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Portland vs. Albany...game thoughts


LabattBlue

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-Nice crowd at the arena. Almost the entire lower bowl(100 & 200's) was filled. Announced attendance...11,000+

 

-Big brawl at the end of the first period including Gerbe getting punched in the face while laying on the ice. Rumor has it that the fighting continued outside the locker rooms after the period ended. Unfortunately, Gerbe received a game misconduct during the on ice scrum.

 

-I don't know if his skating is NHL caliber, but Whitmore impressed me more than any other Sabres prospect in uniform. He had a few nice hits, went down to block a couple of shots on the PK and had a couple of nice chances in the offensive zone. Could be a nice 3rd or 4th line player a couple of years down the road.

 

-Zagrapan was forgettable. His skating is effortless, but so was his play. He made a couple of nice passes and a greater number of turnovers. Players of his reputation should dominate at the AHL level, not just be another run of the mill minor leaguer.

 

-Kennedy has serious skills and great wheels, but may need another season at the AHL level.

 

-Enroth was so-so. It seemed like he was giving up rebounds all over the ice the entire game.

 

-I had to leave with about 3 minutes to go, so I have no comment on OT or the shootout.

 

Overall, it was nice to see the prospects. I hope they bring them back again next season.

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-Nice crowd at the arena. Almost the entire lower bowl(100 & 200's) was filled. Announced attendance...11,000+

 

-Big brawl at the end of the first period including Gerbe getting punched in the face while laying on the ice. Rumor has it that the fighting continued outside the locker rooms after the period ended. Unfortunately, Gerbe received a game misconduct during the on ice scrum.

 

-I don't know if his skating is NHL caliber, but Whitmore impressed me more than any other Sabres prospect in uniform. He had a few nice hits, went down to block a couple of shots on the PK and had a couple of nice chances in the offensive zone. Could be a nice 3rd or 4th line player a couple of years down the road.

 

-Zagrapan was forgettable. His skating is effortless, but so was his play. He made a couple of nice passes and a greater number of turnovers. Players of his reputation should dominate at the AHL level, not just be another run of the mill minor leaguer.

 

-Kennedy has serious skills and great wheels, but may need another season at the AHL level.

 

-Enroth was so-so. It seemed like he was giving up rebounds all over the ice the entire game.

 

-I had to leave with about 3 minutes to go, so I have no comment on OT or the shootout.

 

Overall, it was nice to see the prospects. I hope they bring them back again next season.

Final score was 4-3 in favor of Albany in the shootout

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-Nice crowd at the arena. Almost the entire lower bowl(100 & 200's) was filled. Announced attendance...11,000+

 

-Big brawl at the end of the first period including Gerbe getting punched in the face while laying on the ice. Rumor has it that the fighting continued outside the locker rooms after the period ended. Unfortunately, Gerbe received a game misconduct during the on ice scrum.

 

-I don't know if his skating is NHL caliber, but Whitmore impressed me more than any other Sabres prospect in uniform. He had a few nice hits, went down to block a couple of shots on the PK and had a couple of nice chances in the offensive zone. Could be a nice 3rd or 4th line player a couple of years down the road.

 

-Zagrapan was forgettable. His skating is effortless, but so was his play. He made a couple of nice passes and a greater number of turnovers. Players of his reputation should dominate at the AHL level, not just be another run of the mill minor leaguer.

 

-Kennedy has serious skills and great wheels, but may need another season at the AHL level.

 

-Enroth was so-so. It seemed like he was giving up rebounds all over the ice the entire game.

 

-I had to leave with about 3 minutes to go, so I have no comment on OT or the shootout.

 

Overall, it was nice to see the prospects. I hope they bring them back again next season.

 

Couple notes-

 

The guy who nailed Gerbe a few times and was a dirty POS all game, Albany's #5 and their captain, is Tim Conboy....is older brother of Andrew Conboy, the guy at MSU who made the very dirty and illegal hit on that Michigan player. What a dirty family.

 

I was impressed with Whitmore the most as well. He looked awesome. He did show his major flow a few times and that was his speed. He was burned a few times, although one of the most obvious times he was burned was late in his shift and right after Albany changed it's lines. But i thought he played well as well as that Rank kid, i know he's not our property or anything but he had about 2-3 real nice hits and then scored that goal, but he has a few chances at goal. Just seems like he has a pretty good hockey IQ.

 

I was also impressed with Kennedy. And another player i liked was Felix Schutz. I thought he looked good with the puck and played a real tough game.

 

The guy i was most disappointed in was Gragnani. I thought he was horrible. He made so many turnovers, he did nothing special offensively and played some very poor defense IMO.

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The guy i was most disappointed in was Gragnani. I thought he was horrible. He made so many turnovers, he did nothing special offensively and played some very poor defense IMO.

Gragnani does nothing for me as a blueliner and I still think that if he has any future in the NHL it will be at forward. Speaking of Gragnani, he absolutely got smoked in the 1st minute of the game. I am amazed he got up as quick as he did.

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just to add a few things....

 

the power play sucked, seems like Portland and Buffalo have the same problem.

SO was.... hmm really bad.

It was funny seeing people dress up as real pirates lol, mad props to those folks

Overall it was a good game. Too bad Albany has quite a few scum bags but that's how it is.

Oh and it was fun watching but damn, AHL seems so amateur. Refs stink, the 1min pp's in OT? what is up with that?

But it was fun, wouldn't mind if Portland came to Buffalo once a year.

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the 1min pp's in OT? what is up with that?

The AHL is often used to test out potential rules for the NHL (see here for examples from the lockout year, only some of which were adopted in the NHL.) They have been talking about 1 minute PP's in the OT for the NHL, so I imagine they thought that they'd have the AHL test it out.

 

Edit: found this article

 

The GMs of the NHL requested that one-minute minors be called in overtime during the regular season, instead of two-minute minors. The request was granted, and it will surely have some impact on the strategy taken during the OT sessions.
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