The Amerks are 1-1 coming into tonight’s game against the Binghamton Senators. They scored an impressive (albeit unimpressive) overtime win against Syracuse at home on Friday, and then lost in Toronto on Saturday.
Here is what I expect to see on the ice tonight.
The Senators are not an overly impressive team on paper. Ottawa has not stocked the team with veterans, and there are no A1 superstar prospects on the roster. At least, none that will play. First Second-round draft pick and Rochester native Shane Prince has a bad knee and is going to miss his homecoming game.
Bingo DOES have two solid goaltenders on their roster: Robin Lehner carried the team to their Calder Cup championship 2 seasons ago, and big Ben Bishop was acquired from St Louis last season to be the heir apparent to the goaltending job in Ottawa. Either of them could steal a game on any given night.
The Amerks have had two glaring problems over the first two games. First, the Amerks couldn’t keep up with Syracuse or Toronto. Both teams seemed to skate circles around us, keeping the puck and shooting at will. I don’t see Bingo as having the same team speed and puck control ability, so the Amerks should match up better. If Coach Rolston has been driving this home in practice, the Amerks should dominate the puck tonight.
Secondly, penalties have crushed the Amerks, giving up 5 power play goals on 15 opportunities. 15 penalties over 2 games is way too many to take, and the penalty killers / goaltending need to do a better job. They NEED to stay out of the penalty box.
Here are the lineup changes I’d like to see tonight:
Connor Knapp in for David Leggio. Knapp needs to get some AHL experience, and what better time than in a non-divisional game against a weaker opponent. Lets see what he has.
Someone needs to take Corey Tropp’s spot in the lineup. The two candidates right now would be Kevin Sundher or Frederick Roy, and I’m going to lean towards Roy. He seems to have impressed in both development camp and Amerks training camp, and good thing seem to follow him. I won’t guess how Tropp’s injury will affect the Amerks lines.
Finally, I would give Nick Crawford a look over TJ Brennan tonight. Brennan has not been good in the first two games. He got beat pretty badly a couple of times on Friday vs Syracuse, leading to at least 1 goal, and two of Toronto’s three power play goals on Saturday came while Brennan was sitting in the penalty box (once for taking a penalty after there was already a delayed call against Toronto). Meanwhile, Crawford has been very solid when given a chance, and deserves a shot in the gameday lineup.
I would never call an October game “must win”, but this is a team that needs to establish its identity, and a dominant game tonight would go a long way towards doing that.
Amerks Sin Bin 
I don’t understand your infatuation with thinking that GOALTENDING is the issue here. Sure, the AHL is loaded right now but you can argue that of the goals let in so far, maybe one or two could have been prevented. I don’t care if MIller is in net the opener against Syracuse all those goals are going in. Our supposed improved “D” has looked soft save for McNabb and it shows when Leggio gets run far too often. When’s the last time one of our forwards have been able to get to the net during a scrum? Everyone else’s “D” clears the net and cleans up the rebounds. A guy stones a breakaway opportunity only to have them score anyway because no one is back clearing the front! Additionally, we have two goals in the last two games! We are supposed to be stacked with forwards! Where are they? We’ve given up over 30 shots the first three games, that is embarassing! Think Rolston may miss McKee now? Toronto again makes us look like a JV squad on Saturday. I’m sorry but goaltending is the least of my worries right now. Hell we would’ve lost had Leggio not stopped all breakaway attempts in the opener and he at least gave them a chance the last two games. When will the big guns start scoring? When will Hodgson win an important faceoff? When will our PP produce anything and when will we stop taking penalties that lead to PP opportunites for other teams? With a team as stacked as this, 2 goals in 2 games is truly embarassing. I do not think Rolston understands this team nor did he last year. Why not take a look at a change there?
First off, let me say that Leggio is NOT the reason we lost the last two games. Too many penalties and a poor penalty kill did us in against Toronto. I watched the game, and it was like watching men vs boys. I’m surprised the game was as close as it was. Last night against Binghamton, I thought Leggio played a fantastic game. I daresay one of his best in an Amerks uniform.
The fact remains, he DID lead the league in losses last season (despite playing only 50% of the games over the first 4 months of the season), and he rarely steals a game for the Amerks. I consider him a very average AHL goalie. Perhaps I’m spoiled by all the NHL-quality goalies that we have seen float thru Rochester from the early 80s (starting with Puppa and Wakaluk) thru the early 2000s (ending with Miller). I think goaltending is the single most important position on the team, and we haven’t had a decent keeper since 2004-05. (OK, perhaps Craig Anderson in 06-07, but Adam Dennis played slightly more). A top-notch goalie can energize a team, and energize a crowd. We’ve had none of these things in way too long.
You are right that he isn’t getting any help from his guys up front. Thats why I’d like to see some changes on defense. The 6 guys we’re playing every night aren’t getting it done. Crawford and Biega should see the ice. I dont care if Brennan is an assistant captain, his play has been bad and he should be benched. The forwards dont have enough depth to scratch anyone and send a message. They simply need to be better.
I disagree completely about McKee. He was with the team last season, and the team played exactly the same way. Getting outshot every game, giving up 35-40 (or more) shots per game, etc. McKee didn’t help our “D” at all. But I AM starting to wonder if Rolston is a good professional coach. I think he’s a good teacher, I think he can probably develop talent (which, remember, is Buffalo’s main goal for Rochester… and the guys who went up to Buffalo from Rochester last season DID play very well). But I’m not sure he’s a good coach. I think he becomes too loyal to players (hence no scratches due to poor play so far.. no line changes.. etc). And I detested how he handled the goalie situation with Leggio and MacIntyre last season. With all the talent on this team, perhaps it has to come back to coaching. Time will tell on that one.
Thanks for reading and offering your views.
While he may have lead the league in “losses” how many of those were in OT or a shootout where he still helped them pick up points? They brought in MacIntyre along with a $200K pricetag to do nothing then actually quit on his team. Another thought to ponder, Leggio’s stats were better than Miller’s in Buffalo. Am I saying there are equal, of course not. But I am saying that perhaps the overall systems being played both in Buffalo and in Rochester lead to overworked goalies having to battle everynight. I can’t recall the last time Miller “stole” a game for the Sabres, and he is a world class caliber goaltender.
I do agree with a change on the blueline. It’s become apparent to me that a couple guys may need to wear a suit tonight and that starts with MacKenzie. I understand he is still battling back from an injury but I don’t think his “stay at home” play does anything to honestly help. I’m incredibly surprised to not see Biega in the lineup at his expense as I thought Biega was one of the best overall D men for Rochester last year. I hear your thoughts about Brennan, but we both know he nor McNabb are ever leaving the lineup. I wouldn’t mind them sitting Finley until he decides he truly wants to use his size and reach to his advantage rather than skating slow and grabbing and holding.
Lastly, and not to hammer a point home, I just don’t think you can base a true opinion yet on Leggio as he has yet to be “the guy” until this year. In Portland he was supposed to back up Enroth and came out blazing until call-ups and injuries decimated the D and made his very good numbers look a bit more pedestrian. Last year again, he was supposed to back up MacIntyre and ends up winning the starting job from him. Neither goalie had much help from the D when they did play last year, but again he still played 26 straight to get them in the playoffs. Unfortunately, much like Miller in Buffalo, it seems that workload caused him to be tired once they got to the Toronto series (who dominated us across the board anyways) and his play suffered. I think you need to let him be the No. 1 for the year with ideally a strong team in front and then make a decision. When Miller had a strong D that remained healthy, he was a top 3 goalie. When he didn’t, he suffered. While they are not truly comparable, I do see similarities in their work ethics and also their records in shootouts are exemplary. Maybe I’ll be wrong, but I prefer to wait and see. Thanks for your points.