The weekly Springfield Falcons webisode was posted on the Falcons website on Thursday.
The final webisode prior to the start of the American Hockey League regular season is a brisk nine minute chat with Falcons coach Rob Riley.
Coach Riley enters his second season as leader of the Falcons. This week he touches on a variety of subjects including comments on the recently concluded preseason games.
Riley also discusses player movement, both into and out of Springfield. The result is a lot of work on team systems, but because a recently arrived player might need more work, it means longer practices.
The coach then speaks to seeing some of the highly regarded players who were signed by the Blue Jackets during a busy summer.
Commenting by position, Riley briefly evaluates how the Falcons stack up at goal, forward and defense. Going one step further he reveals that the currently planned defensive combinations look like this:
1 – Nick Holden & Cody Goloubef
2 – John Moore & Dalton Prout
3 – Brent Regner & Anton Blomqvist or Steven Delisle
After the key injuries up top and the suspension to Wiz, Riley anticipates the Falcons roster stabilizing in “a couple weeks”.
The Falcons open the season tonight in Manchester, NH when they take on the Los Angeles Kings AHL affiliate, the Monarchs. Coach Riley says that due to the depth of the Kings, the Monarchs were the Falcons toughest opponent last season. He expects that to be the same this season.
Lastly, Riley addresses the question of captain and alternates. There is a group of veteran players in place and ultimately, the players will choose their on ice leadership.