This week in the Notebook:
-On Tuesday, the full New Jersey preseason schedule was announced, and…again no game in Albany. (Yes, four years later I’m still waiting for the make up from the lockout.) The schedule begins on September 26th with a doubleheader of sorts…one squad will take on the Flyers in Newark, while the rest will travel to Montreal to face the Canadiens. They play two at neutral sites…September 28th in Allentown against Philadelphia, and October 8th in West Point against Florida. Two other matchups are at The Rock: October 1st against the Rangers and October 5th against the Islanders. Full schedule can be found here.
-On Friday night, a trade with Florida went through that affected New Jersey’s cap hit and shook up the Albany roster. The Devils acquired Marc Savard and a 2018 2nd round selection from the Panthers for Paul Thompson and Graham Black. So why acquire a player who hasn’t been on ice since 2011? Savard’s contract puts the Devils over the cap floor, and another draft selection for the future (between this year and 2018, New Jersey now has a total of 26 draft picks). But it comes at a cost to Albany’s roster, which has seen four forwards leave before free agency has even begun. It is most likely you will see both Thompson and Black in Springfield next year…and they will be coached by another familiar name in the Capital Region…
Segway to the latest news around the league…
-On Tuesday, former River Rats captain and assistant coach Geordie Kinnear was named head coach of the new Springfield franchise. After spending a majority of his playing career with the River Rats, including the Calder Cup team in 1995, he retired as a player in 2001 due to injury and joined the coaching ranks, working as an assistant with the Rats during the last three years of the Carolina affiliation, then moving with the team to Charlotte, where he has remained behind the Checkers bench.
-And finally, break out the black spray paint can. Congratulations to the Lake Erie Monsters, who finished off an amazing playoff run on Saturday night with their third sweep of the postseason, defeating Hershey 1-0 in overtime at home. The Monsters, in their first season as a Columbus affiliate, won 15 of 17 playoff games, including sweeps of Ontario and the Bears, and finished the postseason on a 10 game winning streak. Rookie Oliver Bjorkstrand was named MVP after scoring 10 goals in 17 games, including six game winners and three overtime winners, including the Cup clincher with just 1.9 seconds left in the first overtime of Game 4.
Thoughts Inside The Box 