Season's journey begins with an eye-opening test

By Jim Hodges, Correspondent

Just out of the car after a 13-hour, 850-mile drive from Tampa, Brandon Bochenski got the question right away.

Where is your head?

Coach Darren Rumble wanted to know if the guy rolling in was the same player who led the Admirals in scoring last season or a problem cut from the Lightning.

"He said there's no time," Bochenski said. "I can't sit here and pout. We've got to play right away."

Rumble's answer came quickly. "It's here," Bochenski told him.

Rumble's counting on it being in Hershey tonight, when the Admirals open the season by watching while the Bears raise the Calder Cup banner to the rafters of Giant Center. Those Bears include Alexandre Giroux and Keith Aucoin, the top two scorers in the American Hockey League last season. Like Bochenski, they were final cuts, in their cases from the Washington Capitals.

That's the scenario the Admirals find themselves in to begin the season in truncated fashion, with a long bus ride for a single game, followed by six days of work before the home opener against Manchester.

"It's a test right away," said Bochenski, who scored 27 goals and had 26 assists in 70 games with the Admirals last season. "You've got to figure out what you've got and what guys are going to do. That's a good way to start."

Rumble agreed. He coaches a team that's geographically displaced from the rest of the AHL, so it gets few chances to play exhibition games.

"We've basically had one game (against Hershey, a 5-4 loss in overtime on Sunday), and we've beaten up that tape pretty good," Rumble said. "After this game, we'll beat that tape up pretty good, too. We'll use it as a teaching tool."

Since that exhibition, the Admirals have added forwards Bochenski, Adam Hall and Ryan Craig, along with defensemen Matt Lashoff and Mike Lundin. It's the lot of the AHL coach: Getting players at the last minute and fashioning a lineup to get the season started.

In Bochenski's case, it was fairly easy. He was slotted on a line with center Paul Szczechura - another Lightning cut - and Justin Keller, who survived a tryout in Admirals training camp and has been signed to a contract.

"I played with Keller last year most of the time on a line with (Zenon) Konopka at center," Bochenski said.

Konopka is on the Lightning roster to start the season.

"And I played with (Szczechura) on the power play when he was down," Bochenski said. "I also played on a line with him some. So from Day One, there shouldn't be any adjustment. We should be ready to go."

Bochenski is comfortable in Norfolk - "I'm living in the same place as last year," he said - but that doesn't mean he wouldn't be more comfortable in the NHL.

"It's always hard," he said. "It's tough when you're in that group of last cuts. I've been in it three or four times. And I've been the last guy to make it (to an NHL roster) a couple of times. That's better."

Looking back at Tampa, at what could have been and what yet could be, is a temptation for some. Not for Bochenski.

"If you do that, I think you're lacking something down here," he said. "You've got to change your focus. This is my team now."

That team is a mix of veterans and young players - none of them younger than in goal, where Riku Helenius is the veteran at 21. Dustin Tokarski is a year younger and has impressed enough to start tonight. Jaroslav Janus is No. 3 for now.

Match-ups against Hershey could be interesting and also could offer a clue as to how things will proceed this season. A young, speedy line of Blair Jones, Juraj Simek and Dana Tyrell will become familiar with the Bears' top unit.

"I wanted to put the young guys together and not put the weight of the world on them offensively," Rumble said. "They're going to have to be energy guys and shut down guys."

Energy is Tyrell's game. He's probably the fastest Admiral.

"I think when he pours coffee in the morning, he does it at 100 mph," Rumble quipped.

The team is still in its formative stages, but there's no doubt about its mission.

"We've got to win this year," said Bochenski, 27. "I think your goals change when you get older. We're all here, whether we expected to be or not, and we've got to make the most of it. When you're winning, it's better for everybody. "