The easiest thing to do is just say it, the Amerks were destroyed in Albany on Saturday night. They were slow, they were rarely able to generate consistent offense, and they looked tired. There’s no excuses.
The team should have been going off the momentum of Friday nights win and carried into Saturday. Instead it looked like they left the momentum in the locker room on Friday night and forgot to bring it to Albany.
The final score was 6-1, two goals by Albany were scored on the power play and one was scored short handed. The Amerks were assessed a total of 30 minutes in penalties and gave the opposition eight power play opportunities for the second time in as many nights.
Tyler Plante was pulled from net five minutes into the second period after the Rats went up 3-0 in the game, he stopped 10 of 13 shots. Alexander Salak played in his first game as an Amerk and stopped 12 of 15 shots faced.
The goalies allowed six goals but they were not to blame for this game.
Mike York had a few decent scoring opportunities but without any help on his line how much can he keep doing?
The defense was also having problems. The Rats second goal of the game which was short handed was scored by Pat Dwyer who beat Clay Wilson in a race from center ice, Dwyer was able to beat Plante glove side.
That was pretty much the game right there and it was only 1:15 into the second period.
With the Rats up 3-0 it was time for the Amerks to try and do something. There was no one making any big plays, no one trying to get any momentum going. Where was Mike Duco to throw a big hit? Get in someones face and start chirping?
That is until Kenndal McArdle and Graham Mink tried to rough things up.
McArdle was tied up with one of the Rats on the ice when Mink and Ben Olson got tangled up and started throwing punchs. They dropped to the ice and with the linesmen busy with McArdle and his player Mink started laying into Olsen. They got up and as one of the linesmen was holding Mink we saw Olsen toss another punch at Mink.
That’s not acceptable. This is where the role of real enforcer comes in. Ted Nolan was at the game and must have seen what was going on. He talked to Don Stevens during the first intermission about just this thing. We’ll see what happens.
A few minutes later Jordan Henry and Nicolas Blanchard dropped the gloves, Blanchard got a few punches in, Henry didn’t get a decent punch in at all.
After that it was still all Rats everywhere on the ice. Jerome Samson scored the second power play goal of the game in the second period to put the Rats up 4-0.
Stefan Chaput and Zack FitzGerald scored in the third to give the Albany River Rats a solid 6-0 lead half way through the third period.
Thanks to David Brines goal at 13:57 of the third assisted by Brady Calla the Amerks did not get shut out, it was all I was hoping for in the third period.
If anyone knows someone who can approve work visa’s please make a call to get Victor Oreskovich’s visa approved quickly. Luke Beaverson and Andrew Sweetland are not capable of playing at this level right now.
With the play of those two still being questioned, why didn’t they keep James DeLory around to see some playing time? Could he have done any worst? I doubt it.
The defense is in trouble if Garrison is going to be the primary call up. They can’t rely on Peter Aston to play the role of 6th or 7th defenseman. He was responsible for too many turnovers and also allowing the puck to go across the blue line.
Alright……. it was only the third game of the season…. except… the Syracuse Crunch walked all over the Adirondack Phantoms on Saturday night and won 6-1. The Crunch are a team that may not be made up of stars, but they’re hard working, physical, and not ready to take a night off early in the season.
The Amerks are back at home on Monday night to play the Crunch at Blue Cross Arena. If we thought the crowd was bad on Friday night I’m afraid to see what it’s going to be like on Monday. Who schedules a Monday night game? Sure it’s a holiday but kids still have school the next day.
Again, it’s only the third game of the season. The Amerks lost one game in OT, won big during regulation, and lost big during regulation. They’re just trying to cover everything early in the season.
The game is now behind them and now it’s time to prepare for the next game against the Crunch. They need to continue to build some chemistry, get to know each other better, and work out all the kinks. This team has still not had a full week of practice together.
There’s no reason to hit the panic button. This team has enough experience in the locker room that they’ll figure things out.
I will ask though if I can have the $6.99 back that I paid to watch the game?
At least I made the smart decision to not travel to the game.
