Springfield Thunderbirds Season Thread

[glen a richter]

Probably much more organized to keep it in one thread, Springfield came up with a win in their opener. Alexandrov with a goal, Hofer with the win 25 saves on 26 shots. Perunovich, Brown and McGing all chipped in with assists.

Good start, all around.

[glen a richter]

4-3 shootout win in game 2 of the season.

Maybe I'm not looking hard enough but it's really difficult to find box scores on the Thunderbirds site so I'm trying to piece together who did what based on the game recap.

Looks like Brown, McGing, Alexandrov and Perunovich are all off to solid starts. Obviously Hofer didn't get the start on the second of back to back nights so I'm looking forward to seeing what he can do on the 22nd when they play Bridgeport again.

Also, MacEachern has 12 PIM through 2 games. I don't know the nature of those, if it was 2 fights and a minor or what.

[theohall]

Use this to find out whose done what for AHL stuff https://theahl.com/stats/schedule/411/7 ... y?league=4 (that links directly to the Thunderbirds schedule)

On the right side next to Summary, click on the "C" to see a box score with links. During games, the same link with the "C" provides a kind of play-by-play. The "R" is a table format box score, while the "T" is a very limited text format box score.

MacEachern had a roughing with a 10 minute misconduct in the 2nd game, which is where the 12 minutes came from. Perunovich has 3 assists, all on the power play which is tops on the team in points. Alexandrov 2 G,0 A. Logan Brown 1 G 1 A. McGing 0 G 2 A plus the shootout winner from Sunday.

Right now, the actual skill players are showing their skill while the grinding guys, like MacEachern are being the grinding guys. Not sure how much more I'll be able to keep up with this going forward until I can afford the AHL.tv package which was free this past weekend.

[glen a richter]

I’m bouncing around the idea of maybe jumping on the ferry tomorrow up to Bridgeport for the game but I’m not sure how much I want to go when they probably won’t be starting Hofer in the middle game of 3 in a row.

[theohall]

3-1 win tonight over Bridgeport
Goals from Perunovich from Peca and Alexandorv; Todd (PP) from McGing and Rosen; and Peca from Stevens
Hofer saved 16 of 17 shots while the Thunderbirds put 38 shots at the Bridgeport goalie.

Early on, Springfield is looking very good with the 3-0 start. But, they've only played two teams and that won't change tomorrow, since they are playing Bridgeport for the 3rd straight time.

[glen a richter]

I decided to go to the game on November 6th instead but the way Perunovich is playing he might not even be down there by then. I thought he needed time in the farm given that he missed all of last season, but the kid is clearly ready.

[glen a richter]

Another couple of points for Perunovich. It'll be very hard for them to keep him in Springfield a whole lot longer. I'd love to see them move Scandella if they can.

[glen a richter]

A couple of observations following another Springfield win.

Perunovich is really good--3 assists this afternoon, up to 9 points on the season.
Hofer is going to be really good--39 saves on 40 shots.

[theohall]

Hofer's only GA in this one was a 5-on-3 PPG. In 3 starts, he's only given up 3 total goals posting a .964 SV%. If Husso struggles at all in the backup role, I can see the Blues sending him down and calling up Hofer.

I have no idea how the Blues could possibly leave Perunovich in the A this season. He's leading the league in points as a defenseman. That's incredibly uncommon in the AHL. 9 pts in 5 games? Seriously?? The next d-man in the top 20 is 19th.

[glen a richter]

If Perunovich comes up soon, or at any point during the season really, it would make zero sense to lot him in as the 7th D replacing Mikkola and it also makes zero sense having Milkkola sitting in the press box every night. I'd figure he'd split some time with Walman but I guess since they're winning Berube doesn't want to mess around too much. That said, I still think they need to get Scandella and his contract the hell off the books.

So what I'm thinking is this, and correct me if I'm screwing up the numbers situation...

When Sunny comes off LTIR his 2.75 mil counts again. Scandella makes a half mil more than that, trading him for a pick at who the hell cares where in the draft frees up the space necessary to slot Sunny back onto the active roster and concurrently opens up a spot for Perunovich. The rub here is that Scandella does have a NTC which screws up the whole plan. I believe sending Neighbours back to juniors, which would be asinine from every angle except the money angle, would make up the difference in being able to stay under the cap but at that point there's no real opening for Perunovich unless he's swapped with Mikkola and becomes the 7th D splitting time with Walman. I'd rather not see the top D prospect in the organization sitting in the press box every night. Does one of Walman/Mikkola get traded?

[theohall]

4-3 OT loss to Wilkes-Barre Scranton - 2nd place team in the division with Springfield. Perunovich did not play tonight. Haven't found any news on why, yet.

[theohall]

Thunderbirds won 5-3 this afternoon coming back from being down 4-1 halfway through the 2nd period. Perunovich had 1 goal at even strength. Scoring was spreadout with 10 players earning points. McGing 2A, and Nathan Todd 1G, 1A, were the only multi-point players for the Thunderbirds. Game summary. Springfield is 5-0-2-0 on the season - points in every game.

Goals: Washkurak, Perunovich, Toropchenko, Tucker, and Todd (only PP tally)

The Springfield Thunderbirds (5-0-2-0) made the Thunderdome a house of horrors for the Charlotte Checkers (3-3-1-0) on Sunday afternoon, scoring the final four goals of the contest to storm back and take a 5-3 victory.

The Checkers came out with the early jump for former T-Birds head coach Geordie Kinnear, whose club took a 1-0 lead on a turnaround forehander by Logan Hutsko at 4:11 of the first. The high-rising wrister went over the top of the right-hand glove of Charlie Lindgren.

The Thunderbirds once again had a quick response, though, as 20-year-old Keean Washkurak picked up his second goal in two games to tie the score just 1:26 after Hutsko's tally. Washkurak got himself into the middle of the ice and fired an initial shot that got deflected back to his feet. With a second crack, Washkurak slammed a snapper over the glove hand of Chris Gibson to tie things up, 1-1.

A former Thunderbird would restore the Checkers lead, however, as Maxim Mamin stepped to the inside and made a cut to the front of the crease to beat Lindgren and restore the Charlotte lead, 2-1, at 10:22.

Springfield got a power play chance late in the first and midway through the second but could not strike. In fact, it got worse for the T-Birds when Cole Schwindt beat Lindgren on a breakaway backhander at 9:44 of the second, and suddenly the T-Birds found themselves down, 3-1, for the second straight night.

For a second straight night, Springfield showed its comeback mentality, and this time, it took less than a minute for the club to get back even. Making his return from injury, Scott Perunovich neatly stepped into a shooting lane in the left circle and rifled a wrister over Gibson's shoulder at 13:40 to cut the lead to 3-2 on his 10th point and second goal of the season.

57 seconds later, the Thunderbirds got the game back on even terms, as a shot block sprung Nolan Stevens on a 2-on-1 with Alexey Toropchenko at the offensive blue line. Stevens hit his linemate in the right circle, and after a small hesitation, Toropchenko beat Gibson on the stick side to tie the game, 3-3 at 14:37.

For a fourth time this season, the T-Birds went to a third period tied, and for a fourth time this season, the Thunderbirds came away with a regulation-time victory. Just 29 seconds into the final frame, Tyler Tucker jumped into an offensive rush, taking a saucer pass from Nathan Todd in the left circle and snapping it into a yawning net to give Springfield the only lead it would need on this day, 4-3.

Lindgren was sensational in the final two periods, stopping 21 of the final 22 shots he faced, and the Springfield PK successfully dispatched both of Charlotte's man-advantage opportunities. Todd would add one dose of insurance at the 13:26 mark with a power-play tap-in, set up beautifully from the left circle by Hugh McGing. Both players finished with two points on the night, and the T-Birds extended their season-opening point streak to seven games.

The Thunderbirds stay on home ice for their next contest on Friday, Nov. 5 as they welcome the Hershey Bears for a 7:05 p.m. puck drop.

[glen a richter]

Washkurak is one I'm keeping an eye on. He's small, but by all accounts he's an incredibly hard worker, not unlike McGing.

[theohall]

With Hofer called up, G Colten Ellis was recalled to Springfield. This being a 3-game weekend, he's going to see some action in at least one of those 3 games. Considering Worcester hasn't played a game since Oct 27th, he needs the live game action. Charlie Lindgren is probably going to get 2 of the 3 starts, though, which IMO, doesn't lend confidence to me in terms of them winning considering he's been a sub-par AHL goalie for 5 of his 6 AHL seasons and the only good one was his rookie AHL year.

[glen a richter]

From a selfish standpoint, I hope Ellis doesn't play tonight because I'm going to the game tomorrow and I want to see him in net.

[theohall]

This is a nice breakdown of the T-Birds roster Ryan's Rambling Nov 4th

[theohall]

And a weekly podcast, T-Birds Talk from their play-by-play guy Ryan Smith. Gives a nice breakdown of each prior week.

[theohall]

Listening to the T-Talks from the beginning of the season, the signing of Tommy Cross now makes a ton more sense. In his first 7 AHL seasons (not counting his 2 games in 11-12 when he first signed with the Bruins), he's been in the AHL playoffs every one of them. The only two times he hasn't been in the playoffs - the AHL didn't have playoffs due to Covid. The Blues bringing him in was to provide experience professional leadership for Perunovich to learn from and per the podcast, Perunovich was a sponge in his 1st 2 weeks with the T-Birds. Calle Rosen is another player with significant playoff experience. Looking at who the Blues brought in, this is alot like what the Houston Aeros did the season Mike Yeo coached them (bring in a bunch of players with AHL playoff experience) which led to Yeo being promoted to the NHL level, even though it was more players than Yeo, IMO.

[theohall]

Perunovich interview from T-Birds Talk Season 2 Ep 04 "Scorin' Scott" is an excellent interview. One of the lines that stood out is him being happy to play wherever, whether that's if he gets called up or spends 5 more years in Springfield. Not the "I'm ready to be called up now." Not the "I should be..." lines. But "I'm here (referring to Springfield) as long as the Blues need me here." Outstanding attitude which came through during the interview for someone so young.

The other part which stood out - when he got to Minnesota-Duluth he had "zero confidence" which is shocking considering how good he was in his freshman year at UMD.

[theohall]

This was kind of surprising. The T-Birds rotate the "A" between home and road games. Tyler Tucker is an Assistant Captain for those road games. Considering he's only 21, that speaks volumes to his ability to lead without having any significant AHL experience.