Goalie Foolishness

 Last week I went into a bit of a rant on Twitter on the stupidity of the Everblades choosing to rely exclusively on our affiliates for goalies. It was triggered by the the team electing to release the rights to Adrien Lemay as well as a minor injury to Tampa Bay Lightning goaltender Mike Smith. This is the series of tweets that followed:

"To me the Smith injury is a bad omen for the Everblades goalie-wise. We really should have locked down a goalie with an ECHL contract."

"Let's be honest, goalies get injured a lot. If all our goalies are sent from our affiliates what happens when both have injured goalies?"

"Remember two AHL affiliates+ two NHL affiliates= 8 goalies. All it takes is two injuries to leave us high an dry."

"Not to mention a goalie with us being injured. We can't expect Nate Zervos or a local rec league goalie to play against professionals."

 My major point was that it's stupid to think we can rely on our affiliates to fill our goal. It's not hard to remember what happened last season when an injury on the Minnesota Wild led to a chain reaction of call-ups that saw Barry Brust leave us for Houston. That resulted in the team having only Chris Beckford-Tseu. He ended up playing an insane number of consecutive games (23 I think) while one of our local recreation league goalies acted as back-up

What would have happened if there had been an injury to a player in the Panthers system? We wouldn't have had any goalie with professional experience. Of course when everyone realized Barry Brust wasn't coming back a trade was made with the Stingrays for goalie Parker Van Buskirk. Van Buskirk didn't play a single game for the Everblades and was quickly shipped off to the CHL. The team then signed Adrien Lemay who proceeded to play about four games with the team.

All of that was a repeat of the season before when an injury to (coincidentally) Barry Brust led to Anton Khudobin getting a call-up in the midst of the playoffs. Once again the team rode the only professional goalie left, David Leggio, and chose a re league back-up. The Everblades did get farther into the playoffs that season, and the final game was spectacular (although I still have nightmares about that final goal).

 So here we are at the start of the season with the news that we will be relying exclusively on our affiliates for goaltenders. An injury to any of the 8 players in our affiliate clubs means we go without. It's a little scary isn't it? I get that this is a money saving measure. When a player has an NHL or AHL contract the team can receive up to $525 to cover that players salary. A look over at the PHPA website shows how much an ECHL team has to spend on it's players. This is obviously an expensive business and every little penny really does count (perhaps this explains the state of the bathrooms in the arena).

The problem is that while this is a financially intelligent decision, it's just plain stupid when you think of the risks the team is taking. It's inevitable that someone is going to be injured. When that happens we'll be back in the same boat we've been for the last few seasons.

Blades Sign Fischer

The Blades announced another signing yesterday. Defenseman David Fisher was the 20th player selected in the first round of the NHL entry draft by the Montreal Canadiens. He spent the last four seasons playing for the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers. First, links to his prospect report and at Hockey's Future and a (poorly) translated story about the source of some of his struggles. Now, his stats:



Now, an interview after his first collegiate goal:



I have to admit I was very surprised by this signing. If you remember Craig Brush said in an interview that he was done signing players, so this signing was obviously a shock. My guess is either he wasn't on the radar until the Canucks cut him from their prospect camp or one of the prospects Brush was expecting from our affiliates won't be coming.

Of course, there is also the possibility that he doesn't expect one of the players we have under contract  to return from the AHL camps they were invited to. The Norfolk Admirals, our new AHL affiliate, invited several players to camp. Shea Guthrie, Phil Paquet, Mitch McColm, Alexandre Imbeault, Francis Lemieux, and Bobby Raymond, all received invite. Also, Mike Egener and Kevin Deeth received invites to the Oklahoma City Barons and Chicago Wolves respectively.

I know I seem  to say this a lot, but we really won't see until the season starts. Camp and the upcoming alumni game on Tuesday should at least give us a good idea.

YouTube Tuesday: Meet the Jr. Everblades

Regular readers should already know about the Jr. Everblades. For those of you that haven't, they're a brand new junior hockey team town. I mentioned yesterday that I was quite impressed by their play against the FGCU Eagles in their exhibition game on Friday. Today, I have to share these hilarious videos from their recent trip to the Hitmen Classic in New Jersey.





How refreshing is it to see hockey players being themselves? What is even more amazing is that the teams is sharing it with us. You really have to respect the organization for allowing us to see their players personalities.

THERE'S ANOTHER TEAM IN TOWN

Germain Arena is not only home to the ECHL Everblades, the Lady Everblades or the Junior B Jr. Blades, but it is also home to the Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU) Eagles. FGCU has two club Hockey teams that play in the Division II & Division III levels of the American Collegiate Hockey Association (ACHA). FGCU is a 12 year-old University, built on everglades reserves and populating over 10,000 students with just as much wildlife. FGCU Ice Hockey is in its 7th year and has made consecutive appearances at Regionals, Nationals and will continue to do so throughout the years.

With a new team in town, comes their Blogger, me. My name is Jamie N. Flatley and I am a senior at FGCU. I am an Elementary Education and I LOVE Hockey. I do not have the skills to skate, Id prefer running up and down a field with a Lacrosse stick in hand, but I met several members of the team as a freshman and have been hooked ever since. This is my 3rd year as the Director of Game Day Operations and Co-Director of Volunteers for the program and last March I had the honor of Co-Directing the ACHA D3 National Tournament that took place right here in Estero, FL.

The D2 and D3 Eagles are looking forward to an exciting year with lots of new talent, and most of the old. Last year, the D2 team said good-bye to seven starting Seniors and one of them was welcomed to the American Hockey League (AHL) Deal. Eagles Alumni Mike Sellitto signed an entry level contract with the Bridgeport Sound Tigers. We wish him the best of luck and cannot wait to see him in the Pros!

For rosters, schedules and news updates, please check out the FGCU Hockey Website: and their Facebook Fan Page:

Until next time, be loud, be proud & GO EAGLES!


Photo courtesy of: FGCU Ice Hockey

News and Notes

First, some Everblades alumni news:
- Josh Harding had what is likely be a season ending injury. This means that former Everblades goalie Anton Khudobin has a chance to earn the back-up job in Minnesota. You can read about his rough start in last night's game here.

- A wonderful reader sent me pictures of Ryan Lang practicing in the Netherlands a couple of weeks ago (I think an e-mail was lost somewhere along the way). Thanks for the awesome pictures!

 

Also, If you remember I went to the Jr. Everblades exhibition game against the FGCU Eagles. I was really impressed by both teams. I really do recommend seeing both teams play, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.

-  I've added a page for the Jr. Blades with their roster and calendar, and I've done the same for the Eagles.

- Pictures Fridays game are on Flickr. You can check out the set here.

- A couple of the Jr. Blades are on twitter, here's the teams official list.

Friday Links

I'm a little fried after my trip to Orlando yesterday, but the blog must go on! As always, here are some links to get you through the rest of the day.

- The Jr. Everblades play their first game on the ice of Germain Arena in an exhibition game with the FGCU Eagles tonight at 8:30. FGCU students are supposed to get in free while the rest of us have to pay $5. I don't know about you, but getting my hockey fix a little early (and only paying $5 to get it) sounds perfect!

- I love the Third String Goalie Blog, especially when they featured this great Utah Grizzlies jersey from their AHL days.

- The ECHL announced the name of the new Chicago franchise. The Express will join the league next season and Icthetics has a look at their new logos.

- Your Wikipedia hockey page- "Blades of Steel"

- Personally, I think this is the worst logo to ever appear on an Everblades jersey, but it is from their 10th anniversary season (and the price is right).

- It's kitty time!


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Big Blog News!

When I started this blog over a year ago I wanted to share my passion for the Everblades with my fellow fans. I realize now that I've done more than share my love of the Everblades, I've shared my love of hockey. I know now that I want to share even more of this love. The best way to do this, is to share all the great hockey we have in the area. We're very lucky, we don't just have the Everblades, we have the new Jr. Everblades, and a college team as well.

I realized that the best thing for you the readers would be to offer coverage of all the hockey in the area. I began asking around and I was put in touch with a local blogger who was very knowledgeable about the FGCU Eagles. She was kind enough to agree to come on board to cover all the Eagles news for the blog. In the next few days she will be introducing herself, and the team. I'm really excited about this news, and I hope you readers are as well. Stay tuned!

YouTube Tuesday: Meet Bobby Goepfert

Since it seems like we're pretty much guaranteed Bobby Goepfert will be one of our goalies this season, I figured know is as good a time as any to learn a little something about him. First, some videos (it is Tuesday after all):





And, just for fun:



And his stats (for readers not used to goalie stats check out save percentage and goals against average):


He's listed as playing for the checkers because he signed a two-way contract with our AHL affiliate. He wasn't invited to the Hurricanes training camp, and as the story I mentioned above hints at, he's been training at Germain. As you can see, he has some pretty respectable stats. I do actually remember Goepfert playing for the Stingrays. I really can't remember anything specific about what I though of his play (I barley remember last season to be honest), but I am excited to see him play this season.

One of the first chances we may get will be the Alumni Game on October 5th when our current roster takes on past Everblades. Also, for those of you who just can't wait any longer for hockey, our new junior team will be taking on the FGCU Eagles in exhibition games on Friday and Saturday this week. I'm looking forward to seeing my first junior hockey game and finally seeing some live hockey again. The tickets are free for FGCU students and $5 for everyone else.

Need a Giggle?

Happy Saturday! I hope you guys get a giggle out of this.

Friday Links

It's Friday and around here that means it's time for some links. Enjoy!

- This list chronicles some strange hockey records. Any list that includes Mario Lemieux and Evgeni Malkin is a good one in my book.

- Your Wikipedia hockey page for today- "The Easter Epic"

- I always love when I find a new gallery of goalie masks.

- My Swedish skills are non-existent but Google leads me to believe this is a pacifier. I really couldn't resist because this is the coolest pacifier ever. Also, I have to link to this hideous thing because it's just too funny.

- I have to link to this awesome book I just read. Hockey Night in Dixie, covers the history of minor league hockey in the South and has a chapter that goes behind the scenes of the South Carolina Stingrays. I really recommend every fan down here read this book.

- You may have heard of the (idiotic) new format for the all-star game, but did you see the jerseys? I'm leaning toward them being ugly jerseys, but I can't quite decide. Time for the first ever Swamp Hockey Poll!




- What would Friday be without a kitty?


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Blades Make a Trade

Update: (I think I'm going to stop writing late night posts) I missed the fact that this was only the players rights that were traded. This means that if he decides to play for a European team he won't be hitting the ice for the Everblades.

The Everblades completed a trade with the Alaska Aces, acquiring forward Alexandre Imbeault in return for future considerations.Imbeault was one of the best players on the Aces roster before he bolted for the Czech league. As you can see from his stats, the Czech league may not have been his cup of tea, but the ECHL certainly is:



How beautiful are those numbers?

Speaking of beautiful, look at these goals:



 

I did find some interesting things floating around on the Internet. First, some positive here. There's also some comments on this blog that makes me a bit nervous, but really, how can you take any commenter who writes some words in all caps (for no apparent reason) seriously?

The most interesting thing about this trade is that it's probably the last roster move the Everblades are going to make. The quotes from Bush over at the Blades' Blog sure sound like 14 players will be all the team keeps under contract. It makes me a little nervous that we will be relying on our affiliates for a pretty decent chunk of our roster this season. The good news is, with a lot of teams running their training camps right now, we should have a good idea of who will be heading to town by the time our training camp starts.

Blades Sign Deeth

I'm really loving the regular signing announcements from the Everblades. Today they announced the signing of rookie forward Kevin Deeth. He's spent the last four years playing for Notre Dame, and before that spent some time in the USHL and Shattuck-Saint Mary's. A quick look at his stats:



He's definitely not the biggest guy, the team lists him as 5'7'' and 170. Actually, he's the shortest (Nikiforov has an inch on him) and tied for the lightest. I did find some of the quotes I found on him pretty interesting, especially this post from Hockey's Future. In it, he was named as one of the 2007 top 20 NCAA prospects (scroll down to # 14). It looks like he's got the feisty intelligent playing style that's great to see in s smallish forward. 

I'm not sure if it's worth mentioning, but his brother, Brian Deeth, may be familiar to some of the Everblades fans. He spent three seasons bouncing around the ECHL, playing with the Chiefs, Roadrunners, Grizzlies, and Checkers before finally spending the majority of last season in the SPHL.

For those of you who are interested it looks like he did make a Twitter account. He made a grand total of 1 tweet, but I'm hoping some interest might bring him back.

YouTube Tuesday: Blades vs. Everyone Else

The last two YouTube Tuesdays were spent on our divisional rivals. Today, we look at the rest of the ECHL.

First, some now defunct teams:








Now, some current rivals:







And, what would a Tuesday around here be without a McJannet video? By the way, I haven't heard about him signing with any team yet. The hope remains!

Need a Giggle?

I have a special treat for you guys today. Who remembers the Kalamazoo Wings practice jerseys? It's pretty hard to believe anyone could forget these ugly things.

(Sorry for the poor quality on these, this was before I got my awesome camera)

Friday Links

It's Friday and I'm up way too early. Instead of watching re-run episodes of the Golden Girls for the millionth time I'm going to throw these links up early for you guys. Enjoy!

- Your Wikipedia hockey page for today- "Halifax Rules"

- The Florida Jr. Blades are about to embark on their introductory season. It's really amazing how lucky hockey fans in the area are. Two NHL teams nearby, ECHL hockey, college hockey, and now a junior team. Do check out their website, and maybe consider entering a billet application.

- I also have to point out that two of the Jr. Blades players are on Twitter (@JoshStanclift and @Brae71 ). Seriously people, get with the times, follow these guys and follow me too.

- Cracked has a pretty funny article on hockey fights.

- If you haven't heard, the ECHL is taking nominations for the all-decade team. You can read about the four players the team nominated at the Blades' Blog.

- Who wants to start a beach hockey league with me? Apparently, it's the most spectacular form of hockey.

- Kitty time!


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Blades Sign Lemieux

The Everblades announced the signing of forward Francis Lemieux today. The most interesting thing so far is the quote the Everblades included in the press release from Greg Poss,

"Francis is a good, fast skater. He’s spent most of his career in the American League and with that kind of experience we’re expecting him to show good leadership as well. He is a solid all-around player that is strong at both ends of the ice, and he’s the type of player we’ll be looking to be possibly on our top line.”

Interesting right? To me, it looks like Lemieux is being targeted to play a leadership role. He's the second oldest of all the players on the roster so far, and has the most AHL experience. The information on him over at Hockey's Future is also worth a look. They praise his work ethic and dedication especially.
His stats:

And a video from his time with the Las Vegas Wranglers:



It certainly seems that Lemieux will have a shot to get on the top line when training camp rolls around. He may even have a chance to earn the "C". It's definitely looks like he is Ross Carlson's biggest competition for both spots so far. Training camp is going to be interesting...

Blades Bring in Tapper

I mentioned this earlier today, but now it's time to go more in depth. The Everblades announced last night that they have brought in Brad Tapper to serve as assistant coach for the upcoming season. His stats from his time as a player:


And some highlights from his time with the Chicago Wolves:



Overall, it looks like he was a hardworking, solid player. He spent last season coaching a junior team in the CCHL, the North York Rangers. This is a next step in his coaching career, and hopefully it's a successful step. He has played for Greg Poss in the past and will probably be a big part of helping the players learn the new system.

In the course of my research I found a very interesting article on him. The problem is it's about a pretty rough time in his life and I've spent some time wrestling with whether I should link to it. In the end I decided that this article does offer some insight into who he is and what he's been through. It's a very sad story, and I'm not going to go any further into it because information on the events are quite easy to find. You can find the story here.

I feel like I repeat this line over and over again, but it's true. We won't really know until the season starts and we can see his work in action. Seriously, October needs to hurry up and get here already.

News and Notes

Last night was the first season ticket holder party of the season, and a lot of news was announced. You can read the story and see some video of the event here.

- The most exciting announcement had to be the Everblades alumni game. The game will be held on October 5th. The current team will take on some former Everblades and the money raised will go to the Piper Buckly Foundation. They didn't announce the alumni roster, but the story indicates that Reggie Berg will be one of the players and I imagine Tom Buckly will play as well.

- I was expecting last nights big announcement to be the signing of Ernie Hartlieb. Unfortunately, it appears he is still undecided. He indicated that he will have a decision by October 1st, and will play in the alumni game. Whether it will be as a current player or former player is still up in the air.

- The team also announced some of the signings, and oddly, Defenseman Elgin Reid appears to have come up. I have no idea why, he has a contract with the Checkers. It's a two-way contract, meaning they can send him down here, but they haven't even held their training camp. I'm a little confused by this, have the Checkers already decided to send him down without giving him a chance to prove himself or was that just a mistake on the team (or NDN reporters) part?

- You'll all need to change your radio settings too. The team has a new radio home at 1440 AM in Ft. Myers and 1660 AM in Naples.

- Finally, the Blades announced they had brought on Brad Tapper to be the new assistant coach. I'll have a more detailed post on him later in the day once I've had some time to do a little more research.

There will be a party for fans tonight from 7-9 p.m. in the Cypress Club. I'm still undecided as to whether I'm going or not, but I think it will probably be not since I'm the only person on Earth who can manage to catch a cold this time of year.

Also, it's been too long without a kitty!


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YouTube Tuesday: Blades vs. Rays

Last Tuesday was so much fun I had to try it again. The South Carolina Stingrays are one of the Everblades oldest divisional foes, with a regular season record against the Everblades of 45-41-9. They haven't had as much luck against the Blades in the post season losing three years in a row to the Eveblades. Their only post season win against the Blades came from the 08-09 season that saw them clinch the Kelly Cup for a third time.

The team was founded in 1993, the Stingrays are one of the oldest and most successful teams in the ECHL. They often lead the league in attendance. That doesn't mean they haven't been involved in some controversy though.

(Before we go any further I'm going to point out that this is an Everblades blog run by an Everblades fan, Stingrays fans might want to skip this)

The team faced an investigation from the league for their actions leading up to and during their 96-97 championship season. The ECHL discovered that the team had used money from the Charlestons youth hockey program to help pay their players. At the time, the team was already at the maximum payroll allowance. The money they received , about $23,000, covered about 18% of their payroll at the time. In the end, the was fined $50,000 by the ECHL and their coach was suspended for 6 games. If you're interested more information can be found here and here.

Since 2004 the Stingrays have been affiliated with the Washington Capitals, and their AHL affiliate the Hershey Bears. They have always fielded a fast, skilled team. Games between the Stingrays and Everblades are always heated affairs. Often this means some pretty good fights.





I'm not really sure why, but the we won't be seeing the Stingrays in Germain until March. By then, the Blades will have played eight games in Charleston. Whatever the reason, I can't wait. It's going to be good.

Need a Giggle?

I feel horrible about forgetting to schedule last Saturday's post. Apparently, Dominic Osman is just as upset as you guys must have been.

Friday Links

It's Friday, and that means one thing... Friday links.

- This has to be one of the more unique team building exercises I've heard of.

- Your Wikipedia hockey page for today is a sad one- "List of Defunct ECHL teams"

- I think I've decided that this will be my birthday cake this year (minus the Canuks logo and boys name obviously)



- I don't care that this is meant for little kids, I have to make this!

- If you haven't seen this over on Puck Daddy you're missing out. How can you not love this goalie?

- So as not to overdo the kitty thing, how about some pretty ponies?


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Blades Sign Timkin

(Sorry for the late posting. I've been at war with my horrible ISP all morning)

The Everblades announced yet another signing today. Russian froward Evgeny Timkin is the latest player to sign with the Everblades. He appears to be another of the big physical type of player the team has been signing lately. He also seems pretty feisty (turn down your speakers and sit through all of the pictures and it'll be worth it):



His numbers (courtesy of Elite Prospects) aren't the most impressive,
but I have a feeling he wasn't signed by the Blades for his scoring ability. That's not to say he isn't a good player, he did make an impression on a hockey writer at the World Junior Under-20 championships. If what that writer says is to be believed he may be a more defensively minded forward. Obviously, a forward of that type will naturally have less goals and assists.He did make a bit of a name for himself during the tournament when he laid a devastating hit on Minnesota Wild prospect Jere Sallinen. The hit ended up knocking Sallinen out of the tournament. The rest of his team was obviously not happy and they targeted Timkin later in the game, leading to this tussle:



He was eligible for the 2010 entry draft, but wasn't selected for whatever reason. My hunch is, he's decided to leave the KHL with the hopes of getting some attention from an NHL team. It's will be much easier to be noticed by NHL teams when your playing under their nose in their system.

I think Timkin may be one of the players I look forward to seeing the most in action. I love that the Everblades are finally focusing on building a big physical team, with the teams that the Gladiators and Stingrays tend to put on the ice we need to be able to push back. It's about time we get tough around here.