Game Preview: Checkers at Oklahoma City

The Checkers open the 2013-14 season the same way they ended the one before – a date with the Oklahoma City Barons.

Tonight's game against its 2012 playoff opponents and new West Division rivals, the first of 12 total head-to-head meetings this season, begins the fourth season in Charlotte's AHL history. It is the first of back-to-back games in Oklahoma City, which are the only games that the Checkers will play until they take on Iowa for their home opener two weeks later on Oct. 19.

Charlotte is looking to win its regular-season opener for the second consecutive season, having started their tenure in the American Hockey League with a record of 0-1-1. The Checkers have never begun a regular season at home.

Charlotte

Aside from splitting a pair of preseason games against Norfolk (a 4-2 win in Charlotte last Friday and a 4-3 defeat on the road one night later), tonight will be the first look at a revamped Checkers team that returns some core players but welcomes just as many new faces into the fold.

Leading a core of returning players are forwards Zach Boychuk, Nicolas Blanchard and Chris Terry, defensemen Michal Jordan and Rasmus Rissanen and goaltenders Mike Murphy and Justin Peters. They’ll be charged with helping to continue the team’s success from last season while leading a group of as many as six rookies who could be in the lineup. Most notable among those is center Victor Rask, who impressed in an early-season audition before returning to his junior team one year ago (1g, 4a and a plus-7 rating in 10 games) is now expected to anchor the top line.

However, not every player who will make his Checkers debut tonight is new to the league. Forward Aaron Palushaj and defensemen Matt Corrente and Mark Flood all have experience at both the AHL and NHL levels and will be counted upon for leadership roles. The same could be said of center Manny Malhotra, a veteran of over 800 NHL games who signed a last-minute professional tryout contract on Thursday. Stefan Della Rovere, a 23-year-old coming off an injury-riddled season, provides some additional grit in a depth role.

Though early returns from the preseason and training camp were positive, the team acknowledges that it could take some time until the pieces fall perfectly into place.

“I really believe in what the coaches here preach, but it’s going to be a process,” said Peters. “It might not happen overnight.”

“We’ll find out this weekend,” said coach Jeff Daniels. “We’ve had a lot of guys coming and going, but the preseason is a good test of where you are. We’re focused right now on us and playing our game.”

Oklahoma City

The Barons have also undergone a significant amount of roster turnover, with many of the top performers for last spring's playoff series moving on to other teams, other organizations and other leagues.

Leading that list is goaltender Yann Danis, the AHL's goaltender of the year two seasons ago who rebounded from a shaky Game 3 to shut down the Checkers in the next two games, who has signed a two-way contract with the Philadelphia Flyers and is starting in the AHL's Eastern Conference with Adirondack. He is replaced by Richard Bachman, who split last season between the Dallas and Texas Stars.

A group that arguably made up the team's top forwards from that series has also moved on. Jonathan Cheechoo, Teemu Hartikainen and Toni Rajala are all playing in Europe this season, while center Mark Arcobello is currently with the NHL's Edmonton Oilers due to injuries suffered by Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Sam Gagner. They will be at least partially replaced by the flashy Linus Omark, who scored 16 points in 18 games with the Barons two seasons ago but spent all of last season in Switzerland, where he posted 69 points (17g, 52a) in 48 games.

Notable returnees on offense include center Anton Lander and agitator Ben Eager, who both spent parts of last season with the Oilers. Former ECHL Checker Matt Ford, former Peoria winger Derek Nesbitt and Ryan Jones, who spent all of the last three seasons in the NHL with Edmonton, highlight other new additions.

On defense, Oscar Klefbom, the 19th overall pick in the 2011 draft, is expected to make his North American professional debut after playing parts of the last three seasons in the Swedish Elite League. The 6-foot-3, 201-pound blueliner is thought to have some offensive upside, though he scored just seven points in 67 SEL games. The rugged Alex Plante and Colten Teubert have both left for Europe, while Brandon Davidson, Taylor Fedun and Martin Marincin all return.

Checkers Notes

Openers

The Checkers will begin their season on the road for the fourth time in as many seasons tonight. After losing each of its first two season openers – a regulation loss in Connecticut in 2010 and an overtime loss at Norfolk in 2011 – Charlotte could build off last season's victory in Houston with a win against the Barons tonight.

Original Checkers

Of the 24 players on the Checkers' current roster, six (forwards Nicolas Blanchard, Zach Boychuk, Jared Staal and Chris Terry, defenseman Michal Jordan and goalie Mike Murphy) were in the lineup for the team's first-ever AHL game at Connecticut on Oct. 9, 2010. A seventh, Rasmus Rissanen, made his AHL debut after concluding his junior career later in that season, completing the group of players who could tonight play for the team in each of its first four seasons.

New Faces

As many as eight players could make their Checkers debuts tonight. They are: forwards Kyle Bonis, Adam Brace, Manny Malhotra, Aaron Palushaj and Stefan Della Rovere, and defensemen Matt Corrente, Mark Flood and Keegan Lowe. Two of those – Brace and Lowe – would also be making their AHL debuts.

Been a Long Time

The Checkers signed 33-year-old center Manny Malhotra, a veteran of 864 NHL games with the New York Rangers, Dallas Stars, Columbus Blue Jackets, San Jose Sharks and Vancouver Canucks, to a 25-game professional tryout contract on Thursday. Malhotra, the seventh overall in the 1998 NHL draft, has 17 points (6g, 11a) in 40 career AHL games, the last of which came with Hartford during the 2000-01 season.

Against the Barons

The Checkers have an all-time record of 9-5-2 against Oklahoma City dating back to the 2011-12 season when Charlotte joined the Western Conference. The teams met in the first round of last year's playoffs, with the Barons winning two straight games to defeat the Checkers in five games. Including last season's playoffs, seven of the last 13 meetings were decided by three or more goals.

Enemy Ties

Checkers forward Matt Marquardt played 63 games for Oklahoma City in the 2010-11 season, recording 12 points (5g, 7a) in 63 games. The fathers of Checkers defenseman Keegan Lowe (Kevin Lowe – president of hockey operations) and forward Brody Sutter (Duane Sutter – pro scout) work for the Edmonton Oilers, NHL parent club of the Barons.

Barons winger Matthew Ford, who would make his Oklahoma City debut tonight, played 31 games for the ECHL Checkers from 2008-10, scoring 40 points (21g, 19a) in 31 games. He was teammates with the Checkers' Sean Dolan for one season at the University of Wisconsin.