Crawford's Pack Report: The Pack keeps on rolling...
Tuesday, February 12, 2008 - 12:34 PM
The Wolf Pack knew they had an interesting schedule last week, with divisional games Wednesday and Friday and then no game Saturday or Sunday, an extreme rarity in the AHL, and the players had to be figuring that if they played well, they would be in for some nice time off, a chance to enjoy a couple of weekend nights without having to be in full game-preparation mode.
They managed to pull off wins in both of the week’s games, although not without some less-than-satisfying stretches in Friday night’s visit to Providence, and thereby finished the week unbeaten in regulation in a season-high nine straight games (6-0-2-1).
The Pack wrapped up a five-game homestand, their longest of the season, with a 3-1 win over Manchester on Wednesday. That gave the club at least a point in seven consecutive home contests (5-0-1-1), after the home-ice play had become a major concern around the first of the year. Prior to the current streak, the Wolf Pack had gone winless in five straight home games (0-3-0-2) and had won only once at home in seven games (1-4-0-2) from December 12th through January 5th. The club wasn’t going to go very far playing at that pace on the home rink, so it certainly has been big for them to have turned that around.
The Pack were playing their second consecutive game without the services of Ryan Callahan on Wednesday, and they’d had Greg Moore called up the night before as well. Dane Byers was back from his first career NHL game, but on this night the Wolf Pack would see their offense sparked by two guys whose names have not regularly shown up on the scoresheet, those being Jordan Owens and Mike Ouellette.
Owens had his best game to date in a Wolf Pack uniform, starting with a great play with time running down in the first period and the Pack down a goal. Owens anticipated a pass by Monarch captain, and 16th-year pro, Jon Klemm in the neutral zone and intercepted it, breaking back into the Manchester end. Ouellette, also showing good anticipation, immediately burst up the slot and got himself wide open. Owens hit him with a perfect pass, and Ouellette buried it for a 1-1 tie.
Owens had scored the Wolf Pack’s first goal of the season, way back in their sold-out, October 6th opener vs. Bridgeport, but didn’t hit the back of the net again until the 12:59 mark of Wednesday’s second period, when Brodie Dupont directed the puck to him after a Dave Liffiton shot was blocked, and Owens ripped it home for what turned out to be the game-winning goal. It was Owens’ first multiple-point game in the AHL, and Ouellette earned himself another “plus” when he was on the ice in the final minute of regulation and P.A. Parenteau notched a game-clinching, empty-net goal.
The other significant story line from Wednesday’s win was Al Montoya’s return to the net for the first time in two-and-a-half weeks, after Miika Wiikman had started six straight and earned the Pack at least a standings point in his last eight appearances. Montoya took hold of the opportunity and put up a Second Star-worthy performance, stopping 22 out of 23 shots for his 12th victory of the season.
The Wolf Pack then headed to Rhode Island, for their third visit of the season to the Dunkin’ Donuts Center, home of the league-leading Providence Bruins. Their first two trips had ended in frustration, as the Pack had suffered a shootout loss and an overtime loss, after building two-goal leads in both games.
This time, they would jump out to an even bigger advantage, and almost squander that as well but not quite, in one of the wilder games in Wolf Pack annals.
The first period was relatively calm, until 6-5, 227-pound Bruin defenseman Sean Curry, as the period ended, decided to try to extract a pound of flesh from the Wolf Pack’s Byers. Byers kept his gloves on and refused to respond to Curry’s salvos, and Curry flailed away at Byers with both hands as referee Terry Koharski looked on. After the two had been pulled apart, Koharski did not penalize Byers, and whacked Curry with an instigating minor and a fighting major, plus a 10-minute misconduct and a game misconduct.
The Pack were already on a power play when Curry lost his cool, so the second period would start with the Wolf Pack on a five-on-three, and the Bruins shorthanded for a total of seven minutes.
The Wolf Pack would probably have been happy with getting two or three goals out of all that power-play time, but by the time all the Providence penalties had expired, five goals had found their way into the Bruin net.
The main triggerman was Pack captain Andrew Hutchinson, one of the top power-play threats in the league this year. Hutchinson would pound home two goals in 30 seconds in the first 1:59 of that second-period burst, and then would become the first defenseman in team history to record a hat trick, and the first Pack player ever to score three power-play goals in one period, when his 12th goal of the year stretched a Wolf Pack lead to 7-1 at 6:21. In a bit of poetic justice, the other two goals, one on a deflection and one on a rebound, in the long stretch of power-play time would go to Byers, who had “taken one for the team” to draw the extended man-advantage.
A crowd of nearly 10,000 at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center was stunned by the rapid run of visitor goals, an almost-surreal flurry of red lights behind the Providence net. Being that the Bruins are such a dangerous team when behind, though, and given that they had lost all of eight games in regulation out of 48 coming into the night, you kind of had a feeling that they weren’t going to roll over and die. Plus, with Koharski having awarded the Wolf Pack so much man-advantage time, it was only natural for him to, ahem, maybe look to give the Bruins one or two cracks on the power play.
And give the Bruins credit, they picked themselves right up off the mat, and gave the Wolf Pack all they could handle and more for the rest of the night.
It took Providence until the final minute of the second to get one goal back, which they did on an Aaron Slattengren goal, but once they got some momentum, they really tilted the ice toward the Wolf Pack net.
Practically the whole third period was played in the Pack zone, and the Bruins would fire an incredible 28 shots on the Wolf Pack net, easily the most a Pack team has ever given up in a single period. Montoya held the fort in admirable fashion, however, and after power-play goals by defensemen Matt Lashoff and Brett Skinner cut the Wolf Pack lead to a dicey two goals, the Pack would end up skating off with a 7-5 win. That marked their second straight triumph in the season series against the P-Bruins, after they had gone 0-2-1-1 in the first four games between the two teams.
It was a record-setting night in a lot of ways for the Pack, in addition to the franchise-record shots-against total in the third. The five power-play goals in the second period was a franchise high for power-play goals in a period, and those markers came in a span of 4:52, more than two minutes faster than the previous team record for fastest five goals. The Wolf Pack also scored three of the goals in a run of 1:43, which equaled the franchise standard for fastest three goals. The five PPG’s also matched the team record for most power-play goals in a game, and the five goals in one period also tied a franchise mark. And oh, by the way, Hutchinson’s big night vaulted him into the league leadership in point-scoring among defensemen.
Good thing I had two nights off after that game, anyway. I don’t know about the players’, but my head was sure spinning!
Now to some reader input…
Missy from Torrington, CT writes, “I have diabetes and I know that some other teams have players with illnesses too. So I was wondering if any of the players on the Hartford Wolf Pack have anything like that?”
Not to my knowledge, Missy, but I know there have been several prominent pro players who have had excellent careers despite having to deal with diabetes. Probably the most famous of those is Bobby Clarke, who became a franchise icon with the Philadelphia Flyers, after there were serious doubts about whether he would even be able to play, due to having diabetes. On behalf of the Wolf Pack, I wish you good health and good luck in achieving all of your goals!
Nate from Enfield, CT says, “You had some questions last week about the Pack's goalie situation, however I have one more. It is obvious Miika stepped right in with Montoya's and Holt's injuries, and quite frankly he is just blowing fans like myself away with the way he has been playing. However, come playoff time what is the likely situation, I mean if Miika gets hurt, who is a likely backup if Montoya is still out, or not up to his game?”
Nate, hopefully a good, positive situation has been established here of Montoya and Wiikman both feeling that they have to battle hard and push each other for ice time.
I was interested to see that the coaching staff played Al back to back games this past week, looking to get him back in a groove, and he responded with a pair of wins. Clearly Miika has established himself as an NHL prospect, and if they can both stay healthy and they both feel some pressure to stay on top of their respective games, then the Wolf Pack could be really well set in the net headed into the spring.
I would say, in answer to the last part of your question, that Chris Holt is probably the next option, and considering the way he played in the playoffs his rookie year after Al got hurt, that’s not a bad ace-in-the-hole to have, either.
Scott from Nashua, NH writes, “I'm trying to figure out what they are doing with Greg Moore. It seems like they call him up for a few games and then send him back down. Does that throw off the rhythm of the team? Obviously he's a very important part of the team. And does that throw off his rhythm?”
It’s definitely a challenge for the player himself, Scott, as guys’ roles are often different in the NHL than they are at the AHL level. By this time of the year, though, I think most teams have gotten well used to dealing with having different players in the lineup every night. It’s one thing if your parent club has a rash of injuries and they call up most or all of your key players, but if it’s a guy here and a guy there, like it has been for much of this year with the Wolf Pack, I think the players who remain on the AHL club have become flexible enough to shrug off the difference in line combinations and such that are brought on by players going up and down to and from the big team.
The positive for a guy like Greg Moore is that he has established himself this year as one of the first callups among the forwards, a status that he was a long way from last season. The Rangers seem to be comfortable inserting him into the lineup at either center or right wing, which bodes well for his future in the organization. Right now the parent club doesn’t have spots for all of Greg, Ryan Callahan, Nigel Dawes and Byers, but I think they all have proven that they are close to ready for full-time duty in the NHL, and I bet the Rangers would love to find a way to get all of them playing regularly in their lineup as soon as possible.
TJ from Hartford asks, “What are the rules regarding AHL play-off availability? For example, could Ryan Callahan actually be on the roster for the Wolf Pack should the Rangers not make the NHL playoffs? Also, how much time do parent clubs typically give prospects before making a determination that they are no longer prospects, at least in that organization? I ask because the Wolf Pack has such a young team. Is it that the Rangers have a deep pipeline or is it because the Rangers are quick to project a player out of being NHL-caliber? Lastly, I wholly agree on your recent comments on Steve Valiquette as having the maturity and mind-set to excel as a back-up to Lundqvist. It would make no sense to have Montoya or Wiikman sitting for 65 games in NY.”
TJ, in answer to your first question, the only real restriction on players’ eligibility for the AHL playoffs is that guys who would be coming down from the NHL have to be listed on the AHL team’s “Clear Day” playoff roster. Clear Day is shortly after the NHL trading deadline, and AHL teams have to list any and all players who are either with them at that point, or who may come down from the NHL, that they want to be eligible to play in the playoffs. Teams are allowed to list 20 skaters and two goaltenders on the Clear Day roster, and if they use spots to list guys who are on recall or injured, then they can substitute other players into those slots until the listed players are back from injury, or the NHL, and ready to play.
To your second question, I’d say the average is two to three years for an NHL team to make a judgment on a player’s future as a prospect. Obviously, though, they’ll make calls on some players’ futures quicker than that and some other guys will take longer than that to develop. And I’d say the youth of the Wolf Pack has more to do with the number of young prospects that the Rangers organization has in the fold than to any unusual quickness on the trigger on the part of the organization in judging players. The Rangers really piled up the young players and the draft picks when they cleaned house around the trading deadline in 2004, and that has given them a full cupboard of young guys to try to develop.
Chris from West Hartford, CT asks, “Did you ever notice that the top point-scorers in the NHL and the AHL usually have way more assists than goals? Take Crosby, he has always been in I think at least the top five or better in points ever since he been in the NHL, but his goals are usually 20-30th in the NHL. Even the Great One, his goals might be more than anyone’s in history, but his assists are close to or more than double his goals. Why does this seem to happen with a lot of top-notch point scorers?”
I think more than anything it’s a matter of mathematics, Chris. With two assists available on every goal, it’s just mathematically easier to rack up assists than goals. Also, I think a lot of the great offensive artists in the history of the game, the guys with the really great vision on the ice, find that they can help their team better by using their skills to set up teammates rather than banging in goals. The old adage is that the truly great players are those who make their teammates better, and I think the classic way to do that in hockey is to be a first-rate setup man.
And David McLeod of Willimantic, CT writes, “I listen to you call the games every weekend here on the ECSU campus and Friday night's game against Providence was something else! I was wondering, what is the record for most power-play goals scored in a game by the Wolf Pack? And has there ever been a game where two Wolf Pack players have scored a hat trick each? I have been a fan since the beginning and was wondering if it has ever occurred. I was rooting for Byers to score a hat trick along with Hutchinson, and it seemed like he was close!”
As you read above, David, the five PPG’s in Friday’s game equaled the Pack franchise record for a single game.
The team had never before, however, scored more than three in one period. And no, there has never been a game in which more than one Wolf Pack player has scored a hat trick. It would indeed have been cool for Byers to get one Friday in addition to Hutchinson, especially since it was Byers who drew the penalties that put the Wolf Pack on their long power play.
And thanks for listening!
Thanks for the questions and I’ll continue to poke my pen into this space whenever I can put together enough material!
