Rochester D and C columnist Kevin Oklobzija caught up with Sabres agitator on-assignment, Pat Kaleta, after his first Amerks practice on Tuesday
Kaleta will make his Rochester
The San Jose Sharks going to be in a snarly mood on Tuesday night. They’ve lost their last two games, but earned a loser point in each.
The reeling Sabres are going to have to play an error free, physical game if they are going to harpoon the Sharks in their tank.
For San Jose, it all begins and ends with their forward. Three of their four centers are leading their team in scoring.
8 C Joe Pavelski 14games 6G 10A 16 pts
39 C Logan Couture 14games 7G 9A 16 pts
12 L Patrick Marleau 14games 8G 7A 15 pts
19 C Joe Thornton 14games 1G 13A 14pts
48 C Tomas Hertl 14games 8G 3A 11 pts
The Sabres will bring their NHL-worst 2-13-1 record into the game. The Sabres have lost their last four games, including the 6-3 drubbing at the hands of the Anaheim Ducks on Saturday night. They’ve lost seven of its last eight, all in regulation play, which means that they haven’t backed in to any loser points via OT or shootout losses.
The Sabres are dead last in the NHL in goals-per game with a 1.56 per game average. Ryan Miller and Jhonas Enroth ate 26th in the league with a 3.06 GAA.
Good teams scores 5 on 5. The Sabres and Sharks are at opposite ends of the 5 on 5 spectrum right now. Buffalo’s .51 goals scored for every goal allowed against is dead last in the NHL, compared with the San Jose who have scored 1.83 goals for every goal surrendered during full-strength play, third in the NHL.
Sharks head coach Todd McLellan has warned his team to not take the Sabres lightly.
“Their record is going to change when they leave here, and it’s either going to get better or worse. It’s our job to make sure that we take care of our record. They are a much more effective team than their record shows,” McLellan said.
“They’ve sorted some things out, has had more time now to put more in place. The games we’ve watched they are a pretty damn good hockey club. If we think any different, their record will improve ”
Long about the time that his Sabres teammates boarded their charter to the Left Coast, Pat Kaleta was clearing through the NHL waiver system.
To call it a culture shock might be the biggest understatement of this century. On Friday, Kaleta was stoked to be eligible to return to the Sabres lineup after serving his debt for his head shot on Jack Johnson. On Saturday he was waived. Then on Sunday he cleared through waivers while his Sabres teammates were flying over Alcatraz Island, just off the coast of San Francisco. Kaleta likely wished that he could escape from his own personal Alcatraz right now.
I'm still wondering how a man can be charged for the same crime twice. Another time, I'll give my opinion on what I think of the NHL's "role" in the AHL demotion of Kaleta. Right now, the task at hand is the evolution of Kaleta's overall game.
His first day on his new job will be Tuesday when he joins his Rochester teammates for the game day skate in preparation for the Montreal Canadiens' AHL affiliate, the Hamilton Bulldogs.
It'll be weird seeing Kaleta rocking his red, white, and blue Amerks sweater, something the former Peterborough Petes standout hasn't done since he matriculated from the AHL to the NHL in January of 2008.
Tuesday is Kaleta's first day of school, so to speak. call it grad school. the 27 year old has already earned his Bachelor of Sciences degree in Pestology. To nobody's surprise, Kaleta has a 4.0 GPA in his major.
Like Rodney Dangerfield, Kaleta gets no respect. Therefore, he's going back to school.
Kaleta isn't a fifty goal scorer and he never will be. He's not going to Rochester to learn how to toe-drag AHL goalies, nor will he be working on his ability to one-time pucks off if saucer passes from the slot. Thats not Kaleta's game.
Professor Cunneyworth is going to remind Kaleta to avoid the chins and head of opponents as he is finishing his trademark checks. While down on the farm in the "585". Kaleta will be coached in the fine art of checking up and slowing himself down before he splatters opponents on the plexi-glass like sand flies on the windshields of cars on the I-90 in August.
Kaleta already moves across every square inch of the 200 by 85, like an F-16 fighter jet at the Niagara Falls Air Show.
Kaleta's feet deliver him to targets on the ice at a rapid rate. he plays the game fast and hard, the way that NHL coaches demand from their players. The way that I understand it, Cunneyworth isn't going to apply a restrictor plate to Kaleta's carburetor. Kaleta's speed is not the issue, its his principle point of contact.
On Sunday, Kevin Oklobzija of the Rochester D and C spoke with Amerks head coach Chadd Cassidy about the new student on the campus of Pegula University.
Cassidy and Cunneyworth are now charged with the task of having to direct Kaleta's aggression and speed, and to curb some of his enthusiasm.
Cassidy said that he has a lot of time and patience for Kaleta.
"It's like changing any other habit; you constantly have to be aware of it," Cassidy said. "It's a high-speed game but when a guy moves the puck and he's vulnerable, you can't finish him."
Randy Cunneyworth was Kaleta's first professional coach. The professor and the student know one another well. Cunney will go back to the future to assist Kaleta in his quest for NHL redemption. To know Cunneyworth is to know that he is a player's coach. His hockey IQ is off the charts. He played 20 seasons in the NHL. He's been a successful head coach in "The A" and most recently with the Montreal Canadiens. Cunney isn't a push over either. He once had the unmitigated gall and audacity to bench an over zealous rookie named PK Subban and was he lambasted for it. Cunney is a teacher and a mentor. he respects the game and wants his players to respect it the way that he does. He's been a positive role model to Kaleta in the past. The two men will get reacquainted on Tuesday.
Cassidy said that AHL Rochester is a great place for Kaleta to be himself.
"And he's not under the microscope of the National Hockey League," Cassidy said.
Cassidy already has an NHL role model that he thinks that Kaleta can pattern his game after in Welland native and NY islander energy forward Cal Clutterbuck.
"Guys like that realize there's a time to back away," he said. "They won't take a run with a guy in a vulnerable position."
Will there be AHL punks who will chirp, slash and try to bait Kaleta into losing his cool and fight? Cassidy thinks so.
"I can almost guarantee that's going to happen," Cassidy said. "That's going to be a part of the game plan for teams when we play them. He has to find a way to not put himself in situations where it can go over the line."
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