So I apologize for being absent yesterday.  I was quite exhausted and slept most of the day when I got off of work after spending the previous night traveling back from Hershey.

~Speaking of Hershey, the B-Sens were handed another crushing loss this time, losing 6-1.  Kyle Wilson finished the Hershey scoring with a natural hat trick (all which came in a span of seven minutes!).  The hat trick actually helped him earn AHL Player of the Week honors.

~Yesterday was affiliation-mania as two teams announced partnerships
**Chicago Blackhawks and the new Rockford Icehogs agreed to a 10-year agreement.
**Edmonton and the Springfield Falcons signed a 3-year agreement.

~Looks like Wade Dubielewicz is staying in Tampa with the Islanders incase Rick DiPietro can’t go.  I’d expect Dubie to return to the Sound Tigers on Friday when they travel to Binghamton.

~I’ll be spending tomorrow in Hershey covering the Springfield Falcons for the Springfield Republican, then Saturday in Bridgeport doing the NYSD thing, and then back in Hershey on Sunday for Bingo so I got a busy rest of the week ahead of me.

Best to all…time to tune in the Isles.

Tom…

Well I’m back in Hershey, PA today stringing for the Binghamton Press & Sun Bulletin covering the Binghamton Senators today. Here are some quick thoughts…

~How bad have the Islanders looked lately? The defense, which has most of the year looked pretty strong looks like a pee-wee team out there.

~Speaking about bad, Dunham has looked very lost out there as well. His lateral movement has been god-awful as of late as was evident on those two wrap-around goals by Neil (Ottawa) and Jokinen (Florida).

~According to Newsday, if Ricky isn’t ready to go against Tampa on Tuesday, Dubie is gonna get the nod. I think that’s smart. Dubie looks solid in net, and confident as well. Something Dunham doesn’t look like he has…

~Bridgeport lost 6-3 in Norfolk after taking one there the previous day. Consider that a success since only 5 teams have won there before the Sound Tigers came into town. They’ve kept pace with Albany though, still one point behind. Here are the standings…

~Big game for the Tigers today in Philly as they visit the Phantoms. A lot of tensions should be running high as a result of what happened last game which I like to dub “Fight Night at the Bridge”.

~I appreared on the premier episode of Hockey Night on Long Island yesterday (around the 31:30 mark). Best of luck to Alex & Steve on the show, they did a great job interviewing me and I highly recommend checking out their show next week and for the weeks to come.

~Happy Birthday to the Stanley Cup today which turned 115 years old.

I’ll be back after the Sens/Bears game with some arbitrary (I really had a desire to use that word) thoughts….

Until then…

Tom…

Just a quick little post today, Drew Fata and Wade Dubielewicz saw NHL action last night.  Dubie was thrown into action hastily after starting goaltender Mike Dunham let in a big 5 in Ottawa.  Dubie looked sharp, stopping all 8 shots that came to him.  And congrats are in order to Fata for his first NHL goal last night.  It’s tough that it didn’t mean much game-wise, but for any NHL player, it’s a special moment.

Cheap plug: For those that have some time tomorrow during the hours of 3-4, I’ll be appearing on Hockey Night on Long Island, a new online talk show dedicated to the New York Islanders.  I’ll be taking questions from callers so feel free to call in!  You can only listen by clicking on this link: Hockey Night on Long Island

Tom…

I joked after the game that the Sound Tigers lockerroom should be called the M*A*S*H unit. Along with Brandon Nolan, Jeremy Colliton, Blake Comeau, and Jamie Frasier; here’s what happened today…

~Drew Fata hurt his ankle but continued to play through it. He looked to be having a tough time turning on it in the first period but looked better there on in.
~Jamie Johnson took a high stick to the face late in the third period, no penalty was called, but Johnson was fine.

~Mark Wotton seemed to hurt his wrist right after Johnson got hit in the face. Wotton left for the bench, but seemed fine in the lockerroom.

~Masi Marjamaki blocked a shot on his knee and had to wobble to the bench just two minutes after Wotton got nailed. No word on his condition..

~After undergoing a series of x-rays, Petteri Nokelainen was diagnosed with a broken index finger and will miss around 4-6 weeks.

~Allan Rourke was walking around the lockerroom after the game after taking a slash on the foot Saturday night and hopes to play Wednesday in Albany. He’s listed as day-to-day.

Last thing they need is Jamie Farr running around in a dress! (Hey! I may be 23 years old but I can still make classic TV references!)

Albany continues to keep pace with the Sound Tigers after scoring five in the second period, beating Syracuse 5-2. The Sound Tigers still hold the one point lead on Albany heading into a big 4-point game on Wednesday between both teams. Here’s the playoff picture as it looks now:

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Things didn’t seem to get better for the Phantoms Boyd Kane. First, Jamie Koharski slaps him with a 10-minute and a game misconduct on Saturday, and tonight gets the same from Terry Koharski. To think, he got off light today and scored the game-tying goal for Philly.

Finally, I’d like to express my sincerest thanks to Patrick Williams for plugging this blog on probably what is the best AHL blog on the net today. It’s great to see that even in its infancy this blog is getting noticed and I have to thank those who read this. I suggest you to go visit Patrick Williams blog on SLAM! Sports - There isn’t a better one out there and you won’t be disappointed. I’ll make sure to add it on the links sidebar as well.

That’s all for now…

Holy hell what a game that was…

I had about 6 heart attacks watching the Isles and Rangers last night. Ricky stood on his head, then stood on his skates, and then back on his head again, that’s how good he was. Let’s just hope that the Isles will have a little more jump when they head to the Coliseum on Thursday for the back end of the home-and-home because they were damn lucky to escape with one point.

Onto things at hand for the Bridgeport Sound Tigers, the Albany River Rats have moved into a tie for 4th in the East Division, which is very bad news for the Tigers. They’ve lost 5 straight and now have to face a three-in-three after playing 3 games in 2 weeks, starting against the WBS Penguins. Here are the updated standings: