Our thoughts are with the Albany River Rats

Friday Update from Jennifer Bock:

“The Rats are currently recouperating. At last report 4 players – Casey Borer, Joe Jensen, Nicolas Blanchard and Jonathan Paiement – and color commentator John Hennessey remained at Berkshire Medical Center with non-life threatening and, from what’s been reported, non-career ending injuries. The rest of the team arrived home in Albany around 11:30am yesterday morning. The media hasn’t spoken to the team itself but has had almost constant contact with Coach Jeff Daniels. Tonights game against the Bridgeport Sound Tigers has been rescheduled to March 31st. The game against the Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins has been left up to the players and information as to whether it will run as scheduled will be forthcoming after 1pm today. Additional information or previous reports can be found at:http://cms.dailygazette.com/weblogs/janack/”

It might have come to your attention that there was a serious accident when the bus carrying Carolina Hurricanes affiliate Albany River Rats rolled last night. Regular updates are being provided by Phil Janack who reported:

“The team bus carrying players, coaches and staff members of the Albany River Rats flipped onto its side early this morning on the way home from Wednesday night’s game in Lowell, Mass.”
“Defensemen Casey Borer, 23; forward Nicolas Blanchard, 21; forward Joe Jensen, 26; and defenseman Jonathan Paiement, 23, are being kept at the BMC along with broadcaster John Hennessy.”

Coincidentally, last night, I had been exchanging notes with Jennifer B (Flickr: Sandpiper214) who photographs the team. We’ll have a photo up as soon as we get a release from the team to use it.

She has kindly provided this shot today and wrote: “Our goalies are: Justin Peters and Daniel Manzato. Peters is on the left in the first photo.”

Our best wishes go out to the players, their families and the team for a speedy recovery.