NOLLY'S NOTES - BLOG #10
Apr 1, 2022Hey, Cuda Country! Hope everyone had a great week. Happy April 1. It’s not an April Fools joke, we’re down to just 10 games remaining in the regular season and just four more games at the SAP Center. While the Barracuda have now dropped five in a row, there’s still an outside chance that the team could reach the postseason, and it's due in large part to the fact that the Henderson Silver Knights have just two wins in its last 14 games.
The max winning percentage the Barracuda can reach is .471. Meaning that if the team were to win out, the best record the Silver Knights can accrue, for the Barracuda to still reach the playoffs, would be 5-8, which would put their total winning percentage at .470. It won’t be easy, especially since the ‘Cuda have the toughest remaining strength of schedule (.585) in the Pacific. But four of the final 10 games will be against the Silver Knights, making things all that much
more interesting.
Since we last spoke, the Barracuda made a deal before the AHL’s trade deadline on Monday, sending veteran d-man Mark Alt to the Rochester Americans for forward Mason Jobst. Because both Alt and Jobst are under AHL contracts and not NHL deals, they were able to be traded before Monday’s deadline. AHL trades are pretty rare, but they do happen from time to
time.
Alt will be missed in the room. On one of the youngest rosters in the AHL, he filled a vital veteran role on the backend that was vacated when Jaycob Megna stuck with the Sharks earlier this year. Heading to Roch, he’ll automatically find himself in a playoff race. Alty was a pleasure to work with and I really appreciated the approach he brought to the rink each day, even when the team was struggling from a wins and losses standpoint.
Alt’s departure had me thinking about all the player movement this season. 42 skaters and six different goalies have been deployed this year, the second-most in franchise history. Since opening night on Oct. 17 in Bakersfield, just seven players remain on the roster and five of the 19 players who appeared on opening night are no longer in the organization (Nick Merkley – Hartford Wolfpack, Dylan Gambrell – Ottawa Senators, Alexei Melnichuk – Orlando Solar Bears, Mark Alt – Rochester Americans, Joel Kellman – Växjö). It’s fair to say, it’s hard for any team, let alone a young one, to win consistently in those circumstances. But that’s life in the AHL and everyone goes through this type of season at some point.
What really brought to light all the new faces over the last month or so was when we took our team photo today. Seven of the 23 players in the photo were not on the roster in December and four weren’t with the team three weeks ago (Jobst, Antoine Morand, Anthony Bitetto, and Alex Stalock).
In other roster news, for anyone wondering where Ryan Dzingel had been, it was officially announced yesterday by the team that his season is over due to a wrist injury that will require season-ending surgery.
UPDATE ON THE STATUS OF FORWARD RYAN DZINGEL:
Ryan has missed the past eight Barracuda games with a wrist injury.
He has been dealing with the injury all season but it has recently intensified and has continued to affect his play. After consultation with team management and the organization’s medical
personnel, Ryan decided to have this injury surgically repaired, which will
prematurely end his season.
He is expected to make a full and complete
recovery.
We finish up this week’s edition of Nolly’s Notes by giving an update on the progress of the Barracuda’s new 4,200 seat TechCU Arena which is set to open this August. We just finished our “First Look” event from Mar. 29-31, which allowed for fans to get a VIP tour of the arena, with hardhats and vests on in all. Although the seats aren’t in just yet, it gave fans a sense of where they’d be sitting next year, the concourse layout, concessions, and how intimate the building is. There won’t be a bad seat in the house. While it’s still clearly a construction site, lots of progress has been made since I last saw it about a month and a half ago. Rebar is in and the concrete for the flooring is expected to be poured by April 9. Seats should be in by May.
The three-day event was sold out and available for season ticket holders and folks who put down a deposit, so don’t worry if you weren’t invited. But get on it will ya?!
If you’re thinking about getting season tickets, and you’re on the fence or you just haven’t gotten to it yet, do so ASAP so you will be entered into our lottery next week for a chance to win a game-used orange jersey straight of the back of the players during our final game at the SAP Center on April 10. Keep an eye out over the next couple of days for more details.
That will do it for this edition of Nolly’s Notes, thanks for reading and so long until next time.