Rangers affiliate coach, McCambridge dishes on the Wolf Pack’s upcoming season
Thursday evening featured the annual Hartford Wolf Pack town hall meeting where the season ticket holders interacted and discussed the operational side of the hockey business at the XL Center. Fans were introduced to the new staff for the upcoming 2018-19 campaign. In addition, the front office staff talked about a few aspects off the ice for the upcoming season, beginning in October. Hockey is almost here!
Live Streaming
According to President and CEO, Dave Andrews of the American Hockey League, the league will be implementing a new service for live streams during the 2018-19 season. The Wolf Pack front office briefly mentioned the new streaming service.
Fans are expected to have better quality when watching and have new features that is tight lipped from the front office. More details will be released next month, so stay tuned. It should be easier to follow the Hartford Wolf Pack next season if you are out of Connecticut and want to follow the Rangers young blood.
Injury Reports
Often times, fans ask me about injuries throughout the season. When that was brought up by a fellow season ticket holder at the meeting, the front office and Keith McCambridge claimed that teams in the AHL cannot write up injury reports. This is due to league restriction as players, teams, and their agents want the injury private. The information is only for the team and parent clubs.
The policy has been in effect for years. This also includes ice time minutes for players in each contest. The stat is only known to the team and coaches.
Talking With Keith McCambridge
Between the coach speaking in front of everyone and to me talking with him one on one, he is excited for the upcoming season to start. In Hartford, the addition of Ty Ronning, Ryan Lindgren, and a few others bright prospects will help guide the Wolf Pack this season. The players returning from last season also improved in their first year here with McCambridge as head coach. He expects them to do better. The culture for the club remains the same from last year, work hard and play hard. If you take practice as an optional skate, then you could find yourself scratched for the game. He wants a strong work ethic and the game to be played to the fullest of a player despite the score.
The goaltending situation will be strong to Hartford. The Pack will have two strong contenders after the winner of the backup spot in New York is settled. The options for Hartford includes Alexandar Georgiev, Marek Mazanec, and or Dustin Tokarski. The Pack will have a combination of any two. Goalies Chris Nell and Brandon Halverson will be starting the season in the ECHL with the Maine Mariners.
For the captain situation, that will remain unknown until training camp is over. McCambridge and the front office have to see who has leadership traits and if the team is comfortable to choose a captain. It is always possible to just have three A’s to start the season as well.
Additional One Timers From The Meeting
- Healthier foods will be coming to the XL Center for games as there will be a marketplace for fans to buy healthier options.
- The $2 beer and $1 hot dogs had a few modifications coming up. The $2 beers will be for any flavor now. In addition, there will be $2 sodas.
- There will be more cross over of brands between the Hartford Yard Goats and the Wolf Pack.
- Expect more quality content on the social media outlets as the front office will attempt to have more videos on players throughout the season. The front office will face tough competition, as the Syracuse Crunch dominates in that category. For instance, take a look here.
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