From the Rampage Desk: Week 22 - Break the Streak?

The beloved Rampage’s losing streak is now reaching epic proportions, 12 in a row and just a single point. It’s been 37 days since they won a game, that matches the streak they went on last season which was about as terrible as I thought it was possible to play. Could be coincidence, but both started when instead of callups to the Avs the Rampage received vets instead.

We have a weird 3-in-3 here, Sun/Mon/Tues. I assume the Spurs schedule has something to do with that.

Roster/Injury Report

- Julien Nantel was optioned to the Eagles after Tuesday’s game and promptly opened his ECHL career with 2 goals. He needs 5 games with Colorado to be eligible for the playoffs, which I’m assuming is the plan here.

- Sam Henley had/will have surgery on his hand which will end his season but hopefully not his career in the Avs organization.

- Turner Elson is very close to returning after missing the last 54 games with LBI and surgery. Should be one of the 3 games coming up.

- Joe Cannata, received from the Caps in the Corbett trade, made his Rampage debut vs GRG and became the 4th goalie used this year by the Rampage

- Felix Girard got a puck in the face in practice last Monday which Dan Weiss described as “gruesome”. Missed Tuesday’s game and now it comes down to when he can start eating enough to play a professional hockey game.

- Chris Bigras is still out with an unknown injury, as is Gus Young. Both were skating in NC jerseys this week.

- The AHL trade deadline came and went on Wednesday with no moves (as expected) by San Antonio

David Oliver

Our good friend tigervixxxen came up with this radio chat with Avs Director of Player Development David Oliver. They mainly discussed some higher-round draft choices including Anton Lindholm and Sergei Boikov. Both got high praise from Ollie and the hosts. Travis Barron, Andrei Mironov and J-C Beaudin were also discussed. I would highly recommend this if you’re into Avs prospects (and you are since you’re reading this).

Preview: Cleveland/Texas

The Monsters win more than the Rampage but they sure don’t score much. Only 4 more goals in 58 games. Cleveland and San Antonio are 28th and 29th in goals for this year and believe it or not the Monsters PP is worse than ours somehow. Best part for both teams: Someone has to score. The Rampage beat Cleveland twice back in late October

The Stars continue their up and down season one spot ahead of the Rampage and 3-7 in their last 10, which is better than 0-9-1. Texas won 6-2 at the AT&T Center last Sunday.

Lineup from Tuesday

Greer - O’Brien - Petryk
Ranford - Smith - Grimaldi
Bourque - Belzile - St Amant
Bourke - Nantel - Nunn

Boikov - Lindholm
Siemens - Clark
Geertsen - Gelinas

Cannata
Martin

Scratches: Girard (face), Elson (LBI), Henley (hand), Bigras (?BI), Young (?BI) + the chronics

Some guys were missing or just getting reduced shifts at the end of Tuesday, most notably O’Brien and Ranford. No updates from practice since so we’ll wait and see who’s where. Elson or Girard should be playing because there’s only 11 forwards plus them. I’d assume at least one of them or Bigras/Young is definitely healthy since even a Mickey Mouse organization like this wouldn’t go into an AHL game with 19 players.

Schedule

Sunday vs the Monsters, 4pm ET

Monday at the Stars, 8:30pm ET

Tuesday vs the Monsters, 8pm ET

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Other than tomorrow’s Avs/Coyotes starting midway through the Texas game, all 3 contests happen with little conflict from the parent club. Stop by and say hi.