Take an already struggling team that has been decimated by injuries and the trade of their top goalie. Remove two top defensive defensemen, the best defensive forward and captain, and the now number one goalie and hit the ice with 5 defensemen and 11 forwards. Result? 7 goals coughed up to a .420 team that is 13th out of 14 in the conference.

*shudder*

The coach tried the Mike Keenan approach, starting with Scott Meyer (called up from Charlotte when Johan Holmqvist was traded for Lawrence 'My coach says I'm perfect' Nycholat) and leaving him in until he gave up his third or fourth soft goal. Meyer was then pulled for Niklas Sundberg (called up from Baton Rouge when Jason LaBarbera was called up to the Rangers this week) who made one save before letting in a goal. Sundberg was then pulled for Meyer, who gave up a bunch more. Curious as to what the baby Leafs would do with a whole net to shoot at, as opposed to a goalie, we pulled ours with several minutes left to play.

This led to a shocking discovery: Dave Karpa should play goal.

Think about it. His weaknesses include puck handling, taking bad penalties, and not having the slightest idea of where he is supposed to be on the ice. His strength is that he can block shots. Answer? Put him in net where his only job is to do just that: block shots. He couldn't be much worse than he is as a defenseman, and it would free up that slot for someone who doesn't actually hate everyone and everything about playing in Hartford. Meanwhile, the other two could go off for a weekend workshop with Sam St. Laurent in basic goaltending (hint: stay in front of the net, not behind it!)

We rung more posts tonight than Eric Lindros has the entire season. We did manage to score 4 goals, but since our defense is clueless, that wasn't enough. For those who like to blame our rookie defensemen, the darlings of our blueline tonight were Matt Kinch, Lawrence Nycholat, Dave Karpa, Ryan Bast and Craig Weller. Weller was by far the best of the bunch, and he's the only rookie in that group. Kinch is a second year pro, and the rest of them are veterans, with Bast and Karpa clearly on the downside of the learning curve.

It was the beginning of the second period when it suddenly occurred to me that I hadn't seen Bryce Lampman. Asking around, no one knew why he wasn't playing. While I was pondering this, someone pointed out that our captain, Ken Gernander, had not returned from the locker room for the start of the second. Stacking that up with the absence of Vlad Chebaturkin, who I could see sitting with his family in the stands, things started to look grim.

Players not on the ice tonight include:
G Jason Labarbera (recalled by Rangers)
D Vlad Chebaturkin (disappeared partway through Saturday's game, presumed injured)
D Mike Wilson (knee injured on first shift as a Pack player, not seen since)
D Pat Aufiero (concussion)
RW John Tripp (out with knee pain after returning for 3 games after orthoscopic surgery)
RW Ken Gernander (no idea, left partway through tonight's game, presumed injured)
C Benoit Dusablon (broken wrist, courtesy of teammate Garth Murray)
D Dean Arsene (rotator cuff, had arm in a sling tonight for the first time, so presumably had surgery)
D Bryce Lampman (no idea, missing for tonight's game)

Garth Murray returned tonight after missing a number of games throughout the season with hip trouble, and promptly got into a fight that he won handily. Most enforcers will yap for a while once it looks like they might want to go, but Garth doesn't give guys a chance to back down. A Leaf crosschecked him in front of the net, Garth turned around and pushed back, and the guy took a swipe at Garth's face with his glove. Instantly, Garth tossed his gloves off and beat the guy down to the ice before his opponent even really had a chance to get his gloves entirely off. It took both linesmen to pry Garth's fingers off of the Leaf's jersey so they could usher him to the box.

And in tonight's entertainment report, Richard Scott gets the play of the game not for scoring, or for a fight, but for his dramatics after receiving a pure reputation call for crosschecking. Disbelieving what he had heard, Richard started to skate up to the ref but linesmen Marty Demers stepped into his path with his arms out to block him. Richard skated right into his open arms and laid his head down on Marty's shoulder as if he was about to weep with frustration. Playing to the crowd, Marty put his arms around Richard, gently patted him on the back and skated him to the box.

Two last things:

Roman Lyashenko for Unsung Hero. Roman has around 55 points in 65 games. He is second on the team as a +22 (and the number one spot is claimed by Nycholat, who got to play most of the year on a team that understands defense, so that's hardly a fair comparison). He's also a Lady Byng candidate, having accumulated only 40 PIM in those 65 games. He doesn't get all the press, but he's a versatile player who deserves a long look by the Rangers next year.

Dan 'Grumpy' Robinson passed away this week. Dan ran the ultimate Wolf*Pack fan page, Grumpy's Cave. It was his site that I stumbled onto when I first became interested in the Pack, and he patiently answered my many stupid questions as I learned the game. He encouraged me to pester Al Coates for information about player transactions, and laughed at my reports of Al's responses. When Michal Grosek got called up to the Rangers, it was Dan who led me to Hockeybird so that I could follow Michal's exploits in New York. When I started writing 'On the Farm' Dan cheered me on and proudly linked everything I wrote, regardless of whether he agreed with my opinion or the manner in which I expressed it. When 'On the Farm' was shut down due to issues between me and Bird, Dan gave me a temporary home on his page and worked to get me back onto Hockeybird as soon as possible. He did all of this without us having met - just this season, three years after we first started talking online, I finally got to shake his hand. It's amazing what a common love for hockey, or anything else, can do to bring people together. Dan will be missed by many more people than he could possibly have imagined.

Thanks, Dan, from me and from all of the readers of 'On the Farm' - without your encouragement and support, it never would have happened.

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