The Milwaukee Admirals trend of ups and downs continued from November into December. If anything, they picked up a brand new habit of playing games beyond regulation. The Admirals played 13 games in December and logged 7 games that went to overtime. Their record this past month was 5-4-4-0 (14 points, 0.538 points percentage). It was up from November (0.500) and still far off of how good they started in October (0.714).

It’s in moments such as the last two months when the choices for top performers feel limited. It isn’t the quality that is suspect it is just the consistency of that quality that makes things difficult. Luckily for Admirals fans, and myself giving the monthly award, the choice for The Real Estate Center‘s Admiral of the Month Award for the past two months has actually been quite easy. The most consistent and best player for the Admirals right now is Anders Lindbäck. It’s not even close. And that is why he is the Admiral of the Month for December.

Lindbäck’s body of work right now is incredible for the Admirals. The team’s overall record is 16-12-4-0 (36 points, 0.563 points percentage) and 29-year old netminder from Gävle, Sweden has earned for 15 wins. Only fellow Swedish netminder Linus Ullmark of the Rochester Americans has as many wins in the AHL this season. Those two have been outstanding but what makes Lindbäck all the more outstanding is that he leads the AHL right now in shots faced at 740 which averages out to 32.2 shots per game. He is the most taxed goaltender in that sense and all he does is night in and night out give the Admirals an opportunity to succeed. He can make the casual saves. He can so often make the saves for a highlight reel. And his presence around his own net, playing the puck, is a stabilizing force for a young Admirals defense. In December, Lindbäck went 4-1-3-0 in 8 starts with a 2.72 goals against average and 0.918 save percentage. For all the chaos that there has been over the last two months the single constant that the Admirals have is the reliability of their 6’6″ goaltender. Lindbäck has been brilliant.

There are some Admirable Mentions for the month December. Trevor Murphy tallied 11 points (2 goals, 9 assists) in 13 games while being the Admirals outright top defenseman along the way. Bobby Butler produced 10 points (5 goals, 5 goals) in 13 games. Anthony Richard, Trevor Smith, and Mark Zengerle all recorded 7 points across the 13 games in December. And, in a limited amount of games played this month due to injury, Emil Pettersson still wracked up 8 points (3 goals, 5 assists) in 9 games.

~Admiral of the Month Award~

October: Emil Pettersson
November: Anders Lindbäck
December: Anders Lindbäck

Who do you feel was the top performer for the Milwaukee Admirals during the month of December? Was it Anders Lindbäck, Trevor Murphy, Bobby Butler, or someone else? Tell me who your Admiral of the Month was in the comment section below.

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