Five people in the pressbox post-game including this writer questioned the effort put out (or lack thereof) of $2.75 million defenseman Tom Preissing, who was demoted by the LA Kings at the trade deadline and farmed to Manchester.
Known as an offensive D-man, when it came time for Preissing to reach out and either use a stick or his body to thwart Mark Bell’s short-handed breakout from the Hartford end with under a minute to play on a loose puck along the sideboards, well, Bell hustled away untouched and scored the 4-3 gamewinner.
For $2.75 million, or roughly $40 grand a game, this Preissing should have torn his arm out of the socket to stop the NHL veteran Bell.
While he’s here, Preissing is the highest paid employee in the state of New Hampshire. Tonight $13,333 a shot for the offensive D-man — 3 shots — and a minus-3, worst on the team.