First things first. UGH. There, I wanted to include that in last night’s game story but couldn’t find an appropriate place to say it. But, yes, ugh. Last night’s game was ugh. I spent the longest time during the game trying to decide if it was the best defensive game played against the Admirals all season or if it was simply the worst Admirals performance of the season. Truthfully, I think you could go with both. As Dave Boehler of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel headlined his game story: it was a rare clunker at home. You could easily point at the Miikka Salomaki boarding call and say things collapsed from there. It certainly could have helped to have him in the mix, but, even prior to his game misconduct, the team looked out-matched in all areas of the game.

I always say you can get over blow outs much easier than games where it goes down to the wire and you lose in the dying seconds. For the Admirals, they’ll need to take last night’s game and either burn it from memory – or burn it into their memory and use it going forward. After all, that next game is a day away.

Following last night’s shutout defeat against the Utica Comets I spoke with head coach Dean Evason, Taylor Beck, and Mark Van Guilder. This is what they had to say following the game.

Dean Evason on what he said to the team following the loss:

Evason breaks down last night’s game:

Evason on having a quick turn-around against the Wolves on Sunday:

Evason on the Miikka Salomaki boarding major and game misconduct:

Evason provides an injury update on Rask, Darling, and Hellberg:

Taylor Beck describes the Admirals performance:

Beck talks about how Utica’s defense slowed the Ads down:

Beck’s most recent experience with the NHL:

Beck on seeing Sissons and Moser earn their first NHL call ups while he was up top:

Mark Van Guilder describes the shutout loss:

Van Guilder on the defensive effort of the Comets:

Van Guilder talks about rebounding from last night’s game:

~Key Quotes~

“[The coaches] didn’t have to say anything [after the game]. There were a few [players] speaking pretty vocally when we walked in the room. So, we just went right back to the office.” Dean Evason

“We got outworked. We got outcompeted. [The Utica Comets] played a great game. They came at us. They played hard. Had a good game plan. They got out of their end easily. We just have to throw this one away.” Dean Evason

“We wanted our group to execute tonight and we focused on execution and we forgot to bring our work ethic. It doesn’t happen to our group very often. Our group usually plays like [the Comets] played the game against us. [The Comets] did it a heck of a lot better than we did tonight.” Dean Evason

“To be honest with you, [Miikka Salomaki] probably could have stopped. It’s a tough thing to do. You’re going in to finish your check. Originally, we thought he spun into him but I think [Salomaki] sees his numbers.. he’s got to let up a little bit. He’s a bull in a china shop. That’s his game and that’s what he’s going to do. So, that’s going to happen to him sometimes.” Dean Evason

“It wasn’t a dirty play. Like, [Salomaki] didn’t seek [Peter Andersson’s] head or do anything that would warrant anything, I’m sure, further than what happened to him tonight.” Dean Evason

“[Utica] certainly made things hard on us tonight. Just outnumbering us down low. We didn’t do a very good job of handling their pressure. Give them credit. They just wanted it. And we need to be better than that. That’s for sure.” Mark Van Guilder

Comments from the comments? Agree with Dean Evason’s assessment of Miikka Salomaki’s boarding incident?