Wild 6 | Panthers 2

Tonight's lines to start were:

McLean - Horton - Stillman
Booth - Weiss - Zednik
Olesz - Campbell - Dvorak
Peltonen - Kreps - Belak

Bouwmeester - Skrastins
Ballard - Boynton
Welch - Murphy

Vokoun
Anderson

The Panthers played poorly, the Wild played well. Minnesota's defense was able to neutralize any Panthers' threat, and the two Cats goals, as a result, came from defensemen, one by a deflection and another just a hard shot.

Nick Boynton said after the game, "We just played a terrible game all around," and when asked about his mistake against Pouliout that led to a goal, his answer was straightforward and to the point: "It was stupid. I made a stupid play and you can't do that in this league."

Tomas Vokoun had an unimpressive start, and he most certainly did his part to contribute to this loss, but Anderson was no more effective when he came in to start the third. Maybe the bigger killer tonight was more a matter of Minnesota's strong passing, ability to capitalize on mistakes, and a strong power play.

As for that Minnesota power play, just to give you an idea, the Panthers took not one, but two too-many-men penalties in the third period. It was a meltdown all around, and Minnesota came to play.

Drawing positives here, Skrastins' return to the lineup was met with a goal. He said he feels good, and he played a solid game. Gregory Campbell showed what being a teammate is all about by immediately going after Erik Reitz for his knee on Olesz, and ultimately Belak playing his part by throwing down with Boogaard. It was a good fight and it set a good, early tone for the game, and guys like Nick Boynton aren't going to deflect responsibility. It's good to hear players acknowledging their own individual shortcomings in a game. That accountability is, at the least, something that this team needs to continue.

Peter DeBoer was interviewed a few minutes ago and gave a few thoughts on the game tonight. "We played a good first twenty minutes. We did a lot of good things, then they got a couple of goals and it all unraveled. It's a learning process, but it's only game three. We played a couple of good games and a good period, but you've got to do more than that in this league."

When asked if replacing Tomas Vokoun with Craig Anderson to start the third period was to send a message or just a solution to Vokoun's subpar performance, DeBoer said, "It was a little bit of both. This wasn't just Tomas. Everyone in there knows that."

David Shantz Leaving the Everblades?

Well, how's this for a random update? Courtesy of the Florida Everblades:

"Florida Everblades president and general manager Craig Brush along with head coach Malcolm Cameron announced today that goaltender David Shantz has been recalled to the Florida Panthers."

Originally, I thought maybe the Cats were going to dress him tonight as a backup, but George Richards is saying it looks like the Panthers are loaning Shantz to a different club, so the recall has nothing to do (apparently) with tonight's game.

Game 3: Minnesota Wild

Mike Russo's saying Marek Zidlicky is on IR for the Wild, while Pierre-Marc Bouchard and Owen Nolan are day-to-day with injuries and now you can add Marian Gaborik to the list, as well.

After the Wild's 4-2 win against Atlanta the other night, head coach Jacques Lemaire took a moment to call out a couple of his young players; think rookies Colton Gillies and Benoit Pouliout, saying, "The kids, they've got to play better. I don't want to put pressure on them. But this is not junior; it's not the minors. This is the N . . . H . . . L. Please."

So, along with Gillies and Pouliout, Minnesota's also got James Sheppard on the roster and now Cal Clutterbuck will play, grabbing a spot in the line-up due to these various injuries. You would think with guys like Bouchard, Nolan and Gaborik out for a game, the Wild would be in trouble, but they've got some very good young players each with something to prove that should make this a fun game.

And don't forget about the Wild's enforcer, Derek Boogaard. All 6'8", 257 pounds of him.. Does Wade (pictured) dance with the Boogeyman..? We'll see.

George Richards of the Miami Herald reports that Michael Frolik and Anthony Stewart are healthy scratches for the Panthers again tonight. Maybe DeBoer's shooting for the Brunnström effect by sitting these guys in the press box.

Whatever the case, GR also says Bryan Allen is out tonight with a knee injury, but Karlis Skrastins is back in for the Panthers.

Brandon Wheat Kings Win Memorial Cup Bid

The Brandon Wheat Kings (WHL) have been selected to host the 2010 Memorial Cup.

The Memorial Cup is the top prize for North American junior hockey, and the tournament sees the league champion from each of the Ontario Hockey League, Western Hockey League and Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, plus the host team, compete for the Canadian Hockey League championship.

Colby Robak, the Panthers' latter second-round pick from this summer's draft, is currently in his third year of junior hockey, and won't turn 19 until April. I believe that the rule that governs whether a player can play in the AHL or juniors is basically that, if you are North American and still have junior eligibility, you can't play in the AHL. It's NHL or back to your junior club.

Now I could be mistaken, though I'm pretty sure the rule generally falls within those lines, so unless Robak gets traded or makes the Panthers as a 19-year old, he would get a chance to play in the tournament.

His team could still win the WHL championship this year and qualify for the 2009 Memorial Cup, but no matter what, they're in for 2010.

Quiet Morning

Yesterday, Rochester released Neil Clark from his PTO. Clark, 6'2", 210 pounds picked up 10 PIM in his two games; two five-minute majors for fighting, each time against Jon Mirasty. The Amerks are still a couple of days from their next game.

Maybe this move is indicative of someone being brought in to play the heavyweight role..

Meanwhile, Duco's made a bit of an impression on the Crunch enforcer -- from the Syracuse Post-Standard writer Lindsay Kramer:

Duco and teammate Kenndal McArdle got into it with Mirasty and Syracuse's Tom Sestito on the benches at the end of Saturday's game.

Mirasty pointed to the dividing glass and then flexed his muscles at Duco. At the time, I didn't quite catch the significance of that gesture. Tuesday, Mirasty said he was signaling that Duco is a tough guy when he's protected by the divider.

"The little rat Duco started the whole thing. He was chirping our players and was swinging his stick," Mirasty said. "I think he was trying to be a little agitator out there. I couldn't allow that."

One of Duco's stick swipes caught Sestito on the visor. I checked with the league office on Tuesday, and they said the matter is still under investigation.

Moving down from Rochester to Florida's west coast, a little more info about James DeLory.

Apparently, DeLory suffered a concussion while he was with the Amerks and it seems affiliates cannot assign injured players. DeLory is already in Estero and the Everblades are a couple days from the start of the regular season, but DeLory is not on the roster. The 'Blades head coach, Malcolm Cameron does not want to cut a player who can play for one who can't play.

There's a little bit more information about it at the Naples News 'Blades Blog, which is here.

Would the Minnesota Wild loan Riley Emmerson to the Amerks? Please?

Over the weekend, Matt Rust centered the Wolverines' top line in both games. He picked up one assist in one game, and two assists in the other. The Wolverines are 2-0, while Rust has 3 points to start the season.

Rangers' Prospect Aleksei Cherepanov Passes Away

New York Rangers President and General Manager Glen Sather regretfully announced today that forward Alexei Cherepanov passed away during a game in Russia on Monday evening. Cherepanov was 19 years old.

“We are extremely saddened by the tragic passing of Alexei,” said Sather. “On behalf of the New York Rangers organization, I would like to extend our deepest sympathies to his family. Alexei was an intelligent, energetic young man, with tremendous talent and an extremely bright future.”

Cherepanov appeared in 14 games with Avangard Omsk of the Continental Hockey League (KHL) this season, registering seven goals and five assists for 12 points. He ranked second on the team in goals (seven) and fourth in points (12). He also ranked third on the team with a 24.1% shooting percentage.

Full Article at Rangers' Site.

Amerks Drop Third Straight

Attendance at tonight's Rochester game was very low, and I was able to count the number of people in specific sections during stoppages in play. Unfortunately, the people that didn't come to the game didn't miss a whole lot.

Rochester started out decent and saw a couple of early power play chances, but soon after, the Amerks got into penalty trouble, and then some, taking four penalties from the midway point of the first period through to the first intermission. Binghamton capitalized on their chances, scoring two power play goals in the opening frame.

Chris Beckford-Tseu played in goal and he was again nothing special. The first goal for the Senators was more of a defensive error than goalie mistake, as Ryan Shannon was left completely uncovered to the side of the net. A cross-ice pass to the open skater and Beckford-Tseu just couldn't get across in time. The second power play goal was, to a point, similar. Ilya Zubov was left unchallenged by the defenders in front of the net, but this time, Beckford-Tseu was able to cross the crease -- Zubov simply fired the puck past.

Binghamton scored again early in the second, and the score remained unchanged -- due in part to fewer penalties and a moderately better Amerks team than had played in the first period -- until late in the third period when Tanner Glass tipped a shot by Peter Aston past Senators goaltender Brian Elliott. Michael Caruso recorded an assist on the goal and it was the first point of his pro career. If only they could have played the way they did at the end of this game from the start..

This brings Michael Frolik into any discussion. What's going to happen with him? Right now, he's stagnant. He could already have three pro games under his belt with Rochester, but instead, he was a healthy scratch for Friday's season opener, and on Saturday night, he saw less than six minutes of total ice time and not a single shift in the third period or in overtime. Send him down. He needs to be playing, not sitting in the press box.

Now, I watched this game on AHL Live. If you've considered the service, I can't compare it to b2 as I never was able to watch a full game with b2 Networks. The price is still the same; $6 for a game, but although I definitely saw some flaws, I will definitely watch some more games this way.

One of the major problems was that the audio feed occasionally skipped ahead, and sometimes the speed changed. For the most part, the audio was slightly ahead of the video. This was only really a nuisance for goals. I could hear that it was a goal as the goal was being scored. It was close, far enough apart to be noticeable and for the money, something they should definitely try to fix, but it wasn't enough to really take away from anything.

The video quality for this game was good. Clear image, although the picture (maybe three times all game) slowed down and lagged, before skipping back ahead to where it should have been in the first place, AND the image quality got pretty rough as the action moved quickly from end to end. Again, this is something that I'm sure people will be unhappy with, but it didn't bother me enough to say I wouldn't go back and use it again. I do hope they can improve these things, though.

****

I'd said the other night that Foster and Cheverie each picked up wins in their debuts as starters. Significant was Cheverie's win against #4 Notre Dame. While Denver was ranked sixth overall in the preseason poll, Cheverie was thrown straight into fire against a tough opponent and came out strong.

Over in Sweden on Saturday, Markström shut out Södertälje, making 23 saves in the process. It's his second consecutive shutout, although he sat out a game in between the two.

This weekend also saw a four point night from Adam Comrie, scoring a goal and three assists in Sagniaw's 7-3 win over Kingston, while A.J. Jenks returned from injury, playing in all three games this weekend (Friday, Saturday, Sunday), scoring a goal on Saturday.

One last note comes from Panthers head coach Peter DeBoer's former club, the Kitchener Rangers. Saturday night, two Rangers players were among five passengers in a car taken to hospital after being struck by a truck driving through an intersection at the same time. Fortunately, four of the passengers were treated for injuries and released while the fifth was transferred to another hospital with non-life threatening injuries.

Panthers 3 | Thrashers 2 (OT)

SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) -David Booth became a fan-favorite in Florida last season, and he's doing his best to keep it that way.

Booth scored his second goal of the game with 1:06 left in overtime to give the Panthers a 3-2 victory over the Atlanta Thrashers on Saturday night.

"Speed, enthusiasm, the energy he plays with every night, he's a great player," said first-year Florida coach Peter DeBoer, who earned his first NHL victory. "Guys like that are almost the heartbeat of your team. They get over the boards and they can change the momentum with their energy and their work ethic. Those guys are easy to coach."

Drawing chants of "Booooth! Booooth!" at the BankAtlantic Center every time he touches the puck, he has three goals in two games. . . READ MORE

My seats are way up at the top of the arena, but they're still good seats. It was fun being there tonight, and while the Panthers looked better last night, they still looked solid tonight and aside from the penalties and some shoddy defense, they had another good game.

Up north, Rochester got hammered this evening. Tyler Plante started out well and quickly fell apart, before being pulled for Chris Beckford-Tseu. CBT fared no better, and the Crunch controlled the game 'til the end, cruising to a 6-1 victory.

It got ugly on the benches in the third with McArdle and Duco swinging their sticks across the bench at Mirasty and Sestito. All four players picked up misconducts.

McCabe's injury again, isn't what TSN initially reported. The MRI came back negative and McCabe is day-to-day.

I'll try to do an update of the games from earlier tonight in the afternoon, but I may just put them at the end of tomorrow night's entry, since I'll be able to listen to the Rochester game.

McCabe Injury Update

Good news, Panthers fans. It's starting to look like the the crack medical staff at TSN jumped the gun this morning when they diagnosed Bryan McCabe with "at least one fractured vertebrae" in their TV examination.

The report came out early today, and was eventually written off by the Panthers, through George Richards, as "asbolute speculation".

TSN has since changed their tune, and now they have McCabe feeling fine, listed as day-to-day. ESPN says Jacques Martin has said Caber is probably out for two weeks with a lower back strain and a contusion.

While ESPN says the word came from Jacques Martin, I was hoping to hear an update from GR, but it looks like I'm going to leave for the game before that comes.

You can view his blog here.

Annd.. they're off!

Panthers dropped the season opener, 6-4 against Carolina with the sixth Cane goal coming on an empty net. The Panthers looked good, although McCabe was injured in the second period.

From the AP via the Panthers website:

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) -Joni Pitkanen and Dan LaCouture found the perfect way to fit in with their new Carolina teammates: Lead them to a season-opening victory over the team that kept them out of the playoffs.

Both of the Hurricanes' newcomers scored in their debut Friday night, and Carolina beat the Florida Panthers 6-4 in the opener for both teams. . . READ MORE

It sounds like people are already pushing the panic button, reading posts at the Cats' official boards and over at Hockey's Future (HFboards.com), but I say give this time. The Panthers looked good. They were largely as advertised -- agressive, fast and they fought out an exciting game. Vokoun wasn't at his best, and if he were, the Panthers would have come away with a victory.

As it stands, there will be games where the offense doesn't do enough for their goaltender, and vice versa. I'm anxious to see if they will sustain the pressure with which they played tonight against the Thrashers.

The Amerks lost to Syracuse, 4-3. Janis Sprukts, Michal Repik and Andrew Sweetland scored for Rochester.

North Dakota lost, 5-1. Derrick LaPoint was a -3 with a tripping penalty in the third period. . . Ryan Watson did not play for Western Michigan, and Matt Duffy picked up an assist in Maine's 5-4 victory.

Tonight's Lines

Per George Richards of the Miami Herald:

Stillman - Horton - Olesz
Zednik - Weiss - Booth
Belak - Kreps - Peltonen
Campbell - McLean - Dvorak

Allen - Bouwmeester
Ballard - Boynton
Murphy - McCabe

Vokoun
Anderson

Murphy and McCabe should be an interesting pair. I suppose adding two offensive-minded defensemen is a good boost to lines that otherwise may not truly threaten much on their own, but their defensive abilities seem suspect.

Anyway, again, Frolik and Stewart are scratches along with Noah Welch. Hopefully Richard Zednik will be a good addition to playing with David Booth and Stephen Weiss. That's a very fast line now, and Booth fights for goals in front of the net, but hopefully the three of them will be able to finish.

Kreps and Peltonen staying together looks good, and Belak adds that much loved physical presence. The third and fourth lines could be flipped around, though. It's a bit weird seeing Belak on the third, after all.

Gameday! Panthers @ Hurricanes

After too many long months without hockey, tonight, the puck drops across the board, and while I'm still undecided on whether I want to spend the $6 to watch one Rochester game, the Panthers will be playing, too -- on the road at RBC Center.

Skrastins is still on IR, so Frolik remains with the team to fill the roster spot.

The Panthers crushed the Hurricanes' playoff aspirations last year, and in doing so, finally put to rest a long losing streak in Carolina, although the Canes still won the season series.

Florida, without Skrastins, still has seven defensemen on the roster, and it appears that Noah Welch will be the healthy scratch, along with -- yeah, these two are scratches -- Anthony Stewart and Michael Frolik.

Carolina will be without Scott Walker and Justin Williams, while Rod Brind'Amour will be in for the Canes.

The game will be on FSFL tonight in south Florida and on the radio, 790 the Ticket. Puck drops at 7PM.

**AHL**

Rochester opens their season at home against the Syracuse Crunch tonight, as well. This will be the first game in Amerks history as the Panthers sole affiliate and, short of Michael Frolik, many of the Panthers' top prospects will be going up against a very skilled, very physical Syracuse team. Over at LetsGoAmerks.com's writeup about this morning's practice, Shawn Matthias, Michal Repik and Andrew Sweetland skated as a line while the defensemen were juggled quite a bit.

Rory Fitzpatrick will be wearing the 'C' for the Amerks, while Tanner Glass has earned an 'A'. Benoit Groulx hasn't decided who will get the third letter for Rochester just yet, and says that there are more than three leaders on his team.

Keaton Ellerby has an injury and probably will not play tonight. The opening face-off up north comes at 7:35 PM.

**NCAA**

In college, the North Dakota Fighting Sioux and Derrick LaPoint take on Boston University at 7:30, while Western Michigan (Ryan Watson) plays host to Niagara at 7:00 and the Maine Black Bears and defenseman Matt Duffy open against New Brunswick at 6:00. All times, of course, PM.

The remaining teams; Denver, Michigan and New Hampshire, play tomorrow night.

****

Lastly, a little bit of news from the ECHL. James DeLory, who was cut from Amerks' camp and assigned to the Everblades, will spend the season learning a new position.

DeLory, undrafted and signed as a defenseman out of the Ontario Hockey League, will be learning to play right wing.

Matthias to Rochester

According to Kevin Oklobzija of the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, Shawn Matthias is on his way north and will be playing for the Amerks tomorrow night. This also means that one of David Booth or Stephen Weiss has been removed from injured reserve and is cleared to play in the season opener. Initially, Oklobzija had reported that Frolik was joining Matthias, but it appears that now, for the moment, Frolik will be sticking around with the Panthers for another day or two. We'll see what happens there.

To the OHL, A.J. Jenks has been out of the Plymouth lineup since suffering a knee injury in his first game of the season on September 26th against the Soo Greyhounds. He was listed day-to-day as of October 1st, but he could be good to go for Friday night's game against London.

Brynäs, leaders of the Elitserien, are trailing 5-2 as the third period winds down. Markström has the night off, and Skellefteå has scored five as-yet unanswered goals since falling behind initially 2-0.

Through six games of his own, Markström is fourth in overall standings for save percentage (.940), fourth in goals against average (2.00) and sixth in saves, having made 186 (31 shots per game) thus far. He also has a shutout, stopping all 35 shots against Linköpings on October 4th.

Roster Set

The full article, by Dave Joseph, is here.

"The Panthers announced their opening-night roster Wednesday and, due to some lingering injuries, Michael Frolik, Shawn Matthias and Cory Murphy were all on the list.

According to GM Jacques Martin nagging injuries to Stephen Weiss (groin), David Booth (back), Radek Dvorak (ribs) and Karlis Skrastins (neck) have kept them on the injured reserve list. All but Skrastins practiced Wednesday and Weiss, Booth and Dvorak can be cleared to play in Friday’s season-opener in Carolina as late as 5 p.m., that evening."

Final Roster

Forwards (12)
Wade Belak
Gregory Campbell
Michael Frolik
Nathan Horton
Kamil Kreps
Shawn Matthias
Brett McLean
Rostislav Olesz
Ville Peltonen
Anthony Stewart
Cory Stillman
Richard Zednik

Defenesman (7)
Bryan Allen
Keith Ballard
Jay Bouwmeester
Nick Boynton
Bryan McCabe
Cory Murphy
Noah Welch

Goaltenders (2)
Craig Anderson
Tomas Vokoun

Injured Reserve (4)
David Booth
Radek Dvorak
Karlis Skrastins
Stephen Weiss

****

There's a good article at Hockey's Future about Adam Comrie. I don't want to make this too long, so another link, if you please: Comrie Working Even Harder After Panthers Camp

And, lastly, Murphy cleared waivers, but according to Jacques Martin (you can see this in the roster article at the top of this entry) assigning Murphy to the AHL wasn't the motivation in waiving him in the first place.