Tonight should be interesting.
The Ontario Reign are coming off of a rough weekend in Las Vegas — a common feeling for many people who travel to Sin City, indeed.
They dropped back-to-back games to the expansion Henderson Silver Knights by a combined score of 11-4. However, in the big picture, much of those troubles were somewhat to be expected. Ontario is a young team, with over half the lineup essentially playing in their first AHL games. In both contests, the Reign looked decent for about half the game, then seemed to lose their way in the second half of each contest.
Now, they turn their attention to their biggest rival, the San Diego Gulls – who are actually playing out of Irvine this season. It’s a move similar to what the Reign are doing, playing their home games in El Segundo.
Will be very interesting to see how the Reign respond tonight. One, because opening weekend was a bit of circus at times. Two, and more importantly, with over half the roster being new, they may not fully understand/appreciate the rivalry.
Makes me think of 2 players (continued) https://t.co/c9W7yCIjpX
— John Hoven | The Mayor (@mayorNHL) February 10, 2021
1. Mikey Eyssimont
His third pro game was in SD vs Gulls. Didn't really get a warm-up, was thrown right into the deep end without much knowledge / understanding of the rivalry. Dude almost had his head come home "in a bucket of formaldehyde."
Great story https://t.co/gzXXjcjg3G
— John Hoven | The Mayor (@mayorNHL) February 10, 2021
2. Aidan Dudas
While there is a whole cast of new characters this year — Turcotte, Thomas, Byfield, etc. — Dudas, a first-year pro, actually has some AHL experience.
He played 6 games w/ the Reign in 2019, and GM 2 was in SD. Again, very quickly got a feel for the rivalry.
— John Hoven | The Mayor (@mayorNHL) February 10, 2021
Interesting trivia notes
* Final game @mphillips_18 played for the Reign last season (2019-20), before returning to junior for his over-age year, was against the Gulls on Dec. 27.
* Sean Durzi played 39 AHL games last season, and 7 of them were vs SD, tied for most of any team.
— John Hoven | The Mayor (@mayorNHL) February 10, 2021
San Diego won both of their games over opening weekend, taking down the Bakersfield Condors twice. And the Gulls received contributions from a pair of Ducks first round selections. Rookie forward Trevor Zegras posted consecutive multi-point games, ending the two-game set with 5 points (2G, 3A) and being named the AHL Player of the Week.
On Saturday, Jamie Drysdale became the youngest player in Gulls history to score his first career AHL goal (18 years, 9 months, 28 days).
“We did not want to start like last year,” Gulls assistant coach Sylvain Lefebvre said, regarding the team’s hot start. “When you’re down six games, it’s hard to fight back and get back in the thick of things. I really liked our start this year. Some nights, you need really good goaltending, and we got that on both nights.”
It wasn’t just the goaltending that impressed the longtime NHL defenseman, turned coach.
“The quality of our young guys, they’re skilled and their hockey sense is through the roof,” he said. “Jamie is playing really well, as is Zegras. And there are other guys like (goaltender Lukas) Dostal – you can’t forget about him because he’s the real deal. You saw it in the two games.”
San Diego’s projected lineup for tonight:
Zegras – S. Carrick – De Leo
Lorito – Morand – Perreault
Tracey – Groulx – Poturalski
Dostie – Badini – Roy
Lowe – Drysdale
Benoit – Curran
T. Carrick – Mahura
Dostal
Glass
For the most part, the Reign lineup has featured the same forward groupings, with sweeping changes on D across the two games previously played. We expect the same 12 forwards in the lineup tonight, with some slight movement, including Arthur Kaliyev likely switching places with Akil Thomas, who should be getting a promotion to the top line.
Defensively, Tobias Bjornfot is not available, as he’s with the Kings. Cole Hults is still expected out for a little while longer, so Markus Phillips should get a chance to play again.
Ontario Reign Projected Lineup for Wednesday 2/10 vs. SD Gulls
Tyler Madden – Rasmus Kupari – Akil Thomas
Blaine Byron – Quinton Byfield – Sammy Fagemo
Mikey Eyssimont – Alex Turcotte – Arthur Kaliyev
Boko Imama – Brett Sutter – Aidan Dudas
Daniel Brickley – Sean Durzi
Markus Phillips – Mark Alt
Cameron Gaunce – Jack Sadek
Matt Villalta
JF Berube
Scratches include – Cole Hults, Jack Poehling, Nick Poehling, and Jacob Doty
NOTE: The above lineup is projected and will be updated closer to game time, if needed.
We also had a chance to catch up with coach John Wroblewski for a few thoughts…
Wrobo on the play that led to Fagemo’s goal on Monday and how he’s liked the Reign powerplay thus far
Fagemo’s first one was great for him and us – gave us a chance to claw back in there. The powerplay has just been okay, besides our entries. I’ve really liked some of the concepts we’re hitting. Our in-zone has us wanting a lot more, from getting shots from the top to our flank guys making plays and not getting shots blocked. Our puck movement has to be more crisp and obviously the intensity needs to be amped up, exemplified by the dismal 5v3 opportunity.
On the defensive struggles in the two games against Henderson
Our intensity on the puck needs improvement. From the line of scrimmage on a faceoff to our one-on-one stick battles, we have to be better. We’ve made the players aware of this and it’s up to them to give us something to work with. We feel that our structure is in place and now it’s about intensity within that structure. We’re also aware that this weekend marked a lot of firsts for guys, whether it be first game of the season or first official AHL game. We were taught a strong a lesson about the shift-to-shift intensity that’s necessary to win in this league.
On the challenges of getting a rhythm going offensively after Imama was tossed and they had to play short a forward
Awesome job by Boko to get the team fired up. I was disappointed for him that he got the gate early there. For us, we had plenty of ammo on that bench to drive play and have our structure shine through. Hopefully, we started to learn a little about the level of play in the AHL and that we really have to bring it with our intensity and details if we want team and individual success.
Tonight’s game can be streaemed through AHL TV. Puck drop is scheduled for 7pm PST.
RELATED CONTENT:
Kings Of The Podcast: S2, E11 – Ontario Reign Season Preview with John Wroblewski
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