The following night, Mogilny was credited with one shot, a long-wrister late in the first period, although he missed an open net opportunity late in the second in an unfortunate 1-0 loss to Manchester during the milestone 1,000th game in Albany franchise history.
"Physically, it's fine," Mogilny said. "I haven't skated for a week and a half, but it's a different game. It's a lot of skating out there. Guys are on you really quick. Obviously, the quality of the passing and everything comes with a lack of execution and stuff like that. That's why guys are here, to work on their game and hopefully move on to the next level."
While many players have used the AHL as a stepping-stone to NHL stardom, Mogilny is one of the first superstars to be sent down to play in the minors at this stage of his career.
It’s one of the first signs of an NHL that may be leading the way to a new era where underperformance in sports on whatever playing surface isn’t tolerated simply because of the zeroes on the player’s paycheck.
In the old NHL, and in most major leagues, poor performing players have been rarely “sent down” because it is hard to justify the cost of keeping a high dollar athlete in the development system. In the old days, such movement in most sports was commonplace, used for tune-ups, punishment, or to give players not ready to hang up the skates or cleats a few more seasons to shine before hanging it up.
"Some people play on their way up to the major leagues," he said. "I'm on my way down."
The hardest part of the move for Mogilny was not knowing what was going to happen for several days.
"It was tough, waiting for that phone call," he said. "But, it finally came, and I'm relieved that I finally landed somewhere.
Many major multi-millionaires wouldn’t take the move with the class which Mogilny demonstrated.
"I don't have an ego. I came from nothing, and I don't have a problem being here. I'm just trying to fit in and be part of the team."
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