Peoria mid-season review

PEORIA, Ill – Jared Bednar’s rookie season could hardly be going better. His Peoria Rivermen stand atop the Western Conference and have established themselves as the team to beat in the extremely competitive Western Division.
Bednar was dealt a pretty good hand when he was hired this summer. The St. Louis Blues had stocked their farm team with highly regarded rookies and some seasoned veteran talent. While that roster has gone through some changes, it has almost exclusively been due to injuries at the NHL level and the call-ups from the Rivermen that come when the NHL team needed to fill a hole in their roster.
Halfway through the season, eleven different players have been called up by the St. Louis Blues. While some stays have been as brief as three games, others have been given serious looks by the big league club.

Phil McRae has gone from looking a bit overmatched in the AHL to an NHL call-up. Ian Cole is auditioning for a full-time role with the Note. Nathan Oystrick looks like he will be skating a lot of minutes for the Blues in coming years. Ryan Reaves leaves a big hole in the Rivermen lineup as he fills one for the Blues.
A lot of the success can be credited with coaching or scouting. For instance, whether an individual or organization decision the handling of rookie goaltending phenom Jake Allen has been excellent. Fans were asking when they would get to see this touted youngster between the pipes, as the team rode Ben Bishop out of training camp and into the first weeks of the season. Allen was eased in, gradually. He showed talent, then brilliance and followed that up by looking like he was, indeed, very human. That first bad outing was followed up by more brilliance, which demonstrated he could also bounce back. He is now proving he can be relied upon to carry a growing workload. The Rivermen have been riding the rookie to the top of the standings and are looking for him to keep them there.
Derek Nesbitt is a scouting gem. Without a doubt, Nesbitt has been money – found money – for the Rivermen since he was signed out of ECHL Gwinnett about a dozen games into the season. He has played himself from the ECHL level into the NHL conversation. At almost a point per game (22 points in 26 games), he averages out to be the #2 scorer on the team, behind only TJ Hensick (37 points in 31 games) and shouldered the goal scoring load when Hensick was called up. The simple fact is, the best scoring line the Rivermen have is Hensick, Nesbitt and anybody else.
Bednar still has his work cut out for him. There’s plenty on the To-Do list.
Consistency – The team has been caught playing soft some nights. When they check hard and play with energy, they win.
Discipline – Too many penalties, including “Too Many Men on the Ice” penalties. Staying out of the box is a priority
Special Projects
– Focus Graham Mink and keep him out of the penalty box and in front of the net
– Adapting European players to the North American game
– Finding the agitator in Stefan Della Rovere
– Discover the team’s new “Ryan Reaves” – hard checking, drop the gloves and score the occasional goal kind of guy
Off the ice, the front office has been doing a top notch job, as well. Currently 14th in the 30 team league in attendance at 4,777 fans per game, the Rivermen would like to push into the top ten. They’re making a run for that, broadening the event appeal beyond the 60 minutes of hockey. For those that take in a lot of games, there has been variety in music and activities from game to game. From Ice Girls to inflatables, from toilet races to T-shirts and from the press box to game operations and the box office, the team is doing more to draw families that have increasingly shrinking discretionary budgets.
The first half is over though, the team must now gear up to grind down the stretch. The first place Rivermen want to stay there, and there are an even dozen teams within ten points of them in the Western Conference standings. While the front office is working hard to find another 500 fans per game, the coaching staff continues to develop players for the NHL.
The quest for the Calder Cup begins in April. In three months, the Rivermen will find out if January success translates to April (and May) success.
Contact the author: Shaun.Bill@ProHockeyNews.com Photographer at Chirs.Loudermilk@prohockeynews.com