On 11 December 2009, Skapski and his teammates at Fraser Valley Bruins, a midget-level hockey team from his hometown of Abbotsford, British Columbia, were driving to a tournament in Williams Lake. Thomas Spencer, who was the assistant coach at the time, described the conditions as a “typical winter day†on the West coast of Canada. It was cloudy with some light snowfall. The driver was going very fast, Spencer recalled, and eventually lost control when the bus hit some black ice.
Except for a few separated shoulders and bruises, the 20 or so other people in the bus were in okay shape.
Skapski was a different story.
“I broke the left side of my face, broke my nose. I had head surgery. I had a blood clot in the back of my head,†he said. “I missed a year of hockey. It was a crazy, crazy time and then I guess there were a lot of question marks whether I would return or play again.â€
Still rough around the edges, but it's fixable if he works hard. Very talented, but goalies bust more than anyone else so he shouldn't take for granted that he'll be back. Needs to work his ass off with Benny.
This is probably a dumb question, but do the goalies in Hartford get the benefit of Allaire's time and instruction on a fairly regular basis?
This is probably a dumb question, but do the goalies in Hartford get the benefit of Allaire's time and instruction on a fairly regular basis?
Kid did everything he needed to do while he was here. Yeah, it was just Buffalo, but he looked solid. Hopefully he has a ton of confidence playing for the Pack. Wonder if we'll see Lindberg get recalled here in the next day or so.
Doubt there's any room for Lindberg on the roster--Lundqvist was activated off the LT IR and St Louis is getting closer to coming back according to AV.
http://blogs.northjersey.com/blogs/...enators_st._louis_expected_to_resume_skating/
Plus (also according to Gross), the Rangers are only allowed 2 more call-ups from the AHL (without it being an emergency, I think).
The $ space is actually there now as McKenzie is being sent down (Miller and Fast were apparently already sent down and called up as paper transactions if Rangers fall out of POs - God forbid - and Pack still in it). Over 880.000 in annual space left. However, leaving only two roster spots for possible callups might not be advisable until there are only 5-6 games left. I see both Lindberg and McIllraith getting called up then if it is possible. Maybe also Klingberg (not all at once though!).
The $ space is actually there now as McKenzie is being sent down (Miller and Fast were apparently already sent down and called up as paper transactions if Rangers fall out of POs - God forbid - and Pack still in it). Over 880.000 in annual space left. However, leaving only two roster spots for possible callups might not be advisable until there are only 5-6 games left. I see both Lindberg and McIllraith getting called up then if it is possible. Maybe also Klingberg (not all at once though!).