WITH GRIFFINS HEAD COACH CURT FRASER
alance – it is the hallmark of many successful hockey teams.
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one player cannot carry an entire club no matter how good he may be. although coaches love guys who can put the puck into the net, they also appreciate the contributions of the puck-pushing power play quarterback, the ferocious forechecker and the pesky penalty-killing specialist. Coaches value the balance of youth and experience. While younger players can provide the energy and enthusiasm to propel a team to great things, veterans can offer leadership, along with the knowledge and experience that only comes with years of play. e Griffins will enter the season with an exciting contingent of dynamic rookies – Brendan smith, Brian lashoff and Brent raedeke – to go with solid veterans such as Doug Janik, Greg amadio, Jamie Johnson and Chris Minard. e team feels it is well-positioned for a rebound from a disappointing 2009-10. one area in particular where head coach Curt Fraser feels the Griffins should be stronger is netminding. “Having two young players (Daniel larsson and omas McCollum) in goal last season presented a bit of a challenge,” Fraser said. “When they both started to struggle, there was no one with experience to stabilize everything.” e return of Joey MacDonald this season should pay dividends. since leaving Grand rapids in early 2007, the veteran goaltender has seen nHl action with the Detroit red Wings, Boston Bruins, new york islanders and Toronto Maple leafs. His 88 career wins as a Griffin still rank second only to Jimmy Howard’s 90, while his 16 shutouts remain the all-time best. “We think Joey gives us some stability in net,” Fraser said. “When things are going well, we know he’ll want to push (himself and McCollum) and when things aren’t so good, he’ll be the one that helps us get back on track. He’s the type of player who’s going to settle everyone down. We hope Joey can keep Tommy playing at a real high level the whole year.” How well the goaltenders perform will depend in part on the play of the Griffins’ defensive unit, a group that epitomizes the balance of youth and experience. Expectations are high for smith, a highly skilled blueliner who was a Hobey Baker award candidate for college player of the year last season with the university of Wisconsin, and lashoff, who has played six games for
the Griffins in each of the last two seasons plus eight games in the playoffs two years ago. e pair will watch, listen and learn from a couple of well-traveled defensemen. Janik was re-signed by the red Wings aer splitting his time last season between Detroit and Grand rapids. amadio, meanwhile, returns with back-to-back Calder Cup titles in Hershey on his resume and a desire to repeat the experience while playing in Van andel arena. “you really need good leadership from guys who have been around,” Fraser said. “When Janik was called up last year aer the Wings got the injury bug, we really missed him and that’s when our struggles started. is year we think we’re going to have some really good leaders who can help these young kids.” success breeds success, and there is no better place to learn the secrets of success than Detroit and Grand rapids. “When young players get to hang around veterans like (nicklas) lidstrom and (Kris) Draper, they get to see where they are at and where they need to be. ere are no better examples to follow into the pros than these guys, and to be able to have our young guys sit beside them is fantastic.” in the end, however, it may not be the rookies or the veterans who make the difference. Fraser said it is important that a group of second- and third-year pros shows significant improvement in its play this season. Jan Mursak and Tomas Tatar, for example, need to build on strong seasons a year ago when they scored 24 and 16 goals, respectively. “We’re looking for guys like Frankie Pare, Cory Emmerton, logan Pyatt and sergei Kolosov to take a big step up,” Fraser said. “if we get them to raise it another level, we think we’ll be very competitive.” Fraser is excited about his third season in Grand rapids. shortly aer the midpoint of the 2010-11 season, he will become the longest tenured coach in Griffins history. “We’re going to have a good, strong unit and it looks like we’re going to be a really entertaining hockey team,” he said.
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