Rivermen Report: The Week That Was October 10th – 16th
Hello again BNZ crew! It was an interesting week over here in Peoria. As such, it showed a glaring hole in my plans for Rivermen coverage here on BNZ. So, I am going to add player moves to and from ECHL Alaska and the Blues as updates here. I’ll give you some insight as to who was moved and why.
Here’s your quick guide to the week that was for the Rivermen:
Monday: It is no secret that the Rivermen are built to score. Our team last season was forced to win games 3-2 or 2-1. This year, at least on paper, that has been rectified. One of the pieces of the puzzle was the addition of the former “Rocket” Richard trophy winner Jonathan Cheechoo.
Well, with the addition of Cheechoo comes a new edition of The Jonathan Cheechoo Song entitle The Even More Better More Better Cheechoo Song. BEHOLD…
Tuesday: The Rivermen go back to practice. Head coach Jared Bednar decides to go back to school, taping the drawings of on-ice schemes and responsibilities to each players locker. It wouldn’t solve the problem of penalties. More on this in the Sunday recap.
Dave Shields, a rookie who never made it out of the rafters of Carver Arena is sent to ECHL Alaska to get more playing time.
Wednesday: The Blues injuries to the D-men force their hand to calling in Taylor Chorney. This means that the Rivermen get to keep Ian Cole, arguably the first guy on the call up list from the defensive squad here in Peoria, where he’s going to get valuable playing time over sitting and waiting to play in STL.
Peoria will never see Chorney. Edmonton was annoyed that the Blues plucked him off the waivers while headed to Oklahoma City and once Chorney is done in STL will probably get claimed by EDM or another higher waiver priority NHL team if the Blues try to send him through waivers to Peoria.
Wednesday was also the day that the Puck Daddy blog at Yahoo! picked up the Cheechoo video and the whole thing started to go viral.
Thursday: I decide to pick a fight with a Charlotte Checkers blogger, Chasing Checkers. This would not end well.
Friday: Travel day as the Rivermen headed to Charlotte.
Saturday: Another game, another loss. If it wasn’t for three goals in a little over three minutes we wouldn’t have been able to get the one point for the shootout loss. We’re really very lucky to have gotten that.
Sunday: Sunday the Rivermen committed 13 penalties for 26 PIM. Here’s the interesting note, not a single penalty in the Rivermen season has been a fighting major. A 3-1 loss and the Rivermen have achieved gaining only 1 point out of a possible 8 to this point in the season.
Something is wrong here in Peoria, but looking up to the Blues there is something wrong there too.
Plus/Minus
+ We scored three goals in slightly more than three minutes.
-Everything else. EVERYTHING.
- There is little that is positive in the week. The long practice, going back to school, the whole of the weekend games, none of it. I am not normally a doom-and-gloom guy, but changes are going to have to be made. It isn’t quite panic time… yet. But if the Rivermen go 0-3 this weekend (2 road games in Texas and then a home game on Sunday) it might start getting to that time.
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