Crawford's Pack Report: Happy All-Star Break!
Monday, December 28, 2008 - 7:44 PM
A couple of weeks ago, when the Wolf Pack were suffering through a dry spell in which they won only one out of four games, they set their sights on the All-Star break as a natural pause in the schedule by which they would like to be back playing consistently-winning hockey. Well, last week, in the last three games leading into the hiatus, they finished off accomplishing that goal with an exclamation point.
Not only did the Pack win all three of their games this past week, they also allowed their opponents virtually no offense. Whether it was due to excellent team coverage, or outstanding play by goaltender Miika Wiikman, the Wolf Pack were nearly perfect in their own end, permitting a grand total of one goal-against in the three games. And that was after not managing a shutout once in their first 44 games of the campaign.
Clearly, the biggest story of the week was the play of Wiikman. Virtually an afterthought at the start of the year, he had been becoming a bigger and bigger contributor to the team since getting his first real chance to play in late November, and took another big step forward in his development last week.
The Swedish-born guy with the Finnish name authored his first pro shutout in Wednesday's visit to Albany, a game that was tight all the way and ended up with the Wolf Pack defeating the River Rats by a 1-0 score. Both teams were fairly attentive to defense in that contest, and neither goaltender faced a ton of shots or scoring chances. Albany's top guns came into the game hot, though, with Planet USA All-Star captain Keith Aucoin having rolled up 10 points in his previous five games and Brandon Nolan riding a 10-game point-scoring streak. There were several times in the game when, if those Rat gunners had been able to bury a chance and get some momentum, then they might have strung together a run of goals, but Wiikman never gave them a sniff. With 26 saves in that contest, Wiikman outdueled Canadian All-Star starter Michael Leighton, who was just back with the River Rats after a stint with parent-club Carolina and came into the game leading the AHL in goals-against average and save percentage.
The triumph over Albany was the Wolf Pack's incredible 11th straight at the expense of the Rats, extending what was already a team record for longest win streak against a single opponent. It has now been three seasons since the River Rats have managed a win against the Pack, and granted, the first seven of those 11 wins were against the woeful New Jersey-affiliated teams that played in Albany the last few years of that affiliation, but the last four have been against the much-better Carolina-stocked clubs.
Another team that the Wolf Pack has enjoyed good success against traveled to the XL Center on Friday night, as the Worcester Sharks went in search of their first win in six tries against the Pack. The Sharks' parent team in San Jose made an interesting move heading into the game, sending four players, goaltender Thomas Greiss, forwards Tomas Plihal and Devin Setoguchi and defenseman Marc-Edouard Vlasic, to Worcester. All four had at least been dressed for San Jose's 4-1 home win the night before vs. St. Louis, as Greiss backed up Evgeni Nabokov, and Setoguchi played 9:23, Plihal logged 13:31, and Vlasic, who had yet to play a minor-pro game in his more than a year-and-a-half in the professional ranks, played nearly 20 minutes.
The four assignees traveled all day Friday to get to Hartford, and then the Wolf Pack got a break, in that neither Vlasic nor Greiss played in that night's game. Vlasic would chip in two assists in a 5-4 shootout win by the Sharks in Springfield on Saturday night, and Greiss would up his shootout record to 4-1 in that one.
The Sharks actually lost nothing with Taylor Dakers in net Friday. The rookie was outstanding, stopping 24 of 27 Wolf Pack shots in the game, but the rest of the team came out in the first period as if they expected the mere presence in the building of the four guys down from the NHL to carry them past the Wolf Pack. The Pack controlled the first period, outshooting the visitors 15-6, and only some fine work by Dakers limited the Wolf Pack to only a power-play goal by Dane Byers. Then, after the Sharks forged a brief tie on a goal by defenseman Patrick Traverse at 8:43 of the second, Ryan Callahan popped home a pair of scores in a span of under three minutes and the Pack never looked back, despite being outshot by a count of 11-4 in the third.
The second of the Callahan goals was one of those “this guy isn't long for this league” plays. He outraced Traverse for a loose puck and, going full speed with the 6-4, long-limbed Traverse desperately trying somehow to impede him, made two lightning-quick moves that flummoxed Dakers, and slid the puck into the net. Highlight-film caliber.
So that upped the Pack's slate against Worcester to 6-0-0-0, as things continued to go all the Wolf Pack's way in that matchup, but their last challenge before the break was a date Saturday with a team, the league-leading Providence Bruins, against whom nothing had broken right for the Pack. Ken Gernander's club had been 0-2-1-1 in four previous cracks at the P-Bruins, and ironically, they probably played, teamwise, their worst game of the five Saturday night, but the result this time was different.
Again on Saturday, the Wolf Pack started fast, getting a goal from the progressively-more-dangerous Byers only 1:50 into the game. Byers, in the nine games he has played on a line with Callahan since Callahan arrived from the Rangers, has seven goals and 11 points.
In this game, though, the momentum quickly shifted away from the Wolf Pack, and they would spend most of the rest of the evening scratching and clawing to protect that slim lead. The Bruins enjoyed a 16-6 shots advantage in the second period, and Wiikman had to face his first penalty shot in North American pro, on which he stopped Providence veteran Jeff Hoggan, owner of four goals and seven points in his previous four games.
Wiikman continued to hold the fort in the third period, before two youngsters who had fallen into an offensive funk, Brodie Dupont and Tom Pyatt, combined to score a huge goal at exactly the halfway point of the session. Dupont, who had slumped to one assist in his previous 24 games after a strong 5-9-14 start in his first 20 outings, finished the play, after a strong move behind the net by Pyatt, who had been held to one goal in the previous 18 games. Mike Ouellette removed all doubt with an empty-netter, his second ENG among three total goals-scored, with 24 seconds left, after the Wolf Pack had killed a late tripping penalty to Callahan.
Wiikman finished with 37 saves on the night, as the final shot total favored the Bruins by a margin of 37-21, and 92 total saves in the week's three games. That jumped the former Finnish League Playoff MVP up to third in the AHL in save percentage (.924) and fifth in goals-against average (2.16).
And now some thoughts from our readers…
Andy from Manchester, CT writes, “I see that the Tip-A-Player event is coming up in February. Do you know if they have set a date for the season ticket holder skate with the players event?”
Andy, that particular event is scheduled for Tuesday, February 26th at the XL Center.
Rich from Croton, NY says, “With the way the NY Rangers play with Sean Avery in their lineup, you would think that they would want to have another player who plays a similar style to his, especially given his history of injuries and all. With that said, then why don't they ever recall Dane Byers to fill in and take a regular spot? I would send Marcel Hossa down to make room, Hossa hasn't done anything all season long. Byers gives you grit, toughness, good work along the boards and can occasionally put the puck in the net when given ample playing time.”
It's been more than occasionally lately, Rich. Since being reunited with Ryan Callahan, Dane has really sharpened his scoring touch.
I've actually had the same thought that you express more than once, vis a vis Byers playing a similar gritty, in your face style to that of Avery's, which clearly adds a very important element to the Ranger forward lineup. On the surface of it, you would think that even with Avery on the roster, the Rangers could use a little more of that bang and crash, and Byers looks to me as though he is getting very close to ready to handle a regular shift in the NHL.
The problem is always where to make room for him in terms of ice time. You mention Hossa, but he's been scratched the last couple of games anyway, so you would have to take somebody else out to create a spot for Byers, and I don't see another obvious candidate.
Jonathan from New York City writes, “I have three quick questions: 1. With re-entry waiver rules the way they are, is Thomas Pöck now doomed to spend the rest of his days in Hartford? 2. Do you think he'll be traded? 3. Why was he dumped from the Rangers without having been given a fair shot this year, after he was so good last season, and is it true that the Hartford people didn't know why he was sent down, as persistent rumors claim?”
Jonathan, relative to your first question I would respond that my guess would be that if the Rangers thought that Thomas could get a shot with another team via re-entry waivers, they probably would be OK with that, as that would mean they would only have to pay half of Thomas' salary, and clearly they have made the decision, for now at least, that they are going to go with younger players ahead of him. As for #2, I would say a trade could be a possibility, if another NHL team sees a need for an offensive defenseman and would be willing to part with a reasonable asset in return, whether that be another player or a draft pick. And to question #3, I think it was merely a situation of, again, some younger D-men in guys like Marc Staal and Dan Girardi coming to the fore and needing ice time, and a player like Jason Strudwick giving the Rangers more of an option in terms of toughness than Thomas does. I have heard no rumors about anyone on the Wolf Pack staff not knowing why Thomas was sent down. There is no truth to that as far as I know.
David McLeod of Willimantic, CT asks, “When the team looks at its schedule and sees that they have a three-games-in-three-nights stretch or a four-game week, how do they fit in conditioning and workouts?”
That's a great question, David, that is one of the great challenges posed by the AHL schedule. The coaches and training staff have to monitor the players closely in those situations, to make sure that they are not wearing themselves out. Not only are your chances of winning lessened when you have fatigued players, the likelihood of the guys getting injured is significantly increased.
When the schedule is really busy, you'll see teams really cut back their practices and not really do much conditioning work. The logic is, they are expending so much energy and working so hard in the games, it doesn't make sense for them to be doing any extra stuff outside of the games. And some players are really dedicated to their workouts, so the coaches really have to be careful to make sure they understand how the heavy load of games could affect their play.
The guys who might be healthy scratches or aren't logging much ice time will still do some conditioning work in practices, and be asked to do some off-ice training, in those situations, but for most of the guys, rest becomes more important than conditioning and workouts.
Martin Boatwright of Cromwell, CT asks, “With half the season behind the Wolf Pack, why do we still not have a captain of the team? I am puzzled by this.”
Martin, I trust you saw this past week that Andrew Hutchinson is the newly-elected captain of the Pack. What I was told is that with such a young team, the coaches wanted to take the first half-or-so of the year to give different guys a taste of wearing the “A”'s and see who really took hold of the leadership mantle. Similar to the 2005-06 season before Craig Weller was elected captain, after Kenny Gernander had been the unquestioned leader for so long.
And finally, Chris from West Hartford, CT asks, “Is there anything on record about who came up with the idea of throwing hats on the ice after a three-goal hat trick?”
A quick internet search I did, Chris, told me that speculation on how that custom evolved centers on a Toronto hat shop that gave away hats to Maple Leaf players in the 1940s who scored three goals in a game. Further, hockey historians surmise that the term “hat trick” came from the game of cricket, in which a bowler who took three wickets via three consecutive balls was originally considered to be entitled to a new hat or something similar from his club.
Thanks for the questions and I’ll continue to poke my pen into this space whenever I can put together enough material!
