Something strange happened this week. The Hartford Wolf Pack won a game. Unfortunately they then came back down to earth again with a shutout loss. A quick look at the results…The Wolf Pack played on Friday and lost 3-2 to Manchester thanks to a goal each from Brodie Dupont and Mats Zuccarello but yet again they couldn’t score enough to get a win and were on the end of another regulation loss. The ‘Pack were right back at it Saturday night when they travelled to Bridgeport to take on the Islanders affiliate and this time were on the receiving end of a 4-1 decision, proving once more that they simply couldn’t muster any legitimate offense to get near a win. Checking forward Devin DiDiomete got the sole ‘Pack tally. So what happened on Sunday – on the back end of a three in three nights – no one could have foreseen.
Sunday not only saw the Wolf Pack win but they did so by scoring 7. S.E.V.E.N. Yes, 7 goals and thanks to the offensive outburst they beat Bridgeport at the XL center by a resounding 7-1 margin. The game saw the ‘Pack’s power play explode for 4 goals on 7 attempts, saw Ryan McDonagh grab his first pro point with an assist and saw Mats Zuccarello score 3 goals and add an assist for a career night of 4 points. Other highlights included Tim Kennedy helping himself to 3 assists, while Jeremy Williams had 2+1 and captain Dane Byers had 1+1. The game was a penalty filled affair with the two teams racking up 70 penalty minutes between them.
Any fan that may have thought that this win was the spark the team needed to go on to score more and win more would have been sorely disappointed come the end of Tuesday night. Playing the Toronto Marlies (Leafs affiliate) the Pack got shutout in their own building and lost 4-0. The loss was a huge let down given the previous breakout performance and must leave fans wonder where the team can find some element of consistency. Evgeny Grachev was back in the line up for this game and hardly made the Rangers second guess his demotion as he was -1 with two shots.
Summing Up
Positives from the weekend have to be the play of Mats Zuccarello who had 4 goals over the last handful of games and the ever consistent play of Chad Johnson. Johnson ‘only’ has a .906 SV% and a 2.71GAA but when you consider the utter lack of support he gets offensively even the 3-9-0-1 record he has isn’t as bad as it sounds. Thus far this season the Pack are 4-9-2-1 and only have Bridgeport below them in the Atlantic division (who have played 4 games less). In their 16 games this season the Pack have scored 31 goals in total and if you subtract the 7-1 win (surely an anomaly) it’s just 24 goals in 15 games. Something needs to happen in Hartford and happen fast, whether that’s a coaching change or a message sent to the players because the season is fast disappearing, if it hasn’t already.
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