You ever wonder how excited a hockey player might be when he has a great game? Or maybe you’re wondering some of the stuff they’re leaning in to tell their teammates on the bench. With the advent of Twitter, now fans can know the quirks they never did before.
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The Providence Bruins have announced their 25-man training camp roster, a group that will participate in two preseason games this coming weekend before the season kicks off next Friday. Among the roster are 12 returning players, as well as six players on tryout agreements - necessary due to the players still in Boston.
The P-Bruins forwards announced yesterday for preseason are Jamie Arniel, Carter Camper, Stefan Chaput, Craig Cunningham, Kirk MacDonald, Kyle MacKinnon, Adam Presizniuk, Richard Purslow, Tyler Randell, Calle Ridderwall, Yannick Riendeau, Everett Sheen, and Jamie Tardif. They were joined today by Zach Hamill and Trent Whitfield, who had to clear waivers before reassignment.
The defensemen for preseason are Andrew Bodnarchuk, Ryan Button, Marc Cantin, Colby Cohen, Marvin Degon, Nathan McIver, Zach McKelvie, Kevan Miller, and David Warsofsky. All but Cantin, Degon, and McKelvie saw at least some ice time in Providence last season.
Michael Hutchinson and invitees Jared DeMichiel and Danny Taylor will be the preseaosn goaltenders.
Also likely to join the team when Boston's preseason is over are forwards Lane MacDermid and Max Sauve - Jordan Caron, who split the season between Boston and Providence last year, has a good chance of graduating full-time to the NHL this year. Defenseman Matt Bartkowski and goaltender Anton Khudobin will find their way south to Rhode Island eventually, as well.
After last year's training camp, the players on tryout contracts primarily found themselves in the ECHL. This year's invitees hail from a slightly more varied background than usual.
Adam Presiniuk, a 24-year-old center from Calgary, Alberta, spent four years at Union College where he most recently played alongside Bruins development camp invitee Josh Jooris. He scored 12-21-33 totals in 34 games for Union of the ECAC last year, and 131 points total in his four-year career. He is a first-year pro.
Richard Purslow, a 25-year-old forward from Greenlawn, NY, and a graduate of the University of Nebraska-Omaha, was that team's third leading scorer last year, with 33 points in 39 games. Purslow, who was named to the all-academic team at UNO at the conclusion of his senior season, has already agreed to terms with the ECHL's Reading Royals, the P-Bruins' AA affiliate. He is also a first-year pro.
Everett Sheen, another 24-year-old forward from Alberta and first-year pro, signed with the Syracuse Crunch last season after finishing his senior year at Holy Cross College, but did not appear in a game for that team. Sheen set a school record at Holy Cross by appearing in every game they played over the four seasons he was at the school, and is the ninth player in school history to record over 100 points during his career. Last year, he scored 35 points in 38 games.
On defense, the lone invitee is Marvin Degon, a 28-year-old veteran of the AHL and DEL. He played three full seasons in the AHL between 2005 and 2008, after graduating from UMass Amherst. He has spent the last three seasons in Germany's DEL, where he most recently played for Ingostadt.
It's not often that you see a player from Great Britain on a North American roster but that's exactly where Danny Taylor hails from - Plymouth, England. The 25-year-old goaltender was drafted by the Los Angeles Kings in 2004, and spent a number of years bouncing between the ECHL and AHL - with one NHL appearance in the 2007-2008 season. Taylor most recently played for the Hamburg Freezers of the DEL.
It's not often that one finds a native of Sweden in the Bruins' system; it's almost as infrequent as finding a hockey player who's finished college in one fell swoop. Somehow, newcomer Calle Ridderwall manages to embody both of these rareties.
Ridderwall, a native of Stockholm, Sweden, graduated from the University of Notre Dame with a degree in Finance. He says that college was never about just hockey; Ridderwall valued his education as well, and it played a big role in choosing where he spent his pre-professional years.
Ridderwall looks on before starting a drill at Bruins Rookie Camp on Thursday, September 15, 2011.
"I've always valued my education a lot," Ridderwall said after rookie camp on Thursday morning. "I was always very interested in the business part, the business world in education so I feel like being able to play hockey on that level while at the same time getting my degree in Finance was a combination I couldn't pass up."
no commentsOn October 8, 2010, the Providence Bruins took the ice against the Springfield Falcons in their home - and season - opener. With high hopes after missing the playoffs the year previous, the P-Bruins fielded a defense corps that, on paper, looked pretty solid. A KHL standout, Yury Alexandrov; the token veteran leadership, Nathan McIver; the stalwarts from the year before, in Jeff Penner and Andrew Bodnarchuk; and the new kid, soon-to-be-NHLer Steven Kampfer. ECHL floater Alain Goulet rounded out the six, and donning their throwback Providence Reds jerseys, they took the friday night ice at the Dunkin Donuts Center, ready to go.
The P-Bruins were walloped 5-1 at home by the Springfield Falcons.
Ryan Button skates at the Dunkin Donuts Center, April 2011.
It was a loss that characterized the team as a whole for the entire season, a team that struggled to keep above .500, only managing to pull its head above water after the late-season addition of new blood to the lineup. In the last ten games of the season, games in which this year's defensemen Colby Cohen, Ryan Button, and David Warsofsky saw ice time, the P-Bruins went 7-3-0. By that point, Steven Kampfer was primarily with the NHL club (aside from a brief stint the last weekend of the season), Alain Goulet was in Reading, Jeff Penner had been traded, and the defensemen of the moment provided an interesting preview of what ws to come this year. The wild cards, Marc Cantin and Zack McKelvie, had interesting years of their own last year as well.
The new-look defense is bigger, tougher, and more experienced, despite still being young - their ages range from 20 to 26 - four of them have a combined 50 games of NHL experience, where last year only one had seen any NHL time to start the season.
no commentsThe P-Bruins announced their 2011-2012 season schedule today, which will kick off at home on October 7th against the new St. John's Ice Caps club. The P-Bruins will play 38 of their 76 games at home, 22 on Fridays and 16 on Sundays - once again, Providence College's Mens Basketball makes Saturday home games an impossibility. Luckily, travel in the AHL in the Northeast is negligible. The second weekend of the season sees the P-Bruins' first 3-in-3 of the season, with Friday and Sunday home games against Manchester and Portland, and a quick 2-hour jaunt to Springfield on Saturday to face off against the Falcons.
Dave Warsofsky and the P-Bruins will be back on October 7th to kick off their next Calder Cup quest.
Due to travel limitations, the P-Bruins' 36-game schedule against their division rivals is a bit wonky. The season series with the Worcester Sharks, AHL affiliate of - you guessed it - the San Jose Sharks, spans a third of these divisional games, with six games at home and six games at Worcester's DCU Center. They will face off against the Portland Pirates (Phoenix's affiliate) and the Manchester Monarchs (Kings' affiliate) 10 times apiece, and St. John's merely four times. St. John's is a 24 hour bus ride or a four-hour plane ride, so it makes sense to spread the AHL travel to their city outside the division.
After the jump, further breakdown of the Baby B's schedule...
The Providence Bruins made a move today, signing left wing Calle Ridderwall to an amateur contract. As per the P-Bruins' press release, details of the contract have not been disclosed. Ridderwall is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame and a native of Stockholm, Sweden. He racked up a respectable 57 goals and 34 assists in 156 games over the course of his time with the Fighting Irish.
Ridderwall skates against Bowling Green. Photo by ce.belle
Ridderwall is the only undrafted player in the Irish's top-five in goal scoring last season. As a Junior, he led the Irish in scoring on a team that incuded AHL standouts Ian Cole (Peoria) and Kyle Palmieri (Syracuse). In that season, he scored two hat tricks, the first Irish player to do that since 1988.
After the jump, more on Ridderwall's career accomplishments and what we can expect from him in Providence...
no commentsAfter a three-year career as head coach of the Providence Bruins, Rob Murray has been let go by the team following the 2010-2011 season.
Murray was promoted from assistant to head coach in 2008, following Scott Gordon's appointment as head coach of the New York Islanders. His team in 2008-2009 was stellar, going all the way to the Eastern Conference Finals before losing to the Hershey Bears in a stunning collapse of a series; unbeknownst to the team at the time, that series would set the tone for the next two years.
Currently with Boston are - players that did time in the AHL under coach Murray; Johnny Boychuk, Tuukka Rask, Adam McQuaid, Steven Kampfer, and Brad Marchand are all products of Murray's system. Elsewhere in the NHL, Vladimir Sobotka, Byron Bitz, and Matt Hunwick all partially have Murray's system to thank in part for their success. Matt Hendricks, Matt Lashoff, Nate Thompson, David Krejci, and Patrice Bergeron are all players who spent time with the P-Bruins while Murray was assistant to Scott Gordon there.
His job was player development and in that area he found success; however, his team missed the playoffs twice in a row for the first time in club history, and Bruins management clearly found that unacceptable.
No announcement has been made regarding appointment of a new coach but it is believed that assistant coach Bruce Cassidy will take over the role next season.
no commentsHaving been in Boston since December 8th, Steven Kampfer made his return to Providence Friday night in the team’s 5-4 victory over the Portland Pirates. He played in 38 games for the Boston Bruins totaling five goals, five assists for 10 points but most recently has primarily been a healthy scratch. Kampfer began the season with Providence playing in 22 games with three goals and thirteen assists.
“It’s just to come down and work on a couple things,” Kampfer said of being assigned. “I talked to the assistant coaches up there, Claude and we’re just trying to minimize a couple things and get ready for playoffs.”
Kampfer takes a shot against Portland on April 8th.
Kampfer’s time in Boston has been a valuable experience for the young blue liner who says the NHL is “totally different” than the AHL. “The NHL is a little more structured and the speed’s a lot different,” Kampfer said. “You know where guys are going to be in the NHL and here you gotta take that extra second to take a look and find them. It’s something you gotta look for every night.”
Though he did not want to pick just one, Kampfer said that the most important thing he's learned this season is the preparation. “You gotta prepare every day. The style of play is totally different, you’ve gotta be ready to battle and win battles every night,” he said.
Early in Saturday night’s tilt against the Springfield Falcons, Kampfer sustained a leg injury and left the game. He did not play on Sunday but will get looked at in the upcoming week to determine the severity of the injury.
Despite not being able to play, Kampfer can keep himself entertained with his twitter account. The rookie, who as of now has 5,286 followers, has challenged fans to get him to the 10,000 mark. “I’m not the one who has to reach it, they have to reach it, it’s the fans who have to reach it, it’s not me. I just kind of put a goal out there,” Kampfer explained, “I told them that if I got it I would give personal tickets away.”
He asked his followers to help him get to that number when he had below 5,000 followers, which got him a few chirps. It may be a lofty goal but it is not very often players are offering up their own tickets. “It’s not me trying to promote myself. It’s just one of those things to try and put myself out there,” Kampfer said.
no commentsCheck out photos from Friday's game against Portland here!
The final weekend of the AHL season was a unique one for Providence, as players from four different leagues came together to sweep the last three games of the season. Jared Knight and Ryan Spooner played their first games out of the OHL, Carter Camper played his first out of the NCAA, and Steven Kampfer returned from the NHL to play for his former club before getting injured Saturday night.
All three newcomers looked comfortable on the ice in a similar situation to last season, when Kampfer, Joe Colborne, and Max Sauve joined the team together for the final two weekends of the season. However, none of those three had quite the immediate success as Spooner did. All three players tallied multiple points for Providence.
Ryan Spooner waits for a faceoff against the Pirates on Friday.
Spooner had the greatest immediate impact this weekend, with two goals and one assist good for a three-game points streak. While playing on a line with temporary roommate Jared Knight and recently-returned Jordan Caron, Spooner was able to generate significant offensive chances against two of the better teams in the AHL. He rounded out the weekend with seven shots on goal and a +2 rating.
"It was awesome. Caron played two months in the NHL this year so he's a great player, I can learn from someone like him, and playing with Knight is great - he's a great player, hopefully we'll get to do that more in the future," Spooner said of their line.
Watching Spooner play, although fun, is somewhat of a tease for P-Bruins fans. He's not eligible to play in Providence next season, and will either return to Kingston of the OHL - or potentially make the NHL club. Spooner should once again play a big role on his OHL club should he return; he noted that they're probably losing a few players, that they'll be a young, rebuilding team next season.
Knight's impact for the P-Bruins this weekend was anything but subtle. Halfway into the first period against Portland on Friday, he was already slamming Pirates players into the boards, getting in goaltender David Leggio's space, and generally being a faster, more developed version of the player Bruins fans got acquainted with watching at training camp last summer. For a smaller player, he's quite fearless.
Wearing the #18 formerly worn by Jeff Lovecchio and Alain Goulet, Knight tallied two assists (against Portland and Springfield) and finished the weekend a +2.
"We really only played one game together in preseason, but this week in practice we've really gelled," Knight said of playing with Spooner and Caron. The three of them together communicated well, and coach Murray spoke highly of the chemistry between Spooner and Knight, in particular. Although Murray was concerned that Saturday night's game could be a "trap game" - as last year, when Sauve and Colborne played extremely well in their first game here, then dropped off after that - his concern was, obvious, unfounded.
"I assumed that [Spooner and Knight] would have an immediate impact, but again, sometimes you have to temper your expections. With young guys coming out of junior, even though these guys are prospects who are proected to play in the NHL someday...this was a very hard week, tougher than junior or college. I thought they both played very well. They played very well in those prospects games together in September, and Jordan Caron didn't hurt them either," said Murray after the game Friday night.
Although Knight and Spooner may yet be tabbed as Black Aces for Boston's playoff run, one player who will not is recently signed college player Carter Camper, who also had a goal and an assist this weekend.
"He had poise on the power play, I liked it. He got into a situation in the third [on Friday night] behind our own net...where he'll have to be stronger on the puck, because of his deficiency of size - I told him that in situations like that, don't be afraid to ice the puck if you have to," said Murray after Friday's game.
Camper, who logged a goal against Manchester and an assist against Springfield and a +2 rating for the weekend, seemed at ease playing on the high speed line with Max Sauve and Adam Estoclet, and just as comfortable playing with Jamie Arniel and Jordan Smotherman on Friday night. With different players scratched every night, Camper got a taste of a few different line combinations over the course of the weekend.
"It's been good to get a few games under my belt, a couple practices, meet the guys, and kinda feel comfortable with the setting - different game, different atmosphere than college, so it'll give me something to work on over the summer, something to look forward to."
Camper noted that it's "good to come here and see some familiar faces" in former teammates Cohen and Bartkowski, and Kampfer, who he grew up playing against - and added that although there are no hard feelings about his team's overtime loss to Cohen's Terriers in 2009, that Cohen "likes to talk about it, everyone knows that."
The Miami senior will return to school to finish out the semester, unlike teammate Andy Miele, currently playing for Phoenix. The Hobey Baker award was announced during Providence's game on Friday night, and Camper was excited to learn that Miele had won it.
"I just heard, I'm pretty excited to text him, I texted him this morning saying he's gonna win it. I'm happy for him, he's a great guy, and I'm excited because he's the first Hobey Baker from Miami," Camper said Friday.
no commentsThe P-Bruins have three games left in their season, but they're not simply rolling over. Instead, they're working towards attainable goals - finishing over .500, padding personal stats, and so forth - while bringing new players in to give them a taste of the professional game.
Calling it an influx of new players is almost an understatement. New defensemen David Warsofsky and Ryan Button have already played several games (Warsofsky has two assists through seven games, and Button has none in four), Jared Knight and Ryan Spooner arrived from the OHL early in the week, and newly signed Carter Camper hopped a plane Tuesday afternoon to join the baby B's.
Ryan Button defends against the Worcester Sharks.
Five new players is nothing to sneeze at, and with Alain Goulet and Ryan Donald being reassigned to Reading of the ECHL to assist with their playoff run, this weekend's team is slated to look far different than the squad fielded at the beginning of the season.
For Warsofsky, turning pro meant forfeiting his senior year of eligibility, although he does plan to finish out his year of classes and work towards his degree. His decision came for a combination of reasons.
“I think it had to do with a lot of things. Three years in college really helped me for the next level and I thought my game was ready to move on to the next level," Warsofsky said after a game during his first weekend in Providence. "I talked to my family and obviously the coaches here at Boston and the coaches at BU. We all kind of decided that that was the next move for me.”
Warsofsky is adjusting well to the pro game, and Coach Rob Murray reluctantly compared him to a Steven Kampfer-like player, similar to the way Kampfer was able to slot into the lineup easily out of college last year. He led all defensemen with four shots on goal in Sunday's game against Worcester, and has already seen time on the P-Bruins' powerplay. Considering how young the P-Bruins D is overall, it speaks to his level of play that the coaching staff has been pairing him with ECHL/AHL floaters Alain Goulet and Ryan Donald, both fairly solid defensive defensemen that allow Warsofsky to play his more offensive style, but also require him to be responsible if and when his defensive partner has a lapse in play.
