Again, since it went up in the middle of the night on a holiday, I’ll just mention our Fake Team Awards, in case you didn’t see them. And don’t forget, we’re chatting Tuesday at 1:30.
Have heard/seen a few different variations on some of these the past few days, and I guess these may also help some people who’ve been focused on the Big Club, so…
—Is there a separate playoff roster in the AHL? No: They’re dealing with the same rules they’ve been dealing with for five weeks since Clear Day. Those same lists apply to the playoffs as they’ve applied to the end of the regular season, and the same emergency-conditions rules apply; they’re hopefully spelled out somewhat helpfully at that link.
—What about John Persson, Brock Nelson, Mike Halmo? They’re not on the list; are they OK for the playoffs? Just like the regular season, players on amateur tryouts are always eligible to play. Bridgeport doesn’t have to be in the emergency for them to play.
—Why can’t a guy like Dylan Reese come back for the playoffs? He played almost as many games here as there. It goes back to those rules at the NHL trade deadline, which in Reese’s case are first and foremost parts of the NHL collective bargaining agreement. If a player is still in the NHL at the deadline, he can’t be sent down again (which is why the Islanders briefly assigned Casey Cizikas and David Ullstrom to Bridgeport that day). Reese was up for over a month and would’ve had to clear waivers to be sent down. But he was on injured reserve at the deadline, which meant he couldn’t be placed on waivers or assigned to the minors. Because he was up at the deadline, he couldn’t be sent any time thereafter. AHL games played doesn’t affect his* eligibility for the Clear Day list**, but he simply wasn’t eligible to be sent to the team.
—Where’s Casey Cizikas? Injured, so he can’t be sent down until he’s medically cleared. To answer the follow-up, it doesn’t matter when he’s cleared; he can come back anytime as long as Bridgeport is still playing. In his season-wrap chat, Arthur Staple says (see 2:11) that Cizikas expects to be ready for the playoffs.
Really, until they decide the Stanley Cup and Calder Cup champions, the rules governing who can go up or down are pretty much identical to the way they’ve been since the deadline***, and the rules governing who can play here are pretty much identical to the way they’ve been since Clear Day. The only remaining player on the NHL roster who can be sent down is Cizikas, after they sent Micheal Haley and Matt Donovan down on Sunday. The veterans rule also remains in effect, though with only Jeremy Colliton, Trevor Frischmon and Trevor Gillies qualifying, it won’t affect Bridgeport.
—Are any rules different? Oh, brother, I can’t wait until Sunday night, when I can whack “Shootout –” out of my box-score template. Seriously, though, if you happen to be new to this whole thing, in the playoffs, rather than play tiebreaker hockey with a brief four-on-four and a shootout, they’ll basically just keep playing real hockey: five-on-five, in 20-minute periods, until somebody scores, and if it takes one of those periods, two of those periods, five of those periods, however many periods it takes… Oh, man, just wait. There is, and I swear I say this without sarcasm or cynicism, nothing like it in the world. Five playoff games around the AHL got to a second overtime last year; one of those got to triple overtime and became the longest Game 7 in AHL history (and ended right off the third-OT draw). Bridgeport hasn’t played a double-overtime game since the final game of the 2002 AHL season. I may regret saying this, but… boy, would it be fun to see another.
—Will we still hear “Call Me, Maybe” in the playoffs? Probably about 9 million times. And that’s just the first round.
If I’ve lost you on any of this, or if you’ve got something that wasn’t covered, (a) sorry; (2) drop a comment or swing by the chat at 1:30.
*-Or anyone’s: see KOLTSOV, Konstantin (2004); BAILEY, Josh (2010)
**-I believe there is a games-played rule along those lines in the ECHL for players on AHL contracts, but I can’t chapter-and-verse it anymore, if indeed I ever did have a handle on it. Five ECHL games, I think it was a couple of years ago, with an exemption or two. Topic for another time.
***-Adding this one in the morning: One little exception is that once a player’s AHL team is eliminated and its season ends, his NHL club can call him up without limitation; there’s no longer a four-recall rule after an AHL team is done.