GAMEDAY NOTES AND QUOTES: BRYSON RETURNS TO AHL AS AMERKS HOST MONSTERS
Bryson will make his season debut, Warren returns to lineup against first-place Monsters
Dec 20, 2023
By Andrew Mossbrooks | @Mossbrooks48
The Rochester Americans (12-8-2-1) will play four of their next five games on home ice, beginning Wednesday night when they host the North Division leading-Cleveland Monsters (16-7-1-0).
Tonight marks the third of eight meetings between the Monsters and Amerks, with the previous two being split in a pair of games in Cleveland last month. Since then, the Monsters have won nine of their last 11 games.
“They’ve got a loaded team,” said Amerks head coach Seth Appert. “They’ve got Trey Fix-Wolansky down (from Columbus), who is arguably the best forward in the North Division. I think they’re the best team in our division. They have the deepest roster and the most offensive weapons. Until proven otherwise, they’re the top team in our division and it’s going to be a heck of a challenge.”
BRYSON BACK FROM BUFFALO
After clearing waivers, defenseman Jacob Bryson has arrived in Rochester. The fifth-year pro played 66 games with Rochester at the start of his career, before spending the next three years in the NHL with Buffalo. Bryson is expected in the lineup tonight, being paired with rookie defenseman Nikita Novikov. It will be his first game since dressing for the Sabres on Nov. 4.
“I’m just excited to get back in action,” said Bryson. “I want to help this team win. I still have friends in this locker room and I know most of the guys from training camp. It’s always nice to be in this building. It brings back a lot of good memories.”
“It’s a great opportunity for him to play,” said Appert. “You always want to be in the NHL, but you need to play, and he just hasn’t gotten an opportunity to play enough this year. The best way for him to get ready to be back in the NHL is for him to play games. If he’s not playing them there, he’s got to be playing here. He’s a great person and a really good teammate. He grew up in this organization, so he has a comfort being here and he’s excited about getting the opportunity to play again.”
“I feel like this is my best chance to get a lot of minutes,” said Bryson. “I want to play games and get that experience and exposure to get that confidence back that I might be lacking from not playing. It’s definitely good and it’s an opportunity. It’s not a negative in any way. You can grow from this and it’s helped players in the past and I believe it can help me as well.”
WARREN RETURNS
After missing over a month due to an upper-body injury, Appert confirmed that forward Brendan Warren will return to the lineup Wednesday night.
“It’s hard to put into words a description on what Brendan Warren has come to mean to this group,” said Appert. “He’s worked his way from being a guy who was a call-up on a PTO (professional tryout) from the ECHL to a guy that is desperately missed when he’s out of your lineup. I’m incredibly proud of the player he’s turned himself into. I think there’s still more growth. I don’t think he should stop here.”
Warren’s last game came back on Oct. 28. The fourth-year Amerk has one goal in three games played this season and 20 points in 107 career games with Rochester.
“It’s awesome,” said Warren. “It’s a great feeling. It’s been a long time and I’ve really been looking forward to being back with my teammates and playing games. It was tough being out. You want to be playing games. That’s why you’re here. When you’re just sitting on the sidelines, you feel like you could be out there helping. It’s tough to just be watching.”
“He’s an unreal teammate,” said Appert. “He’s embraced a role that’s not easy. He plays with a lot of violence in his game. He plays a style that’s difficult to play against and there’s not many of those guys out there that have the speed, size, and physicality that he has. The way he plays is not easy to play, but he’s owned it, and he’s made himself extremely valuable because of it.”
MURRAY ON THE MOVE
The reinforcements continued for the Amerks Wednesday morning when it was announced that Brett Murray was reassigned from Buffalo and is expected to play tonight.
Murray has logged 217 games as an Amerk and received his first NHL recall in nearly two years, playing in two games for the Sabres this month, with Buffalo winning in both.
“You’re always looking for things to motivate you to put a chip on your shoulder. At the end of the day, you need to be internally driven, but that last 10 percent sometimes can come from external factors. Hope is a very powerful thing and for a lot of the last two years, no matter how good he played here, he wasn’t getting that opportunity, so to have that, even though it was only a week or so, it gives hope and excitement. That’s tangible and it’s attainable and it should motivate you for more,” Appert said.
Murray joins not only Warren and Bryson, but also a cast of recent players that have either come back from injury or been reassigned to Rochester over the last couple of weeks.
“We’re probably as healthy as we’ve been since the first week or two of the season. This is certainly the most robust lineup we’ve had in the last two months. We were pretty thin over the last two months at either forward for a long time and recently our defense for quite a period of time. We have a pretty full lineup now and we need to try and take advantage of it this week as we head into Christmas.”