Hangin’ with the Pack – October 22, 2019

Another weekend in the books for the Hartford Wolfpack and another great weekend for the team. They had a bit of adversity to fight, and fight they did as they had a very good team building weekend and another 2-0-0 weekend for the Wolfpack.

You have to like what you saw Saturday in Binghamton. Down 3-1 after the first period to the Devils, the Wolfpack clawed their way back, and forced the game to overtime. Overtime didn’t last that long, because the Wolfpack scored 48 seconds into the overtime frame as Phil Di Guiseppe scored the game winner, after a showcase of speed and power by Filip Chytil. Chytil would also add the game tying powerplay goal late in the third.

We rewind a bit back to Friday, where we saw Igor Shesterkin grab his first North American pro shutout in a 1-0 victory against the Springfield Thunderbirds, who were a much different team than the one they faced the previous Saturday. The Wolfpack didn’t have an answer for the Thunderbirds neutral zone pressure in the first period, but as the game progressed so did the pressure from the Wolfpack. They were outshot this game 35-22, but Shesterkin came and really stole the game for the Wolfpack.

It would’ve been a long night if this was last season, as the Wolfpack just weren’t a tight group and weren’t really focused a lot of the nights during last season. This team is special so far, and it can’t be neglected.

Some other notes:

• Kravtsov is using that shot of his more. And he’s becoming more comfortable using it. He had two shots on goal for the weekend, but he was more active trying to get it on net, regardless of how inaccurate it was for most of the weekend. He’s someone who needs to get comfortable in the defensive end, yet it’s good seeing him start to get comfortable in the offensive zone.
   
• Another thing on Kravtsov, after getting benched after causing the turnover on the second Binghamton goal Saturday in the first period, I noticed him become more aggressive and play in the defensive zone with a purpose during that game. It seems like a lot of pieces are coming together for the youngster. It’ll be interesting to see how he evolves during next weekend’s set of games.
   
• I really like Vinni Lettieri, he’s good in his role here in Hartford, and has a good shot to boot. He’s one of the few that I see try and score with a slap shot in the game, and it seems as if he has a hard one. He’s done a real good job after getting moved up to replace Danny O’Regan, who became the team’s second line center. Lettieri is someone who can help Chytil drive some offense a bit, he’s done just that this weekend.
   
• There was a slight learning curve for the team, especially during the first period on Friday with the new lines they had put together for this game. There was a lot of issues with this team just generating offense, and getting used to the new lines. Minus the fourth line, the top 3 lines were alerted a bit and the struggles in the beginning of the game were noticeable.
   
• Defensive pairs flipped in this game too and noticeably struggling were Sean Day and Vincent LoVerde, who were paired with one another. They didn’t gel well, and most importantly, they didn’t play off one another’s strengths. One thing I noticed with this pair in particular, they were more focused with their individual play, that they forgot about some basic key defensive work. In general, this pair didn’t work, and honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if things switch back up.

Again, that’s another weekend that was for the Hartford Wolfpack. The Wolfpack have a three game weekend coming up, starting with a home game Friday at 7:15PM against the Laval Rocket. They finish the weekend with a home and home against the Bridgeport Soundtigers, with a game home Saturday at 7:00PM, and it follows up with them visiting Bridgeport Sunday at 3:00PM.

You can follow along when I watch these games on the Hangin’ with the Pack Twitter account. Every Friday I release a podcast, that is part of the Faceoff Hockey Network. You can listen to the latest episodes, here.