Part of the Florida Everblades goaltending puzzle fell into place Wednesday, when the Albany River Rats assigned netminder Justin Peters to the ECHL. Albany decided to retain former Blade Kevin Nastiuk as their backup goaltender.

"We felt Kevin Nastiuk deserved to be the No. 2 guys," coach Tom Rowe was quoted as saying in an Albany Times Union article. "He has paid his dues the last two years in the East Coast league. The competition was set up to see who was going to perform the best. Kevin won the job, fair and square."

"As disappointed as Justin was at being sent to Florida," Rowe was quoted as saying in the same article, "we felt for his development we didn't want him sitting on the bench again and not getting a whole lot of playing time. The point of him going down was making sure he played and played a lot so we could get him developed."

Peters is considered one of the best athletes in the Carolina system. He played as a forward up untilt he time he was 12 years old, and still plays forward when he participates in summer roller hockey.

The Canes 2nd round pick in the 2004 draft, Peters was considered the Canes top prospect after defenseman Jack Johnson going into the 2006 season. But he played in a secondard position in Albany last year behind goalie Tyler Weiman, a Colorado prospect, who took the bulk of the starts in net. This season, Carolina signed free agent Michael Leighton to be the main man for the River Rats.

Hockeysfuture.com still lists Peters as the the Canes #2 prospect, this time behind center Brandon Sutter. Goalie Daniel Manzato was listed in the 10th spot, and Nastiuk in the 13th spot.

Peters posted a 3.26 GAA in 24 games played with a 10-18-0 record. He is not quite a stranger to the Everblades, playing one game for the last season.

The 6'1", 213 lb goalie slit his final year of Junior Major hockey between the St. Michael's (Toronto) and Plymouth. Plymouth is, of course, the junior team owned by Peter Karmanos, who is also a part owner of the Everblades.

Peters will join Martin Tuma and Bret Nasby, two former Blades who rejoined the team yesterday after being assigned to the Blades by the Florida Panthers.

Tuma appeared in 32 games last year for the Blades, recording 9 assists and 77 penalty minutes on the blue line. Fellow defenseman Nasby had 1 goal and 3 assists, plus 19 penalty minutes, in 31 games for the Blades.

The moves gives the Blades 15 players on their roster going into training camp, which opens Monday at Germain Arena. Rochester has 27 players on their roster, and has yet to make a decision on which netminder they are planning on keeping. A recent article in the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle said that no moves were planned this week.

The AHL starts their season tonight, the Amerks play their first game Friday against the Syracuse Crunch. Albany does not play their first game until Saturday.

The Everblades affiliated Florida Panthers play their season opener tonight at 7:00 PM in New York against the Rangers. The game is available on Fox Sports Florida. The Carolina Hurricanes host the Pittsburgh Penguins to kick their season off on Friday night.

The Everblades play a pair of preseason games against the CHL Mississippi RiverKings on Friday, October 12, and Saturday, October 13. It is the first time that the Blades have played a team outside their league, although not the first time interleague play has occured in the ECHL. Tickets to the game are available at the Germain Arena boxoffice and at all Ticketmaster locations.

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Join Jason and his crew Halloween night for Terror on 20th!!!

This October 31st, head over to 2812 SW 20th Ave, it's the 1st left after Chiquita from Veterans, on the Cape and explore something really scarey!!!

This Cape Coral tradition drew in over 600 people last year. You can view pictures from last year's haunting HERE.

Terror on 20th is free and they are give out candy for the kids!!!

Let's hear it for Elmira's ironman goaltender Kris Tebbs. The Calgary, Alberta, native has played 21 games so far, the most of any United Hockey League goaltender. He's faced 736 shots, also the most of any UHL netminder and turned back 670 of them. He's posted an 11-9-0 record for the Jackals with a 3.37 goals against average and a .910 save percentage.

And he's in the middle of playing four games in five days.

Unfortunately, last night's game didn't go for so well him, as the Flags captured a 4-2 victory on home ice in front of an announced crowd of 1,725.

A non-drafted free agent out of the university of Nebraska-Omaha, he played 21 games for the Adirondack Frostbite in the 2004-05 season and 39 in the 2005-06 season. Barring an injury, he's going very much surpass those totals this season.

Tebbs robbed Port Huron's Ryan Markham on a breakaway in the first period last night, but Steve Hildenbrand picked up the rebound and scored to put the Flags up 1-0. Elmira answered back when rookie Derek Miller scored his first career professional goal. A natural defenseman, Miller was playing on a forward line for the game, as the Jackals were shorthanded due to suspensions earlier this week.

Taking a cross ice pass from David Morelli, his slap shot from the top of the right circle beat Flags' goalie Noah Ruden. Port Huron bounced back on a failing clearing attempt. Bobby Kukulka nabbed the puck just inside the offensive blue line and made it is 3rd goal in the last two games, all coming against Elmira.

Port Huron defenseman Craig Mahon tallied what would prove to be the game winning goal, again on rebound after Tebbs denied his inital one-timer.

Yevgeny Lazarev netted his 11th goal of the season, the only other puck that Elmira would be able to put in the net.

Tebbs stopped 33 of 37 shots, nine more attmepts than his Port Huron counterpart would face. Neither team could convert on the power play.

The Jackals fell to 13-11-0 this season.

Tebbs and his teammates will face the Flint Generals tonight at Perani's Arena at 7:30, and then take on the Kalamazoo Wings Sunday.

Gamesheet
Boxscore
Jackals lose again to Port Huron
Flags earn second straight win

Panthers prospect Anderson earns shut out in Amerks home opener

While the offense soared, the new-to-Rocheser goalie, Craig Anderson, was brilliant at the other end. He stopped 21 shots for his 12th career AHL shutout.

"We had very few and very minor breakdowns," said Anderson, whose first 11 shutouts came with the Norfolk Admirals.

Anderson was being modest because he earned the shutout with at least six super saves.

Amerks off to a flying start

Rochester Americans management may really like their new players: They're thrifty.

There should have been an added expense with extra pucks on Friday, but the Amerks are so young that no one thought to retrieve pucks after the first American Hockey League goals of Drew Stafford and Janis Sprukts.

"That's OK, there'll be more — I hope," Sprukts said with a smile.

Amerks make opening night memorable for newcomers
Amerks earn fourth home-opening shutout
River Rats fall in opener
New parent clubs make no difference in blowout
Game Summary
Game Sheet
Boxscore

Andrew Martens’ career as a Florida Everblade might go down as the shortest in franchise history.

With even more defensemen expected to be sent down by their NHL and American Hockey League affiliates, the Everblades traded Martens to the ECHL’s Johnstown Chiefs on Friday for financial considerations.

Martens, 25, was signed by Florida on July 20 and was invited to attend the Florida Panthers’ NHL rookie camp in Toronto last month along with fellow rookie defenseman Steve Czech. The two then attended training camp with the AHL’s Rochester Americans on a tryout basis.

But as Rochester’s roster and that of the AHL’s Albany River Rats began to take shape, it became evident to Everblades head coach Gerry Fleming and team president/general manager Craig Brush that there was not going to be much room for the 6-foot-1, 205-pound Martens.

Martens traded away before taking the ice
Everblades trade Martens to Johnstown

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Next Game
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Who: Manitoba Moose at Rochester Americans
When: Sunday, October 8, 2006; 6:05 PM
Where: Blue Cross Arena at the War Memorial
TV: B2 Networks
Radio: WHTK 1280-AM
Internet: mms://168.75.182.197/rochester
Web site: www.amerks.com

BTW, I have split out the Panthers' roster based on who is playing where, especially in regards to the Prospects. You can find that HERE.

I have lost Jeremy Swanson however, who may be on the injured reserve, but has not shown up on either the Amerks or the Everblades training camp rosters.

//and there was war outside the window//
//and children in the streets were throwing rocks at the tanks// ~ Patti Smith

Kevin was in goal today, taking a shut out over the New Jersey Devils as the Carolina Hurricanes progress to round two, four games to two. I'll write more about Cheesy later.

Today, I thought I'd say something on the Canes number one netminder, Arturs Irbe.

Irbe picked up the first two wins for the Hurricanes although he downplays that somewhat. "I would say this is a total team effort. Yeah, I had to make the saves to help the team win, but you can't call it a steal when guys play so well defensively. It's a really good feeling, and I knew the guys did that, but when I saw the stats, that really made it even more special."

"Archie made some great saves. He was squared to just about everything. The save on the breakaway at the start of the game really was an important thing for our team, and let us get through some of the jitters." ~ Carolina head coach Paul Maurice

"He plays his best hockey when he gets a lot of shots. Archie's the one that got us into the playoffs last year. He didn't have to steal as many games as he did for us last year, because we're a better hockey club, but tonight, he did. He was great. He couldn't have been any better. The one that went in, he says he should have had. I could tell by his reaction -- he felt he could have had it. That's just the competitor he is." ~ teammate Rod Brind'Amour

"As much as you talk about athletes getting into a zone, I think he's in a zone. He's one of those guys that you know, when it comes down to crunch time, he's going to block out all the external stuff and just play, and play well." ~ Carolina defenseman Aaron Ward

"The goalie is like the guy on the minefield. He discovers the mines and destroys them. If you make a mistake, somebody gets blown up. " -Arturs Irbe

Irbe, 34, was born in Latvia and grew up during a time when his homeland was part of the Soviet Union. He was in Moscow securing his first American visa to play in the NHL when the coup to topple Communism began.

"In my short life I have experienced obviously tanks and barricades on the streets, shooting on the streets of the city.

"I've experienced a lot of things with my own eyes. Back then it was part of the Soviet Union and not all the world was paying attention."

Irbe was an unproven European import when Kevin Constantine, now the head coach of the New Jersey Devils, took over the San Jose Sharks nine years ago. The rookie coach gave Irbe his big break. Irbe became Constantine's workhorse, leading the upstart Sharks to an opening-round playoff victory against the powerhouse Detroit Red Wings in 1994.

"I've often said Arturs should get paid more, because he makes the game so much more exciting." Constantine said of Irbe, referring to those scary times when Irbe ventures away from the net.

"He was the first coach who gave me a chance in this league," Irbe said Of Constantine. "He was the first one who trusted me. That's goes a long way, and nobody can take that away."

"You should do that. You should try to do something interesting." ~ Irbe, to Tie Domi after Domi threatened to mash him.

Constantine has had nothing but praise for Irbe, citing him as one of the main reasons the Sharks went from a bumbling expansion club to a team that pulled off some exciting playoff upsets. Irbe said Constantine was a very structured coach back then, and that is part of what makes him successful.

"I assume he hasn't changed much," Irbe said. "He's always been the man we knew then. He made everybody special. Sure, there were guys who liked him more or less, but he had the team playing a disciplined style of good defense. A goalie can't complain about that kind of coach."

Over the grind of an 82-game season, every NHL player needs some way to escape. On the road, Arturs Irbe passes the time with needle and thread repairing his own goalie equipment. Last season, he sewed a glove from scratch for his son.

But when he's home, he turns to his dogs.

"As a kid, I dreamed of having dogs," he said. "We lived in an apartment in the city and couldn't afford to have a pet because we barely could make ends meet. It was always a dream to have some kind of pets."

He has two dogs now on his North Raleigh horse farm that allows him to "get away from crazy urbanization." There are no horses yet, but he says there will be someday.

"I don't want to do anything I really cannot enjoy or really cannot be in touch with and understand what's happening," Irbe said. "As far as I am concerned, right now I concentrate on hockey, and horses can come later."

"How can you not like a pro athlete who lists one of his hobbies as miniature golf? Although at his size, what other kind of golf could Irbe play?" ~Scott Ostler

Irbe was one of a group of Canes players to visit Ground Zero. An avid student of history, Irbe was surprised both by how mundane the World Trade Center site now looks and how much meaning it still retains.

"It looks like a construction site now, to be honest," Irbe said. "It's easier to deal with that way.

"This (was) complete and absolute terror."

What struck Irbe most was the pride of the New York police officers who gave the tour, both for their fellow officers lost and their success in getting so many people out before the towers collapsed.

One thing Irbe said he is sure of is America's resilience in times of crisis, and he was quick to point out the people in his homeland are behind this country. And he is very interested in what lies ahead.

"The United States will now find out who their true friends and allies are because you cannot sit on the fence on this one," he said. "You cannot only be remorseful and condemn it but not do anything about it. You have to choose one side."

"At times like this, there are priorities. Even if we miss games in the preseason or regular season, it's not the end of the world. The key is to make sure our families feel secure."

Still, Irbe was not against playing a scrimmage four days after the Attacks at TECO Arena. "Of course it's a great cause and a wonderful thing to set up and we want to do something as a team. And also it's obvious people need a break because we cannot be glued to the news and the TV 24 hours a day. We might go crazy. We cannot forget and not pay attention, but we also have to try to move on, and this way we can help people to put their minds on something else."

$5,640 was raised by the event, a benefit for the American Red Cross. The Florida Everblades booster club would raise an additional $347 for the same charity.

"Irbe is handling the puck badly! Or is that redundant?" ~ Unidentified hockey writer

Myself, I consider Irbe a warrior. He goes out there night after night, and gives the team a chance to win. He took the first two games for the Hurricanes in the playoffs this year before struggling on the road. Still, Irbe has been nothing less then supportive of his new partner. He was the first guy to congratulate Kevin on his win in game five, Wednesday night.

"Archie's a class guy," Kevin said. "I knew he would be supportive of me. That's the way he is. I know he would like to be in there, but he's a team player first."

Irbe said he saw Weekes celebrating alone on the ice.

"I didn't want him to steal the show," Irbe joked. "I know how he felt about starting this big game."

Mom (Rob's mom, Arlene) told me yesterday that Rob was thinking of going overseas to play hockey next season.

So now I'm concerned. No. That's not true. I'm actually depressed.

I can't afford a trip overseas to watch him play.

Mom says "Save your pennies and we'll all go together."

I'm lucky if I have any pennies!

In the meantime time I'm wondering....

He's not thinking of going to Germany is he?

I mean, the Frankfurt Lions offered Cully the moon and the sun to come over to play for them, but when he got their he found his accommodations infested with spiders (yeah! really!), so he missed the first practice as he was up all night locating a new hotel room.

Then, because the team was playing pathetically as a whole, the said they would not pay them if they did not make the playoffs. Keep in mind that Cully is very fast speedy winger, and a good shot and Frankfurt had him playing defense? Yeah. Okay. Right.

He left before the end of the season and joined Fort Worth, so he could at least salvage something out of the year. And he did actually like Fort Worth until LaLiar pissed him off.

"They're mobile, they're agile, they move the puck tremendously well. The difference in the series will be how well they can hold off guys like Parsons, who can really scoot and score." ~ LaLiar explains why his team was knocked out the playoffs.

Louis is stilled owed money by Newcastle.

Val started the 2000-01 season in London, but quite because their accommodations were right next to the train, they'd wake up every morning to black dust everywhere. His wife couldn't breath will all the pollution so they left to come to Florida to play for the Blades.

Someone asked about pollen in Florida, but evidently it's not as bad as black dust in London.

I'd just like to know where is Rob thinking of going? I'm sure I have a horror story that can talk him out of it!

And why does he want to run away from me? What did I do? I swear, I have always been very respectful of him!

Why do all my favorite players run away from me?

What? Texas wasn't far enough??????????

I realize I'm like the most horrible person in the world and to be liked by me is a huge punishment but...

Does it really warrant a trip overseas? What did I do? Please tell me what brought this on! I really want to know!!!

Yes...As you can tell, today I am very depressed. I'm in a crabby mood, I worked overtime and I never stopped for lunch (which they will NOT play me for). So not only am I crabby, I'm hungry as well. And I might even settle down and have a good cry tonight, all things considered.. So maybe you just ignore me.

I'm tired of all my players running away. Even Maysie ran away to Phoenix.

::Pout::Pout::

Mullethead doesn't run, but I'm quite sure if he never laid eyes on me again, he'd never really notice it anyway.

Humph.....

Okay, okay, I promised Jess I'd write about Ink and I will do it. Just not today.

Please, leave me alone today. I'm just really, very depressed right now.

Sports agents sort of strike me as a cross between attorneys and horse traders. You have to know a little of both to be successful. Not that they are bad people. Well, some of them.

Rich Winters is likely the worst, but he does have some of the biggest names in the business.

Rick Langnas is pretty nice, and I do really like Kevin's agent, Tony. Although I think Tony gave him some bad advice in regards to his contract negotiations with the Florida Panthers.

Not that I would ever tell either of them this. Despite my personal feelings for the situation, I never said anything that wasn't 100% behind their decision.

Maybe in the end it worked out for the best. At least, that year, Kevin spent most of the time in the IHL with the Vipers until he got traded to Vancouver. The Vipers goalie went down just before their playoff series with the Solar Bears. That was the year that Cully got called up to Orlando for the Post Season, although he barely played.

But I followed the Solar Bears that whole season.

Kevin had been netting shut out after shut out with the Vipers earlier and when they lost their goalie, they tried to get him back from the Cannucks. Vancouver said no. A bunch of people on the Solar Bears list were ready to buy Vancouver jerseys, just for that! The Vips went with Lamothe in net and lost in round 3 and the Solar Bears went on to be eventually downed by the Houston Aeros.

I honestly do not remember meeting Kevin. Sometimes it seems like I always knew him, but I recall it was sometime during the 1996-97 season when he was with the old AHL Carolina Monarchs. In any case, I'd had a message for him from his Pee Wee coach, and since he refuses to have a computer, I went and delivered it. Don't even remember what it was about now.

Anyway, I waited for him after practice and he finally wandered out...

This is something else that bothers me about my favorite players. Why do I always have to pick the last ones out the locker room? Pete (Hogan) was terrible about that as is Brad, my friend in Phoenix.

In any case...he finally came out and came right on over to see me. He always does. I delivered the message and he was just all smiles and laughing. He introduced me to the guy he'd come out with.

"This is my agent, Tony. Tell him what you just told me."

So I repeated the message to Tony as Kevin went off to sign autographs.

I like to believe that someday, Mullethead will be as important to a youngster who makes the NHL as Kevin's Pee Wee Coach is to him. Who knows? Maybe twenty years from now I'll be passing on messages to one of his former students who'll be happy to hear from him.)

The repartition of the message lead to a conversation about how I'd come to know Kevin, which lead to Tony looking through my photo album which in turn lead to a conversation about masks.

Kevin insists he got into goaltending because he loves the equipment, but in trying to talk equipment with him, he gets really vague on the subject. His folks said it was because he was adamant about playing hockey but he was such a small fellow that he got put into net so he wouldn't get run over and hurt.

In any case, he averages at least two masks a year.

"I don't know what he does with them all!" Tony told me.

I laughed and suggested his folks have a basement on their home in Scarborough and all the old masks are stored on shelves. I also told him my favorite was the "Raging Lion" design he'd had for part of the second year in AHL Carolina. That's also where he latched onto his current mask maker, Masked Expressions, which is also the designer for most of the NHL Carolina helmets.

I should ask his mom sometime, as he sure as hell won't tell me.

So we ended up discussing helmets and Kevin finally came back over to collect Tony.

Tony looks at me and says "Tell him what you just told me."

Slight segue: There was a guy on the radio yesterday who had wrote a book on meeting Mr. or Mrs. Right and he insists the key to it all it talking.

Women, he says hold all the power in this and the best way to meet a guy is to stop thinking about them as guys and start thinking about them as Golden Retrievers. Golden Retrievers are easy to attract.

You cruise down the cereal aisle in the Publix, he said, because cereal is the favorite food of all men. It requires them to add just one ingredient, milk. So while your prospective Mr. Right is picking up a box of cereal, you pick up another one, make eye contact and start a conversation. Talking about cereal is great. In any case, you should end the conversation with "It was really nice talking to you" and hint at getting is phone number.

He said it works. He then went off to say that the Golden Retriever will go off to his car and immediately (it doesn't matter if he only has one minute left on this calling plan, he'll pay over for this) call the rest of the Golden Retrievers in his litter to tell them all about this "hot babe" he picked up at the Publix.

(Somehow, I do not think it will work for me, as it would be a real stretch of the imagination for anyone -- even a Golden Retriever -- to classify me as a hot babe.)

But now, I'm wondering if the pound puppies in question here actually speak to each other directly when they are alone together. One assumes they do and that they do not need a female along to interpret for them. Then again, maybe that's why Kevin got such bad advice from Tony. There wasn’t a girl around to act as a go between.

Anyway, we went back through the helmet conversation. I suggested one with a profile of Mike Jordan going up for a dunk with the slogan "I want to be like Mike!" It was popular at the time and Jordan is his favorite athlete. He thought about it. I then suggested a "cheesy" (Cheetos) theme and he quickly killed that. His nickname is "Cheesy" which comes from the days of his being a youngster and coming into the rink each day with a bag of "cheesies" (Cheetos) and a soda. He'd ask for tips from the older goalies, who ended up dubbing him "Cheesy".

He hates that nickname.

I'll never let him live it down.

:)

I'm glad he's back in Carolina and is now a Hurricane. I'm really looking forward to seeing him a Canes Camp in the fall.