Amerks trying to stay sharp during ‘weird’ 13-day break in playoff schedule

By KEVIN OKLOBZIJA

There’s no playbook for Rochester Americans coach Michael Leone and his staff to follow when dealing with this extended gap in their playoff season.

Then again, how could there be? A break of 13 days between games – which is what the Amerks are dealing with – has never happened.

In the 69 year history of the franchise, the longest stretch between games was 12 days. That was in 1999, between the end of round one and the start of round two. The next year, there were 11 days between the conference finals and Calder Cup finals.

This year’s team is dealing with a 13-day hiatus. That’s because the Amerks swept the Syracuse Crunch 3-0 in the North Division semifinals, and because the Laval Rocket couldn’t start their division semifinal series until the play-in round had been completed.

The Amerks finished off the Crunch on May 1 and won’t play Game 1 of the North Division finals until May 14.

“It’s a little weird now when we’ve had a week off,” winger Isak Rosen said after practice on Wednesday. “You didn’t lose the playoff feeling but it’s a little weird, you don’t know if you’re still in there.”

Games 1 and 2 of the best-of-five series will be played in Rochester (May 14 and May 16 at 7:05 p.m.). The teams will then take more time off before the series concludes in Quebec. Game 3 won’t be played until 7 p.m. on May 21, Game 4 (if necessary) is at 7 p.m. on May 23 and Game 5 (if necessary) is set for 4:30 p.m. on May 25.

“It’s maybe hard for the mind, you just want to play so bad,” Rosen said.

Even figuring out when to practice is a bit of a gut feeling. Coach Michael Leone gave his players the weekend off and they returned Monday for three days of fairly high-intensity drills. They’ll take Thursday off as well, then start to get into the full swing on Saturday.

“It’s a unique schedule, for sure,” Leone said. “It’s important for our staff to come up with a plan for we’re ready for Game 1.

“We were on the ice for about 60 minutes (Wednesday), a little different for this time of year and then we’ll give them a day off. You’ll probably see a scrimmage on Saturday to simulate a game to get the guys kind of ramped up.”

It’s hardly ideal, but complaining does no good. And the if nothing else, injured players have more time to heal. Defenseman Vesvolod Komarov (concussion) is ready to play. Winger Lukas Rousek (undisclosed injury) could be ready by Wednesday.

Captain Mason Jobst admitted that there is a challenge to fighting the boredom, however.

“It is weird because you have to stay busy, you can’t focus too much on waiting around or you get stagnant,” Jobst said. “For the whole first week we didn’t even know who we were playing (Laval finished off Cleveland on Tuesday night), so how can you even prepare without knowing who you’re playing.”

The Amerks know the Rocket well. They played eight times during the regular season and won just twice. Of course, most teams lost to Laval. The Rocket finished with the best record in the American Hockey League and were the only team to eclipse 100 points (48-19-3-2, 101 points). The Amerks were 42-22-5-3 with 92 points.

“It’s a clean slate,” Jobst said. “Whatever happened during the regular season doesn’t really matter, but we’ll definitely refer back to those matchups and learn from them and see which areas we were giving up opportunities and where we think we can expose opportunities.”

Tickets for Games 1 and 2 go on sale at 10 a.m. Thursday (prices range from $22 to $46).