Game Preview: Checkers at Providence (April 13, 2018)

The Checkers are back on the road for two final regular season contests that will decide where the Checkers end up in the Atlantic Division.

1. PLAYOFF BOUND

For the first time in the last three seasons, the Checkers’ playoff fate is sealed heading into the final days of the regular season. With a big win over Hershey last Saturday, the Checkers clinched a playoff berth for the Calder Cup playoffs for the fourth time in franchise history.

While they’ve already wrapped up their trip to the postseason, don’t expect the Checkers to ease off the gas now.

“I don’t think we’ve exhaled at all,” said head coach Mike Vellucci. “We clinched on Saturday and we won on Sunday, so I don’t think there’s a letdown. These games mean something.”

This weekend’s slate of games have a strong bearing on where exactly the Checkers will begin their postseason run. Charlotte currently sits in fourth place and is slated to face the Atlantic Division champion Leigh Valley Phantoms, but a series of scenarios could lead to them moving up to the second or third seed to face either the Providence Bruins or the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins.

“We’re playing for seeds now,” said Vellucci. “If we can get up to second that’d be great, we’d get home-ice advantage. We have to sweep and we have to hope Wilkes-Barre doesn’t play well this weekend though. But we can at least get to the third seed with a big game against Providence. We win that one and we put ourselves in a pretty good situation.”

But even with a lot riding on this weekend and the playoffs looming right around the corner, the Checker don’t seem to be letting the pressure get to them.

“I don’t want to say that these guys have been loose, but they’ve been having a lot of fun,” said Vellucci. “It’s a fun team to be around, everyone gets along. They like playing hockey, they love practicing. I think they’re just excited to keep playing.”

2. THE REINFORCEMENTS ARE HERE

The Checkers will be sporting a significantly different looking group on the ice this weekend.

“We’ve had so many guys out of the lineup but now we have seven new guys in the lineup this weekend,” said Vellucci. “So it’s not going to be like we’ve got two more games with the same lineup. Some of these guys have been injured so they want to get those legs going and be a part of the team. I’m sure they’re excited to get back in.”

The biggest influx of players comes from the NHL, as the Hurricanes concluded their season last week and sent forwards Valentin Zykov and Nicolas Roy as well as blue liners Roland McKeown and Haydn Fleury to Charlotte. That group ranges in time spent in the NHL this season from one game to the entirety of the year, but the impact of playing at the next level can be a big boost for the Checkers.

“They definitely improve,” said Vellucci of players who return to the AHL after an NHL stint. “Once you go up there, you know how hard it is to stay up there and play in that league. So hopefully they bring back the speed and the mentality of the NHL and that’ll carry over to our guys who haven’t been up there this year.”

3. GETTING HEALTHY

The other group of new faces this weekend will come from players returning from injury. Lucas Wallmark, who has 51 points in 43 games this season, is set to return from an injury that sidelined hime for the last five games, as is Clark Bishop. Alex Nedeljkovic is also close to returning from injury, as he’ll make the trip with the team and see how he feels before hitting the ice, while Andrew Miller is good to go after missing the last month with a wrist injury.

All in all, between plyers returning from the NHL and returning from injury, Charlotte’s lineup on Friday will differ greatly from what it’s looked like lately.

“I hope there’s not an adjustment period,” said Vellucci of his revamped roster. “Miller’s coming back and he’s still tied for our leading scorer, we’re getting Z back and he’s still our leading goal scorer, we’re getting Wally back and he’s still tied for the leading scorer. We get that whole line back. They’re so familiar with each other. We’ve been trying to have practices this week that are competitive and game-like so they’re ready to go. But those guys are pros, they’ve been in and out of lineups before, I think they’re ready.”

That mass of players will lead to some tough personnel decision, but in the end the Checkers will be able to field their most talented group of skaters all year.

“We almost had six lines at practice today and every line on the ice was competing and making great plays,” said team captain Patrick Brown. “We’re having a lot of fun.”

“We have a lot of players now, so everyone is going to have to compete hard because if you don’t you’re not going to be in the lineup,” said Vellucci. “We want to win and we’re going to put out our best lineup to do that.”

One player who won’t be ready is Jake Chelios. Originally projected to be ready for the start of the playoffs, Vellucci said that the blue liner was “a ways away” from returning to game acton.

4. KRUGER CHIPS IN

Veteran center Marcus Kruger is fresh off a three-game goal streak, the longest such run of his eight professional seasons in North America. Kruger, who had not played in the AHL since suiting up for Rockford during the 2012-13 campaign, now has a pair of three-game point streaks since joining the Checkers from Carolina on Feb. 10 and has marked eight points (4g, 4a) in 18 games wearing a Charlotte sweater.

Aside from his strong play on the ice, the two-time Stanley Cup champion has found other ways to contribute to his new team.

“Krugs has been great since he’s been here,” said Vellucci. “He’s really mentored the young guys. He’s engaged. We scored an empty-net goal the other night and he was all excited on the bench. He’s a hockey player, he wants to play hockey and he wants to win. I give him a lot of credit for coming down here and being a leader.”

5. ON A ROLL

The Checkers enter this weekend on one of their hottest streaks of the season. They have won five consecutive contests as well as earning at least a point in eight straight, both of which stand as the longest by the team this season.

Despite struggles throughout the season that left the Checkers’ road record lagging behind their home mark, the Checkers have been reinvigorated on the road. Charlotte has picked up a point in six straight road contests, its best stretch of the season.

6. AGAINST THE BRUINS

The Checkers and their Atlantic Division foes have met three previous times this season. Charlotte won going away in the first matchup, blowing out the Bruins 8-2, though the next day featured a significantly tighter contest, with Providence prevailing 2-1. The Bruins would get their proper revenge on the Checkers, however, as Charlotte’s lone trip to Providence in early May ended with the Checkers on the wrong side of a 6-3 defeat.

Austin Czarnik and former league MVP Kenny Agostino have led the way thus far against Charlotte with four point in three meetings, while Josh Hennessy has notched a point in each contest. Between the pipes, Zane McIntyre has gotten the brunt of the work but split his two decisions while logging a goals-against average on less than one. Jordan Binnington started the other contest, holding the Checkers to just one goal against in 65 minutes of play.

For the Checkers, Warren Foegele leads the way with five points in four games against Providence this season, while Sergey Tolchinsky and Trevor Carrick have recorded four and three points in the three-game series thus far, respectively. In the crease, Alex Nedeljkovic split his two appearances against the Bruins this season, though Jeremy Smith was stellar in his one game.

7. CHASING HISTORY

A variety of milestones remain on the table for the Checkers’ final two contests on the road. Valentin Zykov enters the final weekend in a tie with former Checker Chris Terry for the AHL’s goals lead, though four skaters sit one or two goals behind the Russian forward. Should Zykov finish the weekend with more goals than Terry, who has two games remaining on his schedule with the Laval Rocket, he would clinch the AHL’s Willie Marshall award, given to the league’s top goal scorer. Zykov would be the second Willie Marshall winner in franchise history, joining Zach Boychuk from 2013-14.

The Checkers also possess two of the AHL’s top three spots for rookie goal scorers this season, with Warren Foegele sitting with 26 and Aleksi Saarela with 25. Both first-year skaters trail Daniel Sprong’s 30 tallies this season.

Additionally, Philip Samuelsson will look to finish the season with the league’s best plus-minus, an accolade he currently is set to hit, with his +44 rating nine away from the closest competitor. Samuelsson is at least nine ahead of any other AHL player and currently has the highest rating of any player since the 2009-10 campaign when Arturs Kuda and P.K. Subban hut +47 and +46, respectively.

8. GET THE APP

The Checkers app got a fresh new set of paint during the offseason but functions just the same. Follow along with scoring updates as well as play the Top Line interactive game.

You will also be able to listen to the radio broadcast via the app or this link. Jason Shaya’s pregame show starts 15 minutes prior to puck drop, tune in and tweet Jason to let him know you’re listening.