Crawford's Pack Report: Great White North
Monday, October 22, 2007 - 1:17 PM
The Wolf Pack made their first trip to the land of the Maple Leaf since 2003 this past weekend, and split two games in Ontario.
The Saturday-night game, in Hamilton, was one of those that looked pretty good from the broadcast booth, but to the coaches’ more-educated eyes, was a poor outing. The Pack outshot the defending-champion Bulldogs 27-25 and, I thought, outchanced them, but the coaching staff was unhappy with a lack of second effort on the part of the club.
The Wolf Pack scored first, on Lauri Korpikoski’s second goal of the season at 12:35 of the first, which was a good second-effort play, but then saw Hamilton score the final two goals of the game. The winner came on a booming slapshot by Corey Locke, the Bulldogs’ leading scorer in last spring’s march to the title, over Al Montoya’s glove at 8:57 of the third.
The Pack had plenty of decent chances to generate offense beyond Korpikoski’s goal, but their finishing touch wasn’t there. I guess you can chalk that up to a lack of sufficient effort, not bearing down enough to finish chances. Certainly not obvious to those of us who make our livings talking about the games in the media, but it was clear that Ken Gernander and his staff saw much more that was wrong with the Pack’s approach, and were determined to correct it for Sunday’s visit to 4-0-0 Toronto.
While Saturday’s game was fairly quiet from the perspective of physical play and nastiness (another possible irritant to the Pack coaches), the game in Toronto was quite contentious. Montoya got shaken up late in the period after a couple of Marlies crashed the net hard on a power play, and there was a big dust-up in the second period that saw two fights break out at the same time. Chris Ciamaga, the same referee who had awarded a total of only five power plays in Saturday’s game, gave Toronto 10 and the Wolf Pack nine in Sunday’s battle.
Pierre Parenteau, who managed only one shot on goal in his Wolf Pack debut Saturday, scored the first goal of the game Sunday, off of a great feed from Dane Byers on a Pack power play. It was the Wolf Pack’s first five-on-four power play goal of the season (their other man-up tally had been on a two-man advantage) and their first of two on the day. The power-play gave up a goal, though, later in the period, Ben Ondrus tying the score on a shorthanded breakaway. Miika Wiikman, forced to come off the bench when Montoya was shaken up, was greeted just over a minute later by a five-on-three goal off the stick of Marlie defenseman Derrick Walser.
The Pack power play got back to even at 1:03 of the third session, with Ivan Baranka knocking home Artem Anisimov’s rebound. The visitors were again forced to play from behind when John Mitchell netted a power-play goal for Toronto at 5:06 of the third, but Greg Moore answered with a nice drive down the right wing and snapshot into the top shelf just 2:09 later. That was it for regulation and overtime, despite an extra-time power play for the Wolf Pack that allowed them to outshoot the Marlies 6-0 in the extra session.
The Wolf Pack had lost their first shootout of the season after going 6-1 in the shootout last season, but Sunday’s shootout turned out better. Both team’s first shooters scored, and then the goaltenders took over. Both Wiikman and Justin Pogge stopped three in a row, and with Toronto having elected to shoot first, Wiikman’s denial of Kris Newbury on the Marlies’ fifth try gave the Pack’s fifth shooter, Byers, a chance to end it. Byers cleanly ripped a shot past Pogge’s stick glove and inside the right post, and the Wolf Pack had two points to make their long bus ride back to Hartford seem a lot shorter.
It was Wiikman’s first North American pro decision, a win he definitely earned, with 27 saves and the 4/5 performance in the shootout. The Pack and Marlies had never met before, and the Wolf Pack had never been to Toronto, but with as much intensity as marked the game, maybe the two organizations can get a bit of a rivalry going. In any case, it was a long trip that was gotten out of the way early in the season, and the Wolf Pack certainly rose to the occasion of the challenge posed by the hot-starting Marlies.
Now, some contributions from intrepid readers…
Rich from Croton, NY asks, “Do you think that Lauri Korpikoski is ready to make his NHL debut this year? I thought he looked good in the season opener battling hard for the loose pucks, worked well along the boards and, as always, a smooth puck-handler? Would like to see him shoot the puck more, though. Do you see that as his only weakness?”
Lauri definitely is not a Brad Smyth-type, shoot from anywhere guy, Rich, and I don’t know if he will ever develop that mentality, but I think that he will develop more of a scoring touch than he has shown to this point. He made great strides during the course of last year, and though I would say he still has some more developing to do, he only just recently turned 21 years old, so he is a very young guy. His speed is great and as you referenced, his battle level is strong too. The Rangers have so many good forwards, I don’t know if he gets a shot this year, but I bet it won’t be too much longer than that.
Dina from New Rochelle, NY asks, “What area of Chris Holt's game does he need to work on to be a mainstay in the AHL? What area of Bruce Graham's game does he need to improve upon? Do you see these guys being recalled anytime soon or is it a wait and see game?”
Dina, in Holt’s case I think it’s a matter of consistency and conditioning. He proved in the playoffs two springs ago that he can be a heck of a big-game goalie, but he still needs to show that he can carry the load over the long haul and give his team a chance to win every night. Part of that is being in the best possible shape, which is something that the organization has stressed to him and is working with him on.
As far as Graham goes, he is a skill player with great size, but hasn’t been able to make enough of an impact to surpass other young guys in the organization who play the same role. He clearly had a real strong year for Charlotte last season, but to translate that success to the AHL, I’d say he has to play at a higher tempo and bring more intensity.
Competition for callups from the ECHL to the Wolf Pack should be intense this year, with Holt battling Matt Zaba to be the first goalie summoned should there be a need, and forwards like Joe Barnes and Mike Ouellette available up front. Plus, Mark Lee only just got into his first game with the Pack Sunday.
Todd Crandall of Syracuse, NY writes, “After finally getting to see Nigel Dawes play in person this past weekend, I can’t stop thinking WHY is he not on up with the Rangers? p.s., it was a great game, people in Hartford should be proud to have this organization there.”
Thanks for the compliment, Todd, and I think most everyone who saw that game thought the same thing about Nigel, including the Ranger organization, as he was called up to the big club on Wednesday. He had three points in that game against the Crunch, and I think he could have had about six, that’s how sharp he was. I told a friend earlier this week that as I watched him in that game, he started to look to me like Ryan Callahan did in January and February of last season, that is, like a guy who is ready to leave the AHL in the rear-view mirror. Tough guy for the Wolf Pack to lose if he stays up, but he has certainly earned his chance.
Bruce Beran from North Port, FL writes, “I know that this is early, however, who do you think has the best chance to be a "stand-out" player for the Pack this year? I enjoy listening to your broadcasts on the 'net, and hearing what's happening with the team.”
Thanks very much, Bruce, I appreciate your tuning in from down in sunny F-L-A.
From early indications, aside from the guys that we already knew were top-level players in the AHL, like Dawes, I would say that the most impressive individual has been Artem Anisimov. He is a big kid, 6-3 and 190 pounds, with a long reach, and he can really dangle. What’s more, he has shown no hesitance to go into the high-traffic areas where he knows he is going to get banged around, and his level of enthusiasm and passion seems real strong. He’s only 19 and the season has only just started, but he has the look of a guy who might make an impact at the next level in the near future.
Norm from Bristol, CT writes, “The Pack is overloaded with forwards, and with Frank Lessard returning soon from suspension, what do you think Hartford will do? I was really looking forward to seeing Lessard and Mitch Fritz team together so I really hope Hartford will keep them around and play them every night. Fritz has impressed me a lot so far this year, not just with his fighting but with his overall play also. What do you think of him?”
Norm, I’ve been impressed with him too and I think so have the coaches, but unfortunately Mitch has been felled by an injury that looks like it will keep him out of the lineup for an extended period of time. Certainly a tough break for him and for the Wolf Pack, costing them half of their “one-two punch” of Fritz and Lessard, just as Lessard was ready to come back.
So that will simplify some of the Pack’s decisions in the short term, but you’re right, it is a really crowded situation at forward right now. Several readers wrote in to ask about Mark Lee’s status, and he is a quality AHL player who simply couldn’t get in the lineup the first four games, even with Lessard still suspended for the first three, because of nothing other than numbers. Adding Pierre Parenteau and Dave Scatchard makes the battle for spots even tougher. If everybody stays healthy, the coaching staff will have a real juggling act to pull off, but that’s a good problem to have.
Brad Roueche from Spencer, MA asks, “What ever happened to John Tripp?”
Brad, the big man who tallied 29 goals in 57 games for the Wolf Pack in 2002-03, and set a franchise record with four hat tricks that year, signed the following season with the LA Kings. After one season in the Kings organization, he headed over to Germany and is currently in his fourth year there, playing this season with the Hamburg Freezers.
Bruce Kramer of Manchester, CT asks, “What happened to the Pack Shop? No info on the web site. IS there a Pack Shop?”
The Pack Shop was open at the Wolf Pack’s season opener, Bruce, and will continue to be open on game days from two hours prior to faceoff through the end of the first period. In the weeks to come, the Wolf Pack marketing and sales staff will be studying the potential of the Pack Shop and how to improve it.
And finally, Bill Glass from Bloomingdale, NJ writes, “Nigel Dawes and Brandon Dubinsky shared the honor of the Lars-Erik Sjoberg Award in 2006 as best rookie in training camp. Who won the award this year?”
Bill, this year’s recipient was Marc Staal, who, like Dawes did last year, has turned that honor into a spot on the Rangers’ roster to start the year.
Thanks for the questions and I’ll continue to poke my pen into this space whenever I can cobble together enough material.
