News > Portland Pirates
Yet another preseason game canceled by the Pirates
By Chris Roy Published: 29th September 2010For the second time in less than a month, the Portland Pirates have been forced to cancel a “potential” preseason game this season.
The Pirates announced today that they’ve canceled their only home preseason game, which was to be held at Portland Ice Arena on Saturday, against the Manchester Monarchs.
The reason is due to a lack of players who will be in Portland in time for the game as the Buffalo Sabres, Portland’s NHL parent club, is taking extended looks at several players in camp.
“Due to the Sabres’ decision to extend the stay of many prospects and veterans further into training camp and participate in the NHL exhibition schedule, the Pirates’ training camp has been reduced in duration,” said Pirates Managing Owner/CEO Brian Petrovek in a statement. “As a result, we will not have the necessary number of players here in Portland this weekend to conduct an exhibition game at the Portland Ice Arena as previously planned.”
Earlier this month, although it wasn’t officially announced by the Pirates, they were forced to cancel their contest at PIA against the University of New Brunswick, also because of a lack of players in training camp.
Training camp for the Pirates isn’t expect to open until this weekend with the lone preseason game, taking place on Tuesday Oct. 5 against the Monarchs at Conway Arena in Nashua, NH.
Pirates head coach Kevin Dineen doesn’t view this to be problematic with Pirates camp as they are the last camp to open in the American Hockey League.
“Last year with the Olympics playing out during the middle of the NHL season everything was on a quicker timeline,” said Dineen. “We had players here in Portland (sooner), the season started (sooner) at the NHL level, but this year, things are at their normal pace.”
“We’re going to have a week to get our guys on the ice, start working on some line combinations, team systems, and how we want to play as a team.”
The regular season for the Pirates begins on Oct. 9 at home against the Monarchs.
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Comments (8)
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I could care less about preseason games or having the rookie of the year. What I want is an affiliation that has depth and cares about not only developing players, but also winning. Isn’t a winning environment a better atmosphere to develop talent in. I think Dineen has been burdened too much in trying to fill out a roster rather then having him focus on winning and developing. Without him the past couple years, this team would have been much worse off. There were many games last year where the Pirates couldn’t dress a full compliment of players. Doesn’t that increase the chance of injury, defeat, etc. I just want the Sabres to care a littel and provide some depth. It would benefit them as well.
I don’t think Pirate fans should be mad about the team missing pre-season games. What this really means is that a large portion of the Pirates team is getting NHL experience with the Sabres in NHL pre-season. Jhonas Enroth has looked great for the Sabres in the pre-season games, and will start for the Pirates in most games. You will have guys like Luke Adam, who scored twice the other night, coming to Portland for next season. Having the prospects play in NHL pre-season games will only make them stronger in the AHL this season.
“Sabres not to blame” – http://blogs.buffalonews.com/sabres/2010/09/sabres-not-to-blame-for-pirates-cancellation.html
If the Sabres had an ECHL affiliate they could have provided players.
As far as I’m concerned, this is very much at the feet of Buffalo. 12 players were just sent down and not one of them is a goaltender. Buffalo has only signed a few free agents and hasn’t made any announcements about having a full-fledged training camp for try-out players and other free agents. The Pirates can’t go into an exhibition against a Monarchs team that has a full compliment of players on it’s roster a ridiclously under-strengthed team.
While I’m not exactly too pleased to seeing the Pirates lose another exhibition game, it’s going to have ramifications on the team. Maybe the Sabre fans can’t comprehend that, but the Sabres prospects need time to gel together before the start of the regular season.
MaineMariner:
It must have been pretty disappointing having the AHL rookie of the year on your team the past two seasons.
Eh…its preseason..save your pennies…preseason hockey is almost as horrible as the NFL.
there are only 19 teams in the E, now, w/ Charlotte being promoted, but also several teams are having training camps sped up due to them playing in EUROPE(BRUINS/WILD/Hurricanes/Blue Jackets/Sharks/Coyotes); this is why you’re seeing 6 games in 9 days for the Sabres and the ISLANDERS just started pre-season….. Sabres aren’t the only ones w/o an E affiliation, but remember it takes time to develop tht and the volatility caused the E to lose markets tht the PIRATES used before aligning w/ Buffalo
This is really pretty sad. I’ve been very disappointed with the affiliation with Buffalo. First we find out Regier is still trying to fill out our roster. I’m pretty sure the Sabres and Pirates lost in the first round, so what has he been doing since April???? I beleive they are the only team without an ECHL affiliate, they rarely have enough players under contract to support two teams, they make suspect player decisions. I think they should sign Dineen and Weinrich to play, at least ehy were all effort players and probably are still more talented than what is on it’s way here. Disappointing.