Three weeks into the season and the Rochester Americans have seen all three opponents that that will matchup against during the shortened 32-game 2020-21 regular-season. The Amerks have met up with North Division rivals in the Syracuse Crunch and Utica Comets as well as an old friend and former divisional foe in the Cleveland Monsters. While the club will see the Crunch and Comets much more than the Monsters, they have also made one of their three trips to Cleveland’s Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse through the first three games of the campaign.
Roster carousel continues
Since Friday’s 7-3 victory over the Monsters, the Buffalo Sabres, who recently returned to the ice following a 14-day pause due to COVID precautionary measures, have reassigned forwards Steven Fogarty, C.J. Smith, Andrew Oglevie and Rasmus Asplund along with defenseman Jacob Bryson from Rochester to the team’s taxi squad. The Sabres subsequently reassigned goaltender Dustin Tokarski to Amerks.
If the moves are any kind of indication or foreshadowing of what the rest of the season may look like, the roster carousel will continue to revolve for the Amerks. But the continuous movement also creates opportunities for other players to step in and play immediate roles when needed.
“We are certainly happy for our guys,” Amerks head coach Seth Appert said following Monday’s practice. “We talk a lot about being a family and loving one another. We all have the same dream of making it the NHL. When guys go up to Buffalo, while want them to play in a game, they are one step closer to making that dream become a reality.”
While the Amerks have temporarily lost some of their players to the Sabres, forward Ryan Scarfo and defensemen Griffin Luce and Alec McCrea all joined the team today after finishing their quarantine requirements.
“I don’t look at it as having holes in our lineup, but it creates opportunities for other players on our roster to earn potential spots. We have other players such as Brandon Biro, who made his debut last Friday, Jack Quinn, who was a full participant in practice today, and other players who we signed last week.”
Kyle leads sports coverage and hosts the Concrete Jungle podcast. Have a lead or question? Send it to [email protected].