By Mike Cadarette (Contributor) – Email
Print Edition: January 16, 2013
Everything is returning to normal.
The NHL is set to begin next week. Training camps are opening. Players are gearing up for a shortened season that is sure to be a sprint to the playoffs. Sports journalists are in a frenzy trying to cover as much as they can. And fans are looking forward to the gift that is NHL hockey.
But all is not so swell in the world of the American Hockey League. Having gotten used to abnormally deep rosters of talent over the past three-and-a-half months, AHL coaches and players are prepping for a dramatic reduction in the level of skill both on their teams and league-wide.
What this means for the Heat is that they have lost the usual suspects. Sven Baertschi, the first year pro out of the WHL’s Portland Winterhawks, and TJ Brodie, the smooth skating offensive defenceman, are the two players most likely to stick in the NHL. The Heat’s leading scorer, Ben Street, and leading goal scorer, Roman Horak, have gotten the call as well. Steve McCarthy, who played for newly appointed Flames head coach Bob Hartley for the ZSC Lions of the Swiss National league, is also making the trip east. Other Abbotsford players who will be heading to the Flames training camp are Chris Breen, Paul Byron and Leland Irving.
To Troy Ward, losing some of his most impactful players doesn’t halt the excitement of seeing his pupils get the chance they’ve been waiting for since they first strapped on a pair of skates.
“Ecstatic would be the word I would use. It’s such a good thing. These guys come here and they work hard every day and, you know, the travel kind of stinks at this level. To go up and have a chance to get on a charter versus getting on a commercial flight, it’s just so well worth the wait, however long it took.”
While the coaching staff reaps the reward of seeing their players get a shot at making an NHL club, their peers are equally as excited to see their teammates have that opportunity.
“It’s the way it should be,” said Heat captain Quintin Laing after Wednesday’s practice. “I mean nobody wanted a lockout to start. So, I’m sure some of those guys weren’t expecting to be down here in the first place. So, they’re going where they should be, where they should be playing. To get to know them a bit, they’re really good kids and I’m going to be happy for each and every one of them that stays up there.”
However, what’s not exciting is the Heat losing their top offensive catalysts, at least until the weeklong training camp has completed. On a team that is third last in the AHL in goals for per game (2.35), that’s not a welcome prospect to think about. However, the Heat captain views this as a chance to get the so-called monkey off the backs of those who haven’t been contributing in the offensive zone.
“I don’t think it adds any more pressure,” Laing said. “We put pressure on ourselves to score goals. I think we’ve got a few guys that have been snake bitten in the last month or so and I expect those guys to start scoring. As long as you get your chances and keep putting pucks on net, eventually they’re going to go in. So, as long as you have a positive mind frame, it doesn’t matter who we lose—if they’re offensive of defensive—the pressure on us to score is there every night.”
Despite the pressure to score every night, it could prove to be a difficult task amidst a spell of change in the players’ daily environment. Eight Heat players have departed over the Rockies to Calgary while several players have come from the Heat’s ECHL affiliate, the Utah Grizzlies, to join Abbotsford’s remaining squad.
Late Thursday evening, former Heat playmaker Mitch Wahl was called up from Utah. Wahl, a native of Seal Beach, California, led the Grizzlies in scoring collecting 11 goals and 39 points in 30 games. Adam Estoclet, who started the season in Abbotsford, and defencemen Mike Marczak and Drew Mackenzie were also called up for reinforcements this week.
“It’s kind of like the trade deadline,” explained Ward. “Those are one of the toughest days to coach in the minors… We deal with the ‘process’ every day and we don’t really deal with the ‘result’. So, there’s going to be a result that will come and we’ll say the result is these guys are leaving. But we’re a process driven group. We only really focus on things we can control and we’ve done it that way since I’ve landed here.
“I’d like to say history is going to teach us we’ll be okay through this, but you’re going to have the odd individual that obviously might be scarred from this whole thing and that’s the guy you got to help. It’s really important that I have some sensitivity and that my staff has some sensitivity to that and I think we have some humility to it. We know that every player is going to deal with it differently and we have to have the ability to change in today’s game. You have to change from player to player as to how you deal with it.”
The good news for Heat coaches, players and fans is that eventually the normality felt by the outside world will soon reach them. NHL training camps opened on Sunday and once the camps have closed and rosters have been finalized, the parent teams will send the remaining players back down to the AHL where the focus will once again be on achieving the ultimate goal: the Calder Cup.
