They played five games in six nights.  All five games were in different cities.  There was travel time and lack of sleep and three big wins (that could have been four).  The team traveled 2,451 on their road trip.  That is a lot of travel on little rest.

Kenndal McArdle is back on the ice today.  He was out practicing with Luke Beaverson before the team got on the ice.  They are both still out now that the whole team has joined them.  Kenndal is in a green jersey though, so I’m sure he is not full contact.  Luke is back to full contact so, I wouldn’t expect to see him around here much longer with eight defenseman healthy.

Defenseman, Mike Caruso was the only healthy scratch in Sunday’s win over the Peoria Rivermen.  He wasn’t playing his best in the two games prior to that so Franklin MacDonald took his place in the lineup.  Who will sit tonight?  My guess is Luke Beaverson and Peter Aston.  Although Aston and MacDonald played very very well on the road trip, Caruso won’t be sitting out long.  I’m sure he has learned his lesson and will be back on top of his game tonight.

The line that refuses to cut their hair is working on puck movement on the powerplay.  Mike Duco, Shawn Matthias, and Randell Gelech are working hard on getting crisp, clean passes in front of the net.  Michal Repik, David Brine and Karl Stewart are doing the same.

One player that says no one should be tired is Stefan Meyer.  I asked him if all the travel could be an issue in the game and he said, “It shouldn’t be.  No one should be tired, we had two days off.  We had a good practice.”  We’ll check back with him after the game tonight.

Mike Brodeur will be getting the start in net tonight.

Tons of promotions going on over the next three games, check them out here.

The Amerks play the Grand Rapids Griffins tonight at 7:05 pm.  The last time the Amerks went to Grand Rapids, they split the weekend with them.  Rochester is 1-3-0-0 this season and 17-19-2 all-time against Detroit Red Wings’ affiliate.   Tonight is the fifth of six games between the two teams this season.  The Griffins have outscored the Amerks 19-8 in the season series.  The Griffins are on a downward spiral right now having lost their last five games, so it would be a good time to take them down.

Amerks at Home vs Grand Rapids Griffins Tonight is a post from: Let's Go Amerks!. For discussion visit the forums at LetsGoAmerks.com/Forums.

Tonight’s issues weren’t scoring goals, but stopping them.  After the first period, the score was 1-1.  But, when the second period started, Mike Brodeur did not get back into the crease.  Once Chris Beckford-Tseu went into the net, he let in 7 goals in 31 shots.

Mike Brodeur suffered a groin injury and left the game after the first period.

It was thought we would have no scoring this weekend with most of our “big” scorers either hurt or M.I.A.  With Janis Sprukts playing for his country (as he should be), and injuries to Meyer (knee), McArdle (shoulder), and MicFlikier (foot), most of our scoring was down the drain.

But, when some are down, others rise to the occassion.  Tonight, the usually laughable Drew Larman picked up a goal to tie the game 2-2.  That was the Amerks’ second of three comebacks during the game.

New left wing, Ross Carlson had the third goal for the Amerks, once again tying tonight’s game 3-3.  Ross was also the only player to score in the shootout last night, giving the Amerks the win.  He has been very highly thought of for a while in Florida where he played with the Everblades, and Rochester fans are immediately seeing why.

I digress…The Amerks worked extremely hard in front of Beckford-Tseu tonight to keep themselves in the game, but Chris just couldn’t do anything to keep the puck out of the net.  He allowed seven goals in two periods.  Seven.  I thought it was a joke when I refreshed the AHL page only to see that what once was a close game was then over in a horrible way.

At the beginning of the season, people thought that maybe if the team in front of Beckford-Tseu played harder, he would play better.  The team played extremely hard tonight, scoring four goals, which should be more than enough to win a game.  But, no…not if you are the Amerks.

One player I do want to say I have been enjoying watching as of late is David Brine.  He rarely loses a face-off.  He is solid on both ends of the ice and he has been scoring goals when the team needs them the most.  Last night, Brine scored in the 3rd period Friday night to tie up the game which isn’t the first time this season he has done that.

Also, having a coach who will get upset when something isn’t right is such a great sight.  Benoit gave the ref in last night’s game more than an earful when he waved off Karl Stewart’s goal in the Shootout.  He made the official so upset he was given a game misconduct for abuse of officials.

On Wednesday, the Rockford Icehogs will be rolling into town coming from two great wins against teams in our division.  The Hogs beat the Toronto Marlies 6-3 tonight, and the Manitoba Moose 4-1 on Friday night.  The game starts at 7:05 p.m.

Amerks Split Weekend In Grand Rapids is a post from: Let's Go Amerks!. For discussion visit the forums at LetsGoAmerks.com/Forums.

Well, Cory Murphy gets to stay in the NHL.  Much to many Amerks’ fans’ saddness, the Tampa Bay Lightning claimed Murphy off re-entry waivers.  Kevin O’s blog said it best for me…so, I am going to quote him.  Check out his blog here: Kevin O’s Blog

I can’t, however, criticize the Panthers for being player friendly. This is the type of deal that makes players happy, that makes players respect management.

They didn’t bury Murphy in the AHL, they gave him a chance to stay in the NHL and perhaps earn another contract for next season.

And since Murphy was never a guy targeted to play in Rochester, the Amerks really didn’t lose him. Losing tough-guy winger Steve MacIntyre on waivers in training camp was a punch in the gut. He was to be a focal point in Rochester.

But in Murphy’s case, you can’t lose something that was never yours to begin with.

Cory Murphy Picked Up By Tampa Bay is a post from: Let's Go Amerks!. For discussion visit the forums at LetsGoAmerks.com/Forums.

Janis Sprukts had an eight point weekend, leading the Amerks to two victories out East.  On Friday night he posted a hat trick and an assist.  Tonight, Sprukts had another goal and three assists.  The player everyone has been waiting for has returned.

Team captain Rory Fitzpatrick had a goal and an assist in tonight’s win over the Providence Bruins.  He took 6 shots which sometimes is as many as the whole team gets in a game.

The Amerks played without many key players.  Stefan Meyer is still out with a knee sprain.  Mike Caruso is out.  Riley Emmerson is out.  Franklin MacDonald had to travel home this weekend because of a death in the family (our condolences to you and your family Frank).  And Jason Garrison didn’t play in tonight’s game after having a four point night on Friday.

Players stepped up this weekend to make sure the team didn’t slump because of injuries.  Drew Larman, who has been nearly impossible to find on the ice this season, had three points this weekend (an assist on Friday and a goal and an assist on Sunday).  Peter Aston did his job, getting a +2 rating on Friday night and a +1 tonight with an assist.  Jordan Henry was a +2 tonight (with only one hooking penalty).

Tanner Glass seemed to be mostly invisible all weekend.  Besides being on the ice for one goal on Friday, he really didn’t do anything.

Mike Brodeur was in goal both nights, once again showing that with him in goal the team is more confident.  In all three away games this week, there were three goals against.  In the two that Brodeur started, the Amerks won them and played with much more confidence.  The Amerks were outshot in both games, but Brodeur kept them in the game without too much hassle.

On Wednesday’s loss against the Senators, the Amerks led in shots throughout the game, but two early goals let in by Beckford-Tseu kept the Amerks behind the whole time.  Once those two goals were in, the team never looked the same.  They immediately became the sloppy, unprepared team that we knew and hated at the beginning of the season.

The Amerks are 6-2 for the new year and not really looking to slow down, even with a rash of injuries going around.  The All-Star break is coming up after this weekend and that will be good for injured parties.

This weekend, the Amerks are back at home for two games.  On Thursday night, the Syracuse Crunch come to town again.  The game starts at 7:05PM.  I hope that Emmerson will have his ankle ready to go…I still want to see him drop the gloves with Mirasty.  Although, watching Mirasty have nothing to do the whole game is always amusing.

Friday night, the Manitoba Moose will be strolling into Rochester.  They will be looking for retribution for the two losses the Amerks handed to them a few weeks ago.  We can all expect Cory Schneider to be in goal for the Moose, making the Amerks’ scoring a little harder.  With effort like they put in this weekend, there is no reason they can’t beat Manitoba for the third time in a row.

Saturday night, the Amerks travel out to Albany to take on the RiverRats.  The last time the Amerks met the Rats was in Mike Brodeur’s first game with the team.  He shut them out and the team scored more goals than they were used to at the time winning 4-0.  A repeat of that would be nice going into the All-Star break.

Make sure to check in to LetsGoAmerks.com during the All-Star weekend.  We will be there, updating as often as we can.  We are looking forward to a good time in Worcester, MA!  We will have plenty of coverage of Mike Brodeur, Rory Fitzpatrick and the rest of the best in the AHL.

Sprukts Leads Depleated Amerks Over Monarchs and Bruins is a post from: Let's Go Amerks!. For discussion visit the forums at LetsGoAmerks.com/Forums.

The Amerks just couldn’t get anything going when they took on the Binghamton Senators tonight at the Broome County Veterans Memorial Arena, losing to the Senators 4-1.

The team started without one of their better players.  Jacob MicFlikier has a cracked foot.  He will be out for about 4 weeks.

Riley Emmerson was back in the lineup, however, and made his presence know when he took on Yablowski (typo stays).  I would call the fight in favor of the mohawked Senator.  Not a horrible fight for Riley, but he looked a bit rusty.

He wasn’t the only one to drop the gloves tonight.  Neil Clark took on on Geoff Waugh.  I would have called the fight for Neil who gave a handful of jabs to Waugh’s head.  But, Clark also busted up his hand.  He left the game for a few minutes while he got it checked out but, was back on the ice before his penalty was up.

Jordan Henry also decided to “fight” tonight.  He tangled with Zack Smith.  Jordan did little to nothing in this fight so, he lost.  When asked what made him drop the gloves tonight because it is rare that he does he came back with, “It won’t be a rare thing anymore.”  To which I must ask…Do you like getting punched in the head?  To his credit, he did square off well…he just needs to learn how to throw a punch.

I do recall a few times last season where Henry dropped the gloves with fire in his eyes and actually won.  Maybe the problem really was that he wasn’t angry when he was fighting.  Nothing had happened between him and Smith, they just kind of decided to go at it.

The Amerks weren’t playing bad for the first 8 minutes.  But, two quick goals in less than a minute for the Senators set the tone for the rest of the game.  Greg Mauldin scored at 12:04 on the PP while Michal repik was serving for a bench minor (a penalty the Amerks are getting far too comfortable with lately).  Then only 48 seconds later Matt Carkner blasted one past Beckford-Tseu from the blueline.  The Amerks were trying to play catch-up the rest of the game.

In the second period, Tomas Kudelka made it 3-0 when he netted one 56 seconds into the period.  Meyer was still serving his penalty from the end of the first period for holding.

Michael Duco stopped the Amerks from being shut out at 17:15.  Meyer made a clean pass to Shawn Matthias in the Amerks’ zone.  Matthias made his way through two forwards and both defensemen with his stick sorcery.  He then made a perfect pass to Mike Duco in front of the net where he put it home past Binghamton goaltender, Jeff Glass.

Both teams were scoreless for the rest of the game until 17:15 in the third period when Denis Hamel put away an empty netter to solidify the Sens’ win.

At the end of the third period, Mackenzie took a nice dirty hit on Stefan Meyer whose knee went sideways into the boards.  Because of this hit, Meyer will be out of the lineup until at least after the all-star break.  He has a grade two knee sprain.  Add that with his linemate (Micflikier) missing and we have some problems for this weekend.  Just when things were picking up…

I am not saying that the Amerks can’t win without Meyer and MicFlikier but, others are really going to have to step it up.  Stefan is the leading scorer on the team and Micflikier isn’t far behind seeing as he spent time with the Florida Everblades for no reason.

Also…where is Cory Murphy?  He cleared waivers, and the Panthers aren’t going to need him.  Send him here to play.  Unless he decided to take off for Europe as fast as humanly possible.  That would make me hate those European leagues even more than I already do.  But, he would probably finish off the year here before running away to the pansey league.

An anonymous Amerks’ fan after the game said “We need Tyler back.”  When asked who they would get rid of they said, “Chris Beckford-Tseu!”

The Amerks are in Manchester today preparing for their game tomorrow against the Monarchs.  They will then travel to Providence to take on the Bruins on Saturday night.  They don’t return home until Thursday the 22nd when they play, once again, against the Syracuse Crunch.

Amerks fall to B-Sens 4-1; Meyer out until after all-star break is a post from: Let's Go Amerks!. For discussion visit the forums at LetsGoAmerks.com/Forums.

Goaltenders, Tyler Plante (Dayton Bombers) and David Shantz (Elmira Jackals) will be taking each other on tonight when their teams battle it out in Elmira.  Both goalies have played for the Amerks this season and last.  But, once Michael Brodeur was brought on board it was clear that neither of them would be needed in Rochester.  They were both sent to different teams in the ECHL.

We here at LetsGoAmerks decided to go see our old backup goalies take each other on for the title of “most relevant backup goalie.” 

Tyler Plante was the first to be shipped out of Rochester when he had a poor showing in Rochester.  Winning none of his 6 starts and being pulled once.  He had  20 goals against in that time.  He was sent to Dayton and David Shantz was brought to Rochester to see what he could do.

Shantz really didn’t do much better.  He started in 5 games, was pulled once and lost 3 of the 4 games he stayed in.  The only point he earned was in an overtime loss.  Although, his goals against average was much better than Plante’s. 

People in Elmira are happy to have Shantz as a goaltender.  He has played in nine games for the Jackals and is 4-3-0-1 for them.  The crowd enjoys having him there and would like to keep him.

 Plante is 5-8-1-0 with the Dayton Bombers in 14 games played.  He was pulled twice in his first three games with the team, but has ben playing well since then.

Our son has his money on his favorite goalie ever, Tyler Plante, for tonight.  He has asked about a million times when Tyler will be coming back to Rochester.  I will cheer for no one.  I don’t like to pick between them.  It’s like picking a favorite child.  You may have a favorite, but you don’t say it out loud.

I look forward to the game tonight, and will be sure to make sure everyone knows exactly how well (not not well) both goaltenders do.

The game was good.  The coach for the Bombers said it was Tyler Plante’s best game there so far now that he is healthy.  When he got there he was having back problems, then his knee was on the fritz.  Now that he is healthy he is playing much better and it showed tonight.

Plante made many very good saves and gave the Bombers the win 6-3.

Shantzy would have had a fighting chance if the defensemen in front of him tried sometimes.  The calls from the Jackal fans sounded the same as the ones in Rochester at the beginning of the season.

After the game, we got the chance to talk to Tyler for a while.  It was nice to see him again.  On the way back to our hotel, our son said, “I want Chris Beckford-Tseu to leave so Tyler can come back.”

The decision for the game goes to Tyler.  He saved the team more than a few times.  Shantz just couldn’t keep up.

We do miss you Tyler!

The Battle Of The Backups: Plante vs Shantz is a post from: Let's Go Amerks!. For discussion visit the forums at LetsGoAmerks.com/Forums.

From Panthers.NHL.com:

The National Hockey League (NHL) announced today Florida Panthers rookie C Michael Frolik has been selected to compete in the three-on-three NHL YoungStars Game on Saturday, Jan. 24 in Montreal, Canada, as part of NHL All-Star Weekend.

Frolik, 20, is tied for 10th in rookie scoring with 17 points. He’s tied for ninth in rookie goal scoring (8) and eighth in power play assists (4). Frolik has played 38 of the Panthers’ 41 games and is the team’s seventh-leading scorer.

A native of Kladno, Czech Republic, Frolik was the Panthers’ first choice (10th overall) at the 2006 Entry Draft. Frolik spent the two previous seasons in Quebec playing for Rimouski of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League. Frolik had 65 points (24 goals) in 45 games last season for Rimouski.

Sunrise Sports & Entertainment is the premier company of its kind in South Florida. Home to more than 200 events annually and the Florida Panthers Hockey Club, the BankAtlantic Center is consistently a top 15 worldwide venue according to Pollstar. The BankAtlantic Center welcomes more than two million guests each year and is also the home of Sawgrass Live presented by BankAtlantic and two monthly magazines Unrestricted and Panthers Insider.

Michael Frolik To Play In NHL Youngstars’ Game is a post from: Let's Go Amerks!. For discussion visit the forums at LetsGoAmerks.com/Forums.

Defenseman, Cory Murphy was sent back to the Florida Panthers after last night’s win against the Hamilton Bulldogs.  The Panthers immediately put Murphy on waivers.

Could this mean that they plan to keep him in Rochester for the rest of the season if he clears?  He would be a great addition to the Amerks (and was for the five games he played here over the past two weeks).  Remember, Murphy did clear waivers in November but, was never assigned to the Amerks.

In five games with the Amerks, Cory had 2 goals and 4 assists for 6 points and played about 30 minutes a game.  We could use him for the rest of this season.  He didn’t seem to hate being here either…

Make it happen Florida.

Cory Murphy Back To The Panthers…But, For How Long? is a post from: Let's Go Amerks!. For discussion visit the forums at LetsGoAmerks.com/Forums.

The Amerks beat the Syracuse Crunch 3-1 tonight in front of 6,310 fans.  Mike Brodeur showed, once again, why he deserved the contract that he signed today.  The boys in front of him didn’t make the job too hard for him tonight either, scoring three goals and keeping play alive in the Crunch’s end of the ice.

Tanner Glass fought Kevin Harvey two seconds into the game.  They had already gotten started before the puck dropped, but it took two seconds for the referee to understand what was happening.  Tanner left Harvey with a nasty cut over his eye.  When the fight ended, I asked myself…who is here that he wants to impress.  It was Jack Birch.  Saw him.

That was basically how the rest of the game was played.  A lot of hitting, a lot of play making and not a lot of mistakes.

Stefan Meyer scored his 10th goal of the season.  He is really showing what he is made of lately.  He has always had the ability to be a team leader, but in the last 15 games he has really stood out a lot more.

Rory Fitzpatrick had a good first game back when he caught a giveaway in front of the Crunch net and slammed it home to make the score 2-1.

Michal Repik finished the game with a great goal.  Tanner Glass shot the puck in, it was knocked to the side by Dahm where Repik rifled it right into the top of the net making the score 3-1.

Kenndal McArdle decided to take on Harvey at the end of the game because aparently Harvey didn’t get enough out of Tanner Glass.  McArdle gave him more than a few jabs to his already bleeding eye.  Point – McArdle.  I won’t lie though…when I see Kenndal about to throw down, I get very nervous because of his jaw last year.

All-in-all it was a very good game for the Amerks.  It was also their third straight win (all divisional).  Imagine what this team could have looked like in front of a goalie like Mike Brodeur at the beginning of the season.

Let’s all hope the Panthers don’t screw up signing him long term in the off-season.  They have no other choice.  They have no depth at goal and Vokoun won’t be too much help for the Panthers for much longer.  His contract is up after next season and with his back problems, I would be a little surprized to see him resigned.

Craig Anderson is the future of the Panthers and Mike Brodeur is the future of the Amerks.  Don’t screw it up Florida!

The Amerks Crunch Syracuse in Their Third Straight Win is a post from: Let's Go Amerks!. For discussion visit the forums at LetsGoAmerks.com/Forums.

Finally, after wondering if this would ever happen, Mike Brodeur signed a one-year AHL contract with the Rochester Americans.

From Amerks.com

Rochester Americans General Manager Jody Gage announced today that the team has signed goaltender Mike Brodeur to a one-year standard American Hockey League contract.

“We’re happy Mike was able to earn a permanent spot in Rochester and within our system,” said Jack Birch, Director of Player Personnel for the Florida Panthers. “He has certainly shown he has the talent to play in the AHL and the potential to play at the next level.”

“We’re excited we were able to come to terms with Mike,” said Gage. “He has done a lot to help this team turn around since his arrival here and his All-Star nomination is a direct indication that he is deserving of this contract.”

The 25-year-old netminder joined Rochester in early December on a 25-game professional tryout (PTO) and since shows an 8-3-1 record with a 1.59 goals-against average and .944 save percentage in 12 games between the pipes for the Amerks. His two shutouts also tie him for third among AHL goaltenders. He has now started 12 of the last 13 games for Rochester, including nine straight.

The AHL announced January 6th that Brodeur has been selected as one of three goaltenders to man the pipes for the Canadian All-Stars in the 2009 AHL All-Star Classic. Brodeur was named the Reebok/AHL Player of the Week for period ending December 14, 2008 after posting a 3-2-0 record to go along with one shutout as the Amerks completed a stretch of playing five games in six nights from December 9th to December 14th.

All I can say about this is…thank God.  Mike has been the best thing to happen to this team since the day Craig Anderson walked out of the locker room for the last time.

Mike Brodeur Signs With The Amerks!!! is a post from: Let's Go Amerks!. For discussion visit the forums at LetsGoAmerks.com/Forums.