Season opener in Manchester

The Monarchs luckily won their home opener against the Worcester Sharks 5:4 (OT shootout). That was "A First!" for the new head coach Marc Morris:

“Whatever it takes,” smiled Morris. “A win's a win no matter how you slice it.”

The full game report at New Hampshire's Union Leader has also this quote from Jason LaBarbera, who made 42 saves on the night and kept the team in the game:

“I hate those (shootouts),” laughed LaBarbera. “It doesn’t matter how many times you do them they’re not fun for the goalie. Fun for the fans and fun for the guys on the bench, but not fun when you’re personally involved.”

I thought LaBamba was so big and tall he could virtually slide to his side on a shootout attempt and cover 3/4 of the net by himself ;). Then again it would not have been any more fun, would it?

Other important game notes from the UL:

Healthy scratches were G Yutaka Fukufuji, LW Dany Roussin and C Gabe Gauthier . Injury scratches were C Matt Ryan (stomach) and D the newly elected team captain Brendan Buckley (upper body) .

Benching Gauthier as HS makes me scratch my head: why would you bench of very few two-way centers this team has? Especially with Ryan already out?

Monarchs next game is at home on October 14 against the Providence Bruins.