Every Wednesday we’ll take a look at the status of the
Rangers’ AHL affiliate. Top prospects Ryan Bourque and Carl Hagelin will be
key players for the Whale this season - we’ll check on how they’re doing and
how the team performs as the season progresses.
- Sean Avery reported to the Connecticut Whale yesterday but won’t be practicing anytime soon. Avery
has been receiving treatment for a right shoulder injury and underwent
an MRI on September 30th. The shoulder
doesn’t have any structural damage and Avery was able to play through it during
camp, but it’s an ongoing issue that could prevent him from playing for the
Whale for quite some time.
- With the addition of Avery, the Whale released defenseman T.J. Fast from a
pro tryout.
- After adding veteran defenseman Jeff Woywitka last week the
New York Rangers assigned Brendan Bell to the CT Whale. Both Bell and Stu Bickel stayed with the
Blueshirts until the very end of camp, but New York chose to recall Tim Erixon
and claimed Woywitka off waivers rather than risk having to put Bell or Bickel
into NHL game action.
- The CT Whale fell to the Adirondack Phantoms 6-3 on Saturday
night in the team’s
season-opener. Kris Newbury scored
all three goals for Connecticut, but his hat trick wasn’t enough to beat the
Philadelphia Flyers’ minor league affiliate. Newbury led the team with 61 points in 69 games last year. Cam Talbot stopped 18 of 23 shots in his
first start of the season and Wade Redden was a minus-four.
- Connecticut bounced back on Sunday with a 1-0 shootout win
over the Wilkes-Barre-Scranton Penguins. Chad Johnson started in net for the Whale and
recorded 41
saves en route to a shutout. The
Whale was outshot
41-24, but John Mitchell, Kris Newbury and Jonathan Audy-Marchessault all scored in
the shootout to give Connecticut its first win of the season.
- The Whale used these line combinations over the
weekend:
Carl Hagelin/Kris Newbury/Jonathan Audy-Marchessault
Ryan Bourque/John Mitchell/Andreas Thuresson
Tommy Grant/Kelsey Tessier/Scott Tanski
Chris McKelvie/Jordan Owens/Andre Deveaux
Wade Redden – Jared Nightingale
Jyri Niemi – Tomas Kundratek
Stu Bickel – Blake Parlett
- The Whale has another back-to-back this weekend. The team will first visit the Albany Devils
on Friday at 7:00 p.m. and then will host the Bridgeport Sound Tigers in the
team’s home-opener on Saturday at 7:00 p.m. After that, Connecticut is off again until Friday, October 21.
Past editions of The Whale Week That Was:
The
Whale Week That Was - October 5, 2011 >
The Whale Week That Was – October 12, 2011 >
Click
here for our full 2011-2012 Season Archive >
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