. Here is the link to the piece.
Now to some reader contributions…
Anna from Pt. Pleasant, NJ writes, “Do you think that Steve Valiquette will be back in the AHL with the Pack next season? Also do you think that Chris Holt will be the backup to Al Montoya next season or is it best for him to work on his game in the ECHL?”
It looks to be another interesting goaltending situation for the Rangers next year, Anna, behind Henrik Lundqvist.
I think we really saw the value this year of having a quality veteran guy like a Valiquette around. He contributes both by helping to bring the likes of Al Montoya along—and Montoya won 27 games this year—and by serving as a seasoned option that the Rangers can count on in case of an injury. I could definitely see Valiquette being back in that same role, whether Kevin Weekes returns, they look to bring in another number-two NHL guy, or somebody like Montoya makes a leap and grabs that backup spot. It’s also very possible that the Rangers could make the judgement that Valiquette is the best fit as Lundqvist’s understudy, and if they do, good for him. He’s worked tremendously hard and traveled a lot of miles to get that opportunity.
On Chris Holt’s situation, my own analysis (uninformed though it is) is that young goalies are always better off playing than sitting, even if they have to go to a lower level to get that playing time. So whether it’s Montoya going back and forth between the NHL and AHL or Holt between the AHL and ECHL, whatever gets them the most playing time serves their development the best.
J. Vanderwerf of Winnipeg, Manitoba says, “I am a huge fan of Nigel Dawes. I have been following his career for several years now. Where do you think he will be playing hockey next year, Hartford or New York?”
As I wrote earlier in this column, in the playoffs and over about the last 10 or 12 games of the regular season, Nigel looked to me like a guy who was ready to make the leap to the NHL and stay there. He was the fastest guy on the ice most nights, and everything he was doing, he was doing with a purpose.
There was a certain point with Callahan, in about January or so, where you took a look at some of the sharp plays he was making at top speed and you just said to yourself, “well, that guy’s not going to be around this league much longer”, and I that’s the feeling I had about Nigel in the postseason. He just looked determined to take that next step. I’d quite honestly be surprised if we saw him again in this league for any length of time.
Greg V. from Norwalk, CT writes, “I brought my seven-year-old daughter to Game Six of the playoffs and although the Pack did not play its best game it was quite enjoyable for both of us. I was impressed by Nigel Dawes and Corey Potter. Do you think they can make the Rangers next year?”
Greg, I’m glad you and your daughter had a good time at the game, and thanks for making the trip all the way up from Norwalk to take in some playoff hockey!
I shared my thoughts about Nigel Dawes in my response to the previous question, and Corey Potter certainly helped his cause of becoming an NHL player with his AHL performance this year. He certainly has the height and reach to be competitive at the top level, and his puck-moving and offensive skills are impressive. I think he might be a year or so away as far as his complete game goes, but I have to figure he has moved several notches up the ladder, after spending the first four months of this season in the ECHL.
Eric from Avon, CT asks, “If Petr Kalus of the P-Bruins is 19, how come he's played a season for the Bruins and a few games for the big club in Boston?”
Eric, that’s an excellent question. Kalus is indeed only 19, and played last season with Regina of the Western Hockey League, so by my understanding of the agreement between the Major Junior leagues and the NHL, he should not have been eligible to play in the AHL this year until Regina’s season was over.
I asked your question to a deeply-embedded and double-secret source, however, and was told that if all the parties agree, i.e., the Junior team, the NHL team and the NHL, and the Junior team is willing to sign off on it, that the rule can be circumvented and the player can spend the year in the AHL despite not having reached his 20th birthday. I can’t think, though, of another player that I have seen do that.
Marissa from Torrington, CT writes, “I noticed at Game Two of the playoffs that Alex Bourret drinks out of his own water bottle while the rest of them just share the Power-ade bottles. So I was just wondering if Alex Bourret has diabetes or something like that where he has to drink something special.”
Marissa, Wolf Pack trainer Damien Hess tells me it’s nothing medical. It’s just that Alex found this special sports drink that he likes to drink during the games, and he wanted to make sure that he knew which bottle it was in. With as well as Alex played in the Providence series, maybe some of the other guys might want to dip into his supply of that elixir in the future.
Jason from Waterbury, CT asks, “Do you think we've seen guys like Ryan Callahan, Dan Girardi, Brad Isbister, and Steve Valiquette in Wolf Pack uniforms for the last time? Also, what is the biggest thing the Wolf Pack need to work on in the off-season?”
I would say that there is a better-than-even-money chance that all of those guys you mention have moved on from the Wolf Pack for good, Jason. I talked about Valiquette earlier, and you never know with the goaltending situation, beyond Lundqvist obviously being the go-to guy on the Ranger roster.
And Isbister is a veteran guy with a ton of NHL experience, so I think it was a bit of a fluke that he ended up with the Pack in the first place.
In the cases of Callahan and Girardi, they’re still very young so you never truly know, but watching the Ranger playoff games, it sure looks like they have cemented spots as important guys with the parent club, not just as bit players or fill-ins. What a thrill for those guys, and what a boon for the organization. That’s what developing talent is all about.
To the second part of your question, I don’t know if there is too much specific stuff that an AHL team looks to work on in the off-season. You know that you have a load of young talent in the organization and more on the way, so there’s not a lot you’re going to do in terms of going out and acquiring players. They have to sit down with the few veteran players that were part of this year’s team and determine whether it makes sense to bring those guys back, but other than that I think the biggest challenge is going to be sorting out where all the young guys fit in among the Ranger, Wolf Pack and Charlotte rosters.
Sydney from Cheshire, CT asks, “Can a goaltender be a team captain? I've never seen that before.
I miss the Pack!! I was hysterical after the game on Sunday. We had an awesome season and some AMAZING players.”
Amen to that, Sydney. Tough to see it end, but it was an exciting and entertaining year.
Generally speaking, goaltenders aren’t considered as team captains, although Steve Valiquette, while he was with the Wolf Pack, certainly was one of the leaders on the team, I thought. I’ve seen goaltenders act as captains on college teams, which usually have more than one captain, but never on a pro team.
Have a great offseason, and I’ll continue to poke my pen into this space whenever I can cobble together enough material.
