via timesunion.com

The River Rats are back in Albany after their team bus slid off of the Massachusetts Turnpike early this morning, leaving four hockey players and the team's radio commentator hospitalized with serious injuries.

Teammates Nicolas Blanchard, Joe Jensen, Casey Borer, Jonathan Paiement, and radio commentator John Hennessy remained behind at the Berkshire Medical Center for treatment, according to Rats President S. Garen Szablewski.

— Albany Times Union

You can see some pictures of the wreckage here.

The River Rats played last night in Lowell, Mass., against the Devils, and it was 3 a.m. when the crash occurred near Beckett, Mass. — about an hour from Albany. The Lowell to Albany route is actually a fairly short trip by AHL standards — only three hours — but the road conditions were poor and I imagine fatigue could have been a factor.

Welcome to life in the minors.

The average salary in the AHL is about $60,000, which isn't half bad given most of these guys are in their 20s, but there are some drawbacks like middle of the night bus rides and that average figure is bumped up by some of the big deals bubble players bring down from the NHL. There's also the fact that the average minor-league career lasts only five or six years.

Not to mention that the average NHL player makes significantly more (nearly $2-million) than an entire AHL team ($1.3-million).

Here's a look at where the accident occurred (where the 'B' is):

"I'm sure some guys will have some nightmares over this," said the team's head coach, former NHLer Jeff Daniels. "It's a tough situation that's going to take some time to get over."

All of the players banged up are Hurricanes prospects, a couple of whom have played a few games in the NHL over the past few years. Canes Country has been following this all day and has a ton of links to other coverage.