Cornell alumni in the pros: Feb 2004

Well this had to be started some time!

So going into this month, LeNeveu has played in 21 games, and has a GAA of 2.59 and a save perentage of .920. Pelletier's numbers are slightly better: 2.56 and .925 in 29 games.

Murray has 6 goals and 6 assists so far this year (and a -1 overall rating) in 48 games played (ranking him 68th among defensemen in points)

Bâby has 6 goals and 9 assists, with an even 0 rating in 36 games. His 15 points is tied for 194th for forwards in the AHL.


Okay so that was all pretty boring. Here's more interesting information:
(and I was really bored to look all of this up )....

You all remember Hobey Baker winner Peter Sejna. Well he plays for Worcester in the AHL and he's played 28 games this season and has taken 71 shots. A disproportionate number of these shots have been against 1 goaltender, namely LeNeveu, against whom he's taken 10 shots this season. Of course, I bring this up because Lenny (who arguably should have won that award) is 10 for 10 on those saves .

Actually, because of the very unbalanced schedule that the AHL plays, Worcester has faced Springfield 8 times this season. In 4 of those games, Sejna played and Lenny started in net for Springfield...which would actually make those stats very proportionate (4/28, 10/71).

Regardless, good job by Lenny. As I recall, Sejna scored an NHL goal in his first pro game against future Hall-of-Famer Patrick Roy.

We appreciate you rboredom in looking up these things!

I was looking up some of the statistics for guys on the ECHL website and I noticed that one of the statistics is SOG (Shoot-Out Goals). Does the ECHL always decide tied games this way? Paolini had one SOA (Shoot-Out Attempt), but no goals. Several of the other guys had multiple goals. And of course their goalies had shoot out goals and attempted shoot out goals (saves in other words). Interesting...

Noticed a few things in today's transactions:

Phoenix Coyotes - Agreed to end their affiliation deal with
Springfield of the American Hockey League at the end of the
2003-04 season.

Tampa Bay Lightning - Agreed to a multi-year affiliation deal
with Springfield of the American Hockey League.

I assume that means Lenny and JMP will move to another minor league team next year, if they're still in the AHL. They're signed to NHL deals, correct? So they would stay with the Coyotes organization. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.



Alaska Aces (ECHL) - Acquired forward Denis Ladouceur from the
Bakersfield Condors for defenseman Valdemar Pelikovsky.

Looks like Ladouceur will be joining Shane Palahicky in Alaska.

Did it say what will happen to the Springfield Falcons? Will they cease to exist, change locations, etc? What will happen to *their* farm teams?

Minor-league teams change their affiliations regularly. The Springfield Falcons will continue to exist, and will be the AHL affiliate of the Lightning, who did not have an AHL affiliate this season (they distributed their AHL players among a few teams). Now, the Coyotes must reach a new affiliation agreement with an AHL team.

Yes, yes the post did say that, didn't it. I can read. Really.

I'm going to forget that I posted that, and I think you all should do the same.

Reminder that, though the NHL All-Star Game is Sunday afternoon, the AHL All-Star game (in which LeNeveu will play 1 period) is Monday night and is being televised on certain channels, including FSNY.

Meanwhile, tonight, Pelletier stopped all 31 shots that came his way to earn a 4-0 shutout over Manchester. I wonder if Lenny will start tomorrow (vs. Hartford), 2 days before the All-Star Game....

In the ECHL, on Tuesday night, Underhill had 22 saves in a 3-2 loss and tonight he had 34 saves in a 5-3 loss. In that same game tonight, Mark McRae had an assist on a shorthanded goal for Florence. Needless to say though, the Florence Pride aren't too good.

Paolini's been quiet since the ECHL all-star break...



Post Edited (02-06-04 23:49)

Ladouceur had a goal in his first game with Alaska, and Palahicky had the helper

After being relatively quiet for a while, Doug Murray had 2 assists tonight (1 being on the GWG) as Cleveland defeated Manitoba 5-1.

LeNeveu, in his final start before Monday night's All-Star game stopped 31 of 33 shots, but, as is often the case with Springfield, didn't get any goal support of his own as Hartford shut out the Falcons 2-0.


In the ECHL, Paolini had an assist as Atlantic City beat Reading 5-2. I noticed that a guy named Evan Wax scored the GWG. Didn't he play for Yale not too long ago?

For the Florence Pride, Matt Underhill had a good night, stopped 36 shots as Florence beat Texas 4-3

Avash '05 wrote:
I noticed that a guy named Evan Wax scored the GWG. Didn't he play for Yale not too long ago?

Last year. Wax was Yale's 3rd-ranked scorer, with 37 points in 31 games. But none against Cornell.

Murray had a goal last night as Cleveland beat San Antonio. Go Barons!

On Wednesday night Lenny stopped 28 of 29 shots and got some goal support (!!!) as springfield cruised to a 4-1 win over Bridgeport.

Jason Elliott is playing in Germany this year, but I don't think it is in the top German league (DEL):
[www.ec-badnauheim.de]

John, care to translate his profile for us?

The new number 1 the red devil 1994 about Detroit talk Wings in the NHL gedraftet, where it behind Dominik Hasek of the Backup Goalie was and accordingly naturally did not come to the course. The Canadian is considered however as a Top goal keeper, who made itself last season in Finland also in Europe a name. With Turku it played the spengler Cup in the past winter, where it received the best notes. Peter Obresa observed it already quite a while, and now it is thus landed with the Kurstaedtern... Fortunately for the red devil.

Actually, that's better than normal for babelfish...

Did Babelfish translate the " " as well?

The Babelfish version gives the general gist. The one insight I can add is that the Spengler Cup is a club tournament held in Davos, Switzerland every December. [www.spenglercup.ch] The one time I was in Switzerland for it, in 1999, it was on Swiss TV (the World Juniors were not), and the winning team (the DEL's Kölner Haie) were coached by Lance Nethery.

Underhill had a rough night tonight for Florence vs. Columbus:
Florence-Underhill (20 shots, 14 saves); LaPlante (16 shots,
12 saves; record: 6-2-0).

The final was 10-0.

I think it was mentioned somewhere else that two nights after letting in 5 goals in the AHL All-Star Game, Lenny played well and stopped 28 shots en route to a 4-1 win. Tonight did not go nearly as well, unfortunately, as he only stopped 22 of 27 shots in a 5-3 loss. He was pulled for the last 3:34 after giving up a SH goal, in favor of Scott Dickie, who was called up to replace Pelletier, who of course is currently backing up Brian Boucher in Phoenix.

Bâby scored the first goal of the game last night, and ended up +1 for the night, despite the fact that Chicago ended up losing the game 3-2 to Cincinnatti.

On Thursday night, with Cleveland down 2-1 to San Antonio to start the third period, Doug Murray scored 20 seconds into the period to tie the game, and help Cleveland to an eventual 4-2 win.

And in the ECHL, I noticed that on Wednesday, Denis Ladouceur assisted on the game winning goal as Alaska defeated Long Beach 3-2, and last night, he had 2 goals in a 4-3 loss.

On Thursday night, Sam Paolini had a goal and last night, he had an assist, but Atlantic City lost both games (5-6, and 2-5).

Does anybody know what happen to Doug Murray, he wasn't in the lineup this afternoon. The commentators talked about him being out of the lineup but didn't say why. They hinted towards an injury. Does anybody know where to find the injury report?

Quick ECHL update: last night, Ladoceur had a goal and Palahicky had an assist as Alaska defeated Fresno 5-4 in OT. Alaska has been on a bit of a roll lately, including a dramatic 6-5 win the other night after being down 4-0 in the second period.


LeNeveu rebounded from his subpar performance Saturday night with a win on Sunday, stopping 30 of 33 shots in a 5-3 victory for Springfield over Albany. Springfield hosts the Hartford WolfPack tomorrow night.

Coincidentally, I happened to meet the guy who painted LeNeveu's mask for Springfield today. He was the guy sharpening my skates, and I mentioned that I was going to see Cornell-RPI tomorrow, and he told me he knew Lenny. He's done several other pro masks (Hackett, Snow), and he also did Frank Doyle of Maine's mask. Here's his website: www.wzlhed.com. Also, here's what Lenny's mask at Springfield looks like:

The cacti are a nice touch. He's obviously ready to get the call to Phoenix.
And here's the back, complete with a shoutout to team Canada:

I'm going to go out on a limb and assume that since the Hockey Canada emblem is there in honor of team Canada then "Lenny" is there perhaps in honor of CU? I haven't heard anyone call him this in the AHL yet (and in volunteering with the Rats in their Communications department I've had several conversations with Scouts, reporters, etc about him) and while he played for team Canada everyone referred to him as Dave or LeNeveu - was he perhaps given the name at Cornell?

That brings up a question that occurred to me: are professional goalies allowed to include their college logos somewhere on their masks? It's the sort of thing I could see the NCAA and/or the schools getting pissy about.

I'd think the schools would love it - great free press for the program. I think the NC$$ would dislike it because they can't get money out of it. But if the logo is owned by the school, not the NC$$, I can't see how they'd have any say in the matter.

Re: nicknames, EVERY hockey player has a nickname. It's a male bonding thing, I guess. Most often the media and the team, don't refer to them by that nickname publicly, although it may be widely known among the fans. Occasionally you'll hear it in a player interview, but that's about it. For example, some of the nicknames on the Flyers include Rex, Rico, Bundy, Fridge, Chico, and Brash (that's Recchi, DesJardins, Therien, Fedoruk, Esche, and Brashear).

JH

Regarding nicknames .... Yup. This I know and agree with. Nicknames often change with changing teams tho - esp when you are younger and still an amateur. Just wondering whether or not CU was the 1st to go with Lenny ... Likely not but that in itself would be sorta special for CU fans.

I don't know if this means anything, but in one of the pictures taken last year at dartmouth, it looks like the back of his helmet says "lenny." (it is the last picture on the first page.) so perhaps he's had that nickname for a while...

I think that was added to his mask after making the Canadian WJ team last year ... so you never know.



Post Edited (02-20-04 14:04)

Just to let everyone know JMP is between the pipes tonight vs. the CBJ

(Columbus Blue Jackets)

Phoenix takes the lead with 19 seconds left... this could be it!

Edit... yep, there it is, JMP's first NHL win!

Edit again: And he was named the game's 2nd star, making 26 saves on 28 shots!



Post Edited (02-20-04 23:51)

Did the announcers mention he went to Colgate University?

His own team almost gave the win away though. Both Blue Jackets goals were essentially own goals (with both making Sportscenter's non-TopTen plays of the week) Otherwise he probabally would have gotten the shutout as well.

(Edit: Actually scratch that whole post, the non-top ten came right after the blue jackets highlights and just confused me. and it's early and I haven't finished my coffee...)



Post Edited (02-21-04 11:42)

Lots to talk about -

NHL:

It was mentioned already that Pelletier played over the weekend for the Coyotes, getting his first NHL win on Friday night with a 26 save effort for an exciting, come-from-behind 3-2 victory over Columbus. Unfortunately, things didn't go nearly as well on Saturday, as Phoenix lost to Nashville 8-2. Boucher let in 5 goals, and Pelletier let in 3 in relief.

AHL:

In Springfield, on Wednesday night, the Falcons scored twice in the final two minutes of the game, including once with Lenny out of the net, to salvage a 3-3 tie with Hartford. LeNeveu had 25 saves on 28 shots, and 1 of the goals scored on him was by former Harvard sniper Dominic Moore. 2 nights later, on Friday night, Lenny only stopped 22 of 25 shots in yet another 3-3 tie (and once again, the Falcons came from behind in the 3rd period). Things turned around over the weekend, though. LeNeveu had 35 saves in a 4-1 win on Saturday (against Lowell) and had 27 saves in a 5-3 win on Sunday (against Binghamton). Since JMP has been called up by the Coyotes, Lenny has started every game for Springfield. Now, through 29 games played, he is 12-14-3 with a 2.59 GAA and a solid .918 save percentage.

On Saturday night, Bâby assisted on the game-winning goal and scored one as well in a 6-3 win over Houston.

Doug Murray has been out of the lineup in Cleveland for several games now. Not sure why. He hasn't been sent down to the ECHL, so I'm assuming he's injured.

The commentators said that Murray was injured but I don't know what happened to him. He has been out for a couple of weeks now!

Murray last played 2/14. He missed the games 2/16, 2/19, 2/21. I don't have any information on why.

Murray is out with strained quad. expect him back in the next week or two.

in the ECHL this past week:

On Tuesday, Mark McRae scored with just 1:21 remaining in the game to secure a 4-2 win for Florence over South Carolina. A guy named Sebastien LaPlante has been playing all the time in goal for the Pride recently, so I'm not sure what's happened to Underhill...(??)...

On Friday night, Shane Palahicky scored his first goal in a LONG time early in the 3rd period en route to a 3-1 Alaska victory over Long Beach. He also had an assist in Sunday's game against Long Beach, but this time, Alaska lost 4-3. Also on Sunday, Sam Paolini had 2 assists for Atlantic City in a 5-2 win over Bakersfield.

Follow-up on Underhill: he isn't on the roster for the Florence Pride anymore, so I have no idea where he is.

Also, Wieckowski has been cut from the Long Beach Ice Dogs, also of the ECHL.

okay now I found this:

[www.norfolkadmirals.com]

Underhill has been called up by the Norfolk Admirals of the AHL, though he did not play over the weekend. Some guy named Michael Leighton did, who, by the way, was called up by the Chicago Blackhawks today. So Underhill could play this weekend against Binghamton.

(how on earth did Underhill go from the Calgary organization to LA to Chicago?)



Post Edited (02-23-04 15:56)

where did you see that Wieckowski had been cut from the Ice Dogs..last I heard he was removed from the roster and put on the 30-day IR cause he broke his arm. Same reason he didn't play in the echl all-star game.

Phoenix fired their coach today. . .

[sports.espn.go.com]

Mark McRae and Sam Paolini both had assists in their games tonight, but unfortunately, both of their teams (Florence and Atlantic City, respectively) lost.


As for where I found that Wieckowski is no longer with Long Beach:

The roster of the Alaska Aces on the ECHL website (echl.com) has the dreaded X by his name...

EDIT: ....although, maybe that doesn't mean he's off the team. It may mean he hasn't been activated even though his 30 days on the IR are up:

[www.icedogs.com]



Post Edited (02-25-04 00:22)

from an Article earlier this year....

"After the Ice Dogs' last meeting against Fresno a New Year's Day game in which Krzysztof Wieckowski had his arm broken in two places by a wicked two-handed slash by Brad Mehalko there was plenty of talk of retribution in the form of an all- out physical battle.

Saturday night's game between the old WCHL rivals was the first since the incident, which landed Wieckowski on the IR for up to eight weeks and Mehalko a mere five-game suspension"

it was a New Year's day game in which he got injured, so he's out until at least the beginning of March.

The New York Times' weekly college hockey column reports on the number of ex-college players that have appeared in NHL games this year.

[www.nytimes.com]

Is there any website that one could use to easily identify those players with NCAA backgrounds?

Tonight, the Springfield Falcons scored 2 goals late in the third period and then scored in overtime to win 4-3 over Hartford. LeNeveu had 29 saves on 32 shots in the win.

Stephen Bâby had an assist on Wednesday night in a 4-1 win over Utah and scored a goal tonight in a 4-2 loss to Grand Rapids.

Evidently one of those 3 goals was scored once again by Dominic Moore...

Not being a good follower of how these trades work, I'm confused...
Underhill appears on the team list for Florence and also for the Admirals.
So whom does he play for? And more to the point, where?
Please tell me Norfolk. That would rule in a very large way...

I think Underhill was in fact just called up to play for Norfolk...

From the AHL Transactions page:

Norfolk 02/20/04 ADD Underhill, Matt (G) signed to PTO

[www.theahl.com]

Underhill now appears on the Admirals roster:

[www.norfolkadmirals.com]

What I don't understand is how Underhill went from the Calgary organization to Boston to LA to Chicago . Is it because he never signed a contract with Calgary, or if he did, it expired, so he's just able to go from team to team like this?

I thought at one point he was in the Detroit system too...

Maybe he's a free agent, like PJ Stock?

See
[www.phoenixcoyotes.com]
for an article on Pelletier, with some JMP quotes on LeNeveu.

Interesting things going on with the goalie situation in Springfield this week. With LeNeveu getting all of the starts since Pelletier was called up to Phoenix, the Falcons cut goalie Scott Dickie on the 23rd, only to add him to the roster again on the 28th. Meanwhile, Shawn Conschafter, who I believe played his college career at Vermont, had a try out but was cut. THEN, yesterday, just hours before a big game with Worcester, Zac Bierk was sent to Springfield, on "conditioning loan" from Phoenix. He started last night's game and had 29 saves in a 1-1 tie. This probably means that Bierk is almost healthy enough to play again and might get called back up to Phoenix, which would mean that Pelletier would get sent back down. Last night was the first time all season that a Cornell alum did not start a game for the Springfield Falcons . Pelletier, by the way, will start tonight for the Phoenix Coyotes against Calgary.

Murray is still injured/out of the lineup in Cleveland.

Sam Paolini scored his 14th of the season last night, but Atlantic City went on to lose 3-2 (in a shootout).

Also, someone I don't usually mention -

Travis Bell is having a great season for the Bossier-Shreveport Mudbugs of the CHL. He has played in all 55 games this season, had 5 goals and 11 assists, and leads defensemen in plus/minus with a +25. He has helped lead the Mudbugs to 78 points this season (with 9 regular season games to go), the second best record in the CHL.


(side note: the best record belongs to Laredo, with a ridiculous 45-6-5 record this season).

The CHL, like the ECHL, has shootouts following OT, so the last number in a team's record represents SOL (shutout losses).

Friday night Boucher started in goal for Phoenix, but by the middle of the second period had let in four goals on 18 shots. Pelletier replaced him at 13:39 and didn't fare any better, letting in 3 more goals on 9 shots.

Interesting night tonight at watching Springfield at Hartford. Lenny was apparently "home," according to the Springfield trainer (home meaning Canada or Springfield I'm not sure), Dickie was in goal (of Hartford's first two shots on goal, Dickie let both in. Hartford beat the Falcons 5-2), and Bierk was dressed as the backup goalie. Dickie played the entire game (well, as far as I know, he did... we left at 1:09, since, to quote JTW, "1:17 was three fights ago," and they had to catch trains. It was definitely a case of going to see a boxing match, and a hockey game broke out.)

I wonder what this means for Lenny, though?

[Q]It was definitely a case of going to see a boxing match, and a hockey game broke out.[/Q]

Pardon my quoting myself, but... third period penalties:

Hartford - Juris Stals - (Interference), 2 min, 3:30
Hartford - Matt Kinch - (Hooking), 2 min, 4:16
Springfield - Nic Bilotto - (Interference), 2 min, 4:27
Hartford - Lawrence Nycholat - (Roughing), 2 min, 5:24
Springfield - Peter Ferraro - (Roughing), 2 min, 5:24
Hartford - Craig Weller - (Fighting (Instigator) Misconduct), 10 min, 8:25
Hartford - Craig Weller - (Instigator), 2 min, 8:25
Hartford - Craig Weller - (Fighting Major), 5 min, 8:25
Springfield - Trevor Gillies - (Roughing), 2 min, 8:25
Springfield - Trevor Gillies - (Roughing), 2 min, 8:25
Springfield - Trevor Gillies - (Fighting Major), 5 min, 8:25
Hartford - Brandon Cullen - (Roughing), 2 min, 12:09
Hartford - Jamie Pushor - (Roughing), 2 min, 12:09
Springfield - Ivan Novoseltsev - (Roughing), 2 min, 12:09
Hartford - Cory Larose - (Cross Checking), 2 min, 13:55
Hartford - Jamie Pushor - (Fighting Major), 5 min, 15:53
Hartford - John Jakopin - (Fighting (Instigator) Misconduct), 10 min, 15:53
Hartford - John Jakopin - (Instigator), 2 min, 15:53
Hartford - John Jakopin - (Fighting Major), 5 min, 15:53
Springfield - Kiel McLeod - (Fighting Major), 5 min, 15:53
Springfield - Mike Stutzel - (Fighting Major), 5 min, 15:53
Hartford - Brandon Cullen - (Fighting Major), 5 min, 18:43
Springfield - Trevor Gillies - (Fighting Major), 5 min, 18:43
Hartford - Lawrence Nycholat - (Fighting Major), 5 min, 18:48
Springfield - Erik Westrum - (Fighting Major), 5 min, 18:48
Hartford - Garth Murray - (Fighting Major), 5 min, 18:51
Hartford - Jayme Filipowicz - (Fighting Major), 5 min, 18:51
Springfield - Dustin Wood - (Fighting Major), 5 min, 18:51
**This was when we left so they could catch their trains.**
Hartford - Garth Murray - (Fighting Game Misconduct) (56(g)), 10 min, 18:56
Springfield - Nic Bilotto - (Fighting Major), 5 min, 18:56
Springfield - Nic Bilotto - (Attempt to Injure Match) (43(a)), 10 min, 18:56
Springfield - Nick Lent - (Fighting Game Misconduct) (56(g)), 10 min, 18:56
Springfield - Nick Lent - (Fighting Major), 5 min, 18:56

(edit: marked when we gave up and left)



Post Edited (02-29-04 19:16)

JMP gave up 4 goals on 32 shots tonight, 3 of them in the first 15:44 of the game, and Phoenix lost to Calgary, 4-2.

Big win for my flames. Yotes are lookin' pretty bad. Nagy done for the year. Langkow went down tonight.