The Milwaukee Admirals returned to home ice this morning following a three-game road trip. Today was a skills day with Nashville Predators Director of Player Development Scott Nichol at the helm. Lots of work was done on the basics as well as getting pucks through the neutral zone and battling on defense. It all sets the stage for tomorrow night’s game at the UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena against the San Diego Gulls.
For the most part there really were no formal defensive pairings laid out for today. You would assume the go-to top defensive pairing is what it has always been with Jimmy Oligny and Alex Carrier but there were plenty of rotations with Oligny and Carrier separated. That really only left the forwards who were thankfully color coded today.
Zolnierczyk-Smith-Butler
Richard-Zengerle-Kirkland
Mingoia-Kirkland-Kelleher
Labrie-Bass
There is a missing forward spot. Emil Pettersson suffered an injury as a result of a hit in Friday night’s game. He is with the team, continues to be evaluated, but is considered day-to-day. Yakov Trenin underwent surgery not long after his frightening incident on the road against the Cleveland Monsters that resulted in a three-game suspension for Cameron Gaunce. Trenin is considered out long-term.
This would all then make sense for Stephen Perfetto to be in the lineup. He was suspended by the team on 11/28/17. As the story goes there he was suspended because he left the team of his own accord. It’s not known if he will ever rejoin the team but the Admirals are operating under the pretense he will not.
With that in mind the Admirals have recalled Derek Army from his loan with the Wheeling Nailers (ECHL). This season Army has only played in the ECHL to date where he is the team captain for Wheeling and has produced 19 points (7 goals, 12 assists) in 21 games.
Following today’s practice I had the chance to speak with Milwaukee Admirals head coach Dean Evason. I also caught up with Trevor Mingoia, Jack Dougherty, and Justin Kirkland. There were today’s interviews following practice from the UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena.
How do you feel about the current state of the Milwaukee Admirals this early into the 2017-18 season? Is this a lull stretch in the grand scheme of things for the Admirals or is this up-down pattern potentially the way of things for this team?
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just going thru somethings should be fine
Seems we are in a bit of a rough patch here with personnel. I’m wondering how common it is for guys to just leave the team at this level. This isn’t the first time this has happened here.
DeeDee: Oh, gosh no. If there is an AHL/ECHL team that has start to finish consistency I’d have to imagine there is a stubborn NHL team not displaying that at all with a losing record attached to it. I don’t want to say this is a personnel issue really. Yes, Kamenev gets traded away. Yes, Trenin gets hurt. But the rest of the group is pretty much exactly the same. That might change slightly tonight (Pettersson injured, Perfetto quit the team, Army recalled, and Lane signed to a PTO from Atlanta of the ECHL). Outside of say Zolnierczyk-Smith-Butler the forward lines have been sloppy. The defense has been scrambly. And a defense-first approach by the team has gone missing leaving goaltenders exposed to what feels like 35+ shots against per night. It’s a lull.. a long lull.. but if they can learn anything by it they could really get on a strong run.