Injured Sekera gettIng back up to Speed In bakerSfIeld
Andrej Sekera might not want to come back from Bakersfield.
Or his new teammates won’t let him go back to the NHL.
He’s on a winning team — 12 in a row, the hottest thing on ice in the AHL — with Sekera two games into his conditioning assignment after tearing his Achilles late last summer. He’s healthy and wealthy and a true team player as his Condors’ teammates have been feeding off the Edmonton Oiler defenceman’s largesse.
“I told the boys I would pay for lunch for the team every day I am here ... I played in the minors for a couple of years about 10 years ago and I know how important lunches are,” said Sekera. “They don’t want me leaving, that’s what they are saying.”
Sekera played two games last weekend — a 3-1 win over the San Jose Barricuda and 7-1 drubbing of the San Diego Gulls, Dallas Eakins’ club — and he’ll play Wednesday’s home game against Stockton before the defenceman in concert with the Oilers management decides if he’ll stay there a little longer or join the Oilers in Raleigh Thursday. If so, that would give the team nine defencemen and necessitate some movement to free the physical and fiscal log-jam there.
There is no rush to judgment on Sekera, but he passed his first two tests.
He didn’t ace them, but he didn’t look as if he was trying to catch a moving train out of the station in his first games since last spring’s world championship time with Slovakia. Albeit this is the minors and not the NHL, but Sekera came out of both games smiling.
“First period of the first game I got the legs out and the next two periods I felt pretty good timing-wise and the second game was a good test because it was back-to-back,” said Sekera, who played left side with partner William Lagesson. “Two good teams we played and lots of young guys who can fly, a good measurement for me.”
“He was a little rusty, but after the first period of the first game he was fine. He was moving and competing and battling down low,” said Oilers interim GM Keith Gretzky. “He says he needs another game and we’ll revisit it after Wednesday. It’s whatever Reggie thinks, we’ll play it by ear ... there’s a difference between the pace of the game in the American League and NHL, of course.”
If Sekera and the Oilers feel he needs two more games with Bakersfield (home and home Friday and Saturday against LA’s farm team, the Ontario Reign) they have to petition NHL commissioner Gary Bettman for an extension of the conditioning assignment, but that shouldn’t be a problem because he’s been out for so long.
“The practices I had in Edmonton were the first step to my recovery, but games are games in the NHL or Bakersfield. There are situations you can’t simulate in my progress,” said Sekera. “My conditioning is fine, it’s moving the puck, getting the gaps on players (coming up ice). You have to read pretty quickly in games no matter where it is, right ones or wrong ones.”
Gretzky is thrilled with the progress of the players in Bakersfield under first-year head coach Jay Woodcroft, who had never run his own pro team, starting as video coach in Detroit, then moving to San Jose with Todd McLellan, then here under McLellan.
The team has outscored their opposition 56-23 over the last dozen games to now lead the Pacific Division. There are no plans to bring any of the kids — Tyler Benson, Kailer Yamamoto, Cooper Marody, Caleb Jones, Ethan Bear, Lagesson — up. They want them percolating in a winning atmosphere in the minors.
“To win 12 games in a row is a lot, in any league. It’s a great culture there. Ask any player who gets called up, they’re raving about it,” said Gretzky, who watched them pummel the Gulls, who came in with a 14-3-1 record in their previous 18 games.
“They’re playing for each other, skating hard ... keeps a guy like me on my toes,” said Sekera.
“It’s a great culture there. Ask any player who gets called up … they’re raving about it.”
Goalie Shane Starrett, in his second pro season after being signed as a college free-agent out of Air Force, has been the eye-opener on the farm, 10-0 during this run with a .60 goal average and .941 save percentage. Overall, he has a 16-3-3 record and 2.28 save percentage which ties him for No. 1 in the league with San Jose’s rookie Josef Korenar, who also has 16 wins.
With Al Montoya out with a concussion, Starrett is the No. 1 guy in Bakersfield, and if the six-foot-five goalie looks a little awkward in the net at times, he stops pucks, at the right times.
“First shift (San Diego) he stops a breakaway (Max Jones) and the next shift Bakersfield comes back (Tyler Benson) and scores,” said Gretzky, who also watched Starrett stop a 2-on-0 break in a 1-1 game against San Jose, a major turning point.
“He’s a different style. It’s hard to say what he is, we’d say he was unorthodox, but he’s doing a good job. Having Sly (organizational goalie coach Sylvain Rodrigue) down there all the time has made a huge difference with the goalies and their preparation. He’s well involved. Very smart move for us,” said Gretzky.
He was a little rusty, but after the first period of the first game he was fine.