Just a quick look at some of the kids from last night’s Pack game.

With Chad Wiseman out with a broken finger, Jason MacDonald out with a separated shoulder, and both Lawrence Nycholat and Cory Larose in New York, Ryan McGill apparently gave up on assigning ‘A’s, and sent the team out with just a captain last night.

During warm-ups the recently demoted Valiquette looked horrible. This happens to every Pack goalie (and presumably, every goalie out there) and all the more reason to understand my joy when Steve got called up instead of Jason. We can’t afford to have Jason in a funk as the post season starts, so I’d rather have him down here for those few games, than to throw it all into an uproar with an ill-timed call up. Forgive me, Jason, for putting the team’s success ahead of temporary glory for you. Not that playing for the Rangers is all that glorious, i guess.

Jason LaBarbera looked less than pleased to see that the “Icon of the Game” was Steve Valiquette in recognition of his first game as a Ranger. Kind of funny, since Steve was on the bench while Jason was in net. Jason and his fans were keeping an eye on the screen to see if they would show any of the not so iconic moments from Steve’s second game as a Ranger.

Valiquette’s nickname is Valley, but we can’t call him that anymore. The Pack signed another goalie, Mike Valley, while Steve was in New York. Apparently having 3 healthy goalies on the roster isn’t enough, because the Pack just received a fourth one, Chris King from Anchorage. Chris will make the 9th goalie to dress for the Pack this season, which surely must be approaching some kind of league record. I think its time to audit our west coast scouts – does one of them have a mistress in Anchorage? That’s three Pack players from the same place – two of them signed in the past week.

The first half of the game was actually pretty dull, at least until the fights started. Jeff Paul took on Albany’s Brett Clouthier, and got the win. 5 minutes into the second period, Brandon Cullen fought the 6-4 Aaron Voros and demonstrated that he may be among the smaller fighters in the league (generously listed at 6-0), but like Richard Scott, he throws with both hands. Cullen easily got the win as each time Voros grabbed an arm, he popped him in the head with the other one.

29 seconds later, Phil Cole boarded Nigel Dawes and the ref declined to call it, inspiring Ryan Cuthbert to grab Cole and administer punishment himself. Pretty impressive, especially considering that Cole is 6-4 and Cuthbert is 5-9. Seems like a pretty good sign that the new kids are bonding, to see Ryan avenge Nigel like that. Perhaps it is just that Nigel, at 5-8, is the only player on the team that Ryan can actually look down on. In any case, Cuthbert earned 17 PIM for an excellent – and necessary – fight. After three enormous wins, the Pack kicked into gear (finally) and went on the offensive.

Rats scored first on a PP goal that came as Cuthbert was in the box on a tripping penalty. I believe this was the goal when Jeff Paul went down sideways on one knee to block a shot and only succeeded in screening Jason LaBarbera and possibly also tipping the puck past him. He clearly did something wrong, though, as Jeff skated sheepishly up to Jason, apologizing, as Jason stood there glaring at him.

The first Pack goal was created by Juris Stals as he battled up the ice to the net only to have the puck poked off his stick at the last second by a River Rat. Just as Ahonen was reaching to cover it, Layne Ulmer came sliding at full speed on his stomach through the slot, stick outstretched, managing to knock it in past the goalie as he slid by. I have no idea whether he was tripped or if he has been watching too much preseason baseball (he is a fan), but in any case it worked.

Second Pack goal came on a face-off win by Layne in the offensive zone as he drew it back to Matt Kinch, who spun toward the boards throwing a no-look backhand pass to Bryce Lampman at the center blue line. Bryce one-timed it home past Ahonen, who was flat on his ass in the crease. A beautiful goal for only his 3rd of the year.

The Rat’s second goal of the game was a shorthander.

Third Pack goal of the game came as Layne Ulmer went flying through the neutral zone, dished the puck to Ken Gernander charging up the far wall, and continued at high speed toward the net. After drawing the goalie over to the near post, Kenny threw a perfect pass back to Layne, who one-timed it on net.

The Rats tied it again two minutes later with a blast from the point – Nigel Dawes attempted to block the shot, but, umm, I don’t know how to be nice about this… he didn’t. Something to do with cross-sectional area, I’m thinking. It appeared to be Nigel’s man who put the puck in as well, and the kid ended up -2 on the night.

A word on Nigel – he is small. He also is broad, kind of like a shorter version of Garth Murray. He is a very agile skater, makes me think of a slower Bure or a sturdier Fata. Right now he just appears very nervous, his head constantly swiveling as he tries to take in every player on the ice. Nigel isn’t getting a ton of time right now – each game he starts out on a high line and then quickly drops down the fourth. I’m not even sure how much time he will get once the 12 people we have out return. But nothing that bad yet, either.

Two minutes after the Rat goal, Dom Moore showed why he is a target for every team we play, as he went to the net chasing a rebound and whacked at it until it went it. A Rat then dumped him on top of Ahonen, but it was already too late and this only served to piss off Ahonen even more.

Jason also took quite a beating last night, taking a puck to the shoulder at one point, and reacting as though his gear must have failed. It took him quite a while to be ready to continue, as he grimaced and tried to move the arm. Later, he got run over in one of the most flagrant cases of goaltender interference I have ever seen, and continued to stretch his neck through the final whistle. An injured Jason is NOT what we need right now.

With less than a minute left, Juris Stals put the puck into the empty net for his fourth goal of the year. Obviously we were all expecting him to pass to Layne (who had given the puck to him) to try for the hat trick, but there were defenders between them. And seeing Juris celebrate with such unmitigated joy, we forgave him. I’m sure Layne does as well, since he was finally called up to the Rangers today.

I hope you get to see Layne play while he’s in New York – he’s really a lot of fun. Layne currently styles his hair as if he stuck his finger in an electrical outlet, and he is cultivating these bizarre sideburns that are very fat but end in points at the corners of his mouth – its kind of metro-muttonchop. The only problem is that Layne is not one of those guys who are gifted with an excess of testosterone, so even after several weeks of loving care, they still are pretty patchy. He also is our team U.N. representative, continuously stepping into scrums to try to separate players and settle everyone down. As I’ve joked for years, the day I see him actually throw a punch, I’m buying an Ulmer jersey. Layne also makes Mike Dunham look like a D.A.R.E. representative – he’s so mellow he just kind of oozes around the ice.

In all seriousness, Layne has a long history of being a streaky player, but he’s been doing well as of late. He’s listed at 6-0, 200 (which seems about right to me), and he will throw his body a bit, but doesn’t really finish checks. Layne has 37 points (21 goals – 8 game winners) in 71 games this year, and 22 PIM. He’s +14, which is tied for 5th on this extraordinarily defensive team. His real gift to any team is his total dominance on face-offs.

Bryce Lampman had been doing battle with Albany’s Ilkka Pikkarainen for most of the third period, and it appeared that Ilkka was getting a little pissy about it. As they lined up for a defensive zone face-off near the end of the game, Bryce glanced over his shoulder at a teammate and grinned. As soon as the puck was dropped, Bryce hooked his stick around Ilkka’s ankle, causing him to fall flat on his face as he charged forward. Bryce skated away as Ilkka sputtered on the ice. All hail the legacy of Terry Virtue.

Our defensive pairs are actually kind of interesting right now. We have identical twins Rory Rawlyck (6-5, 185) and Jeff Paul (6-3, 210) – kind of the scarecrow pairing, if you will. Then, we have the bouncer pair of Craig Weller (6-4, 224) and Martin Grenier (6-5, 245). Grenier seems to be finally getting into the game, perhaps because he likes Weller. The two of them were even generating synchronized checks last night, taking out two forwards at the same moment behind the net with thundering hits. At one point, after Jason got run, they took up positions like sentries at the edge of the crease after a whistle, glaring at any Rats that were even thinking about coming closer. And then we have Matt Kinch and Bryce Lampman, the offensive pairing.

Incidentally, you know you’re rebuilding when you've called up so many kids that Craig Weller is quarterbacking the power play on your farm team.

Alexandre Giroux had 10 shots on a goal last night, out of 33 in total from the Pack. He’s also –1 since joining the team 10 games ago.

Captain Kenny Gernander was skating in his 900th career AHL game. Ken led the team as a +3, and assisted on both of Layne’s goals as well. Great news today in the papers, that the 34 year old captain (who has happily skated both on the third and fourth lines AND as a defenseman this year) wants to play as a member of the Pack for several more years.

And finally, a look at the numbers going into the last two weeks of the regular season:

Goalie: LaBarbera and Valiquette
Defense: Filipowicz (IR), Tyutin, Paul, Pushor (IR), Lampman, Nycholat (NYR), Weller, Grenier
Center: Andrews (IR), Moore, Ulmer (NYR), Dusablon (IR), Giroux, Larose (NYR)
Left Wing: Murray (NYR), Wiseman (IR)
Right Wing: Gernander, Balej (NYR), Ortmeyer (NYR), MacDonald (IR)

We currently have 5 defensemen, 2 centers, and 1 right wing from our clear day roster. That’s 8 skaters out of 20 on our playoff roster that we are putting on the ice right now. We have filled in with college kids (Cam Keith), kids out of juniors (Nigel Dawes), and call-ups from the ECHL (Rory Rawlyk, Ryan Cuthbert, Lucas Lawson, Brandon Cullen). Most nights, we play short at least one skater, and often two. And yet, by all accounts, effort and morale remain high.

Jason LaBarbera continues to set records, now holding the franchise record for wins in addition to extending the shutout record he set earlier in the year. Jason is third in the league with a 1.59 GAA. In 54 games played, he holds a record of 30-8-9, with twelve shutouts. By allowing only 82 goals with 1191 saves, he has a 93.6% save percentage, for 4th in league. For those who say it’s all about the defense, that is the 11th most saves by an AHL goaltender this season. Give some love to the defense for sure, but Jason is earning his keep as well.

With 7 games remaining, Hartford leads the eastern division by 5 points with a record of 39-20-12-2. They have allowed only 138 goals in 73 games. The number of points is particularly remarkable when you realize that they also have scored only 179 goals, which is fewer than those scored by three of the teams who trail them in the division.

The Pack is second in the conference, trailing Philadelphia by one point, although the Pack holds a game in hand. They sit tied for third in the league with Grand Rapids, with Milwaukee holding a 4 point lead – but again, the Pack has a game in hand on both these teams.

Importantly for playoffs, the Pack have a strong record both at home and on the road, going 21-9-6-0 and 18-11-6-2 respectively. The Pack-killers, the Springfield Falcons, were eliminated from the post-season this week, much to the relief of those of us who watched, stunned, as the Falcons swept us in the lightning round last year.

Can they do it? This team has been a Calder Cup contender since the first day of the season – they’ve held at least a piece of the Eastern Division lead since mid October. The only thing that might get in their way is the continued injury bug – but even that doesn’t seem to stop them. McGill doesn’t allow excuses. I’d put my money on them for certain.

I’ll see you all in Hartford starting mid-April for the Calder Cup 2004 playoffs.

Recent Articles Pond Hockey, The Movie I Made A Birdie

Toby the Great and Other Stories

NHL Tickets NY Rangers Tickets New Jersey Devils Tickets

Web Hockeybird.com