By KEVIN OKLOBZIJA
On a night when the Rochester Americans honored greats from the past, inducting Val James and Jason Pominville into the team’s Hall of Fame, the Amerks of today were just so-so.
A 20-minute stretch of indifferent play allowed Charlotte to build a 3-0 lead, and the Checkers held off the Amerks furious third-period rally to win 4-2 on Friday in front of 6,507 fans at Blue Cross Arena at the War Memorial.
“The last 10 minutes of the first period and the first 10 minutes of the second were just awful,” Amerks coach Seth Appert said.
That’s precisely when Charlotte did damage, with Riley Bezeau, Gerry Mayhew and Connor Bunnaman scoring in a stretch of 13:29 for the three-goal cushion.
“We tried to make a lot of fancy plays and they thrive on turnovers,” said defenseman Lawrence Pilut, who assisted on both Amerks third-period goals, by Isak Rosen and Aleksandr Kisakov. “We gave them their chances.”
Rosen and fellow rookie winger Filip Cederqvist were the Amerks best players. Both continue to play more prominent roles as they grow as professionals.
“I thought Cederqvist was outstanding again tonight and I thought Isak Rosen was just dynamite in a hard man’s game at 19 years old,” Appert said. “But some of our drivers, that group of 23- and 24-year-olds and the older guys, we need better from them.
“You can’t have the 19-year-old driving our team.”
Balancing the ceremony with a game
The Amerks, as always, watched the induction ceremonies from their bench, obviously a break from the normal game-night routine.
“You’re sitting out on the bench for 15-20 minutes, it’s not easy, but it’s also special,” Appert said. “And the special outweighs the hard.
“It’s important to see the history and tradition, it’s important to see what Val James has done for African-American kids all over the country for them to believe they can chase their dreams and play in the NHL.
“It’s important to see a guy like Pominville play 1,000 games (1,060) in the NHL and have like 750 points (actually 727) and how much it means to him to be inducted into a hall of fame in the American Hockey League. That stuff is important for our guys to see.”
Injury update
Amerks center Brandon Biro, run over by an open-ice check on Wednesday against Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, is out week-to-week with an upper body injury.
He will be replaced at the AHL All-Star Classic by Lukas Rousek, but the injury isn’t necessary why he won’t be in Laval for festivities.
Appert said Biro has been playing through nagging injuries and decided several days ago that rest would do him good.
“It was a heck of an honor he earned but he’s got a real level head and told Jason (Karmanos, the Amerks general manager) and I that he felt he’d be better off for his career and our team to take the rest. Pretty mature approach.”
Defenseman Joseph Cecconi is out week to week, and well into February, with an upper body injury as well.
Winger Anders Bjork sat out Friday because of the numbers game but will play Saturday, Appert said.
Rochester special to Val James
Val James hasn’t played in Rochester for 38 years, but he still fondly remembers the four seasons with the Amerks and how the city embraced him from the beginning.
He was the team’s enforcer but he also scored the Calder Cup winning goal in 1983.
Life wasn’t so pleasant on the road, however. As a Black American playing pro hockey in the early 1980s, James was the target of racial taunts in visiting cities.
“I’d go on the road and get beat right down,” said James, who was inducted in the Amerks Hall of Fame along with Jason Pominville during pre-game ceremonies. “People would come dressed in KKK outfits and sit in the front row all game. There were all the catcalls.”
And that was before the game started.
“I had to go through the league once and fight at least one guy on every team,” James said, “but once that got done, and guys actually looked at me for a hockey player, things changed dramatically.”
James biography, “Black Ice: The Val James Story,” was published in 2015 and recounted his life in hockey and the barriers he had to break down simply because of race. He was the first Black American to play for the Amerks and in the NHL (first with the Buffalo Sabres, then the Toronto Maple Leafs).
He was honored by the Amerks not just for what he did as a player and in the community, but for helping blaze a trail for future generations.
Amerks goalie Malcolm Subban, an African Canadian, said that if he could say one thing to James, it would be “Thank you.”
James’ book signing at Blue Cross Arena at the War Memorial in 2015 was supposed to be just a pre-game event. But to meet demand, he signed after the game until 12:45 a.m. “to make sure everyone that came for an autograph got one.
“And I hadn’t been here for 30 years, so it was pretty nice to be able to give everyone that wanted an autograph.”
He was given an enthusiastic standing ovation that began as Don Stevens started to announce his induction and continued well after, causing James to pause his induction speech.
Pominville grateful
Jason Pominville also was greeted fondly. He played just over three seasons for the Amerks in the mid 2000s and then went on to play 1,060 NHL games for the Sabres and Minnesota Wild.
He said it was privilege to play with the Amerks on a team that included Thomas Vanek, Ryan Miller, Derek Roy, Paul Gaustad, Chris Thorburn, Nathan Paetsch and Jiri Novotny, as well as veterans such as Chris Taylor, Domenic Pittis, Jason Botterill and Tom Askey.
“The youth that we had coming in together was phenomenal and we were surrounded by veterans that taught us how to play the right way, how to be pros,” Pominville said.
He said he was happiest that his son, Jayden, 13, and daughter Kaylee Rose, 11, were with his wife and parents during the induction ceremony.
“To have them see where I played, where I lived for four years and see what Dad used to do is special,” he said.
Real problem with team chemistry and lack of effort today very unfortunate with a large enthusiastic crowd to see this team play so awful not able to complete routine passes, player miscommunication was endless and not willing to play anything resembling physical hockey just so unfortunate these guys have speed but right now huge concern with lack of physical play zero chemistry amongst the players this really needs to be addressed
Their play at home over the past 2 months has been very disappointing. Current team really has not developed any identity at all. Key players have been injured; young players have spent time away from the team and are just learning to deal with the pro game; and overall they do lack the toughness (and size) to compete from night to night.
Wednesday they started the same way but managed to recover. Last night they waited far too long to enter the fray. This season looks more like simply trials for the potential prospects, rather than a competitive season with a Calder Cup in view.
Development works best when you win. That requires a lot of effort. On many nights, Amerks don’t have that effort and on many nights it shows in the 3rd period, when teams have to work hard to protect leads. They have lost far too many games they should have won. Stats have always shown that teams with the lead after 2 periods, usually win most the time. Charlotte, for example I believe has not lost in regulation going into the 3rd with a lead. Amerks have lost 4 or 5 already. (someone has that number)
Even with their 3rd period surge, during an early power play, they couldn’t complete one pass. They spent the entire 2 minutes basically chasing the puck down the ice. Fundamentals…missing.
There is still plenty of time left to fix things. Our last Cup winner was awful for several months before they put it together (help from Buffalo was a factor that year. That may not happen this year especially since Sabres are making a strong bid to finally make the playoffs. Would they send a Quinn or a Peterka back here to ‘mature’? Doubtful)
I wanted the crowd to be bigger last night, but for this special occasion, I also expected a much better performance.