Cheverie Off To Slow Start In ECHL

(left) DU Alum Marc Cheverie has struggled so far this season, but posted a shutout on Saturday night for the ECHL Cincinnati Cyclones

From: Denver Post
by Terry Frei

It wasn't at all shocking when Marc Cheverie decided to skip his senior season at DU and sign with the Florida Panthers last summer. He already was 23 years old and had been the WCHA player of the year as a junior.

The Panthers, who claimed him in the sixth round of the 2006 draft, could sell the notion that he had little left to accomplish — at least on the personal level — in the college game.

But this is a bit jarring: While, in theory, the native of Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia, could have been in the net for the Pioneers in the weekend series against Colorado College, Cheverie instead was fighting through a horrible start to his pro career. He's not even in the American Hockey League, but with the Panthers' lower-level affiliate, the Cincinnati Cyclones of the ECHL. And going into the weekend games, he had a 5.04 goals-against average, an .848 save percentage and a 1-2-1 record for the struggling Cyclones, who had won only once in eight games to open the season.

"It's a learning process I have to go through," Cheverie said on the phone last week. "It's not one of my goals to be here, but if this is how I have to get there, this is how I have to get there. I want to be in the NHL someday, but I have some work to do at this level to move up. If I had my way, I'd be in the NHL right now, but obviously, I'm not ready yet, so that's the way it is."

There are worse places to play below the AHL level than Cincinnati, so that's one of the positives.

"I've struggled a bit," Cheverie conceded. "It's been tough mentally, but that's part of the learning experience, part of getting in your comfort zone. You just want to be in a place where you're going to get better, and I think I have that here."

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

seems he found his game on friday 44 saves on 46 shots followed by a 38 save shutout win on Saturday... He keeps playing like we all know he can and he'll be up in no time.

Anonymous said...

maybe up to AHL, at best