The Charlotte Checkers played a successful week of hockey going 3-1 over a 4 game stretch. They would beat the Cleveland Monsters 5-4 in overtime on Friday (Feb. 24) and they would beat the Monsters again 6-1 on Saturday (Feb. 25). The Checkers would then lose 5-2 to the Milwaukee Admirals on Tuesday (Feb. 28) but would rebound the next day, Wednesday (Mar. 1) to be the Admirals 5-4 in a shootout.
Three stars of the week
Danny Kristo displayed right away that he fits very well into this Checkers offense. The recently acquired forward from the Ron Hainsey trade put up three assists and scored his first goal as a Checker in their victory on Wednesday night. He showed great chemistry right off the bat with his new line mate Andrew Poturalski, as they were able to feed off each other on offense sometimes and help set each other up for qualities shots around the net. Kristo also displayed some excellent stick handling skills, being able to create opportunities by himself on offense. He will be a big part to this Checkers team if they can push themselves back into the playoffs. Andrew Miller might be one of the hottest players in the AHL right now. Since coming back from injury he has been on fire as of late, most recently putting up a whopping six points in the past week of play. He tallied four assists in the Checkers victory on Saturday night and he also scored a goal in the team’s loss on Tuesday night. Miller illustrated how patient he is on offense, holding the puck sometimes until a defender was almost right on top of him before letting the puck go. This has led to him making time for his line mates to get open on offense for quality chances in and around the net almost every time they are on the rink. Andrew Poturalski had himself quite the week in a Checkers uniform. The undrafted forward from the University from New Hampshire scored three goals and tallied three more assists in the past week. He looked extremely comfortable playing with his new line mate Danny Kristo and playing with him almost looked like it added another level to Poturalski’s game. He was creating offense for his teammates all over the place, setting them up for quality shots at the net. Every goal he scored, Poturalski had positioned himself so well on offense all he had to do was tip or tap the puck into the net, without having to do anything extra with it.
Who’s Hot
Lucas Wallmark continues to be a strong consistent force on the Checkers first line. After receiving the rookie of the month award for January before the team’s game Saturday night, he would go out and tally three points for the Checkers this past week. He scored two goals in the team’s manhandling of Cleveland on Saturday night, almost in the same spot. He positioned himself right in front of the net, near the hash marks and he was able to blast two pucks home that came his way while using both Cleveland defenders as screens. Kris Newbury found himself to be a big part of the Checkers offense. While playing mostly on the fourth line Newbury found the back of the net one time and added two more assists to go along with it. He also scored the game winning goal for the Checkers in the shootout, during their victory Wednesday night.
Who’s Not
While the Checkers won both games that he started in, Alex Nedeljkovic did not play his best hockey of the season. He let in 4 goals on 28 shots in team’s victory on Friday night, but after letting in 3 goals on 9 shots during the game Wednesday night, Nedeljkovic was pulled before the first period ended. He looked quite shaky at times, having trouble corralling some rebounds here and there, but most troubling was that he let in two goals that bounced right off his pads. After the second time, it happened he was promptly pulled for Daniel Altshuller and did not see the ice again. Look for him to rebound in his next start because no goalie at any level should be allowing three goals in the first period of play, and he is a much better goalie than that.
Charlotte Checkers injury and roster notes
Patrick Dwyer, Mitchell Heard, Kyle Hagel, and Michael Leighton missed all games due to injury. Erik Karlsson, Sergey Tolchinsky, and Bryan Bickell were all scratched at least one game. The Hurricanes recalled Andrej Nestrasil and Patrick Brown on Wednesday (Mar. 1).
Forward lines as of now
- First line: Connor Brickley-Andrew Poturalski-Danny Kristo
- Second line: Valentin Zykov-Lucas Wallmark-Andrew Miller
- Third line: Levko Koper-Brendan Woods-Sergey Tolchinsky
- Fourth line: Bryan Bickell-Erik Karlsson-Kris Newbury
Defensive pairings as of now
- First pairing: Trevor Carrick-Jake Chelios
- Second pairing: Dennis Robertson-Roland McKeown
- Third pairing: Haydn Fleury-Philip Samuelsson
Noted that Fleury was playing as third pairing defenseman and McKeown as a second pairing defenseman. Does this mean Carrick and Chelios have moved up in the pecking level and are the better NHL candidates at this point?
I noticed Fleury and McKeown (not 1st pairing) too… that and our future goalie star (more dreaming, becoming a nightmare)… ?!!
Hope one of those forwards can surprise us next year…pleasantly!
We’ve had enough disappointment with this team, and RF’s failure to fix the HUGE FORWARD, AND ESPECIALLY HUGE GOALIE FIASCO!
And Booth and Nedeljkovic are both very good goalie prospects. Ned is far from the first 20 year old to struggle in his first professional season. He looked just fine in that 17 save, no goals allowed NHL debut. His confidence probably isn’t very high right now but zero reason to panic with him. And Francis is doing his rebuild exactly the right way. It’s easy to get impatient but if you look at the best teams that have sustained success in the playoffs, they sucked for a long time and had to build over many years to get there. This is only really the third year of Francis building the team. It’s not overnight unless you get a McDavid or Laine or Matthews walking through the door. Even then the Jets are still pretty bad, the Oilers are good but not great, and the Leafs happen to have like five other young stars helping carry the team. I’d love for it to be super easy To fix and Ronnie to be able to go out and make one quick trade or draft pick that solved all the Canes woes. If you think that’s how it works you’re gonna continue to be disappointed.
bwstanley is absolutely correct. It takes goalie prospects longer to develop compared to a regular skater. This is his first professional season, so it was pretty much expected he would struggle at times during the year. Give him more time before you decide to make any judgements on how his career might turn out. As for Fleury sliding down to the third pairing, it doesn’t have anything to do with how he has been playing. Like bwstanley also stated he is a +10 and he has played on the first pairing multiple other nights. Fleury probably has been the Checkers best defensemen all season. McKeown has made some rookie mistakes at times this season, but once he cuts back on the turnovers and gets a little better on the defensive end he will be fine.
No. Fleury has been on the first pairing many nights and has been the Checkers’ best defenseman this year. Look at +/- on a team that’s allowed probably more goals than they’ve scored this year. He’s not a big scoring guy but has a solid 16 points and has been around a +10 all year. McKeown has struggled at times adapting to the pro game but his career outlook is still just fine. Carrick and Chelios are older, more experienced AHL players. That’s all it means. Fleury and McKeown are still much better prospects.
How does Bickel look?
He looked ok out there and the Checkers seem to try to ease him back slowly with some shorter shifts. Since he has been back though he’s acclimated 2 assists and his role on the team has been growing a little bit more each game. He’s still getting use to the speed and level of stamina that it takes to play at a professional level, but for what he was diagnosed with it was incredible to see him back out on the ice.