As the Rochester Americans skate through their drills in practice each day, there are times when you'd swear they have enough bodies on the ice for a football team.

There may be moments when some of the players wish they were in a football league and not the American Hockey League. They'd at least have a chance to play each night.

Too many bodies and too few game-night roster slots means that at least six, and sometimes seven, players are sitting in the stands to watch every game.

"It's incredibly frustrating," center Stefan Meyer said. "Playing hockey is what I do. It's what I'm good at."

Last year, because of the roster restrictions, the teams played light and were descimated by injuries. This year, the Amerks, and the Rats, and many other teams stocked up on players and ice time has been a big problem.

Amerks struggling for playing time

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Next Game
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Who: Rochester Americans at Springfield Falcons (Tampa Bay Lightning)
When: Friday, November 3, 2006; 7:35 PM
Where: MassMutual Center
TV: B2 Networks
Radio: WHTK 1280-AM
Internet: mms://168.75.182.197/rochester
Web site: www.amerks.com

The Amerks play twice this weekend in New England and will still be without goalie Craig Anderson (sprained knee).

They are in Springfield, Mass., to play the Falcons at 7:35 tonight and in Manchester, N.H., to play the Monarchs at 7:35 p.m. Saturday.

The next home game is Nov. 10 against Binghamton.

Amerks hit the road for two games in New England
Brandon Smith earns CCM/AHL Milestone of the Month

After playing what head coach Gerry Fleming described as one of their ugliest games Wednesday night in Cincinnati, the Florida Everblades head into one of the ECHL’s ugliest environments tonight in Toledo.

Florida (3-2-0) will face the Toledo Storm (4-1-0) inside the historic Toledo Sports Arena, which was built in 1949 and is touted by the Storm as “the greatest home ice advantage in hockey.”

This is the first-ever meeting in the regular season between the two teams, and Fleming would like nothing better than to see the Everblades use the momentum from Wednesday night’s 4-3 road win over the Cincinnati Cyclones as a catalyst to a second road win.

Blades head into hostile environment

There is usually a "Storm Forcast" in the Toledo Blade but I seem to recall from the International League playoffs, that they don't update this early?

Meanwhile, for the curious, here is the fight video of the incident in which Toledo left wing Nick Parillo drew a two game suspension.

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Next Game
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Who: Florida Everblades at Toledo Storm
When: Friday, November 3, 2006; 7:35 PM
Where: Toledo Sports Arena
TV: B2 Network
Radio: Sportsradio 770 AM
Internet: www.abc-7.com
Web site: www.floridaeverblades.com