Rochester Americans 2018-19

[pastajoe]

And the losing has now flowed down to Cincinnati ECHL who lost game 1 of 2nd round to Toledo 3-2. Cincy tied it with 2 minutes left in 3rd, and then gave up the gamewinner in the last minute.

[SwampD]

10 hours ago, Ogre said:

 I want to blame a lot of things. Goaltending was a huge issue all year. Wedgewood didn’t even wear an Amerks themed helmet until well into the season so I can’t trust that he even wanted to be here. 

Really the biggest issue for me was calling guys up for no reason. They “earned it”? That’s crap. You have a team that’s winning then you keep them together. What good did it do Pilut to sit in the press box in Buffalo? He came back to Rochester a shell of the player he was.

I’m really starting to question Taylor’s decision making. This kid Kurt Gosselin, even though he played well, had 5 games with the team before the playoffs. WTF? Spend all year growing chemistry and shake it all up when everyone else is tightening the chemistry for their playoff runs.

Huge disappointment.

 

9 hours ago, inkman said:

Yeah we had players in the press box that suited up for every regular season game and didn't sniff the playoffs. That's one way to disenfranchise your team. I'm sure there were a lot of WTFs being whispered in the dressing room. 

This is troubling,… and from two people whose opinion I respect about the Amerks.

[dudacek]

What regulars were benched? Gosselin over Daugherty, who played 56 games?

Cornel? He, Malone, Veilleux and D Smith were 4th liners and the Wilsons and the Girgensons of the team.

Some of them had to sit.

 

Shots on goal in favour of the Amerks in each of the three games.

29-23

42-23

29-19

 

Wedgwood allowed 9 goals on 64 shots for an .859 save percentage.

Our shooters shot 4% for the series and hit a ton of posts.

From what I saw, the analytics should have heavily favoured us.

 

Game play significantly favoured the Amerks for most of the series. Taylor had them playing good hockey, from a coaching perspective. But we couldn’t bury our chances and we didn’t stop theirs. 

Tough not to overreact in the context of this decade, but that’s hockey.

Edited April 26, 2019 by dudacek

[LGR4GM]

Almost like we need more talent in the pool to finish those chances. 

[Thorner]

On 4/25/2019 at 6:19 PM, GASabresIUFAN said:

An all time dumb tweet by Harrington.  So a 2nd year coach, who’s teams have made the playoffs both seasons now has no chance at an NHL job.  Wow. 

If Taylor has similar results for the next 5 years let me know, then I might agree.  However, I’ll reserve judgement for now.  

It's an accurate tweet up until that last sentence though, which you are definitely correct about. 

[Thorner]

On 4/26/2019 at 7:24 AM, LGR4GM said:

Almost like we need more talent in the pool to finish those chances. 

Have to agree with this. I'm not sure how much we have to see a ton of chances with the accompanying failure to convert, organizationally,  before we admit it's not going to just sort itself out with a larger sample size. They need scorers. 

At the end of the day, getting swept in the first round is more significant than that the analytics favoured us in the series. 

The results definitely look less favourably upon Botterill and the talent assembled than the coaching, though. So I agree with dudacek that Taylor had them playing good hockey. 

Edited April 28, 2019 by Thorny

[Ogre]

1 hour ago, Thorny said:

Have to agree with this. I'm not sure how much we have to see a ton of chances with the accompanying failure to convert, organizationally,  before we admit it's not going to just sort itself out with a larger sample size. They need scorers. 

At the end of the day, getting swept in the first round is more significant than that the analytics favoured us in the series. 

The results definitely look less favourably upon Botterill and the talent assembled than the coaching, though. So I agree with dudacek that Taylor had them playing good hockey. 

I’m not sure what to make of this.

Olly 30g, Smith 28g, Redmond 21, o’Regan 20, Simpson 21 and if Thompson would have been there longer we would have surely had at least 20 with the pace he was scoring at. That’s five players with 20 or more goals (with a probable 6). That broke an Amerks record. We didn’t lack scorers. 

[Weave]

9 minutes ago, Ogre said:

I’m not sure what to make of this.

Olly 30g, Smith 28g, Redmond 21, o’Regan 20, Simpson 21 and if Thompson would have been there longer we would have surely had at least 20 with the pace he was scoring at. That’s five players with 20 or more goals (with a probable 6). That broke an Amerks record. We didn’t lack scorers. 

My understanding was that Rochester was maybe the deepest team in the league.  They didn't lack talent.  They just didn't perform in the crunch.

[Thorner]

45 minutes ago, Ogre said:

I’m not sure what to make of this.

Olly 30g, Smith 28g, Redmond 21, o’Regan 20, Simpson 21 and if Thompson would have been there longer we would have surely had at least 20 with the pace he was scoring at. That’s five players with 20 or more goals (with a probable 6). That broke an Amerks record. We didn’t lack scorers. 

Should have specified that I meant more when looking at the organization as a whole, what scorers we look to have now at, or as potential graduates to, the NHL level. Redmond, O'Regan, and Simpson are AHL fodder. Smith has shown little at the NHL level. 

We're looking at Olofsson and maybe Thompson in the pipeline for legitimate goal scoring talent. And who on the roster? Skinner, Eichel, can't think of anyone else. 

I don't know what goal scoring looked like across the league for other AHL teams, but from the numbers you laid out it does seem like they had plenty of AHL goal scoring ability, though, so good point there. 

Edited April 28, 2019 by Thorny

[inkman]

59 minutes ago, Weave said:

My understanding was that Rochester was maybe the deepest team in the league.  They didn't lack talent.  They just didn't perform in the crunch.

Correct but ultimately the series came down to goaltending. They had it, we didn't. 

[shrader]

On 4/25/2019 at 9:43 PM, Taro T said:

So, not a good year for anyone to expect RS success to continue into the playoffs.  Interesti g.

Just like the bass ackward results in the NHL so far.

[Amerks8796]

Going to be a busy offseason for the Amerks. Last year very little was needed. Criscuolo/Porter/Tennyson were all on year 2 of their deals. You knew Olofsson and Asplund were coming over. Smith and O’Regan were sure bets to start in Rochester. 

Defense is mostly set up for next season: Redmond/Borgen/Bryson/Fitzgerald/Gosselin/Hickey. I think Borgen starts in Rochester, but gets a few call ups. They’re going to need a veteran defenseman to replace Tennyson who can fill in Buffalo, though hopefully this one is better. I think they’ll also sign 1 or 2 more depth defensemen to AHL deals like MacWilliam. 

Forward is barren. I don’t think all of Olofsson/Thompson/Nylander/Smith are going to make Buffalo. At least 1 or 2 get sent down. Other than that, I see Asplund and Malone as the only other guarantees. Maybe they bring Davidsson over. Maybe Pekar plays in Rochester. They’re going to need to sign a ton of FAs. Definitely a top center and couple top veteran wingers. I’m thinking a trade or two will bring in a couple more prospect forwards, but they have a lot of work to do. 

They need a veteran goalie with UPL. 

Could be a really good team if they bring in a lot of good veteran forwards. 

[dudacek]

pekar should be in Rochester and it’s time for Davidsson to come over.

[shrader]

1 hour ago, dudacek said:

pekar should be in Rochester and it’s time for Davidsson to come over.

Is that even possible with Pekar?  I'm never quite sure how that CHL transfer rule works with guys who were drafted out of the USHL but then switched over to a major junior team.

[Zamboni]

7 minutes ago, shrader said:

Is that even possible with Pekar?  I'm never quite sure how that CHL transfer rule works with guys who were drafted out of the USHL but then switched over to a major junior team.

Maybe this helps ...

https://www.stanleycupofchowder.com/2012/8/1/3213217/bruins-nhl-chl-ahl-agreement-CBA-talks-2012

Your thoughts?

[French Collection]

Alex Nylander was drafted from the CHL but was assigned to the AHL after his draft year.

I'm not sure if he went to Mississauga via the Import draft or if they drafted him as a midget due to his Canadian birth. He was born in the WHL territory though, so I doubt the Priority Draft was his route to the OHL.

I think Pekar can play in Rochester this coming season.

[shrader]

52 minutes ago, French Collection said:

Alex Nylander was drafted from the CHL but was assigned to the AHL after his draft year.

I'm not sure if he went to Mississauga via the Import draft or if they drafted him as a midget due to his Canadian birth. He was born in the WHL territory though, so I doubt the Priority Draft was his route to the OHL.

I think Pekar can play in Rochester this coming season.

Nylander counted as being drafted out of europe because his swedish team had loaned him to Mississauga.  So the swedish team was the primary holder of his rights because he had a contract there.  That's a slightly different case than Pekar, who was drafted out of the US junior system.  The rules wind up being the same though and he can go to the AHL whenever he and the Sabres want.

[Ogre]

Charlotte Checkers won the Calder Cup tonight. Amerks opening weekend was a Friday/Saturday home game series against these guys and we got whooped both games.  At one point I was looking forward to an Amerk/Checker conference series, then an Amerks Calder final.....*sighs*

[North Buffalo]

Pekar and Davidson,  any others and does Laaksonen make it over on D? If Sabres draft Leason at 30-31 could he be in AHL... might not be bad?

[Sabre1974]

30 minutes ago, North Buffalo said:

Pekar and Davidson,  any others and does Laaksonen make it over on D? If Sabres draft Leason at 30-31 could he be in AHL... might not be bad?

Wonder if Pekar gets a few Sabres games next season?

[Zamboni]

1 hour ago, Sabre1974 said:

Wonder if Pekar gets a few Sabres games next season?

If he has a nice 1st half ... absolutely he’ll get a game or two.

i want to see Davidson. He intrigues me big time. I think his style and skill set is perfect for the NHL.

Edited June 9, 2019 by Zamboni