The Milwaukee Admirals had a tough go of things last night against the Cleveland Monsters. Their 1-0 shutout defeat was only the fourth time this season that the Admirals were blanked and it was the first time since 3/11/17 that they were. The Rockford IceHogs might be a nice way to rebound today. The Admirals are 6-1-1-1 against the IceHogs this season.

Coming into tonight’s game the IceHogs have a record of 24-35-9-3 (60 points, 0.423 points percentage). This is by a far margin the worst season in the IceHogs AHL history of the team which dates back to the 2007-08 campaign. Even if they were to win out they would still by 9 points shy of their previous low marks in the 2011-12 and 2013-14 seasons.

What the IceHogs do have going for them is a day of rest in the gas tank relative to the Admirals. The IceHogs last played on Thursday when they lost 3-1 on the road against the Iowa Wild. I would sympathize with the travel element in play for the IceHogs but the Admirals will be making that very same trip ASAP after tonight’s game to finish off a three-in-three weekend at the Wells Fargo Arena.

While the record and season for the IceHogs has been brutal the constant for teams in this position will always be that players are playing for pride and future work. There might only be so many players who’ll re-up to stay on the NHL/AHL cusp with the Chicago Blackhawks organization after a season such as this in Rockford but they will need to make the most of their time right now if they are to appeal to other organizations in the off-season as free agents. Just because their playoff hopes ended a long time ago won’t mean the IceHogs aren’t going to play desperate. A lot of players very much need to.

The active leading scorer on the IceHogs roster is Kyle Baun who has 32 points (14 goals, 18 assists) in 69 games played this season. He is followed by Erik Gustafsson who has 30 points (5 goals, 25 assists) and Brandon Mashinter who has 28 points (14 goals, 14 assists). Mashinter is the IceHogs leading scorer in this head-to-head with 6 points (1 goal, 5 assists) in 8 games against the Admirals.

In net there is currently a table of four set for the IceHogs goaltenders. Jeff Glass, Lars Johansson, Mac Carruth, and Wouter Peeters are all on the roster at the moment. The safe assumption would be that those first two names mentioned would be the likely starters for both tonight or Wednesday’s upcoming contest with the Admirals travel to Rockford.

Expectations for tonight’s game? With Yakov Trenin now in the mix – who do you feel he replaces in the Milwaukee Admirals lineup? Will the inclusions from juniors help or hurt the Admirals? Would a loss today be cause for panic on your end?

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