Crawford's Pack Report: Week in Review

Monday, April 28, 2008 - 6:24 PM

A sudden and deflating end to a great season befell the Wolf Pack in the first round of the Calder Cup playoffs against Portland, as the Pack, a team that hadn't lost four straight games all season, saw four consecutive one-goal verdicts go against them after they won the series opener.

The margin for error is cruelly slim in the postseason, and to win you have to be lucky as well as good. Unfortunately, the Pirates were just a little bit better than the Pack in this series, and the Wolf Pack certainly were not lucky. In fact, they packed an entire season's-worth of frustration into those four close-but-no-cigar games.

The “ouch's” started with the Pirates tying Game Two at two apiece early in the third period, on a goal created by a seemingly harmless shot off the boards. David LeNeveu, who had been so solid in the first five periods of the series, his first pro playoff experience in a five-year career, had Tyler Bouck's heave trickle away from him, creating an easy stuff-in for Jason King.

Of course, that game ended up going all the way to almost the halfway point of the second overtime, before Michal Birner roofed a sweet shot in behind LeNeveu for the winner. No insult to Birner, but I don't think he would have been the top choice in a who's-going-to-get-the-OT-winner pool, having chalked up only nine goals and 20 points in 58 regular-season games between the Pirates and Peoria. He looked like a big-time sniper on that play, though, and the descent had begun for the Pack.

I think if they win that Game Two then it's a different series, but from the Wolf Pack side, you could say “shoulda, coulda, woulda” about quite a few things after Game One.

The Pack didn't need Bobby Ryan coming back from Anaheim for Game Three, either, but give Ryan credit, he certainly didn't show up with an NHL hangover. Ryan scored a goal and added an assist in his first period back, staking the Pirates to a 2-0 lead that had the Wolf Pack playing catch-up all through that contest.

Catch up they did, but after tying it at two, the Pack suffered one more breakdown than they could recover from (and a lot of times, that's the story of playoff time), when they left the dangerous King alone in front of LeNeveu, who surrendered an unfortunate rebound that King pounced on like a hungry shark and buried for the deciding tally.

Things really started to get aggravating in Game Four, when, with the Wolf Pack already up, 1-0, they appeared to make it a 2-0 lead on a goal by Artem Anisimov in the latter stages of the first period. The goal was waved off, though, on the grounds that the Wolf Pack were offside. Again, there, I think if that's a 2-0 game, the way the Wolf Pack were playing, maybe they take control and never look back, but sure enough, given the reprieve, Portland came right back and tied it, and it was a dogfight again.

Later in that game, the Pirates took their first lead when a shot, intentionally aimed well wide of the net, by defenseman Brett Festerling caromed right in front to ex-UConn Husky Mike Hoffman, who put it up under the crossbar. And again, not to slight Hoffman, but he showed better hands on that play than I thought he possessed. A smart idea, too, by Festerling, and good knowledge of the home boards, but how many times do you ever see a play like that work?

And if you told the Wolf Pack that P.A. Parenteau would have a shorthanded breakaway with a minute-and-a-half left in the game, I think they would have felt pretty good about their chances, but Parenteau was unable to finish the opportunity and that pretty much sealed a 4-3 triumph for the Pirates.

The ultimate kick in the shins, of course, was the deciding Game Five, in which, you have to say, the Wolf Pack gave a pretty darned good account of themselves, at least for forty minutes.

The Pack had battled back, after giving up the game's first goal, to take a 2-1 lead in the second period, and seemed to be playing with eager crispness. Again, though, a pin would let the air out of the balloon, and this time it was a long-range shot by defenseman Andy Schneider, who had sat out the previous 13 games while injured, that somehow found its way through some traffic on the doorstep and past Miika Wiikman, playing his first game of the series.

That goal-against seemed to rattle Wiikman and the Pack, and, after outshooting the Pirates by a combined margin of 27-12 through the first two periods, they seemed to sag into a much more tentative frame of mind in the third.

And when you're waiting for something bad to happen it usually does, and there couldn't have been a stronger indication that the Wolf Pack weren't meant to win this series than what happened on the winning goal. It looked, on the replay that we in the press box have access to but the officials don't, that the puck was touched by not one, but two Portland high sticks before it went into the net. Not only that, but it had to have just the right english on it to come down out of the sky and bounce past a stunned Wiikman and over the goal line. Incredible! They could try that, like Hoffman's goal off the backboards carom in Game Four, a hundred more times and never get it to go in, but that's just the kind of a run it was for the Wolf Pack.

Now, after all that whining I just did about bad breaks, you have to hand it to the Pirates for taking advantage of those breaks. They didn't squander the opportunities when they presented themselves, and the rest of the third period of Game Five was a perfect illustration of that. There were still almost 15 minutes left in regulation when that wacky goal was scored, plenty of time for the Pack to shake it off and come back, but the Pirates never gave them a sniff, holding their hosts to only five shots the entire period. And…that was that.

The Pirates' penalty-kill is one element you can zero in on as a difference-maker in the series, as it held a Pack power-play unit that was second-best overall in the league during the regular year to only two goals on 24 opportunities over the course of the five games. Other than that, though, I can't see any real glaring culprits in the Wolf Pack's downfall.

It sounds simplistic to say, but the Pirates were just that one goal better, that one big save, that one big key play at a key time better than the Pack were. Kudos to Kevin Dineen and Co., who have become a tough nut for the Wolf Pack to crack in the postseason, adding this year's triumph to their six-game ouster of the Pack in the 2006 Calder Cup playoffs.

So, it's officially (yikes!) summertime for those of us whose jobs it is to chronicle the Wolf Pack, and that means I have to dig deeper for material to fill this little window into cyberspace. Please keep sending in your thoughts and questions, and I'll keep offering up as many tidbits and as much haphazard analysis as I can come up with. Here are this edition's reader contributions…

Kristen from Cheshire, CT writes, “I listen to every Wolf Pack game I can and I think you are a great announcer, Bob! I was listening to the playoff games from Portland, and I gotta say, Chris Holt has been one of the best color guys you have had on! You should have him on more often!”

Kristen, thank you for the compliments, I greatly appreciate it, and I agree, Chris is a tremendous color man. He ranks right up there with fellow netminder Phil Osaer as one of the best broadcast partners I have ever had the pleasure to share a booth with. Rest assured, I had him on as many road games as I could cajole him in to doing. Being as how he wasn't getting paid for pitching in on the broadcasts, I couldn't prevail on him to do it too often, if he'd rather not have to be commenting on the game in addition to watching it, but it sure made for a fine broadcast when he was willing to come on and share his insights.

R. Dean from West Hartford, CT writes, “After watching the first two playoff games against Portland I could not help but notice the similarities between the two uniforms. Given the pace and intensity of the game and also the amount of really bad passes by both teams, could the closeness of the uniforms be an issue that the league would look into?”

I have to admit, there was one instance in one of the games, I can't remember which one, in which I saw a player coming into the play out of the corner of my eye and said he was a player from one of the teams and it turned out he was from the other side. And I hardly ever remember that happening before. Although when I really think about it, I don't think the Wolf Pack and Pirates' uniforms really look that similar.

I think that if there was an instance where two different team's uni's too closely mirrored one another, then the league would have to force a change, but I think they would be reluctant to do so unless the similarity was overwhelmingly strong. Being that uniform and logo design and that kind of thing is such an important part of team marketing, the clubs have a lot of latitude in that direction.

Joe Gennarelli from Wesley Chapel, Florida, an old friend from the Binghamton Rangers days, says, “I've been living in the Tampa area for almost eleven years now and still follow the Rangers religiously. My question is, do you think Andrew Hutchinson is a solid enough defenseman to step into the New York lineup during this playoff season, if need be? I'm not thrilled about the defensive play of Mara or Backman, and I think a team like Pittsburgh would further expose a Rangers weakness. Do you think Hutchinson could be the answer?”

Good to hear from you, Joe, glad you've carried your hockey ardor with you from the Southern Tier down to the Sunshine State. I think Hutchinson could definitely help the Rangers out on the power play. This year with the Wolf Pack he was as good a power-play performer as I have seen in a long time, if ever, in this league, and I think his shot and savvy would serve him well at the NHL level too in that role. I don't know if he would be an upgrade defensively on the guys you mention, but after watching him battle the entire year here this season and really become a guy the other players looked to for stability, I sure think he could step into that Ranger lineup and be an asset for them, if the opportunity arose.

Steve Daigle of Vernon, CT writes, “I noticed that for Game Five, when all the players came out for warmups, they all didn't have their helmets on, which is not normal for them. Was that some superstitious thing that Ken Gernander did in 2000?”

Steve, I'm not sure what the genesis was for that particular gesture, and I don't remember the team doing anything like that in the past. I suspect it was just something that one of the guys came up with as, like you suspected, a way to try to change the luck in the series. Sadly for the Wolf Pack, it didn't work.

Dave from Lisbon, CT says, “As a fan, it was infuriating to see the season end on a bad call. The AHL defers all comments on officiating to the NHL, the NHL doesn't care because it was an AHL game. We all have jobs where we answer to someone at the end of the day, who do they have to explain to why they either made a call, or they didn't? What happens to them if they make bad calls, do they get in trouble or do they just say 'oops' and walk away?”

I can tell you, Dave, that the AHL's referees are closely monitored by NHL officiating supervisors. They may not be answerable to the media, and I don't think officials in any sports league are expected to explain themselves in the media, but they are definitely answerable to the supervisory staff, which evaluates whether they have what it takes to advance to the NHL level. If they make enough calls that are proven to be incorrect, they will be dropped from the officiating development program, just like a player who doesn't show enough progress will not be re-signed by his team.

And to say the NHL doesn't care is wrong. A significant element of the NHL's future depends on developing quality officials at the minor-pro level, and every time an AHL referee makes an incorrect call that development is not moving the direction the NHL wants it to. Trust me, they have a vested interest in making AHL officiating as sharp as it can be.

My two cents on the officiating in this series is, yes, the Wolf Pack were on the wrong end of a couple of calls that really hurt, but as I wrote before in this piece, each time it happened the Pack had plenty of time to recover from it and battle through it. So I would dispute the notion that officiating played a part in deciding the series. To me that shortchanges both teams. And on what turned out to be the series-winning goal, I have to say, in the officials' defense, at live action I saw a couple of sticks waving at the puck, but could I say definitively that it was hit with a high stick? No, I definitely couldn't. I could only say with some degree of certainty that it had been hit with a high stick when I saw the slow-motion replay, and the officials do not have access to that. Three pairs of eyes on the ice couldn't combine to say for sure whether it was a high stick, and in that instance, the stripes have no choice but to call it a goal.

That leads into a man who knows a thing or two about video, Tom Kruc of Springfield, MA, asking, “After the debacle that was Game Five of the playoff series with Portland, don't you think it is time the AHL initiated a video review system?”

I'm sure it will be discussed, Tom, but I would be surprised to see it happen. The feeling has always been that, with different buildings having different levels of video capability, that there is no fair way to make it workable.

In an NHL-level facility like the XL Center, with a crackerjack video crew and good equipment, it would be easy. All you'd need is a monitor between the penalty boxes for the referee to look at and you'd be all set. Many buildings in the league, though, are not nearly that well-equipped, and some have very limited video facilities or capability. So the thinking has been, it's not fair to have some teams play their games under the option of definitive video review and others not. Maybe somebody somewhere at sometime can think of a way to write a set of rules to make it fair and equitable, but I can't.

And I'll give the last word in this one to T.J. from Hartford, who analyzes, “Disappointing end to a very good season. While the playoff officiating was inconsistent at best, the Wolf Pack seemed to be flat at the worst time. Portland seemed a little hungrier, had a little more jump and jam, a little more discipline and certainly more than a little luck. You do not win four one-goal games without some luck or help (officiating?). I very much look forward to next season - my first as a full season ticket-holder. Thanks for some wonderful hockey and some fine commentary.”

You're welcome, T.J., and thank you for that right-on summary. I think you hit it pretty much on the head. Congratulations to the Pirates on a deserved victory, and hopefully the Wolf Pack and Ken Gernander can build strongly on what was a terrifically-consistent regular-season performance. And thanks for joining the proud ranks of Wolf Pack season ticket-holders. Hope you enjoy it!

Thanks for the questions and I’ll continue to poke my pen into this space whenever I can put together enough material!