Some of you may recall that on August 18, I promised that the following week would be Lake Erie Monsters Week At Get Higher (LEMWAGH) and that the week after would be Denver Cutthroats Week On Get Higher (DCWOGH). While I think LEMWAGH was essentially executed, I basically forgot about DCWOGH. Mea culpa, my friends. Today I make amends.
The Denver Cutthroats are a brand new Central Hockey League team located in, you guessed it, Denver. This summer, the team signed an affiliation agreement with the Colorado Avalanche. This means that while the team is free to sign their own players, there will also be some players drafted or contractually tied to the Avalanche organization on the roster.
As of right now, the roster consists of 15 players, 5 defensemen and 10 forwards. The team has yet to add any official members of the Avalanche family to it’s rank, but it is expected that both goaltenders will be Avalanche property. (Calvin Pickard, Sami Aittokallio, Kent Patterson, and Kieran Millan are the four goalies expected to be split between Lake Erie and Denver.)
The team name, “Cutthroats,” comes from the State fish of Colorado, the Cutthroat Trout. Apparently, this fish is named Cutthroat due to the reddish coloring at the base of the throat, looking as if the throat was cut. (I was a bit disapointed to discover this, personally, I was hoping it was named a Cutthroat because it had a particularly evil gleam in it’s eyes. Alas, the fish is the one with the cut throat, not the one being cut throat.) I skimmed the rest of the wikipedia page, but was rather unimpressed with my other findings. If you wish to learn more about a specific type of fish, by all means, google search “cutthroat trout” and research to your heart’s delight. I myself, will go back to researching servils.
The Cutthroats schedule was released in the past few days (I am now back to referring to the team, as the fish probably do not have a specific schedule to stick to.) The team opens it’s season at home, on the 19th of October. Three out of the first four games will be played at home during the month of October. In October, the team will spend 9/14 games at home, and split the five road games between Arizona and Rapid City. December is yet another month in which the team will play the majority of time at home, including a six game homestand just before Christmas. January will be spent entirely on the road, as the team plays 11 games. On February 1 (my birthday!) the team returns home to a month in which the team will play 9/12 games at home. The final month of March will be played mostly in other team’s arenas, with 7 away games. The last six games of the season will be played on the road, so the final game of the season at the home will come early. Overall, it seems like a good schedule. If the team can capitalize on all of the time spent at home early in the season, they should set themselves up to be in a strong, comfortable position down the stretch.
