Injury Bug Bites Wolf Pack

Every team goes through it during the year, but that doesn’t make it any easier to deal with when it’s your team.

Injuries are a fact of life in hockey and they tend to come in bunches, and the Wolf Pack are currently dealing with an onslaught.

They’re not to marginal players, either, as three of the Pack’s top four scorers are currently out of action due to various hurts.

Corey Potter was already out coming into this past week, having been injured in the Pack’s 2-1 overtime win two Sundays ago in Providence, and he was joined on the not-able-to-play list this week by P.A. Parenteau, Dale Weise and Bobby Sanguinetti.

Parenteau actually went down before the All-Star break, felled by a hit last Sunday by Manchester’s Kevin Westgarth. There was hope that Parenteau might be OK after being able to rest during the break, but no such luck.

He lost the last five games of last season, and the entire playoffs, to a similar injury, so I would imagine the team will take every precaution to ensure that he can fully recover from this difficulty.

Weise had to leave Friday’s overtime win over Manchester (seems like we’re talking about them a lot, doesn’t it?) in the second period, and his loss from the lineup is especially unfortunate, in that you could argue that he has been the Wolf Pack’s best player over the last couple of weeks. Weise had worked his way up to the top line with Parenteau and Corey Locke before getting hurt, and was coming off an AHL Player of the Week nod.

Then, in Saturday’s game, Sanguinetti was lost when he was spilled hard to the ice in the third period by Springfield’s Geoff Paukovich and suffered a lower-body injury.

Must be some sort of an All-Star Classic jinx for Sanguinetti. Last year he was hit in the mouth by a puck just two games before the event, and couldn’t play in the All-Star Game, and this year he gets injured just two games after his All-Star turn. He may just decline the invitation if he gets one next year.

Even with all these injury issues, the Wolf Pack gutted out a big win over the Monarchs in Friday’s overtime triumph, and, but for a real bad break on a third-period goal-against, could have easily won Saturday’s game.

Chad Johnson had the fates go against him when, leading 1-0 with five-and-a-half minutes to go in Saturday’s third period and playing very well, he went behind the net to play a dump-in by ex-Wolf Pack Chad Wiseman, only to see the puck take a bad hop off the kick board, go off the outside of one of the posts and deflect right in front to Charles Linglet, who had the whole net to put the puck into. No justice for Johnson, who looked like he was going to lead the Pack to a win in a game in which they were outshot by the significant margin of 37-16 (the 16 shots equaling an all-time franchise low).

Sunday’s game in Manchester, though, was one-sided, the Wolf Pack looking like a team that was missing many of its best players and feeling very down on itself.

Don’t know what it is about the Verizon Wireless Arena up there in Manchester, but the Wolf Pack certainly didn’t like playing there this year. Sunday’s 6-1 loss to the Monarchs was the Pack’s fourth in four trips to New Hampshire (thankfully they don’t have to go there any more this year), and they were outscored by a total of 17-3 in the last three.

Hard to say the Monarchs are that much better than the Pack, as the Wolf Pack have taken all three games the two teams have played in Hartford, but the Pack have come out flat three times in a row in Manchester’s barn, and to the Monarchs’ credit, they have taken full advantage.

Some home cooking this week, albeit against three very tough opponents, Norfolk Wednesday, Lowell Friday and the Monarchs (yes, it’s them again, fourth time in seven games on the Wolf Pack schedule) Saturday. The Pack have been lights-out at home, winners of five straight and 15-3-1-2 on the year, so hopefully the friendly confines of the XL Center can help the crew hold the fort until some of the walking wounded can make their way back.