Mar 28 Manchester NH Pirates and Monarchs

MANCHESTER, N.H. -- Thought I’d do a little free form blogging from tonight’s Portland @ Manchester midweek tilt.
  It’s the classic, two teams going in opposite directions, with Manchester on a direct course to the Atlantic Division championship, while Portland, who earned that distinction last year, consigned to an early tee time.
 Of course, the Monarchs could have been headed for a playoff miss themselves, if not for the work of goaltender Jason LaBarbera, who I think (with apologies to Darren Haydar) is headed for his second AHL Most Valuable Player award.
  (In fact, one reason I’m here is to work on an MLN feature piece on that very subject.)
  I’m not the only one so persuaded, although you might discount the home grown campaign by the Monarchs to win him the MVP because it is, well, home grown.

PERIOD THE FIRST….

 We’re 3:02 into the game and we’ve just seen the first on-ice scrap between Portland tough guy Trevor Gillies and Monarch upstart Kevin Westgarth. The formalities lasted longer than the fight itself. It can take a while to remove ones gloves and headgear, but it comes to naught when you get accordion (it’s a word, now) to the ice, as Westgarth was.

  Uh…it’s nine minutes later and Gillies gets challenged again….by Paul Crosty….plenty of action here, although it’s mostly of the “Rock Em Sock Em Robots” kind. Interesting, too, that Manchester’s two heavy weights of Ivy League products….Westgarth from Princeton and Crosty from Brown….plenty of thuggery in the “Ancient Eight”…then again, one should remember that another Princeton Tiger, George Parros, also apprenticed in Manchester (where his battles with Brendan Walsh --a full seven inches shorter-- were the stuff of legend.

  Portland center Petteri Wirtanen just took a knee on knee hit (I think from Petr Kanko), and hobbled his way right to the dressing room….doesn’t look good.

 LaBarbera is the AHL’s career shutout leader (with 28), and rarely gives up bad goal.
  He did just now, to the well-traveled Sean Blanchard, who beat him with a knuckler from the left boards. Cancel the ceremony.

 
PERIOD THE SECOND...

Wirtanen doesn’t return…

 This is starting to turn into the Sean Blanchard show…how many pro teams for him? I’m told it’s 13.…stins in England, Italy, Finland, Switzerland (must have missed Botswana)…five clubs in the AHL or IHL, a grand total of one goal in about 81 games at this level….till today….now he’s got two more….the second one coming on a drive from the left point, through a screen…LaBarbera never saw it…don’t think Blanchard can believe it…a think clike this can get around…

  Big time save by Portland goalie David McKee on Kanko…point blank…McKee was signed by Anaheim out of Cornell as an undrafted free agent…one of those guys, like Boston University’s John Curry who took the draft day snub at age 18 and simply built a strong body of work….McKee spent almost all year in the Coast League with Augusta…improved as the year went on, and got a one game sniff with the Ducks along the way….now he’s playing his second game for Portland and looking like he should have been here all along…

INTERMISSION THE SECOND

Had a chat with LA Kings GM Dean Lombardi…covered several subjects including LaBarbera, the frustrations of a West Coast club fielding an East Coast development club, the NHL scheduling issue (I like it the way it is, thank you…), and prized prospect Brian Boyle, who Lombardi feels will sign with the Kings once the Boston College season is over…Will filter some of his comments into this blog in the coming days….Lombardi did confirm that with respect to LaBarbera, who would surely have been lost to waivers if the Kings had tried to call him up, he did have a deal with Philadelphia (first in the waiver order) to take him, and trade him back to the Kings. But, he said, the NHL nixed it…..
 

 PERIOD THE THIRD
Press box discussion centers on the three star selections… most of us, including Kevin Stevens who now scouts for Pittsburgh, agree on the first two…Blanchard and McKee..I’ve got Gillies as the third (five minutes, plus two, two fights, an assist), so far…

 Empty netter by Joey Motzko (his 25th)….Final score, Portland 3, Monarchs 0

POST GAME

Asked Kevin Dineen whether this might be a statement game of sorts…”No statement, now, “ he said. “Honestly, we have no statement to make. We would have like to have made a statement in January, when we were in a transition from a good hockey team to trying to find ourselves.”

Asked Sean Blanchard (rather facetiously) if he thought he “owned” Jason LaBarbera, now…. “I wouldn’t agree with that,” he said with a laugh. “He’s a great goalie and he stopped a lot of good shots. Look at it this way, I double my AHL goal output.”

Asked David McKee if he retrieved the puck “Yep. I’m going to give it to my dad. He collects that stuff.”

 Also asked him if he had been antsy about having spent most of the season in the Coast, “For goaltenders it takes longer to mature. There was a lot that I needed to work on. I think it was really good for me. It gave me an opportunity to strengthen some weaknesses that I needed to work on before I got up here.”

We also talked about the period last season, after signing with the Ducks, where he trained with the big club but never saw any action. “I was just a practice goalie, but I got to see how they work, and what makes them successful. I think it gave me a good head start for my first pro season. It was definitely an eye opener.”

Oh, by the way, Portland’s Ryan Dingle, signed yesterday out of the University of Denver, picked up an assist and was plus two in his pro debut.