'He's here to play' | Savoie available for Amerks during Conference Final
Sabres assign Savoie to Rochester following WHL season
ByJon Rudder @JonRudder / Sabres.com
When the Buffalo Sabres assigned Matt Savoie to Rochester this past weekend, many hockey fans in Western New York were asking the same question.
Monday morning, Amerks coach Seth Appert answered it.
"Matt Savoie is here to play," Appert said.
The Sabres assigned Savoie to Rochester on Sunday, shortly after he wrapped up his junior season in the WHL. The ninth-overall pick in the 2022 NHL Draft joins fellow prospect Olivier Nadeau (fourth round, 2021) with the Amerks.
Appert said both Savoie and Nadeau (Noah Ostlund was also in Rochester briefly, but is rehabbing an injury and has returned to Sweden) are available to play in the Eastern Conference Finals against the Hershey Bears.
"Nadeau's here fighting for ice time," Appert said. "If Ostlund was healthy, he would have been the same... When we get [Savoie] acclimated, we'll see him in the lineup."
— Rochester Americans (@AmerksHockey) May 22, 2023
The 19-year-old scored 49 goals and 124 points in 81 games between the regular season and playoffs with Winnipeg, whose season ended in the WHL championship on Friday. Life has been a blur for Savoie since then, traveling from Seattle to Winnipeg and then to Rochester, before the Amerks embarked for Hershey on Monday afternoon.
"Friday was definitely emotional with my teammates," Savoie said. "The group we have there in Winnipeg has been really special and is the tightest team I've ever been a part of."
Leaving a group he had bonded so tightly with was difficult for Savoie, but he joins a tight-knit group in Rochester prepping for their first Conference Finals appearance in the Calder Cup Playoffs since 2004. The Amerks swept Toronto in the North Division Finals to set up a matchup with the Bears.
"Coming in here, it's the same message," Savoie said. "This team is competing for a championship and I'm just trying to do anything I can to try to help them win."
Savoie's offseason program will take a back seat for a second consecutive summer, but this time it's for good reason. He injured his shoulder in the WHL playoffs last season, but thankfully the injury didn't require surgery.
"I didn't get a lot of training last summer just rehabbing my shoulder," Savoie said. "I think as I got more workouts in, even inseason I got those games in where I kind of missed out on in the summer, in the second half of the season I felt stronger and felt faster."
The setback didn't knock him out of the Sabres' training camp, which he credits as giving him the swagger to succeed this season. Savoie sensed a big shift in the Sabres culture that he's noticed at every level.
"There were a lot of good people in the dressing room that were pushing the bus in the right direction," Savoie said. "Even Rochester, I got to know a lot of these guys at camp a little bit. It was good to see them have a lot of success this year and really find their stride."
Like the Amerks, Savoie's season took some time to get revved up but hit its top speed when it mattered most.
"Going back to the Western League I think I had a lot of confidence early on and then felt the effects of not having that summer of full training and getting stronger and getting faster," Savoie said.
Savoie isn't eligible to play with the Amerks next season, forcing him to return to his junior team in Winnipeg if he doesn't make the NHL roster next fall. He joins a talented group of young forwards that includes fellow first-round picks Jiri Kulich and Isak Rosen, both of whom helped carry the Amerks to the third round.
"What I've seen from him is that he's an elite hockey player. There's a reason he was a top-ten pick," Appert said. "We anticipate him being available for us at some point in this series. When that is, it's hard to predict. We want to place him in positions to be successful and also help the team be successful."
Unfamiliar Faces
The Amerks split the season series with the Bears, taking a 2-1 loss on March 18 before a dramatic, come-from-behind 4-3 shootout win on March 24. Appert credited the split with Hershey as the driving force that has fueled the Amerks down the stretch and into the playoffs.
"We had been playing well for about ten games, 15 games leading up to that," Appert said. "I think our guys gained even more belief in ourselves from how well we played against them in those two matchups in back-to-back weeks."
The best-of-seven series begins on Tuesday, May 23 at Giant Center in Hershey, Pennsylvania. The first home game in Rochester will be Saturday, May 27 at Blue Cross Arena. The Bears roster represents a stark crontrast to the youth-fulled lineup the Amerks will put on the ice.
"I thought they were the best team in the Eastern Conference," Appert said. "They've got a really good team. They're older, they're deep. Really good coach, Todd Nelson has won in this league for a long time. We know we'll have our hands full."
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Power Surge
Rochester finished the Division Finals going 7-for-11 on the power play, including a perfect 3-for-3 in the series-clinching victory in Game 3. The Amerks scored at least two power-play goals in each of the three Division Finals games against the Marlies and at least one power-play goal in six straight games.
The Amerks are a combined 12-for-29 with the man advantage during the playoffs. They boast the top-ranked power play among the remaining teams in the postseason with a 41.1-percent conversion rate.
"We struggled a little bit during the season and got it together before the playoffs," Rosen said. "Just taking that confidence to every game we play now. It helped us to win those three games against Toronto, to get all of those power-play goals we had."
Rosen has scored six points on the power play and his partnership with Kulich on the man advantage has produced a lethal unit. Kulich has scored goals in six straight games, four of which have come on the power play.
Brian Duff examines the Amerks' dynamic duo that has led Rochester's resurgence in the Calder Cup Playoffs
Center Mason Jobst extended his point streak to six games with a pair of assists in the Amerks' Game 3 win over Toronto. Jobst's sixth multi-point game is tied for the longest active point streak in the AHL. He also is the Amerks' leading scoring this postseason with 11 points (2+9) in eight games.
Appert said he believed Jobst was capable of this type of production two years ago when the Amerks signed him, it just took some time and a boost of confidence to coax it out of him.
"Mason Jobst spends as much or more time as anyone doing extra work; being in the shooting room, working on his decision making and working on his shot," Appert said. "He has the talent, he has the competitiveness. He's put in the work. When you do that and you're in games, you just want to trust yourself and let it fly and play."
Injury Update
Linus Weissbach, who missed the Amerks' Game 3 win over Toronto with an injury, is expected to play in the series against Hershey. Brando Biro remains out for the season after undergoing surgery.
