Heat 2011/12 Season

[jjgallow 547]

So far, the most promising player I see is Leland Irving.

I do believe he is they key for them right now.

Still (not to be a jerk), I think he needs to raise the level of his game one more notch.

Three seasons ago, he looked like he might be the next great NHL goaltender. Then his performance dramatically fell off (it happens). He's back to that performance level of three years ago, in fact he's probably a little better. It no longer puts him on pace to take the NHL by storm, but he is still young. I'm hoping to see him raise his level just one more time, either this year or next. I believe his capacity for greatness is there, and he still has some time.

As for everyone else...well, they're winning. They must be doing something right.

[kutarna 56]

Looks like the Heat are in for a better year than their senior club. Does this bode well for the future? (I hope so)

[djdavid 2]

Heat lose 3-2 with a last minute goal by the Barons, they were up 2-0 going into the third but after giving up their first of the night were immediatley lit up again on the next shift, very poor response. Byron and Kolanos scored for the Heat who now drop to 7-4-0.

[l695167002 2]

whats happening to Ryan Howse.....only taken 4 shots so far

[djdavid 2]

The Heat win today to extend their streak to 3 games and improve to 10-4-1 (Tied for second in the leauge). Irving with 35 saves in the 3-1 win, Raitis Ivanins scores his first AHL goal while John Rheault is on fire potting in 2 goals for the second time in 3 nights. I haven't been on the boards much, but here's a fun fact for you all...Irving is now sitting at an ABSOLUTELY REDICULOUS .875 shootout save percentage after blanking Texas on friday.

[Ring-a-ding-dong-dandy 197]

The Heat win today to extend their streak to 3 games and improve to 10-4-1 (Tied for second in the leauge). Irving with 35 saves in the 3-1 win, Raitis Ivanins scores his first AHL goal while John Rheault is on fire potting in 2 goals for the second time in 3 nights. I haven't been on the boards much, but here's a fun fact for you all...Irving is now sitting at an ABSOLUTELY REDICULOUS .875 shootout save percentage after blanking Texas on friday.

it was actually Ivanans 6th AHL goal (in his career), but I know you meant this season

[djdavid 2]

Nah, actually figured it was his First overall...thought we'd got him from a Euro leauge originally...oh well though, first with the Heat haha

[Ring-a-ding-dong-dandy 197]

Nah, actually figured it was his First overall...thought we'd got him from a Euro leauge originally...oh well though, first with the Heat haha

Ivanans was with the Kings for a few years and has been in North America since at least the 96-97 season. Ivanans took a long hard road to the NHL working his way up from the United and Central Hockey Leagues (4 years in those leagues). Then spent a two years in the ECHL and then 4 years in the AHL before making the Kings as a regular in his 11th pro season.

[Ring-a-ding-dong-dandy 197]

It's a bit since I updated, but here are some new Heat Tidbits.

As of 6:30pm on Nov. 15th

Abbotsford is 11-4-1 on the season which is currently good enough for 1st in the West Division and 1st in the Western Conference (in both points and winning percentage). They are 2nd in the AHL to the Ice Caps who are 11-2-3.

The Heat have a PP of 25.8% which is the 6th best in the AHL. Their PK is 87.3% which sits 3rd in the league.

Krys Kolanos sits 9th in the AHL in Points with 16 and 6th in Goals with 9, despite playing only 8 games thus far.

Greg Nemisz currently sits tied for 13th in AHL scoring with 15 points in 16 games.

Both Mitch Wahl and John Negrin have been recalled to the Heat from the Utah Grizzlies after producing at or near a point per game in the ECHL, Wahl has played 5 games and Negrin 4 although both are still pointless in the AHL. This is both players first AHL action since suffering very serious injuries last season a fact that I believe cannot be understated.

Christopher Breen is a team worst -8, this is a little scary based on the fact no one else on the Heat roster is worse than -2.

Desbiens leads the Heat with 38 penalty minutes.

Leland Irving is 4th in the AHL with a 1.98 GAA, of the players ahead of him 2 have played 6 or fewer games. Irving is also 7th in save%, 3 of the 6 ahead of him have played fewer than half their teams games. He is also first in wins, minutes and tied for 1st in shutouts.

Joni Ortio's numbers are not impressive at all. After 3 games (2 in relief) he has a GAA of 3.09 and a Save% of .881 however is new mask if extremely impressive.

[C_worthy 402]

After a split Friday and Saturday with OKC, Irving pitched another shutout today as the Heat won 1-0 in a shootout in Houston.

The win leaves the Heat alone in 1st in the division and the conference.

Irving's numbers: 1.94 GAA .927 SP

Those 3 games were against the 2nd and 3rd place teams in the conference, with Byron and Brodie pulled from the lineup. They are doing something right in Abby.

[cross16 2,608]

Leland Irving has been named AHL player of the week. He currently ranks 4th in the AHL in GAA, 10th in SAA (which is huge IMO because last year he never ranked this high), and and is 4th in Save % of goalies who have played more than 10 games. He once again is by far the leader in minutes played and thus is easily the leader in Wins as well.

Very nice to see him take a step forward based on last year. I think it may be tough to keep him in the AHL for another year.

[C_worthy 402]

Very nice to see him take a step forward based on last year. I think it may be tough to keep him in the AHL for another year.

I was thinking about that too. If he keeps this up, he simply needs to get promoted.

And with both Kipper and Karlsson under contract for next year, it might get interesting

[cross16 2,608]

I was thinking about that too. If he keeps this up, he simply needs to get promoted.

And with both Kipper and Karlsson under contract for next year, it might get interesting

I hope this doesn't start a rumor, glaring at you Eklund or Eklund user, becuase I have no support but it would not shock me to see Irving move on if Brent is still the coach.

I remember being so suprised that going into Irving's second chance at the World Juniors that we wasn't labelled the favorte to be the starter, and I remember reading a blog by Mackenzie that there were some questions about Irving that came up after the Summit Series (where Brent was the coach). I remember reaidng that that coaching staff had some questions about Irving's preparation level and his focus on the game and it was part of the reason he was played less than the other goalies, althought IMO he was as good if not better. Brent was obviuosly the coach then, and the reason that I bring this up is I've heard him being very praising of karlsson and yet have heard little in the way of Irving from Brent. Maybe i'm not remembering correctly, but would not shock me if Brent has a bad taste in his mouth from Irving that stems from that Summit Series and thus he would be reluctant to give him a shot based off of that.

Just a thought, and I don't want to turn this into a bash Brent sutter thread. I just know the Sutter's as a people are known to have their favorties as we all are. Just complicates things when you have two goalies ahead of him, but with the way it is looking he will be too good for the AHL next season.

[DirtyDeeds 2,596]

I hope this doesn't start a rumor, glaring at you Eklund or Eklund user, becuase I have no support but it would not shock me to see Irving move on if Brent is still the coach.

I remember being so suprised that going into Irving's second chance at the World Juniors that we wasn't labelled the favorte to be the starter, and I remember reading a blog by Mackenzie that there were some questions about Irving that came up after the Summit Series (where Brent was the coach). I remember reaidng that that coaching staff had some questions about Irving's preparation level and his focus on the game and it was part of the reason he was played less than the other goalies, althought IMO he was as good if not better. Brent was obviuosly the coach then, and the reason that I bring this up is I've heard him being very praising of karlsson and yet have heard little in the way of Irving from Brent. Maybe i'm not remembering correctly, but would not shock me if Brent has a bad taste in his mouth from Irving that stems from that Summit Series and thus he would be reluctant to give him a shot based off of that.

Just a thought, and I don't want to turn this into a bash Brent sutter thread. I just know the Sutter's as a people are known to have their favorties as we all are. Just complicates things when you have two goalies ahead of him, but with the way it is looking he will be too good for the AHL next season.

This sounds suspiciously like Cory Schneider a few years back, with the difference being Roberto Luongo was much younger than Kipper is today.

The solution is you treat him Irving as a top prospect and resign him with the intention of him becoming a starter. Karlsson has not proven he will become a starter, so far just a reasonable backup. Smart man would give Karlsson the starts this year to make that decision. Is this basket where you want to put your future eggs?

[cannedice99 10]

My turn for a Heat update.

The team returns from their season-high 7-game road trip, going 6-1-0 in the process. Irving had two shutouts, and it's a good reason why he was named Player of the Week. He started 18 of the first 19 games this season, and leads the AHL in wins, minutes played and shutouts, and ranks fourth with a 1.94 GAA and 10th with a .927 S%. All in all, pretty nice numbers so far. There's also a nice feature article on theahl.com here

Mitch Wahl has been loaned to the Hamilton Bulldogs for the remainder of the year. It's more a case of the Heat being too deep at centre, and Wahl playing in the ECHL.

Kolanos is now an official member of the Heat. After his PTO contract expired Nov. 11, two days later he signed a standard AHL contract for the remainder of the year.

[Bigboi69 1]

Well Abbotsford and Leland Irving are off to a great start. The Heat won their season opener on Friday with a 2-1 win,they followed that up with a 1-0 win Saturday night. Both wins were over the Lake Erie Monsters, which are the Avalanche's AHL affiliate. We are currently 1 of 4 teams off to a 2-0-0 start.

Point getter? Nice grammar and shots on goals? You mean shots no goal not plural

Currently Irving's stat line is 2-0-0 with a 0.50 GAA and .976 SV%

The team's leading point getter is Nemisz who has 1 goal and 1 assist. Byron and Sylvester have the other 2 Heat goals so far this season and Desbiens, Laing, Mikkelson, Walter and Wilson have all tallied 1 assist each.

Byron leads the team with 11 PIM and Nemisz leads the team with 7 shots on goals.

Prospects Mitch Wahl, John Negrin & Carter Bancks have yet to dress

Point getter? And shots on goals ? Nice grammar and it's shots on goal , not plural.

[Ring-a-ding-dong-dandy 197]

Point getter? And shots on goals ? Nice grammar and it's shots on goal , not plural.

you also don't leave a space prior to a comma. Nice grammar.

[Jens-1 15]

Congratulations to the Heat for making the Playoffs the second straight year!

Hopefully they are going to make a nice run!

Go Heat Go

[Ring-a-ding-dong-dandy 197]

Congratulations to the Heat for making the Playoffs the second straight year!

Hopefully they are going to make a nice run!

Go Heat Go

they actually missed last year and made it the year before

and I am expecting big things from them in the playoffs

[Jens-1 15]

they actually missed last year and made it the year before

and I am expecting big things from them in the playoffs

Correct, my fault. I could have sworn that it was last year that they made the Playoffs....sometimes it's unbelievable to see how fast the time is running.....

Yeah I expect them to be deep in the playoffs this year.

[Ring-a-ding-dong-dandy 197]

Abbotsford starts their round 1 best of 5 series with Milwaukee on Friday in Milkwaukee. The Heat play the first 2 games on the road then the remaining 3 (if needed) in Abbotsford.

[cross16 2,608]

Going in on a 7 game win streak too. Have been playing extremely well once they got some roster continuity

[Jens-1 15]

It's playoff time tonight for the Heat. I'm really looking forward to this game. Should be an exciting series.

Ward says he wants to go with Danny Taylor in net tonight.

[C_worthy 402]

is it on anywhere? streaming?

[Louis23 177]

Why the f*ck would Taylor be in net and not Irving? That's just stupid. Every team with a goalie like Irving and their farm in the playoff would definitly play him at all cost(ie. PRice with Hamilton). When it's your future goalie, you want him to show how good he is and give him confidence with a possible run at the calder cup. That should have been a management decision if Troy Ward didn't want to play Irving, he should have been forced to do so by Feaster... that's just a wasted opportunity for Irving to progress in his development. Taylor will never see NHL time with the flames, ever..