Brandon Mashinter scored the goal that got the Whale their only point of the weekend. (Photo: Chris Rutsch/flickr)

The Whale entered the home stretch to the playoffs this weekend with their last 3-in-3 of the regular season, all games coming on the road. On Friday morning, they had a playoff spot. By Sunday night, they were clinging so tightly to it as this was definitely a weekend the boys would like to forget.

Friday night the Whale were in Manchester for a match-up with the Monarchs. The game started well as Chris Kreider scored a beautiful power play goal late in the first period with assists to Benn Ferriero and Kris Newbury. Unfortunately that would be all the Whale could muster as the Monarchs scored three unanswered goals (Weal, Pearson and an empty-netter to Kozun) over the last forty minutes to take the 3-1 victory.

» Continue reading “Not A Good Weekend For The Whale”

Not a bad week for the Whale but not a good one either. (Photo: Doug Kerr/flickr)

Some nights during the past week, the Whale looked like a team that was ready to move into playoff contention in the Eastern conference standings. Other nights, they showed why they are where they currently are (12th place).

Over the past seven days, the boys had four games and managed to get four out of the possible eight points available.

Tuesday night was a good night for the boys as they headed to Portland for a game against the Pirates, a team they hadn’t beaten yet this season in three previous tries. Kelsey Tessier opened the scoring with a shorthanded goal at 13:57 of the first period. Blake Parlett, who apparently wasn’t suspended for his boarding penalty last weekend, got the lone assist.

» Continue reading “Whale Weekly: Mixed Bag Over Past Week”

Is someone headed to NYC so he can put this jersey on again instead of a green one? (Photo: clyde/flickr)

So we’re stuck between the lockout ending and the season beginning meaning there isn’t a whole lot going on at the moment. Therefore you get to read what I like to call a stream of consciousness regarding our organization (i.e. a bunch of random thoughts/info that has nothing to do with one another).

Bear with me, I promise to make it worthwhile.

» Continue reading “Time For Some Babbling On The Rangers & Whale”

OT loss + Shutout Win = 3 out of 4 points and a deserving stick salute! (Photo: @kaboom23/twitter)

Yes the NHL lockout is over. That doesn’t mean we are going to stop talking about the Whale. It just means our recaps may become more weekly rather than daily. (Side note: If anyone is interested in covering the Whale full-time for the site, by all means contact me.)

Speaking of the Whale, it was a pretty good weekend for the boys as they grabbed five out of a possible six points. It started on Friday as they shutout the Adirondack Phantoms at home. You can read about that game here.

Saturday nights’ rematch against the Phantoms in Adirondack didn’t go as well as but it wasn’t a total loss. Lineup for the Whale remained the same with Cam Talbot back in net. The teams combined for 42 penalty minutes, which included two fights, so it was your typical Rangers-Flyers game.

» Continue reading “Whale Gain Points In Weekend Games”

Not a good start to your season kid… (Photo: @dylan_mcilrath/twitter)

Dylan McIlrath returned to the Connecticut Whale lineup on Thursday night. Just 7:49 into the first period he decided to throw a high elbow at Bridgeports’ Marc Cantin. The AHL announced today that the elbow will cost McIlrath two games meaning he will miss tonight’s game at Springfield and Monday night’s game at Portland.

Anyone looking to watch tonight’s game against Springfield will be able to as the Blue Jackets announced last week they will be streaming it live on their website. This morning Blueshirts United announced they will be streaming it as well.

As for McIlrath, pretty sure that’s not what the coaching staff had in mind for his return. You can see the hit below.

» Continue reading “McIlrath Back Out Of Lineup”

Things aren’t good right now, Pucky. Can you help? The boys are desperate… (Photo: Doug Kerr/flickr)

Throughout a season teams goes through good and bad stretches. During the good, fans dream of championships. During the bad, they pray it doesn’t get too bad as they look for anyone possible to blame. Right now it is just plain ugly for the Whale. I don’t want to be one of those fans who starting trying to place blame but something has to change soon. Don’t know what but something. I know winning isn’t everything at this level but I can tell something is missing even by just listening to the games. It’s not good.

» Continue reading “Whale Lose Third Straight As Sound Tigers Sweep Home-And-Home”

Are we actually going to get to see you on the ice finally? (Photo: @dylan_mcilrath/twitter)

Injury updates are hard to come by for AHL players so when something like this hits twitter, it’s kind of a big deal:

If I am reading that correctly (and there’s no reason to believe I’m not), the Whale defense will have a new look this evening as Dylan McIlrath makes his season debut. Against the hated Bridgeport Sound Tigers, I’d say he might have his first fight too. Nothing has been confirmed by the team just yet so we’ll have to tune in to the pregame tonight to see if our suspicions are correct.  If they are…

WELCOME BACK DYLAN!

Seriously…where do you guys find these sweaters? (Photo: @CKolarik/twitter)

Yes I realize not all of my readers celebrate Christmas. Heck, I don’t. So while this post is heavily based on today’s holiday, please consider it my way of wishing all of you a happy holidays.

Plus you don’t need to celebrate Christmas to enjoy the videos you are about to see.

» Continue reading “Happy Holidays To All!”

What do you mean I have to face Steven Stamkos? At least it’s for charity… (Photo: Bridget Samuels/flickr)

Today would normally be when I would do a European update. One problem…there are no Rangers playing in Europe. In fact other than Henrik Lundqvist, who is spending time with family in Sweden, there are no Rangers players even in Europe. So there will be no European update.

Instead, we can tell you about what the guys are doing on the side of the Atlantic. For instance, Michael Del Zotto and Martin Biron will be playing in a NHLPA charity game tonight in Toronto. The good news? It’s going to be streamed live here. Game starts at 7:00pm EST.

The game will also feature ex-Rangers John Mitchell and Wojtek Wolski along with a bunch of other guys you may have heard of (Steven Stamkos, anyone?). You can see the full roster here. Should be a good game since the boys are already talking smack to each other:

» Continue reading “Live Stream For DZ, Biron Charity Game + Other Updates”

Who you gonna call? Cam Talbot! (Photo: James DiBianco/flickr)

Some quick notes from Connecticut before the Whale tackle another three-in-three weekend. Fortunately it is all good news.

Yesterday, the Whale announced they had sent forwards Andrew Yogan and Jason Wilson to Greenville of the ECHL on conditioning stints. Both have been out with injuries for a couple of weeks so the fact they were sent down is a sign they are both close to returning to the lineup.

» Continue reading “Quick Connecticut Update”