Rats secure spot

With three games still to play, the River Rats have secured a spot in the Calder Cup playoffs of the AHL. They lost to the Admirals on Saturday, but the Sound Tigers also lost. That means Bridgeport was eliminated and Albany's spot is safe.

Ryan Bayda, Keith Aucoin and Tim Conboy are on two-way contracts, but I believe the AHL has a cutoff point for reassigning players, and that time has passed.

At any rate, we're all wishing the best for the Rats.

The standings are pretty tight, and everybody has at least three games to play, but if the playoffs started today, the Rats would be playing the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton "Baby" Penguins.

Oh, and by the way, the AHL has already started doing something that we all hope the NHL never does. They have corporate sponsor logos on the sweaters now. For the time being, it's subtle logos on the right breast. It's barely noticeable. I just hope that it never becomes the mess that European hockey sweaters are. For the record, Albany's sponsor is the agricultural giant Cargill.