Statistically speaking, Friday night’s 4-1 drawback against the St. John’s IceCaps was not quite the worst installment of Anton Khudobin’s still-brief Providence Bruins portfolio.
Perceptively speaking, though, it was easy enough to pinpoint. Between the pipes for all four St. John’s strikes while repelling a mere 27 stabs while never going off for a delayed penalty or extra man, Khudobin’s single-night transcript read as follows: 60 minutes-played, a 4.00 goals-against average and a .871 save-percentage.
Odds are a substantial core of Friday’s Dunkin Donuts Center masses was the same audience that chanted “Re-sign Anton!” after Khudobin turned in a season-high 43 saves, including 24 in the third period, to win last year’s play-for-pride season finale against Manchester.
Half a year later, some of those Bruins buffs may be having flashbacks to Tim Thomas of 2009 and Tuukka Rask of 2010. In back-to-back years, those two Providence alumni and current Boston backstops took a turn submitting an otherworldly campaign to firmly grip the starting job before self-destructing in the subsequent season opener.
Remember? On Oct. 1, 2009, four months removed from a Vezina Trophy, Thomas endured a 4-1 defeat at the hands of the Washington Capitals. Before long, the operative slogan around TD Garden was “Tuukka Time” as Rask succeeded Thomas as the consensus starter and the NHL’s leader in two key goaltending categories.
Lo and behold, the roles reversed at last year’s NHL Premiere in Prague. Rask was singed as part of a 5-2 loss to the Phoenix Coyotes and Thomas stepped in to pitch a 3-0 shutout and salvage a split of the European series. By season’s end, Thomas had more than restored his starter’s status.
Because he was breaking in a new slate for the 2011-12 season on Friday, it is easy enough to fret and second-guess that Khudobin hype. Maybe that 9-4-1 run between his acquisition and last year’s curtain-drop is not so indicative of his capabilities after all.
But upon further review of his 2010-11 game log, nights like this year’s icebreaker are bound to happen from time to time. In fact, one start and two nights before his epic dolphin show against Manchester, Khudobin had a slightly worse GAA (4.04) and save-percentage (.867) than he did against St. John’s.
The key difference there was that it was still a winning effort. That night—April 8, to be precise—the P-Bruins deleted a 2-0 deficit and subsisted on a five-goal romp to hold off Portland, 5-4.
The Pirates were also liable for a five-goal, 30-shot dismantling of Khudobin as part of a 5-4 decision in favor of Portland last March 12. That was Khudobin’s first loss with Providence and snapped a personal, carry-over five-game winning streak.
Out of 50 total ventures with the P-Bruins and Houston Aeros last season, Khudobin allowed more than three goals on five occasions. That happened seven times the year prior, when he garnered a spot on the PlanetUSA All-Star team.
And Friday’s collision with the IceCaps could claim a couple of asterisks. Khudobin was fortified by a collectively unripe defensive sextet who had played a combined 250 AHL games in their career. Both Andrew Bodnarchuk and Nathan McIver continue to be indefinitely unavailable with their respective injuries while Matt Bartkowski is on emergency recall to Boston.
In addition, unlike those arm-wrestling bouts with Portland, offensive support was lacking. The Bruins took half of their 22 total shots on goal in the first period, putting only one behind veteran St. John’s stopper David Aebischer. Afterwards, they ran a pattern of stalling for the first three quarters of a stanza, then crammed in vain to supplement 3-1 and 4-1 deficits.
And for what it’s worth, the IceCaps are comprised primarily of former Manitoba Moose and former Chicago Wolves, two Western Conference teams that habitually battered Khudobin in recent years.
Conversely, the Worcester Sharks are on tap next for a Sunday afternoon bout at The Dunk.
In three games against Worcester last year, Khudobin went 2-1-0 with single-game save-percentages of .941, .952 and .955. Out of 17 games wearing a Spoked-P so far, those have been the fifth-, third- and single-best performances.
Saturday, October 8, 2011
This Date In Providence Bruins History: October 8
1993: The Portland Pirates win their inaugural AHL game by beating the former Maine Mariners, 6-3, at the Providence Civic Center.
1994: The P-Bruins take their first-ever meeting with the Springfield Falcons, claiming a 5-4 overtime victory at the Springfield Civic Center.
1999: In the wake of raising their Calder Cup championship banner, the P-Bruins tie the rival Hartford Wolf Pack, 1-1, in semidramatic fashion. The Pack subsist on a 1-0 lead until late in the third period when Jay Henderson inserts the equalizer. Future Boston and Providence enforcer P.J. Stock is credited with the assist on Hartford’s goal while ex-Whaler and Wolf Pack stopper Kay Whitmore repels the rest of his 38 shots-faced in his home debut as a P-Bruin.
2000: The P-Bruins muster their fifth point out of a possible six to commence the season with a 3-3 tie at Springfield.
2008: The P-Bruins win Rob Murray’s head-coaching debut with a 4-3 shootout decision against Lowell at The Dunk. Defenseman Johnny Boychuk inserts the season’s first goal in his Spoked-P debut, Byron Bitz and Vladimir Sobotka take turns assisting on each other’s strikes and both Sobotka and Karsums connect in the one-on-ones.
1994: The P-Bruins take their first-ever meeting with the Springfield Falcons, claiming a 5-4 overtime victory at the Springfield Civic Center.
1999: In the wake of raising their Calder Cup championship banner, the P-Bruins tie the rival Hartford Wolf Pack, 1-1, in semidramatic fashion. The Pack subsist on a 1-0 lead until late in the third period when Jay Henderson inserts the equalizer. Future Boston and Providence enforcer P.J. Stock is credited with the assist on Hartford’s goal while ex-Whaler and Wolf Pack stopper Kay Whitmore repels the rest of his 38 shots-faced in his home debut as a P-Bruin.
2000: The P-Bruins muster their fifth point out of a possible six to commence the season with a 3-3 tie at Springfield.
2008: The P-Bruins win Rob Murray’s head-coaching debut with a 4-3 shootout decision against Lowell at The Dunk. Defenseman Johnny Boychuk inserts the season’s first goal in his Spoked-P debut, Byron Bitz and Vladimir Sobotka take turns assisting on each other’s strikes and both Sobotka and Karsums connect in the one-on-ones.
Friday, October 7, 2011
Post-game Puckbag: IceCaps 4, P-Bruins 1
Swift summation
There is not much cause to believe that Friday night’s 4-1 loss at the hands of the St. John’s IceCaps is indicative of what the Providence Bruins will put forth in the 2011-12 season.
After all, veteran forward Josh Hennessy, who stands more than a fair chance of topping the team scoring chart, will put off his Black and Gold debut with a mild injury. Familiar defensemen Andrew Bodnarchuk and Nathan McIver each sat out with their own ailments, as did rookie Zach McKelvie.
With the latter three injuries, the initial outlook for this game had the P-Bruins limited to five active defenders bearing a cumulative 86 games worth of AHL experience and only three NHL twirls (all by Colby Cohen).
Uncannily enough, though, the scoreboard scares could have been even worse.
With the emergency insertion of Marvin Degon, a one-time Hartford Wolf Pack and Hamilton Bulldogs rearguard, that AHL man-game total spiked to 250. And it allowed Providence to roll out a full, 18-wheel truck with three full defensive pairings.
Nonetheless, what they had to work with still pales in comparison to what McIver and Bodnarchuk—who have played 306 and 207 AHL games, respectively—may have offered.
The collective inexperience on the Baby Bs’ blue line brigade was exploited to an unusually jutting extent as the IceCaps drew first blood a mere 75 seconds into the action. Former Boston University teammates Cohen and David Warsofsky along with newcomer Marc Cantin were all on the ice as Mark Flood got the puck through for St. John’s.
Max Sauve tuned the mesh on the P-Bruins first registered shot of the season to draw a nimble 1-1 knot at 4:10.
Initially trailing the shooting gallery by a gaping 8-2 margin, Providence utilized the first period’s only power-play—a double-minor to Carl Klingberg—to go on an 8-0 run. But seasoned St. John’s stopper David Aebischer neutralized that entire five-minute tempest, ultimately propping up the 1-1 score through intermission.
For the better part of the latter two stanzas, the Bruins’ bushel of shots suffered from an old-fashioned autumn frost. They only tested Aebischer twice within the first 14-plus minutes while Paul Postma and Klingberg sculpted St. John’s a 3-1 advantage.
By period’s end, Providence had registered five stabs for a 40-minute total of 16. They added a mere six more in the third, five of them coming in a vain, six-minute cramming session, at which point Jason Jaffray’s shorthanded strike had already finalized the score.
Of the Bruins’ 22 shots, only one came off the stick of a blueliner, that being Cantin.
P-Bruins pluses
There was plenty of blame to be shared for this glacial meltdown as 11 out of 18 skaters finished in the red under the plus/minus heading. With that being said, it is worth mentioning that Degon and fellow defender Ryan Button were not among them.
And neither was rookie forward Craig Cunningham, who ultimately led the team with four shots on goal.
Three stabs apiece came from prime suspects: Sauve, Zach Hamill, Jamie Tardif and Trent Whitfield.
Bruins blights
Jamie Arniel and Carter Camper each got on the scoresheet by assisting on Sauve’s first-period equalizer, but did little in the effort to build upon that. Neither of them had a single shot to his credit at the second intermission. Likewise, Sauve failed to pelt Aebischer at any point in the middle frame after hitting 1-for-3 on him in the first.
Of those three linemates, only Arniel mustered an SOG in the latter 40 minutes.
To quote Reggie Dunlop on a night reminiscent of the opening scenes in Slap Shot, Warsofsky’s transcript took “a savage beating.” In Game 1 of his first full professional campaign, he was on the ice for all five goals, amounting to a minus-3 rating.
Camper also had a night wholly unlike his promising post-college amateur tryout last spring. His assist aside, he failed to land a single shot on net, endured a minus-2 rating and took an ill-timed slashing penalty at 15:13 of the second period.
IceCaps notes
In their franchise debut, and with a team comprised heavily of former Chicago Wolves and former Manitoba Moose, the St. John’s offensive output was about as balanced as they come. Their four goals amounted to the maximum limit of 12 individual point-getters.
In addition, 14 out of 18 skaters took part in a 31-shot onslaught on Providence stopper Anton Khudobin, who had plenty of fits at the hands of these players as a Houston Aero.
Arturs Kulda took two of the game’s six penalties, but watched with glee from the sin bin when Jaffray inserted his shortie with 18:14 to spare in the game. Kulda also assisted on Postma’s eventual game-winner and joined Flood and Riley Holzapfel with a plus-2 rating apiece.
Aebischer garnered the game’s first-star laurel.
Miscellany
The reported attendance was 10,337.
The P-Bruins dropped to 1-6-0 all-time on the historically unlucky date of Oct. 7.
There is not much cause to believe that Friday night’s 4-1 loss at the hands of the St. John’s IceCaps is indicative of what the Providence Bruins will put forth in the 2011-12 season.
After all, veteran forward Josh Hennessy, who stands more than a fair chance of topping the team scoring chart, will put off his Black and Gold debut with a mild injury. Familiar defensemen Andrew Bodnarchuk and Nathan McIver each sat out with their own ailments, as did rookie Zach McKelvie.
With the latter three injuries, the initial outlook for this game had the P-Bruins limited to five active defenders bearing a cumulative 86 games worth of AHL experience and only three NHL twirls (all by Colby Cohen).
Uncannily enough, though, the scoreboard scares could have been even worse.
With the emergency insertion of Marvin Degon, a one-time Hartford Wolf Pack and Hamilton Bulldogs rearguard, that AHL man-game total spiked to 250. And it allowed Providence to roll out a full, 18-wheel truck with three full defensive pairings.
Nonetheless, what they had to work with still pales in comparison to what McIver and Bodnarchuk—who have played 306 and 207 AHL games, respectively—may have offered.
The collective inexperience on the Baby Bs’ blue line brigade was exploited to an unusually jutting extent as the IceCaps drew first blood a mere 75 seconds into the action. Former Boston University teammates Cohen and David Warsofsky along with newcomer Marc Cantin were all on the ice as Mark Flood got the puck through for St. John’s.
Max Sauve tuned the mesh on the P-Bruins first registered shot of the season to draw a nimble 1-1 knot at 4:10.
Initially trailing the shooting gallery by a gaping 8-2 margin, Providence utilized the first period’s only power-play—a double-minor to Carl Klingberg—to go on an 8-0 run. But seasoned St. John’s stopper David Aebischer neutralized that entire five-minute tempest, ultimately propping up the 1-1 score through intermission.
For the better part of the latter two stanzas, the Bruins’ bushel of shots suffered from an old-fashioned autumn frost. They only tested Aebischer twice within the first 14-plus minutes while Paul Postma and Klingberg sculpted St. John’s a 3-1 advantage.
By period’s end, Providence had registered five stabs for a 40-minute total of 16. They added a mere six more in the third, five of them coming in a vain, six-minute cramming session, at which point Jason Jaffray’s shorthanded strike had already finalized the score.
Of the Bruins’ 22 shots, only one came off the stick of a blueliner, that being Cantin.
P-Bruins pluses
There was plenty of blame to be shared for this glacial meltdown as 11 out of 18 skaters finished in the red under the plus/minus heading. With that being said, it is worth mentioning that Degon and fellow defender Ryan Button were not among them.
And neither was rookie forward Craig Cunningham, who ultimately led the team with four shots on goal.
Three stabs apiece came from prime suspects: Sauve, Zach Hamill, Jamie Tardif and Trent Whitfield.
Bruins blights
Jamie Arniel and Carter Camper each got on the scoresheet by assisting on Sauve’s first-period equalizer, but did little in the effort to build upon that. Neither of them had a single shot to his credit at the second intermission. Likewise, Sauve failed to pelt Aebischer at any point in the middle frame after hitting 1-for-3 on him in the first.
Of those three linemates, only Arniel mustered an SOG in the latter 40 minutes.
To quote Reggie Dunlop on a night reminiscent of the opening scenes in Slap Shot, Warsofsky’s transcript took “a savage beating.” In Game 1 of his first full professional campaign, he was on the ice for all five goals, amounting to a minus-3 rating.
Camper also had a night wholly unlike his promising post-college amateur tryout last spring. His assist aside, he failed to land a single shot on net, endured a minus-2 rating and took an ill-timed slashing penalty at 15:13 of the second period.
IceCaps notes
In their franchise debut, and with a team comprised heavily of former Chicago Wolves and former Manitoba Moose, the St. John’s offensive output was about as balanced as they come. Their four goals amounted to the maximum limit of 12 individual point-getters.
In addition, 14 out of 18 skaters took part in a 31-shot onslaught on Providence stopper Anton Khudobin, who had plenty of fits at the hands of these players as a Houston Aero.
Arturs Kulda took two of the game’s six penalties, but watched with glee from the sin bin when Jaffray inserted his shortie with 18:14 to spare in the game. Kulda also assisted on Postma’s eventual game-winner and joined Flood and Riley Holzapfel with a plus-2 rating apiece.
Aebischer garnered the game’s first-star laurel.
Miscellany
The reported attendance was 10,337.
The P-Bruins dropped to 1-6-0 all-time on the historically unlucky date of Oct. 7.
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