Now, if you were paying attention last time we met, you shouldn’t be the slightest bit surprised to hear that the Pack lost Game Two against the Manchester Monarchs. In some ways, I even look upon this as being a sign that things are right with the universe, an indication that we are in fact following down the same path that led to the Calder Cup two years ago. And there are two other reasons for believing that, both of which have to do with today’s topic for our in-depth roster report – defensemen. But I’ll get back to that a little later on.

Going in with minimal expectations, I joked to others during warm-ups about what odds were being given for Johan Holmqvist getting the hook at some point during the game. What I did not consider, though, was the possibility that it would be for an injury, not for too many goals allowed. Driven into the net by a charging opponent in the first, Johan appeared to have hit his head as he lay motionless, curled up on the ice. When the trainer got his mask off and got him to his knees, we could see that had a burn on his face and several small cuts where his mask must have hit him. Johan’s a trooper, that’s for sure – but perhaps the knowledge that all four goalies mentioned in my last report are now on the roster and in house made him reluctant to give up the net. As I’ve mentioned before, if goalies leave the ice under Paddock’s watch, they often don’t make it back into the game any time soon. In any case, Johan finished the game, although it wasn’t one of his best.

What made me angry about the whole thing, though, were Mike Mottau’s words to Johan after he got back on his feet and was trying to shake it off. Perfectly clear to everyone sitting at our angle was Mike’s passionate promise of “We’ll get ‘em.” Please. In this game our ‘best defensemen’ managed to be the ONLY player on the entire team to be a minus. And before you go blaming other people, you should know that Mike’s defensive partner, Dave MacIsaac, led the team at +2. Way to show ‘em, Mike. I am sure Johan really appreciates your efforts on his behalf.

Roman Lyashenko arrived from New York, and had a goal and an assist to mark to occasion. Tough kids Garth Murray and Ryan Hollweg were back in the lineup tonight, and contributed more grit and effort than many of our veterans. This series has turned quite nasty, with a fight (!) tonight in addition to lots of dirty stuff throughout the game. Since the ref decided not to call anything… well, we all know what those games look like.

We also had quite a crew sitting in the stands tonight: G Jason Labarbera, D Wes Jarvis, D Matt Kinch, and C/LW Layne Ulmer all in one place; G Bryce Wandler, C Bobby Andrews, and D Rory Rawlyck perched in another; LW Brad Mehalko, D Christian Gosselin, C Cam Severson and LW Richard Scott were presumably up in the boxes. D Sean Gagnon was announced as a scratch, but more on that in a bit.

So, before we look at the defense this year, what are the other signs that all may be well with the Pack? Well, I said that both had to do with defensemen. The first goal in the playoffs this year was scored by Tomas Kloucek – who was the first goal scorer in the Pack’s run to the Calder Cup two years ago. Given that Tomas isn’t exactly a scoring machine, this may be a good sign. The second is more amusing. Once upon a time the Pack had a defenseman who was as beloved of Hartford fans as Petr Nedved is by Ranger fans in New York. This defenseman was so prone to standing around and watching, rather than playing, that fans would suggest that he take a book out on the ice with him to relieve the boredom. After 5 games of this nonsense in the playoffs two years ago, the young man was benched. That defenseman, Burke Henry, was in the stands the other night – just as he was two years ago when we won the cup.

See? Maybe this loss isn’t such a bad sign after all. But I should warn you that the Pack will likely lose in Manchester on Wednesday night, just to make both of the last two games in the series must-wins. I’ll be there, though, and will let you know how it goes. In the meantime, let’s continue taking a look at our playoff roster by checking out the blueliners we have in house right now.

Defensemen

Terry Virtue (6-0, 195, 8/70) Signed as a free agent in 1999 after he won the Calder Cup with Providence. Terry is the ultimate crafty veteran. We are seeing him at the end of his career as a player, but all indications are that he will make an outstanding coach when he retires. Sneaky, dirty, and master of the ‘Who, me?!?!?’ look as an opponent lies on the ice at his feet, Terry gets away with more stuff in each game than any player I have ever seen. He gets caught more these days, but that may be more a matter of more rigorous officiating than any slip in his skills. During warm-ups, he can always be found yapping at the blueline as he stretches, trying to get something started before the game does. One of my favorite Terry Virtue moments was when he had Shawn Bates, then a baby Bruin, pinned against the glass with his stick across his chest. Smiling broadly, Terry leaned in and rapped on Shawn’s visor, waved, and then reached in to polish it for him. Literally spitting with rage, Shawn was helpless with his arms pinned at his sides and the rest of our team laughed hysterically as they held back Shawn’s teammates. Eventually, the linesmen, giggling, took pity on Shawn and sent Terry on his way.

A smart, tough d-man, he will do anything and everything to keep the puck out of our net. I have seen him make glove saves and chest saves more than once when a goalie was down and out, and on occasion he has been credited with the ‘save of the game’. Terry is always part of our first line defensive pairing, even as his partners have changed over the years. He has worn the “A” all three years he has been with Hartford, and has done it proud – among those who cite him for teaching them how to play pro-level defense are Tomas Kloucek and Mike Mottau. When Coach Paddock was called away to a family funeral, Terry, off the roster with a broken leg, was behind the bench with Asst. Coach Mike Buzniak. Terry has won two Calder Cups in his last four years of hockey, and he will be a huge part of our run this year. When our playoffs ended abruptly in the first round last year, the most memorable thing for me was Terry, bleeding from the head, refusing to come off the ice for the last 10 minutes of the game. The refs, knowing what was good for them, let him be. The only way I will be able to live with him leaving our blueline is if it is to go behind OUR bench.

Mike Mottau (6-0, 192, 3/78) Drafted by Rangers in 1997. Ugh. Mike should have been a forward. He has a good scoring touch, but is so completely negligent of his defensive responsibilities that he actually is a liability whenever he steps on the ice. Mike is the only defensemen I have ever seen to cherry pick at his OWN blue line, letting forwards Kenny Gernander and Rico Fata go back into our zone to get the puck for him. The worst, though, is that we play four forwards on the power play, plus Mottau. Mottau rushes the net, leaving Jamie Lundmark to show why you shouldn’t put delicate forwards on the point. And this happens time and time again – in fact we have allowed 9 SH this year! He hits about once every ten games, poke checks like the puck is a rattlesnake, is often caught watching the play, hasn’t really comprehended his job on the 2 on 1 (but then again, he doesn’t get much practice since he almost always was the CAUSE of the odd man rush – remember that 3 on 0 in New York?), but is 9-42-51 in 80 games this year. He doesn’t hustle back to prevent the empty net goal or to correct his defensive mistakes (Michal Grosek once applied his glove to Mike’s face to show how he felt about having to do his work for him), and is constantly apologizing and reassuring our goalies for his mistakes. I think our goalies are too nice. Someone needs to take a stick to this kid’s head and set him straight.

That said, this kid has talent – but he just thinks he is a forward. He wants to be Brian Leetch, but Brian occasionally plays defense. Mike just wants to score.

Chris St. Croix (6-3, 200, 5/79) Acquired from Flames in 2001 for Burke Henry, right after St. John won the Calder Cup. Chris was just named the co-winner of the “Seventh Player” award as voted upon by his teammates. This is fitting, since Chris seems to quietly go about the business of being a solid defensive defensemen – and like any good player in that role, when he’s invisible, that means he is doing his job well. Chris is a very solid third pair defenseman, who can move up to the second pair if needed. Plays well regardless of who he is with, and while he does hit a little, what is most important is that he will go get the puck from the other team and get it out. He’s young and increased confidence should come with more playing time, and perhaps he will develop a more aggressive style then. No complaints from me for now, though.

On an interesting note, his dad, Rick, was a goalie for Philly and Toronto, and both Coach Paddock and Asst. Coach Buzniak were his teammates in Philly. His parents were in town for a weekend a while back, but Chris was scratched for one of the games. Hopefully, this was by plan.

Marty Wilford (6-0, 207, 5/77) On loan from Nashville. See if you can follow me here. At the trade deadline, Peter Smrek was sent to Nashville on paper for Richard Linter who is in Europe. The agreement was that Peter would play out the season with us since Linter couldn’t play for us after a full year in Europe. Fine. Then, a week later, Nashville suddenly decides they must have Peter RIGHT NOW, send him immediately to their AHL franchise in Milwaukee, which was out of the playoffs anyway. So, now Peter is doing nothing. In the meantime, since they took Peter right away and Linter can’t play for us, they loan us Marty Wilford. Huh? Since the season is over for Peter, can’t we have HIM back on loan?

Wilford did virtually nothing the first couple games he was here. In our last game, he exploded for a goal and two assists, giving him a hand in every single puck that went in for us. Another defensive defenseman, he is virtually invisible (except the last game). He hits more than St. Croix does, but not by a lot. He’s only here to play out the season, and there are lots of replacements on hand if he doesn’t do well, so I am not going to worry too much.

Tomas Kloucek (6-2, 220, 3/80) Drafted by Rangers in 1998. Oh, Tomas, what can I say? Rangers fans, you know what he is capable of, and I can assure you that the Tomas we see in Hartford is the one you see in New York on his very best nights. A punishing physical player, Tomas deals out hits that can flip opponents over in open ice or tattoo them into the boards if he catches them along the sides. He takes great pride in his hitting, and I was even a bit frightened when I saw the intent look on his face as he lined up a player from about 30 feet away at full speed the other night – reminded me of my cats as they make the final dash to take their prey. While he doesn’t tend to bite them on the neck, he does skate off, expressionless, as the trainer scrambles to come undo his work.

His game is simple – knock over whoever has the puck, steal it, and make the quick pass out of the zone. Never one to shy away from the corners, Tomas will take the big hit (often without appearing to notice) if it means he gets the puck. If someone else is already on this, Tomas will battle to clear the crease of opponents and rebounds. On the power play, he has a solid shot from the point, but he isn’t exactly an offensive minded player (thank GOD, we have enough of those already). He had a rough year, as we all know, but this is a kid who will work himself to pieces to be his very best – hopefully this will include boxing lessons this summer. Good with the press, focused on what he can do to help whoever he is playing with at the time, Tomas is the ONE player in the entire Rangers system that is untouchable. Tomas was part of our Calder Cup winning team in 2000, as the Rookie of the Year.

Dave MacIsaac (6-2, 225, 4/72) On loan from Florida. After winning the Calder Cup in Philly in 1998, Dave has played for 5 teams in 4 years. To be honest, I have no idea why, other than that he is a vet, and so may have been moved as teams tried to get younger. Poor Dave – he arrives in Hartford and is assigned to Mike Mottau as Terry Virtue is freed up to be reunited with Tomas Kloucek. He’s a solid stay-at-home defenseman, looks to make the smart play with the puck, although he has had some trouble away from the puck, particularly when trying to get back to help out. He’s not the fastest skater on the team, so he tends not to wander too far, and he doesn’t really hit that much so he tends to stay away from the boards.

What DOES he do well? He stays at home while Mottau makes like Berard, up off on expeditions behind the opponent’s net. The Pack has made deals with Florida before to make loans into trades, and I would like to see Dave back – particularly if Terry is going to come off the ice at the end of this year. We aren’t as overwhelmed on defense with prospects as we are at forward, so there isn’t as much pressure to ‘clear out’ a few spots. Even so, I think Dave will be gone.

Those above are the six guys who are currently playing for the pack in the post-season. We have a few others in house, but they won’t likely see much ice time unless there is an injury or a truly disastrous breakdown by one of the above.

Matt Kinch (5-11, 185, 2/80) Signed as a free agent by the Rangers in 2001. Matty is a small, puck-moving defensemen. In 40 games with the pack this year, he was a -8, second worst on the team only to Jaime Lundmark who was -17. I have no idea why he was signed, unless it was to fill out the Charlotte roster. I know, he’s young, he’s a defenseman, they take longer to develop… but I don’t see this one as being a big deal long term.

Wes Jarvis (6-4, 235, 4/79) Drafted by the Rangers in 1997. Wes is a BIG kid, and over the last year has become much more comfortable with his size. He was -7 in 27 games with us, and clearly still is a work in progress. Watching him fight through players is like watching Lindros – opponents hanging off him, he just bulldozes his way through. He does well with or without the puck, although he can make the pass better than he can carry it himself. With his size, and his ability to skate despite that size, this is a player who will be worth waiting for.

Sean Gagnon (6-2, 215, 9/73) Acquired from Ottawa in exchange for Jason Doig and Jeff Ulmer in 2001. Well, this was a trade that blew. We got rid of two black sheep and got one back in return. Sean only played 42 games for us this term, always injured, usually then followed by a long period of healthy scratches. He certainly talked a tough talk on the ice, always the first to open his mouth at other players, but I can only remember him actually fighting once. He also went on that mission to exterminate Billy Tibbets, which was just fine with me. Other than that, his 200 PIM for the year seem to have come mostly from minors and misconducts. Adding to the intrigue is the rumor that he has been sent home for the playoffs – always a fixture in the upper seats for home games when scratched, Sean has not been seen since the last home game of the regular season. He’s done in Hartford, is my opinion. And, although I liked him a lot when the year started and he was following through on the tough talk, I always liked Jeff Ulmer so that’s fine with me.

Christian Gosselin (6-5, 235, 8/76) Acquired from San Jose with Mikael Sammuelson for Adam Graves in 2001. What a goof. Christian can’t fight, although he tries several times a game. Basically, think of Steven McKenna without any of the upside. He has been playing forward as of late, which is good, because that keeps him further from our net and so he can’t do as much damage. In 39 games this year, he was 0-0-0, a -2, and had 164 PIM, virtually all of them fighting. And not a single decision in his favor.

That’s it for our blueliners – I’m off to Manchester to watch the Pack do their thing (it will be another split for the Pack, is my guess) this week and I will report back when I have more.

Heather

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