IceCaps carrying three goalies for now
It looks like IceCaps will carry a trio of netminders, at least through the weekend
It looks like the St. John’s IceCaps could play three games in three days this weekend with a roster including three goaltenders. On Thursday, the parent Montreal Canadiens assigned rookie netminder Charlie Lindgren to the IceCaps, where he joins recently signed veteran Yann Danis and sophomore Zach Fucale. St. John’s will look for its first win of the new AHL season as it finishes up a road trip with games in Providence tonight, Springfield Saturday and Hartford Sunday.
For almost every hockey coach, having to deal with a three-goalie rotation is akin to high schoolers on a date with a parental chaperone.
It can happen, but it isn’t preferred. One body too many. However, it appears, for a while at least, St. John’s IceCaps head coach Sylvain Lefebvre will have three netminders on his roster.
“For now, yes,” answered Lefebvre Thursday evening when asked if the IceCaps goaltending would involve a triumvirate of just-signed veteran Yann Danis; rookie Charlie Lindgren, just returned from the parent Montreal Canadiens; and Zach Fucale, who has been with St. John’s since the start of this young American Hockey League season.
Lefebvre didn’t bite when asked how he personally felt about the situation, offering only a solid company line in saying any decision would be an organizational one “made as a group.”
As for a time frame on that decision, Lefebvre said he didn’t know for sure, but suggested nothing will happen until after the IceCaps finish off a season-opening road trip with three games in as many days, beginning tonight in Providence,
“We’ll go through the weekend first and then we will reevaluate,” he said.
“The IceCaps lost their first three games of the season last weekend by scores of 5-2 to the Hartford Wolf Pack, 6-3 to the Albany Devils and 2-1 to the Providence Bruins.
Fucale started in Hartford and Providence, earning a third star selection in the latter game. ECHL recall Bryan Pitton, who played in Albany, was returned to the Brampton Beast Thursday.
The 35-year-old Danis, who had been in the Anaheim Ducks’ NHL training camp on a tryout, participated in his first practice with the IceCaps Thursday in Providence.
It represented Danis’ first real on-ice workout in about a weekand-a-half, meaning it’s unlikely he’ll play against the P-Bruins tonight, although Lefebvre say “it’s a possibility” he could be
used sometime during a weekend, which will also involve games against the Springfield Thunderbirds Saturday night and Hartford on Sunday afternoon.
——— Lefebvre said there is a “good chance” veteran defenceman Philip Samuelsson, a healthy scratch in the last two games, will play in tonight’s rematch against Providence. Samuelsson started the season-opener on a No. 1 pairing with Mark Barberio last Friday in Hartford, and had a minus-two rating in the loss.
When asked if that performance
led to Samuelsson — who was signed by Montreal as a free agent ion the off-season — losing his spot in the lineup, Lefebvre answered “Yes, (the game) in Hartford and his training camp, too.
“I had a conversation with him to tell him that I think he can bring more and I think he knows that.
Lefebvre noted St. John’s is carrying “eight defenceman we who we believe can play in this league.
“We’re still looking for a win and we have the (extra) players to make changes, and not just on defence.”
——— Lefebvre has been forced to make a change on the IceCaps’ No. 1 line because of a two-game league suspension to centre Michael Mccarron, who will begin serving his sentence tonight.
In McCarron’s absence, Chris Terry moves from the wing on the top line to the middle in between Charles Hudon and captain Max Friberg, who had been on the second unit.”
McCarron was suspended after a league review of an altercation he had with the P-Bruins’ Justin Hickman at the conclusion of last Sunday’s game. McCarron head-butted Hickman, who according to reports, suffered a broken nose in the incident .
——— Saturday’s game will be the first at home for a Springfield team that has a new nickname (it was the Springfield Falcons last season) and new NHL affiliate, the Florida Panthers.
The Portland Pirates had been Florida’s farm team in 2015-16, but that franchise relocated to Springfield after the Arizona Coyotes bought the Falcons and moved the team to Tucson .
The Thunderbirds’ roster includes defenceman and Bonavista native Adam Pardy, who had been in the Panthers’ training camp on a tryout, and former IceCap forward Tim Bozon, traded to Florida by Montreal for defenceman Jonathan Racine just before the start of the season.
Pardy, who signed a one-year AHL contract with Springfield (1-1-0), didn’t play in either of the Thunderbirds first two games.