Curran article, and a few quotes that didn’t make the paper.

In case you missed it, Chris Curran’s comeback is complete: http://www.sbsun.com/sports/ci_13898271

Only twice as a reporter have I seen a player leave a hockey rink in a stretcher. One was Curran, the other was James Wisniewski in last year’s Stanley Cup playoffs. Wisniewski suffered a lung contusion but only missed one game. So I asked Karl Taylor if it was the worst injury he had seen as a coach; turns out he once had a player nearly swallow his tongue and die … never mind.

Here’s what else Taylor had to say about Curran:
Continue reading “Curran article, and a few quotes that didn’t make the paper.” »

Reign: Voce to injured reserve

Tony Voce, the Reign’s second-leading goal scorer, has been placed on 7-day injured reserve in advance of the team’s two-game series in Victoria. The winger was held out of practice earlier this week with an injury, replaced in Monday’s skate by Chris Curran on a line with Jon Francisco and Greg Hogeboom.

Curran, who has not played a game this season as he recovers from a leg fracture, is close to making his debut and could spell Voce on Friday and Saturday against the Salmon Kings.

Reign at Las Vegas, 7 p.m. tonight. Update.

As with any sport, the value of an ECHL preseason game lies less in getting a win as much as assessing the team’s talent, deciding who to keep and who to cut.

“We’ll try to get everybody in and if not, oh well. That’s life,” Reign coach Karl Taylor said.

In a way, this is an even more delicate exercise in the ECHL, with so much turnover from year to year (although the Reign have a particularly high retention rate — 12 of the 30 players who appeared in a game last season are back). But for more than half of his 27 players, Karl Taylor has no frame of reference for how they’ll execute for him in a game. On the other hand, there can be as much turnover during the ECHL season as the off-season because of AHL recalls, injuries, trades, and the occasional roster cut. Maybe none of the players on tonight’s roster will make it through to the end of the season in Ontario.

That said, here they are:
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Reign camp notes, Day 1.

Here are some quick hits from this morning’s practice at Center Ice Arena. Look for more in tomorrow’s editions …

— The returning players we spotted on the ice: Jon Francisco, Jon Rheault, Todd Jackson, Mike Howe, Tim Kraus, Doug Spooner, Chris Curran, Shawn Germain, Chad Starling, Andrew Martens and David Walker.

— Twenty-three players were on the ice in total, including Curran, who doesn’t look like he’s been cleared for contact. Tony Voce, who spent the past two seasons in Europe following a promising start in the AHL, is also under contract but in an AHL camp. Geoff Walker is still in Manchester. Another three players were held out due to various injuries.

— Generally speaking, the team is bigger and in better shape than it was a year ago. All the returning players seem physically trim; combine that with a few haircuts (notably Chad Starling, Shawn Germain and Doug Spooner), and this is a team that should be flying up and down the ice.

— Huntington Beach native Cameron Cepek, a defenseman who was selected in the seventh round of the 2006 NHL draft by Montreal, was a late roster addition.

— The team has a full day of off-ice events planned for Saturday, including some time at the beach and at the Kings’ game against the Phoenix Coyotes.