London Knights season preview

by Jason Shaner
on
A lot of questions face the London Knights as they begin the 2000-2001 season. One, where are their European imports? They are currently missing in action in Europe. It is still unknown if they will be coming over to play or not. Two, will Joel Scherban and Chris Kelly return from pro camps to play as over agers. Three, will the kids be able to respond to the extra ice time.

The Knights missed the playoffs last year, and to make matters worse, they chose not to deal any veterans at the deadline, as they hoped to make a last dash effort to make the playoffs and then make some noise. They fell short of the mark, and so now a lot of young kids are thrust into roles which time will tell if they are able to fill.

In goal, Aaron Molnar, a 19 year old Colorado draft pick is the number one man. He hasn’t played a lot in the OHL, but that will change this year. He will see the lions share of the work, and will see a lot of rubber. In the home opener he made over 40 saves in a 4-3 win over the Windsor Spitfires. He showed some nice lateral movement in making key saves on the Spitfires big line of Mather, Ott, and Kennedy. He made a lot of nice saves in scrambles, staying low and covering the holes until the Defence could move the puck out. The Knights will need a lot of nights like this from Molnar if they are going to compete.
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Sabres Report: Columbus Discovers Buffalo

by Ken McKenna
on

The Buffalo Sabres continued their exhibition slate with back-to-back games against the expansion Columbus Blue Jackets. The Sabres should be excused if they felt that their opponent seemed a little familiar, as Columbus had a total of seven former Sabres prospects/players on their training camp roster.

Those former Sabres still fighting for Columbus roster spots include D Jean-Luc Grand-Pierre, RW Matt Davidson, LW Geoff Sanderson, LW Barrie Moore and RW Martin Spahnel. Two former Buffalo prospects, C Brad Moran and D Sergei Klimentiev, were assigned to the Syracuse Crunch this past week. Sanderson and Grand-Pierre are probably locks to make the Blue Jacket roster, while Davidson, Moore and Spahnel are still in the thick of the roster battle with several other players.

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Sens News and Notes for the Week of September 25th

by Nathan Estabrooks
on

Sens News and Notes for the Week of September 24

Cuts

The Sens roster has been trimmed down to 30 players. You can expect the next cuts by mid-week after a game against the Oilers. The four cuts this week-end were all sent to Grand Rapids.

Mathieu Chouinard He played well throughout camp but like all young goalies requires some more seasoning. For the most part it could be said management was surprised with Chouinard’s level of play in comparison to his mediocre season of junior last year. It may only be a matter of time before he’s the Sens number one goalie.

Chris Neil With the exception of Havlat no player made more of name for himself in camp then Neil; many observers are shocked Neil didn’t make it past this round of cuts. He was fearless and always eager to please his teammates. All in all, camp was a great success and you can expect to see Neil in an Ottawa jersey sometime this season.

Konstantin Gorovikov Despite the fact coach Jacques Martin constantly referred to him as Konstantinov, Gorovikov showed promise in all the exhibition games he player. The only knock against him is the Sens prodigious depth on defence.

Derek King This year the once proud Islander will find himself playing in the IHL again and will be asked to provide veteran leadership in Grand Rapids.

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Bucs Blitz National U18 Team, 7-1

by Erik Freeman
on
The National U18 Team is having some early troubles this year. Tonight, they couldn’t put any offense on the board as they netted only one goal. Brian McConnell got the goal on an assist from Bryan Miller. Des Moines had a balanced attact with 7 different players scoring goals. Mike Mantua played solid in the nets for the Bucs. Mantua is playing very well and looks to be one of the best goalies in the USHL this year. Tomorrow the USNTDP U18 Team takes on the Cedar Rapids Roughriders. Expect the National Team to come out of the gates flying and put some goals up on the board. They certainly have the talent, they just need to make some adjustments and everything should be fine.

Next weekend will be a big weekend for the National squad as they face Chicago and Sioux Falls in USHL action. The first week of October they will find out how much they have improved as they take on CCHA teams Michigan State and Western Michigan. This year the NTDP is playing a mixture of USHL and Division 1 and 3 teams.

Pens sign goalie, make roster moves

by Erik Johnson
on
The Pens made 2 huge steps today in finalizing their final roster for their opening games in Japan against the Nashville Predators

The most important step was coming to terms with expected #1 starting goalie Jean-Sebastian Aubin. Terms of the contract, which was reported between periods of the Pens/Avalanche exhibition game in Hershey, were not released.

The Pens also made a number of roster moves today that cut the roster to 24 players (one less than they will take to Japan). The 2 biggest surpises were the inclusion of forward Bill Tibbetts and defenseman Josef Melichar (the Pens #4 prospect) on the “final” roster.

Tibbetts certainly has gotten much press this camp so far, little concerning his play on the ice. And the beginning of camp showed that 3 years off the ice can be brutal with regards to your skills. But apparently, he made real strides as camp progressed and will likely fill a 4th line role with the Pens.

Melichar was expected to be sent to Wilkes-Barre at the beginning of camp, but beat out the more experienced Sven Butenschon for the final spot on the roster. By all accounts, Sven had an excellent camp, but Melichar simply beat him out. Butenschon will need to clear waivers before he is sent to Wilkes-Barre.

Also making the team was Calder Trophy candidate forward Milan Kraft. While Milan didn’t have as good of a camp as last year, he was good enough to garner a spot on the roster.
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