GAMEDAY NOTES AND QUOTES: MURRAY RETURNS FOR REMATCH WITH ROCKET
Amerks take aim at third straight win tonight in rematch with Rocket
Nov 24, 2023
By Andrew Mossbrooks | @Mossbrooks48
The Rochester Americans (9-4-2-0) will try for a third consecutive win tonight when they host the Laval Rocket (5-9-2-0) for their fifth of eight meetings Friday night.
“I thought it was chippy and I thought it was feisty,” said Amerks head coach Seth Appert when asked about Wednesday’s game. “This is game five against them out of 16 games played for us. Basically, a third of the schedule has been against each other, so you’re not going to end up liking each other. They play hard and we play hard. That’s not easy to play against. I thought Laval played a tremendous game Wednesday and I expect them to be even harder to play against tonight.”
MURRAY BACK IN ACTION
Amerks forward Brett Murray will return to the lineup for his first game since Nov. 1. The fifth-year Amerk missed seven games due to an upper-body injury.
“I’m coming back in when the team is playing really well,” said Murray. You feel like you’re partially letting the team down because you’re not playing, but you got to get over that. There’s nothing you can do. When it happens to other players you don’t feel that way towards them, so you can’t feel that way when it happens to you, but the guys did a great job, so hopefully I can help us coming back.”
“He’s one of our captains,” said Appert. “There was a stretch where we had three of our four captains out of our lineup. That was hard for us. They’re our captains for a reason. They’ve been through things with us. They’ve been in the battles and been through adversity and ups and downs and they’ve come out the other side better and together. When you have guys like Brett Murray come back into your lineup, they’re just massive for your team play, your leadership, your bench; all of it.”
“He’s worked and made himself into one of the better power forwards in the American Hockey League. Brett Murray is a massive piece to everything we do here.”
THANKFUL FOR A DAY OFF
After their thrilling 4-3 overtime win on Wednesday, Appert elected to give his players the holiday off so that they could enjoy Thanksgiving with their families, friends, and teammates.
“I probably didn’t do a good enough job of this as a younger coach,” said Appert when asked about giving off-days. “Sometimes when you’re younger, you make decisions based on results or how you play. Now I try to make decisions based on what’s needed. Finding little pockets of time for physical or mental rest; those things are important and long-term those things end up helping a team a lot.”
THE VALUE OF VETERANS
Veteran defensemen Ethan Prow and Jeremy Davies have been instrumental in not only the success of their team, but of the rookie defensemen they’ve been paired with. Davies has recently been on the blue with Zach Metsa, while Prow has anchored a pairing with Sabres prospect Nikita Novikov.
“It’s important to have young guys with some older guys. Davies is just such a competitor. His competitive juice is always right at the top with anybody on our team. He’s a guy that wants to make a difference with his play, both offensively and defensively. I think Davies makes every partner he’s with better.”
“Prowsy (Prow) is just so smart and so calm and so good for someone like Novy (Novikov), who is young and over from Russia just learning the language and playing on a North American ice sheet for the first time. You can see the longer they’re starting to play together the more confidence they’re having in each other. I think now it’s probably been two games in a row where they’ve graded out as our top pairing.”
LOWLY LAVAL
The Montreal Canadiens’ AHL affiliate finds itself at the bottom of the North Division standings with just 12 standings points, yet they hold numerous threats in their lineup, led by rookie forward Joshua Roy, who owns seven goals and 18 points through 16 games.
“You look at Wednesday and it came down to another overtime,” said Murray. “We’ve played them four times and it’s gone to overtime twice. We were fortunate to come out with the win, but everyone in this division, especially Laval, plays very heavy and have a very fast-paced offense. You can never count a team out. You always have to give respect, even if they’re at the bottom of the division. This is professional hockey. Their players are here for a reason. You can’t underestimate any team.”
“As long as we can backcheck hard and get out of the defensive zone quickly, you limit their opportunities, and you can’t score when you’re not in the offensive zone. I think the biggest thing is managing pucks and defensive zone time and shutting those guys down will come along with that.”