Crawford's Pack Report: Season opener is now in the Books
Tuesday, October 9, 2007 - 10:45 AM
The season opener is now in the books, and although the final result on the ice did not go the way the Wolf Pack wanted, what a show by the hockey fans of the Hartford area!
Great idea by the marketing and sales folks with Northland AEG to go with offering all tickets for the kids' price of $10 each for that game, and the fan base did an impressive job of stepping up and taking advantage. It was a terrific atmosphere inside and outside the Civic Center.
And if you live in the Wolf Pack's drawing area and didn't make it to the opener, I would definitely recommend coming out to the Civic Center real soon to check out the improvements that have been made. The interior of the coliseum has received a paint job and facelift, and Northland AEG has undertaken a thoroughgoing decoration of the atrium area inside Hartford 21 near the box office and on the way in from Trumbull Street.
The support columns are wrapped with photographs of Wolf Pack icons, UConn action and some of the entertainment greats and family show fixtures that have made regular visits to the Civic Center over the years. There is a Hartford hockey wall of fame along the wall you pass when you first come in the main doors, with some fabulous photos of a number of Whaler and Wolf Pack notables. A crowd shot graphic adorns the elevator wall, there is a center ice design on the atrium floor and a display of Connecticut high school jerseys (of which the Pack are actively seeking more) hanging on the atrium walls. Definitely night and day as far as the visual attractiveness of the space.
On the ice on Saturday night, the Wolf Pack, I thought, played well enough to win against their Connecticut adversaries the Bridgeport Sound Tigers, but got a good lesson in how a few poorly-timed letdowns can really undercut you in the AHL. The Pack got the game's first goal, a shot from the popcorn stand by Jordan Owens that fooled Sound Tiger goalie Joey MacDonald, and outshot the visitors 30-22 for the game, but made just enough mistakes to doom their chances of getting two points and making a winner out of Ken Gernander in his Wolf Pack coaching debut.
The Sound Tigers have put together a pretty good roster, and the likes of Jeff Tambellini, Tim Jackman, Ben Walter (who helped end the Wolf Pack's season last year with a hat trick for Providence in their Game Seven triumph over the Pack), Frans Nielsen and Sean Bentivoglio were opportunistic Saturday when the Wolf Pack committed a neutral zone turnover or failed on a breakout pass. Jackman finished with a goal and an assist, and he, Walter and Nielsen all scored within a span of 8:04 after Owens had given the Wolf Pack the advantage. The Pack were able to get it back to as close as 3-2 on a Corey Potter goal that was the result of a great shot through a Dane Byers screen, but could never produce the equalizer.
Owens continues to impress me every time I see him, and I thought Hugh Jessiman was noticeable in Saturday's game as well, making some impact down low in the offensive zone and getting the primary assist on Potter's tally. Mitch Fritz had a good scrap with fellow heavyweight Kip Brennan and justified the more than nuclear deterrent ice time that Gernander & Co. gave him, and Greg Moore assisted on Owens' goal and hit the crossbar with a shot that would have tied the game late in the third frame.
Before I head on to some reader contributions, for those of you from the Hartford area, I wanted to let you know that my talk show that I do on Tuesday nights is going to have a new home this year. I'll be doing the show from the M&M restaurant at the Hilton Hartford, right downtown, just steps from the Civic Center. The time slot is the same, 7-8 PM on Tuesday evenings, and as of right now, Dane Byers and Mitch Fritz have agreed to be guests on the first show, which is scheduled for October 16th.
Now, I turn it over to inquisitive surfers
Peter Zullo of Malverne, NY writes, Apparently Dale Purinton was not invited to the Ranger training camp. Is he a free agent? Did he get an invite to any other camp for consideration? Is he no longer part of the Ranger organization?
Peter, Dale signed with the Colorado Avalanche organization this offseason. He was assigned to the Avalanche's new AHL affiliate, the Lake Erie Monsters, to start the season.
Rev. Herb Bailey from Wallingford, CT asks, Do you think the Rangers will try to supply the Pack with some seasoned veterans to help the youth and first-year head coach Ken Gernander?
With getting guys like Darius Kasparaitis and Andrew Hutchinson down from the Rangers, Herb, and the presence of a seasoned guy like Mitch Fritz, I would say the Wolf Pack already have a bit of a veteran presence at this point. If the club struggles off the start and it becomes clear to the organization that it is suffering from a leadership void, I imagine they would consider looking around for some more experienced players, but the ideal scenario clearly would be the younger players feeling that it's their team and really forming a strong leadership group of their own.
Jim from Riverdale, NY asks, What ever happened to them showing face-off winning percentage in the stats? Can't wait for the hockey season to begin since the Pack will be filled with some heavy hitters this year (Lessard, Fritz, Byers, Liffiton, Taylor, etc.) LET'S GO PACK!!!!!
Big, tough dudes all, Jim. This should be another year in which opposing teams think long and hard before taking any liberties against the Wolf Pack.
I don't believe the AHL has ever published face-off winning percentage. Most teams track it unofficially for their coaching staffs, but in contrast to the NHL, not every team in this league has the staff to get that deep into stats compilation.
Nick from Hartford asks, Do you think Kenny Gernander would play again? And what's the status of Marc Staal?
Nick, I don't think Kenny has any intention of strapping the blades on again. Not that any athlete is ever really ready for his time as a player to be done, but my impression is that from the time Ken made the decision to transition into coaching, he made a clean break from looking at himself as a player and moved fully into the next phase of his professional life.
As for Staal, as I'm sure you've seen he made the Rangers' opening roster ahead of such players as Darius Kasparaitis and Andrew Hutchinson. He played both of the big club's first two games, while veterans Jason Strudwick and Paul Mara both sat out a game apiece, and averaged 15 minutes of ice time in those two contests. That leads me to believe that the Rangers have made a decision that he is ready for the NHL and does not need minor-pro seasoning.
David McLeod of Willimantic, CT writes, What are some of the scouts and people "in the know" saying about Ryan Constant, Corey Potter, and Jake Taylor? It doesn't seem like there's much being said of some of these defensive prospects. The Rangers are looking pretty deep on the blueline, obviously the development work on the Wolf Pack has paid off for a few of their D-men.
David, certainly Potter seems to be a player on the rise, having started last year in the ECHL on an AHL contract and earned an NHL deal over the summer after a strong second half with the Pack. I think the Rangers view him as a guy with a good combination of size and skill. Taylor has obviously been set back numerous times by injuries, and if he can shake off that bugaboo, he could achieve status as a tantalizing prospect as well, another real good-sized guy who moves decently well and has a warrior mentality that makes him hard to play against. As for Constant, I would say the organization's decision to bring him back on an AHL deal indicates they see some potential there. Like Taylor, he seems to be a real competitor, and I've thought his skills are definitely of AHL caliber. He might be a long shot for the big show, but he definitely hasn't fallen off the radar.
And you're right, it's a pretty full cupboard in the organization as far as the defense, which is certainly a good area in which to be strong.
Jeff from Torrington, CT asks, Why does Darius Kasparaitis have the full face shield?
I didn't realize it before the game, Jeff, but I understand that Darius suffered a broken nose in a practice mishap in the day or so before the opener. So the mask is a short-term thing until his nose heals.
Steve Daigle of Vernon, CT writes, As a result of the AMAZING attendance of 9,769 people for opening night, what do you think of the rest of the year is going to be like for the attendance? I haven't seen that many people at the Civic Center Since Whalers Appreciation night.
Steve, it was a great crowd and a great atmosphere. The challenge is now going to be to sustain that momentum, and I have to think that everyone who came out and took advantage of the $10 tickets for opening night and experienced that electricity, plus a pretty darned entertaining hockey game, will be eager to come back. And I know that the Northland AEG marketing and sales crew here will continue to leave no stone unturned in striving to make every game as exciting an experience as the opener certainly was.
And Ahmed from Vienna, Austria asks, Do you know how the Pack will handle the Captain and Alternate Captains situation for 2007/2008?
From what I'm told, Ahmed, they will handle it similarly to how the situation in 2005-06 was handled after Ken Gernander retired. For the time being they will rotate alternate captains, giving different players a taste of those leadership mantles and see who really sinks his teeth into it. Don't know if they'll name an official captain later in the season but my inclination is to say they will.
Thanks for the questions and Ill continue to poke my pen into this space whenever I can cobble together enough material.
