Game 2 Wrap-Up

Ladies and gentlemen, your FHL league leading First Place Danbury Whalers!!!!

• Nick Niedert. That is all. 
• No, but really, 32 saves on 32 shots to give the Whalers a 4-0 win and the FHL's first shutout. There were some crazy bounces out there that I think some NHL caliber goalies would have trouble saving, and Niedert swatted them out of the air with a confidence I've rarely seen at this level. I think it's safe to say that we can erase any fear of goalie trouble I had 3 days ago from the books, because we clearly have a hot player on our hands. 
• I'm honestly less excited about the shutout than I am the fact that the boys stood up for themselves and each other this time. Ultimately, letting the other team know they're going to get pounded into little chunks if they try to run Niedert again will take them a lot further than the score of one game will. And it wasn't just protecting the goalie either; every time a big hit or a cheap shot came against the Whalers, there was an emphatic response. Guy led the charge on that front in Game 2 with some booming hits and brutal fights. It was highly amusing to watch him every time he skated by the A's bench. May be my clear-cut decision for an enforcer title if he keeps this up. 
• The referee and linesmen we had last night were actually worse, but I'm not going to harp on that any more. Once we get one that actually makes calls when he should and doesn't when he shouldn't, I'll make sure everybody knows who he is. Until then, my opinion hasn't changed. 
• No conversion on the powerplay. 0-2. However, both powerplays spent almost the entire time in the offensive zone with a respectable amount of shots on goal. A LOT better than Game 1, where we couldn't take the zone.
• Penalty kill, 6 for 6. It was a hard working PK with lots of chasing the puck down and clearing the zone. Tiring for sure, but it certainly got the job done. 
• Whalers are 11 for 12 on the PK this season, clicking at 91%. That's too many penalties in the first two games. 
• Coincidentally, we lead the league in shorthanded goals (2). 
• Goal 1: Hellemeyer by Willock and Bria 
• Goal 2: DiMarzo by Siefert and Nelson
• Goal 3: Siefert by DiMarzo and Nelson (Shorthanded)
• Goal 4: Guy by DiMarzo (Shorthanded)
• Both shorthanded goals were results of the PK chasing the puck down and clearing the zone with hard work and high pressure. They keep that up and other teams will be afraid to get a powerplay. 
• DiMarzo had 1 goal and 2 assists for 3 points and a +3 night. Very Gionta-esque again. Lots of weaving in and out of the D-men like they were standing still, and by the time things got ugly in the third period he was delivering some solid hits along the boards as well. The combination of DiMarzo, Siefert, and Nelson was absolutely lethal last night. Hopefully that chemistry remains. 
• Lind and Malloy held pointless this time, but they were both big physical presences on the ice. 
• Felten's name isn't going to leave Whalers fans' minds any time soon. He tried 3 more times last night to go after Niedert and was stopped by Guy, Hager, and Lind on all three attempts. In the 3rd he was challenged to a fight twice and refused both times, but kept running at the mouth once there was a referee protecting him. He took a few hard hits in the brawl at the end of the game. Otherwise, our players did a good job shutting down his antics. 
• An Aviators player whose name I missed attempted spearing one of ours with about 4 minutes left in the game and missed entirely, going headfirst into the boards and crumpling. No word on whether or not he's okay, though he did manage to get off the ice himself, albeit slowly. 
• Results of both fights and the end-game brawl in front of the Whalers net: 3 Aviators players sent to the locker rooms with gushing cuts on their heads. You've got to be in a bad way when you can't win the fight or the hockey game. 
• Druce didn't show up at all. It didn't help that his team left him hanging numerous times on an off night for their goaltender. 
• We're in Rome Wednesday at 7. 

Game 1 Fight Video

Credit for these videos goes to Matt Stopa, who got the video from center ice seats at Game 1. May need to work on the winning fights definitively department, but these kids have heart! Worth noting in the Mike V video that you can see after he falls, that his left arm stays limp as he skates to the bench. Definitely a fractured arm. More on that in a few minutes...

Live from Game 2

9:36: Game over. 4-0 Whalers!!!! Niedert takes 1st star for the shutout.

9:28: Whalers win back to back fights. Aviators players sent to the lockers as bloody messes.

9:17: Druce knocks the net off to stop another Dimarzo breakaway. Danbury responds with a shortie by Guy. Slapshot off the faceoff. 4-0 Whalers. Big brawl in front of Niedert.

9:13: 10 left. Solid hits this period.

9:00: Start of 3. 20 seconds Danbury PP

8:44: End of 2. Felton declined fights twice now, still harassing Niedert. Real classy.

8:34: Fight won by Danbury, 18v18. NY penalty 20 for tripping

8:27: Lots of back and forth. Felton skated to Niedert for some jawing on media timeout and no call made. Provoked a tripping call against Whalers seconds later

8:09: Danbury 25 pulled off a fight with a NY player. NY given penalty shot on Danbury tripping. Niedert makes the save. Danbury goal 10 seconds later by Siefert shorthanded for a 3-0 lead on Karlov tripping call

8:02:Start of 2. 2-0 Whalers.

7:42: Both teams with a solid PK to end the period. Refs whistled down another play on a free puck in front of the NY net. And this is a different ref staff too. FHL refs are not making a good impression so far...End of 1.

7:28: Dimarzo with a breakaway goal! 2-0 Whalers!

7:21: Whalers goal by 27. Now Whalers PP. 1-0!

6:48pm: No Mike V tonight. Definitely thinking rotator cuff. 20 minutes to go...

6:30pm:Teams taking the ice for warm-ups. Whalers wearing alternate jerseys tonight. Lots of NY players still don't have nameplates. Looks so halfassed it's not even funny. Niedert and Druce are our starting goaltenders again.

6:21pm: Warm up skate starting momentarily. We'll see if they come out to "Welcome to the Jungle" again tonight.

Saturday October 30th: Around The League

Thursday Night:

• Broome crushed the Warriors 6-2. Filion made 14 saves on 16 shots before the Warriors pulled him. On the opposite side of the ice, Skoggard made saves on 35 of 37 shots to get the W. Broome had two players that scored two goals each.

Last Night:

• Only other game that got played last night besides ours was Frenzy v. Privateers. 6-5 Rome was the Final. The big story here was Rome's Tibor Varga, who had 4 goals and 2 assists on 9 shots for 6 points and a +5 rating. One guess who we need to stick our D to when we play Rome...Varga's 3 hat trick goals came in a 48 second span of playing time. Truly impressive. 

Tonight:

• In addition to your Danbury Whalers taking on the Aviators at home again: At 7:35 tonight, Frenzy v Warriors. At 8:05, Privateers v. Barons. 

Game 2: Home v. Aviators, Saturday October 30th

As always, gates at 6p, puck drop at 7:05. Click the title of the post for a link to the official pre-game chart.

This will be the second game of a home twice set for Danbury to start the season.

Tonight's points of interest:

• Velasquez was EVERYWHERE last night. I called for Karlov and Malloy to have big nights, but Velasquez had two assists for the +2 rating and was really instrumental in some other key plays last night, including the PK. Hopefully he gets a goal tonight, because he certainly deserves it. 
• For the Aviators, Druce(38), Felten(20), and Miller(22), have risen pretty quickly to the top of Danbury's To-Hate list. Druce for his dirty play, Felten for his run on Niedert, and Miller for a LOT of unsportsmanlike conduct. If this team really wants to go places, they know they have to stick up for each other, and I expect to see fireworks with these three tonight. 
• No word on Danbury's starting goalie yet. Niedert seemed fine after the runthrough last night, so the question now is to play him because he's hot, or bench him in favor of Donovan not to take any chances. On one hand, Niedert had a stellar 92.5% save average last night. I'm torn, but it's not my decision to make either. 
• The refs were abysmal last night. We have one linesman returning from last night. The other linesman and referee are different, so let's hope they're coming to Danbury already having had that head-removal surgery performed, otherwise the fine folks of the first half a dozen rows of 102 would be happy to assist, I think. (We only got yelled at once last night!)

Just like last night, I'll be updating live from Section 102, K-1. Come say Hi between periods and let me know what you think so far!

Game 1 Wrap-Up

Now that it's 1:44pm and I'm finally awake.....went to TK's after party last night and got to meet a lot of the players. Far too many people wanted to buy me drinks.

Run-down of the game last night:

• THE WHALERS WIN!!!! THE WHALERS WIN!!!!! (said in my best Gerry Cheevers impression). 4-3 Final. With the way the officiating went it really should have been 6-2, but I'll take it. More on the refs in a bit. 
• There was a standing room only, sellout crowd of 2412 last night! I was talking with a lot of Hatters and Trashers fans who had gone to every game then, and they seemed to agree unanimously that they never saw a crowd this big for those games. Lookin' good people, lookin' good!
• Solid call on both of my points predictions yesterday afternoon: Karlov with 1G1A for a +2 rating, and Malloy with 1G1A for a +3 rating. Even 102 was cheering "Malloy!!!!!!!" on that goal. It truly looked like poetry in motion and, like I said, I think he'll have no problem winning the fans over. 
• The other two goals were scored by Devin Guy and Andrew Willock, on an equally impressive rebound, and wrister, respectively. 
• DiMarzo was held pointless this game, but not for lack of trying. At one point in the second period he deked through all 5 skaters of the other team alone to get a shot on net. I'm expecting big things. 
• Niedert looked SPECTACULAR in net last night. Calm, cool, and collected. We'll see if he gets back-to-back starts tonight. 
• For Danbury, the fighters were: Corey Fulton, Devin Guy, Mike Vallely, JR Bria, and Corey Fulton again.Vallely, although I have to give him a LOT of credit for trying, was the only real definitive loss. The other 4 fights went until they got broken up by the Refs, and more often than not they were going in our favor. Guy actually threw New York's Chris Bain over our bench and started railing on him while he tried to get up. I like. 

Stuff Danbury needs to work on...

• Our Powerplay needs A LOT of work. We had a 5-on3 for 35 seconds in the 2nd and couldn't even take the zone. That should have been an easy goal to give some breathing room. 
• One of my biggest complaints about camp was the fact that the team was doing VERY poorly completing passes. It showed last night. We could have generated a lot more scoring chances had passes not been missed entirely. There's work to be done boys. It was a feel good win, for sure, especially since we beat a team whose pre-season marketing claim was "the only undefeated hockey team" on night 1. 

Stuff the Refs need to work on...

• The volume of non-calls last night was nauseating. Here's a quick summary, in no particular order.
• With 1 minute left in the third, New York takes a shot on Niedert with 6 men on the ice. He gloves it, drops it when the whistle gets blown, and New York #22 Blake Miller snatches it and takes a booming slap shot at the boards, narrowly missing a few Danbury players. Hello, 2 minutes for unsportsmanlike? No call made.
• At the beginning of the second stanza, New York #20 Jesse Felten charges Niedert, bowling him over. Instead of standing up, he rolls over, ON TOP of Niedert, twisting his knee in the process. He sits there for a good 5 seconds before the refs blow the whistle and he stands up. Niedert spent about 2 minutes on the ground and the game was halted to get medical staff to him. Eventually he got up and played the rest of the game. No call made. 
• While we're talking about goalies, Aviators had Druce (#38) in net last night. While he was, for the most part, a solid goalie and I can say no wrong about his skill level...he's a complete goon. Totally my most hated player of the evening. 5:03 in the Third, DiMarzo gets a breakaway, switches backhand to get Druce out of position, and goes back to forehand for what looks like the goal. Instead of trying to block the puck, Druce shoves his stick between DiMarzo's legs, getting a whistle before the puck could go in. A tripping call WAS made, but no shot given. 
• Later, another Danbury 5-4 Powerplay. DiMarzo sets up behind the net, passes into the crease for a lightning-quick wrister and goal. It gets waived off by the refs because the net isn't on the moorings. What happened, in reality, was that Druce slid across the crease to square up, got 5 holed, and kept sliding into the post, knocking it off well after the puck entered the crease. Bad call made. 
• 2nd period, roughly 10 minutes in. Druce gloves a hard slapper, and it falls to the ground immediately. He dives, but misses the puck, which is now sitting in the middle of the crease, unprotected, about a foot away from him for the easy poke-in goal. Refs blow the whistle to stop the play. 
• 2nd period, last few minutes. Druce gets 5 holed and the puck trickles over the line. Everybody in the first 2 columns of 102 over to the beginning of 100 can see clear as day that the puck has crossed the line. The refs blow the whistle and skate over to determine the location of the puck. Just before they get there, Druce kicks it back over the blue line with his heel to get a "No Goal" call from the refs. 

102 certainly let Druce know what they think of him, that's for sure. Look for this to be an ongoing thing. 

I'm not sure what the character of this team is yet because it's too early in the season. But if they're the tight knit family I'm hoping them to be, then they'll stand up for each other. And if that's the case, the entire team owes Aviators #20 a few good hits for his run on Niedert.

Tonight's pre-game notes plus a league recap coming in the next few minutes. 

Live from Game 1!

6:35pm: Warm up skate is 5 minutes in. #39, Niedert starting in goal for Danbury. 102 is hoppin!

6:44pm: #41, Donovan will be backing up Niedert

7:08pm: Teams taking the ice! Mayor Boughton getting ready for puck drop.

7:16pm: Herm introducing Hartford Whalers GM staff

7:29pm: Team introduced, game on! Niedert takes a minor for delay of game. NY powerplay

7:38: Whalers PP. Minor for tripping.

7:42pm: WHALERS GOAL! On the rebound by Dan Malloy from Karlov and Velasquez

7:50pm: Our first fight! #15 from Danbury, 10 from NY

7:58pm: Whalers PP goal on a tripping call. Goal by Guy from Siefert and Hager! We are
 standing room only!

8:05pm: NY goal off a wrister. 2 to 1 Danbury. 4 on 4 play

8:31pm: Start of the 2nd

8:37pm: NY goal 2-2

8:40pm: Gorgeous 1timer by Karlov makes it 3-2 Whalers

8:48pm: Whalers goal 4-2. NY 20 just ran Niedert over. Hes down and hurt. Back up after a minute and okay.

9:10pm: End of 2 soon. Whalers with some crushing hits.

9:15pm: End of 2. Whalers 12 shots in the second. Aviators 17. They really need to focus on completing their passes.

9:37pm: Beginning of the 3rd. Mike Vallely startin it for us.

9:40pm: Vallely made short work of in a fight off the faceoff. That hurt.

9:47pm: NY goal on a tripping PP. 4-3. Whalers PP now.

9:56pm: Danbury PP goal waived off. From where I'm sitting Druce knocked his net off AFTER he let the goal in. NY takes another fight. Fulton started another for Danbury and won immediately after.

10:22pm: Final 4-3 Whalers! Worth noting NY 22 took a shot post whistle with a minute left and no penalty. Poor officiating tonight. Review to come in the AM.

Game 1: Home v. Aviators, Friday October 29th

And the moment we've all been waiting for....time to kick off the season! Points of note for tonight's game:

• Gates at 6pm
• Puck Drop at 7:05pm 
• Live entertainment by the Big Fat Combos until puck drop. Never heard these guys before, I'll let you know what I think...
• First game this season for both teams. Worth noting that head coach Chris Firriolo used to coach the Danbury rival Brooklyn Aces. Undoubtedly he'll enjoy being on the opposite bench this time around, as you may have heard recently that, as Herm Sorcher best said of Section 102 "There are no rules!" 

Players to watch:

• Igor Karlov, RW, #9: A point-per-game player with the Danbury Mad Hatters, he's still got an absolutely booming shot from what I've seen in camp. 
• Dan Malloy, LW, #20: Another point-per-game player in the EPHL and perhaps Danbury's biggest love-to-hate player. Can he win the fans over? My guess is yes. 
• Augie DiMarzo, LW, #26: When I saw a player on the ice who came up to my shoulders WHILE he was wearing skates, I wondered who this guy was. Now that I've had a chance to watch him through camp, he reminds me quite a bit of Brian Gionta. Look for some dazzling skating plays from him this season. 
• Eric Lind, D, #3: Now doing his second tour in Danbury after a first with the Trashers, he had 10 points with a +9 rating and 22 penalty minutes in 18 games. Look for him to be a core blue line presence this season. 
• Who gets the start in net tonight is up in the air. All 3 goalies on the roster are relatively unproven over the last year or two, so we'll have to keep an eye on how that develops. I can tell you, however, that they've looked real tight in practice, so let's hope they keep that up! 

See you all at TKs after the game!

FHL Rules Breakdown

If you're chomping at the bit for puck drop as much as I am, you're looking for something hockey related to do. One of my season opening rainy-day projects was to go through the FHL rules and familiarize myself with them. Since the FHL boasts a pretty deep 71 page rulebook, here are the cliff notes; new, important, or otherwise plain interesting.

1. No more than 15 players + 2 goaltenders may be dressed in any one night. This is a mild drop from the NHL's limit of 12 forwards, 6 defensemen, and 2 goalies. Additionally, "For pre-season/exhibition games and the first six (6) regular season games, a maximum of 18 players plus two goalkeepers shall be permitted to play in a game." (Page 11)
2. 1 Captain, 2 Alternates. No change here. 
3. Interesting rule here; a too many men on the ice penalty with less than 2 minutes in the game results in a penalty shot for the team that would normally go on the power-play for such a minor penalty, at the referee's discretion (Page 14)
4. Players who lose their helmets are NOT allowed to continue play, except to finish the play they are immediately involved in. (v. NHL continuing play at player's discretion)
5. 3+ slashing or high sticking penalties by one player in a single game = ejection (Page 30)
6. ANY foul language gets a 2 minute minor for unsportsmanlike. We'll see how long this one holds up...
7. Also states that any player who starts a fight receives a game ejection. I don't know about you guys, but I'm all for fighting in hockey [I went to a fight and a hockey game broke out!] so I hope they're mutually ignoring this rule for all players.(Page 49)
8. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this one: Any player wearing greater face protection than his opponent, who is also the instigator of the fight, will receive an additional 2 minute minor for unsportsmanlike. 
9. Overtime: 5 minutes of 3 on 3 play. 
10. If no goal in overtime, a ruleset closer to international hockey rules is used. After the third shooter in a team's shootout rotation has taken his shot, any one player may then repeat as many turns as they wish.
11. Playoffs = continuous overtime.
12. Playoff format is 1 seed v 4 seed and 2 seed v 3 seed, best of 5 format

Friday Morning Skate

Here at the 11am skate and it looks like just about the entire team is on the ice for this one. Lots of forechecking and breakout drills happening. If nothing else these boys are damn fast. Kelly green jerseys tonight. More after the break.

Update 1:05PM: The skate ended a little bit earlier today than has been the norm. About half a dozen players remained on the ice after practice ended to squeeze in a few more shooting drills, and I've got to say it's looking good. All quiet on the front right now, look for things to start revving up within the next 2 or 3 hours.

Rebirth

Since they became the Carolina Hurricanes over ten years ago, the Hartford Whalers have developed somewhat of a cult following that continues to this day. One need look no further than the Federal Hockey League's new Danbury Whalers to see that the name, and the fans, are far from dead. So strong is the belief that this team has the ability to succeed that the Whalers Booster Club has given its official blessing for the name to be used. We sit now on the eve of opening night, and I have been assured by numerous staff members at the arena this week that there will be a sellout crowd.

As a life long Danbury resident and hockey fan of a few years now, I hold season tickets in Section 102, seat K-1. For each and every Whalers game plus some from around the league, I'll be doing my best to keep you up to date on the latest and greatest. I'll be at the arena starting at 10am today for the team practice and will be updating periodically until puck drop.

2010-2011 is going to be a great year for us. Glad to have you along for the ride. Let's Go Whalers!!!!!

-Mark