Jump to content

2015/16 General IceCaps/Beast Discussion Thread


dlbalr

Recommended Posts

With the AHL season set to start on Saturday night, it's time to get the ball rolling on the general discussion thread. In past years, we've had separate ones for the AHL and ECHL affiliates but since the sections are now merged and there a lot of pinned threads already, we're going to try a combined one this year.

Useful Links

St. John's IceCaps (AHL)

Team Website

Schedule

Skater Stats

Goalie Stats

Standings

Brampton Beast (ECHL)

Team Website

Schedule

Skater Stats

Goalie Stats

Standings

Link to comment
Share on other sites

OK dlbalr, tell me this team will, in your opinion, likely finally make the playoffs? :blush:

Or will they likely be a young streaky team again and losing streaks will be longer than winning ones?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

OK dlbalr, tell me this team will, in your opinion, likely finally make the playoffs? :blush:

Or will they likely be a young streaky team again and losing streaks will be longer than winning ones?

Right now, the projected lineup would look something like this:

Carr - Hudon - Andrighetto

Holloway - Dumont - Scherbak

de la Rose - McCarron - Thomas

Bozon - Gregoire - Crisp

Scratched: Blanchard (I think he'll sign, they have veteran slots available), Fournier, Eisenschmid (if he signs), Miceli

Injured: McNally, MacMillan

Barberio - Dietz

Hanley - Ellis

Bennett - Lernout

Scratched: Thrower, Brown

Injured: Didier, Johnston

Tokarski

Pasquale/Fucale (I'd like to see Fucale start in the ECHL now with Tokarski there)

That lineup should be good enough to narrowly make the playoffs. Goaltending should be good, the offence should be a bit improved (don't expect all rookies to produce right away), but the defence is way worse than last year which is going to cost them several games.

Will that lineup stay together? Probably not for long. Will they add reinforcements? Not likely. Will Lefebvre magically become a decent coach? Don't hold your breath. These are all reasons to think they may not make it.

I thought last years team at the beginning was good enough to make the postseason but still they came up short. The skeptic in me thinks that could very well happen again unless multiple rookie forwards produce at a level similar to what Andrighetto and company did in their first seasons.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Scratched: Blanchard (I think he'll sign, they have veteran slots available), Fournier, Eisenschmid (if he signs), Miceli

Injured: McNally, MacMillan

So I was wrong on this one. Blanchard was released today.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Pasquale was the most consistent goalie that suited up here when they were the Jets farm team, and only an injury moved him off the depth chart as Michael Hutchison took the reins and led the IceCaps on their Calder Cup run in 2012-13, and then to a job in Winnipeg. It will be interesting to see if that magic can happen again when he suits up down on New Gower Street again this year. Budaj couldn't find his game here, so it will also be interesting if Tokarski can find his game again and maybe find another place to play, if not back in Montreal.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Pasquale was the most consistent goalie that suited up here when they were the Jets farm team, and only an injury moved him off the depth chart as Michael Hutchison took the reins and led the IceCaps on their Calder Cup run in 2012-13, and then to a job in Winnipeg. It will be interesting to see if that magic can happen again when he suits up down on New Gower Street again this year. Budaj couldn't find his game here, so it will also be interesting if Tokarski can find his game again and maybe find another place to play, if not back in Montreal.

The big question with Pasquale will still be his health. He missed all of last season, I suspect with the same issue that took him out of the lineup in 13-14. I wouldn't be entirely shocked to see him go to Brampton though my preference obviously is Fucale so he can play #1 minutes.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The reported practice lines:

de la Rose - Hudon - Andrighetto

Holloway - Dumont - Scherbak

Carr - McCarron - Thomas

I was pretty close, just flip the 1 & 3 wingers. And yes, de la Rose is the winger on that line with Hudon at centre.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The reported practice lines:

de la Rose - Hudon - Andrighetto

Holloway - Dumont - Scherbak

Carr - McCarron - Thomas

I was pretty close, just flip the 1 & 3 wingers. And yes, de la Rose is the winger on that line with Hudon at centre.

Top 3 callups are all playing together... not surprising, really.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It is to me when DLRose's play down the middle LY earned him a half season with the big club... He's better then both Dumont and Hudon and mccarron at this point and considering Dumont is a career AHLer it would be wise to continue to develop Jacob at C! But.... I'm not sylvain's levebre obviously.

And Carr scoring 26 on that line LY now getting moved down the line up doesn't make much sense either.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

At first glance, seems like sly is taking the easy street with line combo's.

This line up won't stick. How can it when Dumont is our 2nd line C when he should be our 4th

Dumont's performance is why he isn't nor will be a 4th line C. He is a proven top six AHL forward. Maybe he drops to line three once McCarron gets some experience and adjusts but his prospect status (or lack thereof) isn't going to dictate where he plays. They're playing Dumont with Holloway who should lead the team in scoring. Clearly they anticipate him being a point getter.

It looks like they're trying to roll three scoring lines with some decent offensive potential. That's not a bad spot to be in to start the season.

On the injury front, Bozon, Didier, McNally, MacMillan, and Johnston will not travel with the team on their season opening trip. Markus Eisenschmid will not play either. He's not signed but he's not cut either. Lefebvre's comment on his status:

“We’re waiting on to see what decision he is going to make and we’re waiting on injuries to get back.”

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Not Brampton-specific but an ECHL note. These are the nets the ECHL will use for this season and beyond:

CQzLhdnW8AENKYU.jpg

The obvious question is this: Will players save up to 15% or more on their car insurance by hitting a goal post?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Eddie Pasquale and Travis Brown have both been assigned to Brampton. The latter seemed likely to happen at some point but if the plan is to play Tokarski a lot, I was hoping they'd have kept Pasquale up and sent Fucale down.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Am I missing something, or does St. John not visit the Lake Erie Monsters all season?

You're not missing anything. They don't play them this year. You don't play every opponent in the AHL each season for financial reasons. Last season, it felt like there were 8 or 10 teams the Bulldogs never faced. I think there's about half a dozen teams that St. John's (dating back to their Winnipeg affiliation) will play for the first time this year.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Am I missing something, or does St. John not visit the Lake Erie Monsters all season?

I'm so disappointed. I live close to Cleveland and was looking forward to seeing them again - especially with Lake Erie now being a Blue Jackets team.

Guess I need to wait until 2016-17. I had thought they didn't play in Cleveland because they weren't Hamilton anymore. Glad to know I was wrong!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm so disappointed. I live close to Cleveland and was looking forward to seeing them again - especially with Lake Erie now being a Blue Jackets team.

Guess I need to wait until 2016-17. I had thought they didn't play in Cleveland because they weren't Hamilton anymore. Glad to know I was wrong!

Yeah, I made it up for a Bulldogs game last year and was looking more forward to a game this year with the Jackets affiliation meaning I would know both teams to some degree.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guess I need to wait until 2016-17. I had thought they didn't play in Cleveland because they weren't Hamilton anymore. Glad to know I was wrong!

I wouldn't get your hopes up about next year either. They don't rotate the opponents that teams don't play on a year-to-year basis. It's all random.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I wouldn't get your hopes up about next year either. They don't rotate the opponents that teams don't play on a year-to-year basis. It's all random.

Thanks Brian. ?

I wish you weren't right so often ... at least in this case. ?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The AHL went to a very limited inter-conference schedule a few years ago - I noticed it since St. John's rejoined the league - and the only teams outside the Eastern conference that were on the IceCaps schedule were Toronto and Hamilton, mainly because there are a lot of ex-pat Newfoundlanders in the area. It was almost like playing extra home games. Now that the IceCaps are playing in the North Division, they don't play outside the conference at all.

Oh, in case anyone listens to the local radio broadcast of IceCaps games online or through AHL.com, be forewarned that Brian Rogers can be a pain in the ass to listen to, at the best of times. He has a tendency to harp on the officiating to no end if the calls go against the team early.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...