Alumni in the Pros - March 2008

[Jacob '06]

Douglas is playing on the first pairing tonight against the Senators with Brian Campbell. The Sharks have not been playing well at all but Doug has been a bit of a bright spot and just destroyed someone with a hit in the offensive zone.

EDIT: And as I write this Doug turns over the puck and it leads directly to Ottawa's first goal. One of the wingers made an outlet pass to the middle of the ice where Murray couldn't get a handle on it, so its not entirely his fault but it wasn't pretty.

[Josh '99]

[quote Jacob '06]Douglas is playing on the first pairing tonight against the Senators with Brian Campbell. The Sharks have not been playing well at all but Doug has been a bit of a bright spot and just destroyed someone with a hit in the offensive zone.

EDIT: And as I write this Doug turns over the puck and it leads directly to Ottawa's first goal. One of the wingers made an outlet pass to the middle of the ice where Murray couldn't get a handle on it, so its not entirely his fault but it wasn't pretty.[/quote]Murray made up for the giveaway leading to Ottawa's first goal by getting an assist on Patrick Marleau's winner in OT.

[Josh '99]

Thread drift:  AHL scheduling is weird.  Lenny's Hartford Wolfpack played three nights in a row last Friday-Saturday-Sunday and they've since had the last four days off.  They play back-to-back tomorrow and Saturday, then they're off for five days, then again they play three in a row Friday-Saturday-Sunday.  Wouldn't it make sense to space things out a little more?  ::smashfreak::

[amerks127]

Unlike the NHL, AHL teams do not have infinite dollars to spend on travel costs, nor do they have the luxury of chartering their own planes.  The American Hockey League scheduling is thus based much more on convenience of travel costs.  Friday and Saturday almost always see 24-26 teams play, while Wednesday and Sunday vary from 2 to 22 teams.  The other days of the week are generally off days for most teams.

In addition, (here comes my frustration of the monopoly these teams hold on the league) New England based teams only travel outside of 70 miles about once a month, and when they do, the games are scheduled next to each other.  For example Hartford will play San Antonio and Houston in back to back games or Hamilton and Toronto, or they won't even play teams like Rochester, Manitoba, Quad City, Chicago, Grand Rapids because the league is so focused on playing lots of intra-divisional games.

Finally, with smaller markets, it's more difficult to draw fans to weekday games.  Go ahead and humor yourself with attendance numbers for the weekly games of March 4-6. http://stats.theahl.com/stats/schedule.php?date=2008-03-05

I'll get it started 2007 Calder Cup finalist Hershey Bears at the Lowell Devils on March 5 drew a paid announced attendance of 1343.

[jkahn]

Nice picture of Douglas-
http://cbs.sportsline.com/nhl/gamecenter/recap/NHL_20080307_SJ@CHI

[Josh '99]

[quote jkahn]Nice picture of Douglas-
http://cbs.sportsline.com/nhl/gamecenter/recap/NHL_20080307_SJ@CHI[/quote]If he's gonna fight, I'm certainly glad he's winning.  ::twak::

[Josh '99]

Lenny got the start in Hartford's game in Houston last night.  Stopped 12 of only 13 shots he faced, but the Wolfpack were shut out so Dave was on the hook for a 1-0 loss.  Given the AHL's (what I now understand but still think is) weird scheduling, I'd guess he probably won't see action again until next Friday or Saturday.

[Josh '99]

[quote Josh '99]Lenny got the start in Hartford's game in Houston last night.  Stopped 12 of only 13 shots he faced, but the Wolfpack were shut out so Dave was on the hook for a 1-0 loss.  Given the AHL's (what I now understand but still think is) weird scheduling, I'd guess he probably won't see action again until next Friday or Saturday.[/quote]Looks like I was wrong.  Lenny played both ends of Hartford's back-to-back last Friday and Saturday nights, stopping 31 of 32 shots and being named the second star of the game in the Wolfpack's 2-1 win over the San Antonio Rampage.  In the process, he outdueled Al Montoya, for whom (as we all recall) he was recently traded (along with a few other players).  Since the trade, Dave has posted a 1.34 GAA and a 94.8% SV% in his first three games for Hartford.  Not sure if he can keep that pace up, granted, but it's a great start for him.

[amerks127]

After sitting out the past two, O'Byrne will be back in the lineup tonight for the Habs meaning that Patrice Brisebois is going to be scratched.

[Josh '99]

Comments about LeNeveu from the Wolfpack's Week In Review:

With regard to LeNeveu's win over his former team:

[Brodie DuPont's] streak-snapping tally [which broke a long scoreless streak for the team] was somewhat overshadowed, though, by the Wolf Pack's two former Rampage regulars, Josh Gratton and David LeNeveu, capturing the First and Second-Star nods, respectively, in their first clash with their old organization.

LeNeveu, in particular, deserved a good break, after allowing only three goals in his first two games with the Pack and ending up 0-2. He matched Montoya save for save throughout the first period-and-a-half of Saturday's game before Dupont's goal, and then made some sparkling stops thereafter. The Rampage had won three straight and five out of six coming into the game and are locked in a real dogfight for playoff position in the extremely deep West Division, and they tested their old teammate a couple of different times with challenging chances, but LeNeveu was not to be denied. He would end up with 31 saves, his first Wolf Pack win and a total of only four goals-against on 77 shots in his first three Pack starts.

With regard to the 1-0 loss to Houston:

[A]s tight as Houston was in its own zone, the Wolf Pack were even tighter in theirs. They would allow the Aeros only 13 shots on the night, a Wolf Pack franchise record for fewest shots-against in a game.

Unfortunately for the Pack, one of those shots hit paydirt. Just prior to the halfway point of the first period, Ryan Hamilton got knocked down in front of the Wolf Pack goal, but saw the loose puck before either LeNeveu or Jake Taylor did. While down on his knees, Hamilton took a backhanded swipe at the puck, and with LeNeveu unable to see it and thinking it was to his right, the Pack goaltender had no chance to stop the biscuit as it slid past him on his left.

There's a poster on a Rangers message board I read who goes to many of the Wolfpack home games, so he should have comments about how Dave looks after their home games this weekend, I'll pass those on once they're posted.

I think I'm starting to get psyched to have a Cornell alum in the Rangers' system.  :-D

[Josh '99]

Dave LeNeveu recorded his second win over recent trade counterpart Al Montoya in the past week, stopping all 18 San Antonio shots to record his second win and first shutout for the Wolfpack.  He was named the third star of the game (first star was Dartmouth grad Mike Ouellette, who notched his 6th and 7th goals of the season and is yet another recent Dartmouth alum who's had a better pro career thus far than Rangers first-round bust Hugh Jessiman ::bang:; seems like Lenny must've had a pretty light night since the Wolfpack outshot the Rampage 34-18.

[RichH]

[quote Josh '99]Dave LeNeveu recorded his second win over recent trade counterpart Al Montoya in the past week, stopping all 18 San Antonio shots to record his second win and first shutout for the Wolfpack.  He was named the third star of the game (first star was Dartmouth grad Mike Ouellette, who notched his 6th and 7th goals of the season and is yet another recent Dartmouth alum who's had a better pro career thus far than Rangers first-round bust Hugh Jessiman ::bang:; seems like Lenny must've had a pretty light night since the Wolfpack outshot the Rampage 34-18.[/quote]

I was at the game, and Lenny didn't have to work at all, only facing 10 shots through 2 periods.  At one point, the shot totals were 15-1.  Very few good scoring opportunities for the Rampage.  I can only think of 2-3 times when LeNeveu had to make a save that required any skill.

Montoya wasn't in net for San Antonio, but there were a lot of Wolfpack Montoya jerseys being worn in the stands.

Jessiman got into a fight.  I'd say he got the better shots in, but got turned around as the refs stepped in, and wound up on the bottom of the pile.

ECAC guys on the ice:
Hartford: LeNeveu, Jessiman (Dart), Ouellette (Dart)
San Antonio: Dylan Reese (H), Matt Murley (RPI)

[calgARI '07]

David Jones, who would have been a senior at Dartmouth this year, will be on a line with Sakic and Forsberg tonight.

[redice]

For those who would still like to watch Topher Scott play hockey, he will be making his debut with the Elmira Jackals of the ECHL Wednesday night.

http://www.jackalshockey.com/CenterIceArticle.asp?ARTICLE49506=56520

[Josh '99]

[quote redice]For those who would still like to watch Topher Scott play hockey, he will be making his debut with the Elmira Jackals of the ECHL Wednesday night.

http://www.jackalshockey.com/CenterIceArticle.asp?ARTICLE49506=56520[/quote]I like how the article provides a height and weight for the other player mentioned (6'4", 225 lb. defenseman Russell Smith, formerly of Elmira College) but not for Topher.  Great to see him catching on with a team so quickly.