Corey Tropp Sent Down; AHL Replay in Preliminary Stages

The news from Monday was that the Buffalo Sabres sent Corey Tropp back to the Amerks now that he’s recovered from a concussion.  Unless you’ve been following the Sabres you’ve probably forgotten about Tropp as an Amerks forward.  He’s only played in 12 out of 33 games for the Amerks this season with 10 of those in October.  In those 12 games Tropp scored four goals, had three assists and 19 penalty minutes.  He also played a game in November and December.  I was in Buffalo when Tropp scored his first NHL goal and you can read about that here.  Tropp wears #14 with the Amerks (or at least did) and his return to the Amerks assumes that the Sabres will stay healthy.

Another bit of information came out yesterday from Bridgeport where it has been confirmed that The AHL is going to be testing out a replay system at four Bridgeport Sound Tigers games this season.  This may come as a surprise for some who don’t follow the American Hockey League too closely.  It’s one of the few professional leagues left in the world that has not had any type of replay system.  The league has said that the reason for this is the lack of production equipment through the different buildings around the league.

Michael Fornabalo who covers the Sound Tigers wrote this:

Equipment has been floating around here for a while, but today the AHL confirmed it’s testing a potential video replay system here. There are cameras above both goals providing an angle to allow the referee(s) to take a look and see if a puck went into the net. “All very preliminary,” Jason Chaimovitch wrote. They plan to have it available during all four Bridgeport home games this month. The AHL Board of Governors has talked about replay possibilities over the past few years without approving a system. This potential system was developed by NeuLion, and Charles Wang was in the house.

Yes, the same Charles Wang that owns the New York Islanders.  NeuLion is also the company that runs the 1998 quality AHL Live service to watch live games.  NeuLion is also owned by Charles Wang.  Let’s hope this replay service if it goes farther has better performance than AHL Live and the New York Islanders.

It’s mind boggling that it’s taken the league this long to figure something out.  It’s 2012, the year where computers, cameras and networks are cheaper than ever.  Better late than never I suppose.