Game Preview: Checkers at Hartford (Oct. 5, 2019)

The 2019-20 season is officially here and the Checkers are kicking off the year with a matchup in Hartford. Here's everything you need to know before tonight’s puck drop.

1. TITLE DEFENSE

Saturday marks the Checkers return to the ice after capturing the Calder Cup in Game 5 of the Finals in Chicago this past June. It was the first championship in the franchise’s AHL history.

The Checkers are 5-3-1 all time in season openers, including picking up wins in each of their last two and three of their last four.

Each of the last seven Calder Cup winners have won their season opener the following year.

2. NEW LOOK

The pieces of Charlotte’s championship team were in high demand this summer, leading to turnover and a new look up and down the roster.

Of the 29 players on Charlotte’s current roster, 18 would be making the Checkers debut if they suit up for Saturday’s opener (plus Jacob Pritchard, who played for Charlotte in the postseason but not the regular season).

Despite all the new faces, the Checkers only have three players poised to make their pro debuts: the aforementioned Prtichard, rookie blueliner Chase Priskie and forward Eetu Luostarinen, who has played pro overseas but will be debuting in North America.

3. OH CAPTAIN, MY CAPTAIN

Part of the new look for Charlotte is a new set of captains for the 2019-20 season. Roland McKeown, the longest tenured Checker on the roster, was named the franchise’s sixth captain prior to the season opener, replacing locker room mainstay Patrick Brown.

“He’s been a captain in junior, he’s obviously coming off a championship, he had a really good training camp,” said head coach Ryan Warsofsky. “He’s a true pro, he comes to the rink every day and wants to get better. He works on his craft and speaks up when he needs to. He’s not Patrick Brown, he’s a different leader and that’s ok. Patrice Bergeron is a different leader than Steve Yzerman was. That’s just how it is. I think he’s the right guy for it.”

Alongside McKeown will be a rotating cast of alternate captains including Clark Bishop and veterans Brian Gibbons and Fredrik Claesson.

“Gibbons and Freddy have a lot of experience in the NHL and are older guys who have been through it before and know what it takes to be a pro,” said Warsofsky. “The reason I like Bishop is he plays at an extremely high level. He competes extremely hard and that’s how you have to play night in and night out. He’s not going to be a rah-rah guy either, he’s going to be a guy where Steven Lorentz is sitting on the bench watching him and going ‘Wow, he plays hard. That’s how I need to play.’”

4. AND OUT COME THE WOLVES

Charlotte and Hartford squared off eight times last season and the Checkers held the upper hand, taking seven of those matchups. In fact, the Checkers have won seven consecutive games against the Wolf Pack and three in a row in Hartford.

The Wolf Pack come into the 2019-20 season with several key upgrades though, including former Checker Phil Di Giuseppe, longtime AHL blue-line standout Vincent LoVerde and first-round standout Filip Chytil.

“We know Hartford is going to come out on fire,” said Warsofsky. “They have a new coach (former OHL Erie coach Kris Knoblauch, who spent the last two seasons as an assistant in Philadelphia) and a lot of new faces. We have to set the tone and dictate the pace of the game.”

5. STRONG BETWEEN THE PIPES

Goaltending is looking to be one of the Checkers’ biggest strengths heading into the new season. A big reason for that is the return of Alex Nedeljkovic, the reigning AHL Goalie of the Year. After leading the AHL in wins and goals-against average, Nedeljkovic is set to continue his run atop the league.

Joining him the tandem is Anton Forsberg, an established talent who has experience at both the AHL and NHL levels and has a Calder Cup of his own. On the other side for Hartford is a pair of European-born draft picks making the full-time jump to North America for the first time in Adam Huska and Igor Shestyorkin, the former of which appeared in nine games at the end of last season, including a loss to Charlotte in which he allowed six goals.

6. TUNE IN

You can tune in to every broadcast this season with a subscription to the league’s streaming platform AHLTV. For this weekend, however, the league is letting you tune in for free!

As always, the radio broadcast will be available via the Checkers app or this link, so tune in and tweet Jason Shaya to let him know you’re listening!