Roar No More?
With most of its key players from the hot team of 2003 gone, Bridgeport is full of sound signifying nothing.

Dan Hickling
MLNSportsZone.com

BRIDGEPORT, CT. - 12.3.04 - Eric Manlow is in Grand Rapids, Brandon Smith is in Rochester, and Marty Kariya is somewhere in Asia.

Jeff Hamilton is up the road about 45 minutes or so in Hartford, and Derek Bekar is another 45 minutes beyond that, skating in Springfield.

Gone with all of them is the memory of the 22 game unbeaten streak etched out by last year's edition of the Bridgeport Sound Tigers, and the high powered offense that produced it.

With six of last year's top nine scorers now wearing someone else's jersey, the Tigers have turned tail and are now devoted practitioners of patience.

"Last year, our mission was to have a quick counter attack," said Tigers second-year coach Greg Cronin. "This year we cycle more. We're more of a smash mouth team, down low."

Predictably, Bridgeport has scuffled for every point, going 8-1 at home in the first two months, but just 2-8 away from Harbor Yard Arena.

"I think we were getting an identity crisis, early in the year," said Cronin.

The most notable missing person is Hamilton, who led the AHL with 43 goals last year, even though he was out a month with an eye injury.

With Bekar on the left side and Manlow in the middle, Hamilton and his mates drove the Tigers hard during the celebrated streak.

Between them, they accounted for nearly half the club's goals (with 75) and better than a third of its points (138).

"It's a lot different," said returning winger Graham Belak. "On paper we have more guys who should be scoring. We have some guys who are snake-bit.  Last year, we had a team that seemed to click right off the bat. When we got everybody working, we were tough to beat. This year we can't seem to get on the same page every night. As soon as we do get everybody working hard and buying into the system, we should go on a good run."

All of those talented forwards aside, what really made the Tigers go last season was its crew of experienced defensemen.

Missed are such skilled puck movers as Smith, Mattias Timander, Alain Nasreddine, and Alan Letang. In their places are a group barely out of their teens, long on promise, but short on savvy.

That corps, which includes youngsters Bruno Gervais, Jody Robinson, Cole Jarrett, and Chris Campoli. None ready to join guys named Orr, Bourque, Murphy, or Coffey, on the Mt. Rushmore of rushing defensemen.

"We literally have five new defensemen this year," Cronin said, "and four of them are (virtual) rookies. With a transition game, you have to have good 'D'. Experienced defensemen know when to move it up the ice, and when to hold it for a second and let a lane open up. That just comes from pure experience. When you have good defensemen, the forwards will accelerate their development. But with young guys, there's not the same rhythm."

All of which has forced Cronin to adapt his system to suit this year's roster.

"This is a learning experience," he said. "I've had to re-adjust my approach to fit the skills of the players."

Still, Cronin said he doesn't expect this year's group to match last year's pyrotechnics. Just its results.

"I don't think we'll score a lot of goals this year," he said. "But we should be a lot better in February than we were in October."