#but at the end of the day we are undefeated in regulation playoff hockey

[the-physicality]

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[ledenews]

Josh Resignalo: Playing the Game Within a Game as a Wheeling Miner

There’s no such thing as a beaten path in arena football, and Josh Resignalo knows that fact now after all the headlines during his 17 years in the business. “Oilers Add Resignalo as Offensive Coordinator” … Sugar Skulls Name Resignalo Defensive Coordinator” … “Resignalo Named Head Coach in Cape Fear” … He’s been a Cobra, a Hero, and a Grizzly, too, and he’s well aware each town, venue, and fan base offers varied challenges to overcome before success – on the field and especially at the ticket office – can be achieved. And now, he’s in Wheeling, and Resignalo’s Miners franchise is the fifth mutation of this indoor football product to compete in Wesbanco Arena. And, despite an undefeated record (6-0) and an in-game staff that’s mostly local, Resignalo – a husband, a father of two, and a resident of Mount Airy, N.C. – continues working the crowd here in the Upper Ohio Valley in hopes he’ll soon see more fans in the those stands as the American Arena League playoffs approach. Resignalo first moved to the East Coast as a U.S. Marine stationed in North Carolina, and he later married his bride. As a California native, what do you like most about living on the east side of our country? Honestly, most places are not that different other than the prices at the grocery store. I miss California, but I don’t really miss living there. I’ve been in North Carolina since 2000 when I was stationed at Camp Lejeune as a member of the U.S. Marine Corps. What are the three major differences between regular football and arena football? First, the obvious difference is the size of the field. It’s about half the length and width of a regulation outdoor field. It’s literally the size of a hockey rink with turf instead of ice, and there’s no glass but there are pads on the dasher boards. The speed of the game is much faster. Playing 8-on-8 vs. 11-on-11 is different, and in arena, we have three offensive linemen, three wide receivers, a running back, and the quarterback. On defense, we have three defensive linemen, two linebackers, and three defensive backs. The fan interaction both during the game and after the game, is much different. One of our players can literally high five fans and engage with them during the game, and after the game, fans can come down to the field and meet the players in person, get autographs, and take pictures along with the dance team and our mascot Cole. "Coach Res" lives full-time in Mount Airy, North Carolina where he and his bride are raising their children while operating a full-service salon. What is it about business that makes sense to you? For indoor/arena football teams to be successful, you must treat the organization like a business. It’s not about the football, but more-so how you approach the community. At the end of the day, community partner dollars (sponsorships), and ticket sales help make the team successful and last year after year. So, it’s important to be involved in the community. Now the product on the field is important because we are a football team, and winning is one of the main ingredients to success at the ticket office. What would it take to have you and your family move to Wheeling, West Virginia? Well, there are a lot of factors involved in a big decision like moving. My wife and I own a business back home, a full-service salon and spa called Salon Resi, so, we’d have to figure out that. My wife also sings in a Hall of Fame beach music group called The Catalinas. She loves music, so the music scene here in the valley and all the way up to Pittsburgh is a definite plus in the equation.   I would very much be interested at some point, and if taking over a high school or a college program – or being a coach in a program – would make that decision a much easier one for me. For the past 17 years, Resignalo has been involved with arena football in some form and in several cities before coming to Wheeling. What has surprised you most about the people of Wheeling West Virginia? The people, for sure. The people of Wheeling have been very welcoming so far. From building the team, to creating lasting friendships, the people have helped me in a big way. Plus, getting linked back up with a good friend and former high school football teammate in Matt Porter has been awesome. It’s something I could have never planned. Being able to do what I love is very important to me, but to also build something pretty awesome with a good friend who loves football, too, is a true blessing. Read the full article

[mitchbeck]

CANTLON: ROCHESTER COMES TO HARTFORD AND LEAVES WITH TWO POINTS

BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings HARTFORD, CT - The Rochester Americans' Tage Thompson return back home ended perfectly for him and his teammates, but not so good for the Hartford Wolf Pack. Thompson’s goal, the only one scored in the shootout session, gave the visiting Americans a 3-2 win after overcoming a 2-0 deficit at the start of the third period. The loss ended the Wolf Pack’s modest opening season success of a three-game winning streak. “There are going to be some growing pains. Everything will not be easy. The lesson tonight was that we have to keep pressing even though we have the lead. We have to play smart, and keep putting the pressure on," said Pack head coach Kris Knoblauch. Thompson scored the winning goal against his former UCONN teammate, Pack netminder, Adam Huska. “It was pretty special to play my old teammate,“ a smiling Huska said. “The shootout is 50/50. Hopefully, I’ll make the save next time.” For Thompson, it meant a lot more than just a win. His father Brent, the current Bridgeport Sound Tiger head coach and ex-Wolf Pack player, and his mother, Kim, were both in attendance. He was receiving post-game medical attention and was unavailable for comment. For the Wolf Pack, it was another third period where they let an opponent hang around and were unable to put the game away. Early in the third period, Huska was under pressure as Rochester pushed and finally broke through. Thompson was on the left-wing side, put a deftly-delivered soft-pass to rookie Remi Elie, who put on a burst of speed and slipped behind Pack defenseman, Mason Geertsen, and deposited his first pro goal at 4:42. The Americans cut the lead to one as they took advantage of their high-end, offensive firepower with some serious quality chances on Huska. Long-time Pack-killer, Jean-Sebastien Dea, was stopped on a right-wing bid and then at the end of his shift at 9:59. Dalton Smith was stopped with 5:51 remaining. Andrew Ogilvie was denied with 5:51 left in regulation. Danny O’Regan had a solid quality chance, but fired wide on his opportunity to make it a two-goal cushion. With 1:48 remaining, Rochester used their timeout. They elected to pull Andrew Hammond from the net, and with the extra attacker, they kept the puck in the Wolf Pack end of the ice. Dea and Thompson both had shots rejected by Huska before Thompson, on the left-wing, put a superb pass across to Roman Elie. Huska responded by turning it away. The Wolf Pack were unable to clear the puck, which found it's way over to the last guy the Pack wanted to have it, Zack Redmond. He entered the contest as last season's league leader in game-winning goals. He was on the left-wing and the righthanded shot went down to one knee and fired it past Huska with 12.6 seconds remaining. “We defended it well, but we just could never get the clear we needed there,” said Knoblauch. Early in Overtime, Rochester tried to end the three-on-three quickly. Porter and Thompson sought to end it, but Huska was equal to the task. In a critical defensive zone draw that was won by Boo Nieves, he saw his stick blade snap off and that left him in a very vulnerable position trying to defend a ton of space. “That was so tough because you're out there on an island with all that open ice. Boo couldn’t put a stick down in the lane for a block, or handle the puck to receive or clear out an outlet pass,” said Knoblauch. Chytil, who has gotten better each game, summed it up best. “We played a good game, unfortunately, we just couldn’t score in overtime.” In the second period, the Wolf Pack scored twice. Huska was strong in goal and the team seemed in control. It felt like a fourth straight win to start the season seemed assured. The Wolf Pack gained the 1-0 lead because of a missed shot. Danny O’Regan was in the slot and went to take his shot, but fanned on it. The puck was bouncing around and he swiped at it, sending it off the backhand over to Chytil, who was wide open with the whole net to shot at and scored his second goal in as many games at 9:47. “I was in the right place. He made the play (happen)and I'm not going to miss the (open) net." He said. The Pack extended their lead to 2-0 as Matt Beleskey banked a pass off the left-wing boards that caught Nieves speeding away behind the Americans defense for a clean breakaway. Eric Cornel tried to catch him in vain. Nieves moved in on Andrew Hammond, yes that Andrew Hammond, who was leading Ottawa in the playoffs two years ago as, "The Hamburglar" as he was dubbed. Nieves zoomed in and fired a shot saved by Hammond, but Nieves had his stick on the ice and got off a shot off the rebound. It went off the inside of Hammond’s right pad and into the net for his first goal for the season at 16:44. “I thought the Nieves goal was a good team play,“ Knoblauch said, speaking of one of his assistant captains. “Both Beleskey and Kravtsov made impressive passes on the breakout to make it happen.” Huska continues to impress and stopped several top-shelf Rochester scoring attempts. He stopped Kevin Porter’s left-wing shot, then kicked the puck to the right-wing corner where C.J. Smith attempted as well. Rasmus Asplund’s strong scoring chance from 15-feet out aimed for the short-side. The first period was a better skating version of last night’s game, but again quality chances were spaced out. Early on Casey Fitzgerald had solid chances for the Americans and Raddysh stepped into one that was denied by Andrew Hammond. Huska made a nice blocker save and did his best for the Wolf Pack to get the game’s first goal. LINES O’Regan-Di Giuseppe-Chytil Fogarty-Lettieri-Ryan Gropp Nieves-Beleskey-Kravtsov Jones-Newell-Gettinger LoVerde-Lindgren Day-Raddysh Ebert-Geersten SCRATCHES: Jeff Taylor Joey Keane Gabriel Fontaine Ville Meskanen. NOTES: Darren Raddysh has always worn number 24 and had received it, but Ebert is now wearing his former number 22 The Wolf Pack off to an undefeated start is stopped at three here is the top seven in team history. The 2003-04 squad went 8-0-3-1 and the following season the Wolf Pack won their nine games all in regulation (9-0-0). The 1998-99 team went 5-0-0 and 2013-14 squad went 5-0-1, and the 1999-00 team was 2-0-3-1. Thompson and Huska are the first two UCONN players to play against each other in this building as professionals. Rochester’s Dalton Smith is the nephew to former Whaler, Keith Primeau. Wolf Pack Fan jersey of the game: 18 Tyler Brown (Reading-ECHL player-assistant coach), 21 Bobby Sanguinetti (EHC Munich Germany-DEL), 30 Cederick Desjardins (Jonquiere-LNAH/Levis- QMAAA goalie coach), 32 Hubert Labrie (Belleville-AHL) and 41 Taylor Beck (Avangard Omsk-KHL). -Our condolences on the passing in Edmonton of former New England Whalers great Ted Green 79, who jumped from the Big, Bad brawling Bruins to tryout the upstart, renegade WHA. Green was the team’s first captain the first three years with the Whalers (two in Boston and one in Hartford) winning the first of his three Avco Cup titles before being traded to Winnipeg in his home province. As a young man he won a Memorial Cup with the Winnipeg Braves team. Green won the Stanley Cup in 1971-’72 when he was a member of those physically intimidating and also high scoring Bruins teams in their early form.  Green is known as “Terrible Ted” then was involved in one of hockey’s most violent episodes with him at the epicenter that changed his career playing style and cost him a whole year of hockey from 1969-’70. In an exhibition game in Ottawa against the St. Louis Blues on September 21, 1969, he got into a bloody stick fight with Wayne Maki where he suffered a fractured skull and suffered brain damage, remember very few players wore helmets in those days, which is hard to imagine today. Each player was charged with assault, the first NHL players ever to be charged for their on-ice behavior, both were acquitted. Maki was suspended for 30 games and Green was suspended for 13 games, but missed the whole season and missed out on the first Bruins Stanley Cup win. The players voted him a share of the playoff money and his name was engraved on the Stanley Cup. He did hoist the Cup for real when the Bruins won in 1972. Maki tragically died of brain cancer five years later. Green was teammates with Glen Sather in Boston who made him an assistant coach with the Edmonton Oilers winning five more Stanley Cup titles for seven in total. Sather hired him with the New York Rangers as an assistant. Green was a 2nd team NHL All-Star in 1969 and at one time held the record for assists for a defenseman at the now comically low 36. After the incident, he had just two major fighting penalties the last with Rangers great Rod Gilbert. Read the full article

[thrashermaxey]

Ramblings: Bruins Draw First Blood, Sabres Win Draft Lottery, Vegas No Longer Undefeated (April 29)

Bruins Draw First Blood, Sabres Win Draft Lottery, Vegas No Longer Undefeated

The shorter rest compared to the opponent wasn’t an issue for the Boston Bruins, whose top line struck again for multiple points each. From a Bruins’ perspective in Game 1, there was lots to unpack from the scoresheet. So far it’s been apparent that in order for the Bruins to win, their top line has to score. They did just that with a combined total of 11 points on Saturday.  

Brad Marchand-Patrice Bergeron-David Pastrnak trio this postseason In wins (five games): 12 goals and 41 points. In losses (three games): Zero goals and zero points.

— Ty Anderson (@_TyAnderson) April 28, 2018

David Pastrnak recorded another four assists, bringing his amazing playoff point total to 17 points in just eight games. He is now one point ahead of Jake Guentzel for the playoff scoring lead. He only turns 22 later this month and has just completed that fourth year that is the breakout for many. So there’s lots more to come.

Brad Marchand didn’t lick anyone in this game (I don't think). But as we’ve become accustomed to, he added his usual doses of offense and annoyingness in scoring a goal and adding three assists.  

Not to be outdone, Patrice Bergeron scored two goals and added an assist. Like Pastrnak and Marchand, Bergeron was also a plus-4 in this game. That’s back-to-back three-point games for the top-line center if you include Game 7 against Toronto.

Rick Nash scored two goals of his own, including a power-play goal. The Bruins amassed a grand total of eight seconds of power-play time in Game 1, yet were able to capitalize quickly on their only opportunity. Nash saw just under 13 minutes of icetime in this game, which is the second time that has happened during the playoffs. He'd been held without a goal in his previous five games. 

Jake DeBrusk continues to add to his brief playoff legend by adding another goal. He’s now on a mini-scoring run with four goals over his last three games and six goals overall in these playoffs. With this performance, he is certainly adding to his fantasy stock as a potential sleeper in next season’s fantasy drafts.

About the only thing that went wrong for the Bruins in this Game 1 road win was Tuukka Rask losing his skate blade on a Lightning goal. Unfortunate, but kind of funny. Rask was obviously irate, but there is no rule stating that the officials needed to stop the play (NHL PR).  

Tuukka Rask loses his skate blade, then throws it in anger pic.twitter.com/QGT0fTle64

— Hockey Night in Canada (@hockeynight) April 28, 2018

For the Lightning, Brayden Point had a Jake Gardiner-like plus-minus of minus-5 (sorry, Leafs fans, I realize that’s just one game). Ondrej Palat and Anton Stralman were a minus-4 each. Both Lightning goals came from defensemen (Mikhail Sergachev and Dan Girardi). The Bolts will need a better showing from their top line in Game 2; otherwise, their chances of winning the series could be in serious jeopardy heading up to Boston for Game 3.

Andrei Vasilevskiy allowed five goals on just 23 shots. The sixth Bruins’ goal was scored on an empty net, as Jon Cooper decided to roll the dice and pull Vasilevskiy with over six minutes to play.

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The Buffalo Sabres are the big winners of the draft lottery, giving them the opportunity to draft Rasmus Dahlin first overall. The Sabres had the best odds of any team (18.5%), thanks to their 31st overall finish that was five points worse than any other team. So even if your team “lost” the lottery draft (as mine did), this is simply the universe unfolding as it should. For more, see Dahlin’s profile at Dobber Prospects.

Buffalo arguably needs this player more than anyone, as they have been held together with a paper-thin defense in recent seasons. Dahlin’s presence would ease the burden on Rasmus Ristolainen, who the Sabres have leaned on heavily at over 25 minutes per game over the last three seasons. This overuse has put undue pressure on the 23-year-old defenseman, who is a career minus-102 over four and a half seasons, including a minus-25 last season. The Dahlin effect could result in a slight reduction in Ristolainen’s point totals and peripheral stats resulting from icetime, but make him a more effective defenseman overall.

I know it’s not a perfect comparison, but I tend to think of Victor Hedman’s development when I think of where Dahlin will be next season. Hedman did not crack 30 points until his fifth season, when he broke through for 55 points in 2013-14. Dahlin might be even better than Hedman, but don’t expect an inexperienced defenseman on a rebuilding team to take the fantasy world by storm next season. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t target him on your keeper league team, of course. Hedman did play in the NHL the year he was drafted, so I would expect the same from Dahlin. Just temper your expectations for 2018-19.

The other big winner of the draft lottery was the Carolina Hurricanes, which I discovered the moment my 9-year-old son said to me, “Dad, why do the Hurricanes have a star next to their logo?” while I had laser-like focus on the picks that were being announced. Most mock drafts will likely project the Canes as picking right wing Andrei Svechnikov. He would provide the Canes with a potential top-end scoring threat, something that they are limited in at the moment. For more, see Svechnikov’s profile at Dobber Prospects.

As for the rest of the picks, it should be fun to project where they will end up. Here are the overall draft lottery results, in case you don’t have them memorized by now:  

Final Draft Lottery Order: 1. Buffalo 2. Carolina 3. Montreal 4. Ottawa 5. Arizona 6. Detroit 7. Vancouver 8. Chicago 9. NYR 10. Edmonton 11. NYI 12. NYI 13. Dallas 14. Philadelphia 15. Florida#NHLDraftLottery

— John Shannon (@JSportsnet) April 29, 2018

Dobber’s own Cam Robinson joined TSN 1040 radio in Vancouver to share his thoughts on who the Canucks should pick seventh overall (direct link here). Expect the Canucks to target a defenseman, as that is the organization’s most pressing need. They should have plenty to choose from in that spot.    

I joined @HockeyAbbs and @JDylanBurke around the 17 minute mark to talk likely picks for the #Canucks at 7th overall and a few wildcard guys that could surprise. https://t.co/GKCcLH0pZf

— /Cam Robinson/ (@CrazyJoeDavola3) April 29, 2018

And of course, you can view Cam’s 2018 NHL Draft Rankings at Dobber Prospects.

As for the format, it didn’t bother me. I liked having the break in between to process things. I’m sure it improved ratings for the game as well.

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Believe it or not, there was actually a hockey game while we were waiting in suspense for the top three picks. Logan Couture scored at 5:13 of the second overtime to give the Sharks a 4-3 win over Vegas in Game 2. The victory ties the series at 1, while giving the Golden Knights their first-ever playoff loss. Here is the goal, which is a classic Couture snipe on a power play.

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The Knights thought they had won during the first overtime period on a Jonathan Marchessault goal, but the goal was waived after review for goaltender interference by Marchessault.

Couture’s overtime goal was his second of the game and fourth of the playoffs. The Sharks fired 47 shots over regulation and overtime, with Couture leading the way with seven shots.

Brent Burns also scored two goals and added an assist while taking six shots of his own. Burns had not scored a goal since Game 1 of the Anaheim series. He and Marc-Edouard Vlasic both logged over 36 minutes of icetime, while Justin Braun racked up 35 minutes. There’s a major icetime imbalance among Sharks defenders, as Paul Martin played just 10 minutes and Dylan DeMelo only 17 minutes. Vegas spreads its icetime much more evenly among its defensemen.

In a losing cause, William Karlsson scored two goals. He is well-known for his out-of-nowhere 40-goal season, but something that doesn’t get mentioned enough is Karlsson’s strong two-way play. He was definitely worth consideration for the Selke Trophy because of his penalty-killing ability. Perhaps that is why he couldn’t get off John Tortorella’s checking line in Columbus.

As impressive as the Golden Knights have been during the playoffs, the Sharks controlled the majority of the play with 47 shots compared to the Knights’ 29 shots. This was even without shots on goal warrior Evander Kane, who was serving his one-game suspension. Marc-Andre Fleury really kept Vegas in this game.

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Lastly, some injury news: Evgeni Malkin could return for Game 2 on Sunday (NHL.com). He may return for what is shaping up to be a fun day to watch hockey with the Penguins/Capitals followed by the Jets/Predators.

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For more fantasy hockey information, you can follow me on Twitter @Ian_Gooding.

  from All About Sports https://dobberhockey.com/hockey-rambling/ramblings-bruins-draw-first-blood-sabres-win-draft-lottery-vegas-no-longer-undefeated-april-29/