On Tuesday before Milwaukee’s first round series with Abbotsford, I asked Admirals’ captain Scott Ford to give me some thoughts about the Heat.
Ford gave streaking Abbotsford plenty of praise, stating that the Heat have “a big and physical team, a couple of defenseman who are skilled and who really control the puck, and solid goaltending as well.”
But in his next statement he laid out a big factor on how Milwaukee can win the series: “We are going to have to shutdown Krys Kolanos’ line.”
(To read the rest of my postseason preview feature on MilwaukeeAdmirals.com, click here)
So far the Admirals have failed mightily in control Kolanos’ line, and in particular Abbotsford’s top scorer himself and that is the biggest culprit in Milwaukee’s 2-0 deficit. In two games Kolanos has four goals and six points, and it can be easily argued that Kolanos was the difference in Abbotsford’s Game 2 win.
To get to this point in his career, Kolanos has endured plenty of highs and lows, and at 30-years-old the former 19th overall draft pick is one of the oldest players that plays primarily in the AHL. His NHL career spans 20 goals and 149 games, but 98 of those games came in his first three seasons (2001-2004), all with Phoenix. Perhaps Kolanos never quite reached his full potential due to the serious concussion he suffered back in 2002.
More injuries sat in his future last year, as Kolanos sat out all of 2010-2011 (a total of 21 months) due to microfracture surgery on his left hip. This season Kolanos earned an AHL contract after attending training camp on a professional tryout. Now the quirky forward is easily Abbotsford’s most dangerous offensive threat.
(Read more on Kolanos’ story here)
Heading into Wednesday’s Game 3, Milwaukee stands in the unenviable position of facing elimination. In order to play a Game 4 in Abbotsford, the Admirals will have to find some way to slow down Kolanos.
So Roundtable . . . Any solutions to slow down Krys Kolanos? Do you think Milwaukee would have won Game 2 if Kolanos isn’t a factor?
Admirals Roundtable 
Covering him would be a good start. He sits weak side everytime they setup in the offensive zone and he cherry picks the blue line when they’re on defense.
Repeating my comment from two days ago “Kolanos has been uncovered way too much in the two games. I think the season is over”. I agree with Brian. In the second period of Game 2, all 4 Admirals defenders headed toward the SW corner and Kolanos stood at the top of the opposite circle by himself. It was a goal. Four guys chasing the puck when you are down a man? What kind of coaching / playing is that?
Can Bartley play? Have him and/or Valentine level Kolanos the first 3 or 4 times he touches the puck. It should slow him down and make him look around for Admirals. He isn’t doing that now.
Kolanos is a rock star this is nothing new… Everyone knows how dangerous and talented he is but we let him whoop up on us in game 1 and be in control in game 2. Why wasn’t stopping him the main focus of the team coming into the series and force Clay Wilson or hugh jessiman be the guy to do all the heavy lifting for them? Smitty has to relax a bit in net he seems to be playing a bit far out than usual and that leads to juicy chances for Abby! Keys to game 3 1) get more shots on PP 2) take the zone don’t just dump and pray 3) stop stop stop taking so many penalties (cough cough) Ford and Flynn! Let’s get our act together and go on another road run!