By KEVIN OKLOBZIJA
At age 34, Matt Bartkowski is by no means young in hockey years, and maybe not even all that young at heart.
There are 12 full seasons of professional hockey and 715 regular-season games on his resume, with NHL stops in Boston, Vancouver, Calgary and Minnesota. When he speaks, he very much presents the voice of experience.
He’s hardly ready to stop playing, however. So when the Rochester Americans came calling last week, looking to fill holes on a depleted blue line, Bartkowski didn’t need to be asked twice to leave his home in Pittsburgh and get back on the ice.
“I want to keep playing,” Bartkowski said. “I’ve still got the legs under me, so I’ll play ’til they say no.”
He looked like he was very much in his prime on Wednesday night, scoring a slick goal off a one-on-one rush in helping the Amerks defeat the Syracuse Crunch 7-2 at Blue Cross Arena at the War Memorial.
After a lethargic first 10 minutes, the Amerks quickly found high gear and rolled to the victory on what became share the wealth night. There were seven different goal-scorers (Jiri Kulich, Bartkowski, Brendan Warren, Linus Weissbach, Brandon Biro, Brett Murray and Mason Jobst) while Oskari Laaksonen and Lukas Rousek each had two assists.
“What I liked is that all four lines scored goals and all four lines scored five-on-five goals,” Amerks coach Seth Appert said. “Something we’ve really been working on is scoring five-on-five, and the price that you have to pay. Five-on-five goals are difficult.”
Four of the first five goals came off the rush, something that’s a little easier to accomplish when you’re not chasing the puck in your own zone and are able to exit efficiently.
“When you don’t turn the puck over, you get to really use your speed,” Biro said.
Bartkowski, a man without a contract until last weekend, is helping provide that D-zone stability.
“He’s just an unbelievable presence,” Appert said. “He’s kind of a dude; he’s got a real cowboy way about him. He’s calm, and he’s good for our young guys and he knows how to play.”
Needless to say, Appert is quite happy to have him. Finally. Some 16 years ago, while on the recruiting trail to fill his roster at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Appert offered Bartkowski a scholarship.
Bartkowski said no. He opted for Ohio State University.
“Finally I got him,” Appert said with a smile.
Said Bartkowski: “Maybe I should have played for him. He seems like a really good guy and a good coach.”
There weren’t a lot of other opportunities when Appert offered him a roster spot this time. Bartkowski played all of last season with the AHL’s Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, but was left without a team this season after training camp tryout with the New York Rangers didn’t produce a contract.
While every AHL team eventually needs defensemen, Bartkowski still wasn’t sure if a contract would materialize. He sure wasn’t ready to retire, but you need a dance partner and he didn’t have one for the first three weeks of the season.
He did his best to stay in game shape, but there’s also reality.
“It’s going to creep into your head at some point; it’s not easy to keep it out,” he said.
And if no one called?
“No idea,” he said. “But I still want to be the guy. Once you lose that edge, you’re really not a player anymore.”
Appert didn’t blindly bring in Bartkowski, though. The person is just as important as the player, so he did a little homework.
“We as an organization are very diligent about the type of character we bring into our team,” Appert said. “We have a lot of very important prospects in our organization, and we want to surround them with great people that are real pros.
“I know some guys that have played with him and I called those guys, guys that I coached at the national program or guys that I coached in college. Before we signed him, I called those guys to make sure that we were adding not just a good hockey player but the kind of human and competitor that we want to surround our young prospects with, and he’s that in spades.”
What he didn’t necessarily expect was big-time offense, but Bartkowski looked like the defenseman of today’s game with a quick burst out of the defensive zone, a dash down the right wing, and then a perfect backhander that zipped over the left shoulder of goalie Max Lagace and into the net for a 2-0 lead at 15:25 of the first period.
“That’s not my game so it’s nice to score, especially like that,” he said.
Lots of goals, but first came the saves
Goalie Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen faced only 26 shots (the Amerks had only 21), but he was required to make several good stops early.
“What will get lost in tonight’s game, because we scored seven, was how good Upie was the first 10 minute of the game, because we weren’t good enough in the first 10 minutes,” Appert said. “We easily could have been down 2-0 10 minutes in, and then it’s a completely different game.”
Kisakov sits out again
Rookie winger Alesandr Kisakov missed his second game in a row with an upper body injury. Appert said he could be ready to play next weekend.
Barnaby coming to town
Matthew Barnaby, whose pro career began in Rochester before he embarked on a 12-year NHL career, will be at the Nov. 11 game to promote, and sign, his book, “Matthew Barnaby: Unfiltered.”
The book, published by Triumph Books, is due out next week.
Do you think Bartkowski will be retained when injuries are over in Buffalo and Amerk defenseman come back? Amerks need a good veteran or 2 on the blue line.