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Posts tagged 'Transactions'

Posts Tagged ‘Transactions’

Gameday Notes Amerks vs Griffins; Finley and Morrisonn Back

January 25, 2012 - By
Gameday Notes Amerks vs Griffins; Finley and Morrisonn Back

The best news for the Amerks second game of this road trip against the Grand Rapids Griffins is that they’ll have Joe Finley and Shaone Morrisonn back on defense after they missed a few games.  Morrisonn has missed the last three games while serving a three game suspension.  Finley has missed the past four Amerks games while called up to the Buffalo Sabres.  The defense has gotten by but those two are much more capable defensively against the top lines of opposing teams.

Rochester came back from being down 3-1 this past Saturday against the Griffins and won in the shootout, final score was 4-3.  Nick Crawford, Zack Kassian and Mark Voakes scored in regulation and Paul Szczechura, Jonathan Parker and Shawn Szydlowski scored in the shootout for the win.  David Leggio made 35 saves for his 12th win of the season.  Leggio is now 12-10-1 with a 2.82 GAA.  My guess is that Leggio gets another start tonight.

The key to an Amerks win is simple, build a lead through the first two periods and hold on to it going into the third.  Pretty basic.  The Amerks are 18-4-2-1 when they have a lead going into the third period.  They’ve found ways to come [...]Read More

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Zack Kassian to at AHL All-Star Game; Joe Finley Sent Back

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January 24, 2012 - By
Zack Kassian to at AHL All-Star Game; Joe Finley Sent Back

Zack Kassian turned 21 today and the American Hockey League gave him a present by adding him to the All-Star Game roster in Atlantic City this coming weekend.  In 25 games with the Amerks he has 10 goals and 11 assists for a total of 21 points.  Kassian is currently tied for third on the team in goals and fifth in assists.  The rookie will replace Brayden McNabb who has been on the Sabres injured list out with a concussion.

Interesting replacement.  Kassian has had a number of great moments as a rookie but hasn’t necessarily been the best player on the Amerks roster.  It all comes down to the people making the decisions and if they’re asking for the “All-Star” of a team or the best future prospect.  Either way, congrats to Kassian.  It’s a great way to get your name out there in the hockey world to show yourself off.

Joe Finley has also been sent back to the Amerks from the Sabres.  He’ll join the team in Grand Rapids for their road game on Wednesday night.  Shaone Morrisonn will also be back in the lineup after serving his three game suspension.  With those two changes the Amerks [...]Read More

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Michael Ryan Returns, Evan Rankin ECHL Trade and One Hundred Thousand Amerks Fans

January 19, 2012 - By
Michael Ryan Returns, Evan Rankin ECHL Trade and One Hundred Thousand Amerks Fans

The last time Michael Ryan played a game was October 14th against the Lake Erie Monsters and has since missed 35 games due to a mystery injury/illness/something or another.  If everything goes according to plan he’ll skate to the ice tonight against the Oklahoma City Barons.  The last time he was expected to return was Thanksgiving week before another he had another set back.  So, what’s been wrong?  Who knows but a healthy Michael Ryan in the Amerks lineup immediately contributes some speed up front and even more potential scoring up front.  The team and fans will take that any day.

In his past three full seasons in the AHL, he was a big-time goal-scorer. In 2006-07 he scored 28 in 50 games for the Amerks. He scored 25 in 40 games with the Albany River Rats in 2008-09. He had 25 in 52 games for the Adirondack Phantoms last season.

And considering about half the forwards in Buffalo have been injured this season, and that six different Amerk forwards have been called up as injury replacements, there’s little doubt that Ryan would have been adding to his NHL games-played total.

(Read more from Kevin O on Hockey O-Zone)

[...]Read More

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Amerks Sign Defensemen Maury Edwards and Brock Matheson

January 18, 2012 - By
Amerks Sign Defensemen Maury Edwards and Brock Matheson

The Rochester Americans are short on defensemen for the first time this season and have added two players prior to three games in three nights starting on Thursday.  The team signed Maury Edwards (Cincinnati Cyclones) and Brock Matheson (Stockton Thunder) to PTO’s, both from the ECHL.

The Amerks lineup will be without Shaone Morrisonn who was suspended for three games because of this hit last Saturday on Brian Willsie of the Hamilton Bulldogs.  The Amerks are also without Joe Finley (healthy scratch Wednesday night) and TJ Brennan who are on recall to the Buffalo Sabres.  With those three players out it leaves the team with Alex Biega, Drew Schiestel, Dennis Personn, Nick Crawford and Corey Fienhage.

That’s not a defense that any team will be very fearful of.. with the current coaching staff though I’m confident they’ll give them some good guidance at dealing with what they have and not thinking about what or who is missing.

From the Amerks press release on Matheson:

(Rochester, NY)… The Rochester Americans announced today that the team has signed defenseman Brock Matheson of the ECHL’s Stockton Thunder to a professional tryout.

Matheson, 24, has appeared in 19 games for Stockton this season, [...]Read More

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Sabres Return a Healthy Whitmore

December 26, 2011 - By
Sabres Return a Healthy Whitmore

The Sabres sent Derek Whitmore back to the Amerks today after his short two game promotion, surprisingly they didn’t harm him in any way while he was called up..  Whitmore didn’t put any points on the scoreboard but his hustle, scoring chances and hard work should earn him another call up this season if the need comes up and it likely will.  The Sabres signed Whitmore out of Bowling Green State University and as a college student not drafted many questioned if he’d have what it takes to play in the NHL and he finally got the chance to prove that he could.  It only took 272 games in the American Hockey League to get to this point but he was finally able to fulfill his dream of playing in the NHL.

Derek Whitmore is currently the Amerks leading scorer with 13 goals and seven assists in 29 games.

The Amerks are off to Oklahoma City to play two games against the Barons on Tuesday and Wednesday night.

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Amerks Add a Campbell and Igor to the Lineup; Foligno Sent Back

December 21, 2011 - By
Amerks Add a Campbell and Igor to the Lineup; Foligno Sent Back

The press release is below from the Amerks announcing the addition of Scott Campbell and Igor Gongalsky.  Marcus Foligno was also sent down by the Sabres.  The chances of Foligno playing are very slim, this would be his fifth game in six nights if he plays and that’s something no team wants a player going through.  I think everyone would be all for him playing, we’ll see at game time what the coaches decision is.

Out of the two players added Scott Campbell appears to be the one with more of an offensive upside.  Campbell has scored 9 goals and 8 assists in 28 games with the Las Vegas Wranglers.  Gongalsky was recently released from a PTO with the Portland Pirates where he played in 13 games and had one assist.  He also played in 54 games with the Pirates last season and tallied four goals and six assists.  We’ll see what they can do tonight.

(Rochester, NY)… The Rochester Americans announced today that the team has signed forward Scott Campbell of the ECHL’s Las Vegas Wranglers and forward Igor Gongalsky of the ECHL’s Gwinnett Gladiators to professional tryouts. Earlier today, forward Marcus Foligno was assigned to the Amerks by [...]Read More

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Amerks Need Some Players with 163 Man Games Lost Already

December 21, 2011 - By
Amerks Need Some Players with 163 Man Games Lost Already

Here we are in late December and the offensive side of the Rochester Americans lineup has just about dried up and as of this morning the team is short on players heading into tonights game against the Lake Erie Monsters.  Based on the Amerks roster that played on Sunday minus Whitmore and Foligno they have six defensemen, two goalies and ten forwards.  The simple math indicates that leaves them two forwards short.  As of Tuesday night there was not any news of additions to the roster.

Don Stevens had mentioned on Sunday that Shaone Morrisonn and Joe Finley were out with injuries from that game.  Morrisonn was also handed a one game suspension from the American Hockey League for an elbow this past Friday against the San Antonio Rampage.  It’s possible that Morrisonn was just sitting the game out ahead of the pending suspension.  We should find out sometime today what the status is of Finley and Morrisonn.

There’s often talk about “man games lost” due to injuries on a team and I can’t imagine another team having a number as high as the Rochester Americans right now.  The number combined between injuries and call ups (based on my late [...]Read More

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Sabres Call Up Whitmore and Foligno from the Amerks

December 19, 2011 - By
Sabres Call Up Whitmore and Foligno from the Amerks

Another day and more players called up to the Buffalo Sabres from the Rochester Americans.  The Amerks returned from Texas today and good news awaited Derek Whitmore and Marcus Foligno as both players are on their way to join the Sabres.

Whitmore has played in 272 regular season games between the Portland Pirates and Rochester Americans and will finally get his shot at the show he has worked so hard for.  In 29 games this season with the Amerks he has scored 13 goals and tallied seven assists.  Whitmore puts everything he has out on the ice night in and night out and will do the same with the Sabres.

Marcus Foligno hopes to make his debut after only 27 games.  In the 27 games played with the Amerks he has scored nine goals and tallied three assists.  There’s no way that Foligno would have expected to get called up this early in his career but will be thankful for the opportunity.  That’s not to say that Foligno wasn’t playing well but with the players above him in depth it just didn’t seem likely.

Assuming Foligno plays he’ll be playing in his first NHL game agains his brother Nick Foligno. [...]Read More

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Amerks Lose in Overtime to the Rampage, 10th Loss by One Goal

December 17, 2011 - By
Amerks Lose in Overtime to the Rampage, 10th Loss by One Goal

There’s almost always more than one way to look at a game, especially a loss.  You can look at it as being a close game and getting a point on the road is acceptable or you can start to pull your hair out due to frustration at the apparent downhill slide.  The Amerks have now lost 10 games by one goal.  You could even push that number to 11 since Albany scored an empty net goal on December 4th to win 4-2 so that’s more like a one goal loss than anything else.

One thing that didn’t help the Amerks was that Colin Stuart was called up to the Buffalo Sabres on Friday morning due to Patrick Kaleta not being able to play.  They had thought Kaleta would play so everyone went on the road trip.  It’ll be interesting to see what kind of flights Stuart had to take to get from San Antonio to Buffalo.

This Rochester Americans team is having to rely on defense and goaltending and unfortunately a defensive turnover by Drew Schiestel is what led to a Bill Thomas breakaway to score the game winner in overtime.  There’s very little offense being generated and the only [...]Read More

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Amerks Add Rob Bordson to the Lineup from Trenton; Gameday Notes

December 9, 2011 - By
Amerks Add Rob Bordson to the Lineup from Trenton; Gameday Notes

The Amerks have been in need of players and offense and they’ve acquired Rob Bordson on loan from the Trenton Titans in hopes he could be that guy.  Bordson is a 23yr old 2nd year pro who plays left wing.  In his short career he’s already been traded from the Ducks to the Flyers (along with Danny Syvret for David Laliberte and Patrick Maroon) and then to the Kings (was bundled in the Mike Richards trade).  The Kings didn’t offer him a qualifying contract this past summer at which pointed he signed in the fall with the Trenton Titans of the ECHL.

The Amerks will be losing a player, Paul Szczechura has been called up.  He was on the ice for the Amerks morning skate but it sounds like someone (maybe Gaustad?) isn’t ready to play in Buffalo.

(gameday notes below)

He’s player that was on the list that Ron Rolston had talked about on Thursday and they’re going to give him a look.  Rolston said he looks to have some skills up front that they need and that he’ll be playing.  Bordson has been putting up some numbers with Trenton scoring goals and making plays, two places this Amerks [...]Read More

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Loss to the Aeros; Corey Tropp Called Up; Tonight vs Bulldogs

December 3, 2011 - By
Loss to the Aeros; Corey Tropp Called Up; Tonight vs Bulldogs

A few random updates… News of the day is that the Buffalo Sabres have more injuries with Nathan Gerbe and Patrick Kaleta are out injured so Corey Tropp has been called up from the Rochester Americans.

As for the loss on Friday night, the Amerks got out to an early 2-0 lead and then the game went downhill from there.  They managed to go ahead 3-2 after Houston scored two goals but the Aeros pulled ahead and won 4-3.  For more information on the game you should read Kevin Oklobzija’s post titled: Aeros exploit Amerks’ inexperience; loss to learn from?

This was a game against one of the top teams in the league and it really exposed the holes in the Amerks lineup that have been known since the beginning.  For the most part the Amerks have played against teams in a weak North Division.  Better teams will figure out other teams and be able to adjust play.  Better teams will be able to setup plays instead of relying on fast breaks to the net.  But it’s still early in December and the Amerks are still in the top eight of the conference missing the better half of the lineup.

On Friday [...]Read More

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Amerks Defenseman is now The Legend of Joe Finley with the Sabres

December 1, 2011 - By
Amerks Defenseman is now The Legend of Joe Finley with the Sabres

After 5pm on Wednesday evening the Buffalo Sabres gave Joe Finley a call and let him know he was being called up from the Rochester Americans to the show just two days after signing an NHL contract with the team.  Jordan Leopold was injured Tuesday night which created an opening for Big Joe to get called up.  That’s when the trend #LegendofJoeFinley thanks to @LeopoldsIpod started in Twitter (A stick tap is also in order for @Philbbg who started #LegendofZackKassian that all of this really spawned off of).  The hashtag was a trend all evening in Buffalo and his last name was a trend all night in Rochester as well which adds even more to the.. legen… wait for it… dary status of him as a hockey player.  Barney Stinson is proud.

Finley has been talked about by everyone who’s been going to Rochester Americans games this season.  We’ve all been impressed by the guy in just about every game played.  You can read my article from Tuesday (Big Joe Finley Strong on Defense) about how he plays and his past which includes everything from coming back from injuries, throwing lawn mowers and hitting Bucky the [...]Read More

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