They say life comes at you fast but in hockey, it comes even faster. In the blink of an eye, the American Hockey League (AHL) is upon a key event in the league for the 2023-24 season. The 2024 AHL All-Star Classic will be held on February 4-5 in San Jose, California. The All-Star Classic will have all 32 teams having at least one representative for the event. For the Manitoba Moose, they will be sending center Brad Lambert to represent the team next month.
That’s No Moose, That’s Brad Lambert
The 20-year-old Finnish-Canadian duel citizen from Lahtl, Finland will be the lone Manitoba Moose that will participate in the All-Star Classic. In his second season with the Moose, Lambert has 11 goals and 24 points in 27 gamer in 2023-24. When it comes to Manitoba, he leads the team in 0,92 points per game and the aforementioned 11 goals on the season. He is tied for the points lead alongside left-winger Nikita Chibrikov at 24. Furthermore, he is only three assists behind the team leader Kyle Capobiano who has 16.
When it comes to the AHL rookies, Lambert is tied for sixth in points. That puts him 15 points behind rookie points leader from the Texas Stars, Logan Stankoven (39). In terms of assists, he is tied for 13th for rookies with 13 on the season. He is 12 assists back of Ontraio Reign’s Brandt Clarke who has 25 on the season.
Lambert has been having a stellar season for the Moose as he leads the team with seven multi-point games. He even has had four multi-point games over his last nine contests. Lambert started the season with a seven-game point streak which is the third longest streak in the AHL. The last Manitoba Moose to be at the All-Star Classic was Mason Appleton and Sami Niku back in 2018.
Manitoba’s Season at this Point
In terms of the team as a whole, the Moose are last in the Central Division. They have a record of 12-18-0-0 with 24 points in 30 games. However, they are only four points back of fourth-place Rockford IceHogs so there is time to make a late playoff push. They are on a five-game losing streak and in their last 10 games have gone 2-8-0-0. It has not been a good season overall for the Moose who sit one point behind the independently run Chicago Wolves. Hopefully, the All-Star Classic could be the jump-start for Manitoba to turn the season around. The hope is that Lambert will make a strong showing and get the rest of the team going.
Manitoba has 42 games left in the 2023-24 season, let’s see if that break is what they need to make a run for the Calder Cup Playoffs this summer.
