Prospect Info: Hartford Wolf Pack/Greenville Swamp Rabbits Thread *Part V*

[Osminator]

Hartford this year is bad even for an AHL team. I'm not asking for the impossible, but this team is just not good. They should've kept Chris Bourque, it would've gave the team much more balance. Now that Megna is also gone, the Pack will be downright awful.

We are in agreement with this... Don't know what it is, but Pack are not having any luck with the vets they bring in... The last real impact vet was Newbury, after him only 1 dud followed the next. Megna wasn't exactly lighting it up either.. curious to see Nielsen/Fransen, whatever the guy that came back in the Etem trade looks like

 

[Osminator]

After the NYR shat the house tonight, the Pack better show up and play like there is no tomorrow... Good for Tarnasky and McCarthy for scoring yesterday, the other three lines played like horse **** yesterday.

 

[Revel]

Jensen with a goal already in his first game. Call him up! j/k

 

[Ail]

Jensen with a goal already in his first game. Call him up! j/k

Happy to be leaving the Canucks organization, I guess.

 

[Revel]

Happy to be leaving the Canucks organization, I guess.

Probably more well-rested than we would think, too. Utica to Hartford ain't too bad of a drive.

Seems everyone is scoring for Hartford tonight. Tambo has a G & A, too.

It's a new dawn!

 

[Brooklyn Ranger]

This is AHL. The level of play in this league is not what people think of if they only watch the NHL and the Olympics. There's a reason why AHLers are making $60k and not $3m: they either lack the talent to play in the NHL or, as is the case with Skjei and Graves, they make dumb rookie mistakes which will need to get ironed out in the next year or two before they can make the NHL.

Everything is worse in the AHL: players, coaches, announcers, referees. I think one of the reasons the Rangers canceled showing Traverse is that fans were really disappointed in Kenny G and he began getting a lot of hate after that tournament. Presumably, even the worst NHL coach is still much better than the best AHL coach, except for a few up-and-comers because even being an assistant coach in the NHL is a better gig since you fly on a private plane instead of riding the bus, you stay in elite hotels in major cities instead of going to Utica and Syracuse, you get a Stanley Cup ring if you win, you deal with NHLers instead of frustrated AHLers who sacrificed their youth only to get a $60k a year job, money they could've gotten by simply going to college.

Same with players. When you first start watching the AHL, you are just stunned. You see 3-4 goal leads blown as a matter of course, you see total defensive collapses, you see missed empty nets. There's a reason people don't pay $200 to go watch minor leaguers play.

Exactly--I still remember a game I watched back in the early 1990s when the team was in Binghamton. The first period was a show of great hockey: fast, great passing, chippy, but clean, both goalies playing lights out. Then the second started and it was like the director from Slap Shots came into the building and everyone was auditioning for the sequel--and the period ended something 7-3. Binghamton won the game (I think) and the final score was something like 10-7.

Wish they still televised AHL games--always liked watching because you never know what kind of game it's going to be.

 

[Revel]

Nicklas Jensen Goal 01/09/2016

Goal in his first game as a Wolf. Nice wrister top corner on a 2 on 1 with Hrivic.

 

[Beacon]

Playing the Baby Devils.

FIRST PERIOD

Starting lineup: Graves with Hughes, Hrivik between Lindblad and Jensen. Hellberg in the net.

Bourque-Rambo-Henring are the second line. Skjei with Bodie on defense with them.

Graves with a good poke check to stop a potential fastbreak.

Jensen with a good shift. Take away, pass to Lindberg, took the puck again, shot, took it again.

GOAL: And now off the cycle created by what I described above, Hrivik scored. Nice play by Bourque behind the net to find Skjei at center right above the circles, who shoots, and Hrivik with an Adam Graves-like rebound goal. The Pack were in the middle of a change, so Lindblad and Jensen were off the ice already, replaced by Bourque and Rambo, who got the +. 1-0

Pack look like the better team early on.

Skjei displaying his good skating skills with ease.

Summers with Kurran on the third pair.

Big hit by some Pack player as a Devil was trying to go around him, but I couldn't tell who it was.

Skjei with a rookie turnover.

Hellberg with a big stop on a shot from a few feet away.

Adam with Combs and Krushelnyski on the third line. Tarnaski between McCarthy and Nicholls on the fourth line. (Actually, not sure which they regard as the third and which as the fourth line.)

Jensen is a good cycler. The Pack will benefit from having him on the team. I'd rather Jensen help the Pack than Etem be useless for the Rangers.

Graves need to learn positioning better. He's not awful the way Haggerty was last year, but it's not up to par yet. This, more than anything, is what's keeping him riding the bus around the AHL.

Penalty on Hrivik. McCarthy-Nehring, Skjei-Hughes on the first PK. Good save by Hell. A couple more saves later. Bourque and Summers came onto the ice, but the rest of the second unit never made it. Bourque's stick broke, but the penalty is killed.

Lindblad looks like a good AHLer. His return from injury will help the Pack.

GOAL: A baby Devil made a great one on one toe drag move around Graves and scored. Graves decided to try to poke check the Devil with his back to him. Awful rookie mistake. Needs to get a yelling for that from Kenny G.

Jensen is everywhere. He dumps the puck from the red line on the right side, then catches it on the left side of the net himself. Why isn't any other Packer chasing the puck?

END OF THE FIRST

 

[Revel]

Hrivik with an Adam Graves-like rebound goal.

Hrivik really got into the **** to get that goal. Two opponents all over him plus the goalie. Really nice effort to stay on his skates and score.

 

[Osminator]

Graves and Hellberg having brutal games.
I really only now see why Hellberg only played 20 mins of 1 NHL game... Must have been a killer defense in front of him Milwaukee when he was an All-Star, he really puts the shake in shaky...

 

[Revel]

Graves and Hellberg having brutal games.
I really only now see why Hellberg only played 20 mins of 1 NHL game... Must have been a killer defense in front of him Milwaukee when he was an All-Star, he really puts the shake in shaky...

Yeah, I've only watched 2 full games this year. One with Hellberg, and one with Malcolm. Malcolm looked fantastic and Hellberg looked like crap.

 

[Osminator]

F... Hellberg... seriously, how about a save now and then other than on a dump-in on goal? ((((((((

Graves getting exposed really bad in this game, ouch.

 

[Mikos87]

Hellberg's a little gangly for a guys that's 6'6".

He's not athletic, but sometimes you have to wonder if he can get it all together by just being technically sound and letting pucks hit him.

ALA Dubnyk.

I'm not a goalie expert, but they've been bad this year in HFD.

 

[Mikos87]

Exactly--I still remember a game I watched back in the early 1990s when the team was in Binghamton. The first period was a show of great hockey: fast, great passing, chippy, but clean, both goalies playing lights out. Then the second started and it was like the director from Slap Shots came into the building and everyone was auditioning for the sequel--and the period ended something 7-3. Binghamton won the game (I think) and the final score was something like 10-7.

Wish they still televised AHL games--always liked watching because you never know what kind of game it's going to be.

You know I have to say it's gotten to the point where you can clearly notice NHL talent in that league.

It's a couple of things, one is the saturation of talent the game currently has. A lot of these kids can skate at the NHL level. It's not like the old days where only the top 6 guys at the NHL could skate, and the bottom six or pairs were plodding around.

The game's improved where you see even AHL players can skate.

But when it comes to skills, coaching, coverage, and smarts, it's really not even close.

 

[Osminator]

Hellberg's a little gangly for a guys that's 6'6".

He's not athletic, but sometimes you have to wonder if he can get it all together by just being technically sound and letting pucks hit him.

ALA Dubnyk.

I'm not a goalie expert, but they've been bad this year in HFD.

This exactly.. I don't think he feels comfortable in his frame, so he looks like a pilon out there, if the shot doesn't hit him, it is in the net most of the time, that is worrying.

HFD has crapped the bed for a number of season's now, minus the deep run in the playoffs to the Eastern Finals (which personally, having seen all the games, think it was more a mix of adrenaline, timely heroes and fortunate bounces).

 

[Beacon]

SECOND PERIOD

Bodie is totally useless along the boards because he's so weak. Krushelnyski also looks weak.

GOAL: Graves failed to help Skjei along the boards on a dump in, which led to a turn over. Shot from the blue line hits Graves and deflects into the net. 2-1 Devils.

3 on 2 for the Pack, but Rambo didn't know what to do with it and turned it over.

Bad pass by the Devil and who catches it but Jensen. Good shot but save.

Hughes is showing greater mobility than he ever has since joining the Pack. Looks like a better defeneman than he did last season when he was basically immobile (other than the playoff OT goal that sent the Pack to the ECF where Hughes where from the blue line down to score).

Good shot by Nehring. He's gone from an ECHLer to a very good AHLer very quickly. Last season he was still in the ECHL on Thanksgiving, this season he's leading the Pack in scoring. Too bad he's already 28, I hope a team gives him a chance to put on an NHL jersey for a game or two to give him a memory.

GOAL: Nicholls with a poke pass in his own zone to McCarthy, who rushes the ice and shoots from the far side of the right circle and scores in the 5 hole. Awful goal for the goalie to give up, but 2-2.

Another good rush by the McCarthy-Tarnasky-Nicholls line. Pair of good shots on goal, but nothing went in. They are a good bottom line.

Graves is now playing with Bodie and not Hughes.

Skjei tries to spin-o-rama on defense, but loses the puck. Again, rookie mistake. He could get away with this in the NCAA, but not the AHL, and certainly not the NHL.

Not impressed with Graves this game. Not awful, but not good either. More assets than brains.

PK: Nehring-Jensen up front, then Hrivik Lindblad. Skjei was on the first pair, not sure who was second. Then Graves-Hughes.

GOAL: Devil going at tremendous speed and Graves was slow to react. The Devil blows past him with a left-right move. Second bad one on one play leading to a goal by Graves.

END OF TWO

 

[Mikos87]

This exactly.. I don't think he feels comfortable in his frame, so he looks like a pilon out there, if the shot doesn't hit him, it is in the net most of the time, that is worrying.

HFD has crapped the bed for a number of season's now, minus the deep run in the playoffs to the Eastern Finals (which personally, having seen all the games, think it was more a mix of adrenaline, timely heroes and fortunate bounces).

Yeah exactly, he's 6'6" and shots go through him. When a goalie is that big, you just play the angles and park yourself in the butterfly and let shots hit you. Economy of movement.

He's not that guy.

With the run to the finals you have to give credit to the team, Lindberg was huge. Older Bourque was great, and McIlrath and Hughes were just shutting things down.

Couldn't do anything versus a team with some depth, but they had a hell of a run.

 

[Beacon]

HFD has crapped the bed for a number of season's now, minus the deep run in the playoffs to the Eastern Finals (which personally, having seen all the games, think it was more a mix of adrenaline, timely heroes and fortunate bounces).

It was mostly Lindberg's doing. Lindberg in the AHL looked the way Stepan did in the WJC: a man among boys.

 

[Osminator]

It was mostly Lindberg's doing. Lindberg in the AHL looked the way Stepan did in the WJC: a man among boys.

True, no doubt about Lindberg, but a team has 18 skaters and 2 goalies... He carried them all on his back

 

[Beacon]

THIRD PERIOD

Hughes looking pretty good out there. Maybe we shouldn't give up on him as a prospect just yet. He's 23 years old, so he still has a couple of seasons of development to go. May become a poor man's Sauer if he keeps improving.

GOAL: Nicholls and Tarnasky with good work along the left boards. Pass to Skjei who moves it right to Hughes. He shoots, rebound by Nicholls who scores his first career AHL goal on a very nice shot in the top left corner. 3-3.

Funny enough, the stadium screen showed Zamorsky's face because he and Nicholls have the same number: 42.

Nicholls has been good all-around tonight: boards, shooting, defense.

Jensen with a good hit, knocking down a Devil.

Graves with a pair of good keep-ins in the offensive zone on the same shift.

Graves needs to learn to use his enormous body or he'll wind up in the KHL. He tries to use his stick in every situation, no matter what. Needs to learn how to muscle out a guy.

Good hit by Bourque.

Hrivik with good work along the boards behind the net. Tried to center it, failed, got the puck again, centered it to Jensen who landed a good shot.

Graves actually managed to use his body to box out a forward trying to chase him down for the puck.

Hughes with a good shot.

Skjei is a good passer who sees the ice well.

Rambo had a prime chance to land a big hit, but decided to gently touch the opponent instead of finishing the check. When he's not firing the puck, he's pretty useless. I think he'd be better as a wing.

END OF THREE


OVERTIME

Very early in the OT, Bourque keeps the puck in, passes it to Bodie who moves up from the blue line to the circles and fires an absolute rocket to win the game. Assists to Bourque and Nehring. 4-3 win.

 

[Osminator]

Maybe the Rangers could show some Pack OT tape how it is done hahahahaha rocket by Bodie, nice ending to a 3 games in 3 days!

 

[cwede]

hoping this a new flavor, better team up front now,
with Jensen, Krushelnyski, and Nicholls added, with Combs back up,
and now Adam maybe rounding into form

add that to even slightly more clutch goalkeeping than the 1st half,
and if these 6 D can stay healthy,
plenty of time to become a good team

 

[Mac n Gs]

Josh Nicholls JUST scored his first AHL goal? Yeesh, but hey, good for him. Him turning into a decent AHL player wouldn't be the worst thing

 

[Hunter Gathers]

Nicklas Jensen Goal 01/09/2016

Goal in his first game as a Wolf. Nice wrister top corner on a 2 on 1 with Hrivic.

Was actually quite a nice shot.

 

[Amazing Kreiderman]

Josh Nicholls JUST scored his first AHL goal? Yeesh, but hey, good for him. Him turning into a decent AHL player wouldn't be the worst thing

It feels like he has been in our system for years! But mostly in Greenville apparently