It is that time again when you get your pre-game scout for a Milwaukee Admirals game the day before it happens. Why? Because AM Hockey tomorrow at the BMO Harris Bradley Center that’s why.

If the Admirals play half as well as they did in their AM game last week in Iowa then all attending this game should be treated to a great one. The Admirals shutout the Wild 3-0 with Juuse Saros in net. With Marek Mazanec up in Nashville the same storyline has the potential to play out once more. Still, the Lake Erie Monsters provided a playoff like atmosphere when they met the Admirals last Friday. No matter if it’s coffee, Red Bull, or all-natural enthusiasm I believe these two will deliver a similar gritty game regardless of the early start time.

Lake Erie has a record of 6-2-0-2 (14 points) and are in second place of the Central Division. The Monsters have won twice since they lost to the Admirals and will be entering this game following a 3-2 comeback win on the road against the Wild played on Sunday. Iowa was able to score twice in the opening five-minutes of the game but a late first period goal for Lake Erie provided enough of a boost heading into the second period for them to tally twice – including a game-winner shorthanded goal scored by Josh Anderson. In the third period the Monsters outshot the Wild 7-1 to cruise to that final scoreline.

The Monsters have the fifth best power-play unit in the AHL: 9/38 (23.7%). That figure is just about as good when their power-play takes to the road: 5/22 (22.7%). Their opposite end of special teams, penalty killing, is also ranked fifth best in the league, 40/45 (88.9%), and they have scored two shorthanded goals on the season.

When we last met, the Monsters were playing without their leading scorer Kerby Rychel in the lineup as he was with the Columbus Blue Jackets at the time. That isn’t going to be the case tomorrow morning because Rychel is back in the AHL. He has scored 10 points (4 goals, 6 assists) in 8 games this season for the Monsters.

Not far behind Rychel in team scoring is a group of names tied at 6 points of offense: Michael Chaput, 6 points (4 goals, 2 assists)… Andrew Bodnarchuk, 6 points (2 goals, 4 assists)… Ryan Craig, (2 goals, 4 assists)… Markus Hännikäinen, 6 points (2 goals, 4 assists)… Also, small footnote, not too far behind on the team scoring list is the Monsters’ lone goal scorer against the Admirals last Friday Alex Broadhurst who has 5 points (1 goal, 4 assists).

When looking back at the first meeting between these two teams there was some chippy stuff that took place. Cody Bass dropped the gloves with Brett Gallant. Jamie Devane tried to fight against Oleg Yevenko but the referees had other plans (video). That prompted the best photo taken this season.  Then Devane and Yevenko had at it for realsies and the referees thought about where the best place to get a steak after the game ended would be (video). Could there be more of the same on the horizon? I don’t know but my gut says maybe.

Anton Forsberg was the man between the pipes for the Monsters when the faced the Admirals last Friday. He stopped 20/22 shots on goal. One of the goals he allowed was a one-timed bomb scored by Viktor Arvidsson at his sweet spot on the power-play. Since that game the Monsters rotated goalies back and forth while on the road in Iowa with Joonas Korpisalo getting the Saturday game and Forsberg getting the Sunday game. Korpisalo stopped 35/37 shots on goal and didn’t allow a shootout goal to pick up the win. Forsberg stopped 14/16 shots on goal but played shutout hockey from the fifth minute of the game all the way until the finish.

On the Admirals end of things this game gets an interesting shake up thanks to a few injuries up top for the Nashville Predators. It isn’t the biggest thing in the world that Saros gets the net for this game but not having team captain Colton Sissons might thin things out a slight bit. The good news? The Admirals are incredibly deep down the middle at the center position so that isn’t that huge of an issue. Yet, Sissons was leading the team in scoring at the time of his recall to the Predators so that’s where others will need to step up. One or two or the current population of Nashville might suggest Kevin Fiala or Stevie Moses would do well to contribute here.

Thoughts going into this game? Can the Admirals push their winning streak to four games? Without Sissons, who do you feel needs to step up in his place for the time being? Will you be able to attend this inaugural AM event for the Milwaukee Admirals?

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Is everyone in a good mood after yesterday’s 3-0 shutout win for the Milwaukee Admirals? I am, and I think most are, but there are some detractors kicking mud at a pair of players who were punished prior to or during the game itself. Before leaping into the new look Lake Erie Monsters, kick back, get yourself a coffee, and let’s dive into these two players getting the proverbial boot from yesterday’s game.

~The Almighty Ban Hammer~

If there is anything that I can give a resounding 100% thumbs up to on this young Admirals season it has been the authoritative approach that the coaching staff has had with its players. It is now very clear that there are strict team rules that must be adhered to or players face the risk of being scratched from the next game and quite possibly tasked with staying home in Milwaukee as the rest of the team travels to play on the road without the offending member of the team. This much was made clear when both Max Görtz and Pontus Åberg violated team rules prior to the Admirals game on 10/20/15. That was the precedent set by the Admirals brass and one that should set the tone for every wrong-doing that follows. That’s what makes Stevie Moses subsequent violation of team rules two weeks after the baseline was clearly issued a head scratcher.

Moses is being reintroduced to professional hockey in North America for the first time since he had a brief spell as a member of the Connecticut Whale (AHL) after his time with the University of New Hampshire finished up. He played 8 games for the Whale, recorded 2 goals, averaged 3.1 shots per game, and factored into a playoff game for good measure. That was the early sample size of AHL hockey for Moses who has spent his last three-seasons playing in Finland for Jokerit between two different leagues, Liiga and the KHL. His total haul with Jokerit, playoff games included, was 125 points (75 goals, 50 assists) in 170 games.

When Moses was signed by the Nashville Predators in early-April this year I think most viewed this situation as a low risk high reward scenario for the one-year, $1 million price tag on the 2014-15 top goal scorer in the KHL. Best case scenario is him hitting the ground running and earning a spot in Nashville’s pre-season camp while sticking with the team as an active lower-line winger. Worst case scenario, he gets fed to the Admirals to try and find his KHL mojo at the AHL level before his one-year contract runs out. Right now my calendar says that it is early-November. The Admirals have only played eight games and eight games with few real positive results from any specific individual to speak of because the team itself has really yet to find itself. Where is Moses right now? Trending towards the worst case scenario but right in the middle of the two evils because this season is still young. What does him being late to a practice say about his mindset or fire to earn his way back into the mix of the Predators? I can’t really answer that because I’m not Mr. Moses. His play from his first game back out of this team imposed one-game suspension will speak volumes in that respect. The coaching staff has to be appreciative of the response they’ve received by Görtz and Åberg since they were slapped with the exact same penalty imposed by the team. For Moses to act or perform any less than that is when I need to re-write what the worst case scenario for him actually is. Yet, he is a 26-years old with a collegiate and professional career in this game. He should deliver with the right attitude.

~Benched~

The next talking point that came from the Admirals shutout victory was a moment that occurred roughly six-minutes into the first period of the game. Kevin Fiala made a poor decision to pass from the right wing circle towards the point without realizing Brett Sutter was directly camped in the path of the passing lane. Fiala went ahead and slid a puck on the ice. Sutter intercepted it and was off on a shorthanded breakaway that he would narrowly miss on a backhand attempt. The net was open on Juuse Saros‘ blocker side but Sutter ran out of real estate and the shot fluttered to the endboards rather than the twine.

At this point in the game, again, it is roughly six-minutes in and the game is scoreless. The Admirals have been playing on the backfoot all season long it feels like. They’ve been trailing so often and left to go for broke in the third period, empty net, extra attacker, and hope for the best. The desperation levels have been lacking early in games. If the Admirals push as hard as they have in most third periods for a full sixty-minutes they stand such a phenomenal chance at winning games.

The Fiala turnover was representative of so many “see foot, shoot foot” moments on the season for both himself and the team that I believe it left the coaching staff with no other recourse than to bench him. You can only punch in video highlight breakdowns, instructions in practice, and watch the same flaws creep on the ice again and again before enough is enough. How do you get through the point to be smarter with the puck? Bench him. Have him sit back and watch everyone else playing the game as it is needed to be played to win games and see if it sinks in next time out.

You could look no further than the man that ended up kicking up into Fiala’s place than Eric Robinson as to what the coaching staff clearly want out of Fiala’s play. Smart puck control, crisp passing, creating scoring chances, and keeping active pressure on defense. Robinson came from his early ECHL stint to start this season and had his work rate in the game be rewarded with double shifting on the top line and fourth line. Oh yeah, he also ended up scoring a goal in his first AHL game of the season. Fiala is 8 games and 29 shots deep into this season without a goal. Something isn’t clicking for him. And watching him press, turn pucks over, and set up scoring chances in the opposite direction shouldn’t be rewarded with anything other than what he earned for himself yesterday: the bench.

Now here is where I find a lot of comments going nuclear when it comes to Fiala. “This is who he is. He’s a brat. He’s spoiled. He’s stubborn. He’s immature.” Those are the types of comments I saw yesterday in response to Fiala being benched. Now, I don’t know when so many people became so personally familiar with Fiala to know all of these attributes as well as they appear to cite them -but- it’d be amazing if people could dodge hitting that torch button and remember that this is a 19-year old kid. He has an immense amount of talent and is in the process of learning how to hone in them in. That’s what the AHL is all about. Without getting through growing pains such as this how is Fiala ever supposed to well and truly get any better? Him being benched is his first real wake-up call since playing professionally here in North America. I say that because I don’t feel Fiala’s play on the ice would backup a claim that him being cut by the Predators in pre-season camp was a wake up call that he needs to be better than what he is right now if he wants to play NHL hockey.

How Fiala comes out of being benched should speak to his character. It’s not a matter of eye-popping scoresheet numbers or highlight reel goals. All Fiala needs to be doing right now is slowing down his game and being smarter with what he does on the puck. With the amount of talent he possesses less really should translate to more. When the dust settles on this season, and he looks back on what he’s done, Fiala being benched should count for far more than a one-off scalding. It should be the actual starting point to his 2015-16 season.

~Lake Erie Monsters~

Since we last saw the Lake Erie Monsters they’ve switched affiliations. For the entirety of their existence the Monsters were the Colorado Avalanche’s AHL affiliate, 2007-08 to 2014-15. This changed in the off-season when the Columbus Blue Jackets switched AHL affiliates from the Springfield Falcons to the Monsters as the Avalanche’s AHL affiliation moved on to the San Antonio Rampage. So, when you think Monsters this season you’ll be best served looking at Blue Jackets information and previous Falcons AHL stats.

The Monsters enter tonight’s game with a record of 4-1-0-2 (10 points). They’re one of six teams in the AHL to have played less games than the Admirals have this season yet enter with the better points equity. The Monsters’ one and only regulation loss on the season came on opening night for them as they fell 6-3 on the road against the Rochester Americans. Since then they’ve claimed points in six-straight games with four wins and two shootout defeats.

Second year pro Kerby Rychel leads the Monsters in scoring this season with 10 points (4 goals, 6 assists) in 6 games. Lucky for the Admirals, Rychel was called up by the Blue Jackets on Wednesday and shouldn’t be an issue for the Admirals tonight.

The focus then shifts to the likes of: Markus Hännikäinen, 6 points (2 goals, 4 assists)… Michael Chaput, 5 points (3 goals, 2 assists)… and Ryan Craig, 4 points (2 goals, 2 assists).

I find the main man to look out for is going to be Hännikäinen. He leads the Monsters in shots on goal with 25. He’d probably be up in the upper tier of the entire league with his 3.6 shots on goal per game average but the Monsters simply just don’t have the games played yet. Expect him to continue getting pucks to the net and anticipate the rebounds of his shots to be the more dangerous factor in him doing that. Fun Fact, Hännikäinen and Moses were teammates when they played at Jokerit.

In net the Monsters have a solid 1-A, 1-B tandem going between 22-year old Anton Forsberg and 21-year old Joonas Korpisalo. Both have been outstanding. Forsberg in his second year of work in the AHL has three wins from four games, 2.27 goals against average, and a 0.915 save percentage. Korpisalo, who tasted AHL hockey briefly last season, is impressing in his rookie AHL season already. He actually has more shutouts right now than wins. You can thank a tough luck shootout loss to the Wild for that factoid. He followed up that effort with a second straight shutout before karma finally caught up to him on Halloween when he allowed 5 goals from 34 shots. He still has a 1.58 goals against average and 0.940 save percentage. Both of these goaltenders are more than capable of making life difficult for the Admirals tonight.

Expectations? Further reaction to yesterday’s news regarding Moses and Fiala? Did Robinson earn himself another game tonight and, if so, who sits out with both Moses and Vladislav Kamenev expected to return to the lineup? Does Saros see his first AHL shutout get rewarded with a consecutive start?

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It’s not all that often here on Admirals Roundtable when you’ll be getting an early bird special on a pre-game write up. Then again, it’s not all that often you get Milwaukee Admirals hockey games that start in the AM hours of the morning. That will be the case tomorrow when the Admirals faceoff against the Iowa Wild at 10:30 AM. The Admirals will also have a 10:30 AM start time next week on Wednesday at the BMO Harris Bradley Center when the Lake Erie Monsters make their first visit to Milwaukee. But enough of this AM hockey for the moment. What about Round 3 of Admirals/Wild?

~Iowa~

This is the third time out of eight games that the Admirals will have played against the Wild in Iowa this season. That means only one more trip to Iowa, one long bus trip, exists on the entire 2015-16 calendar. That won’t occur again until March 13th so it’s actually pretty nice that the Admirals are getting these out of their system now.

The first encounter this season ended with a thrilling 3-2 overtime win by the Admirals that saw a goal scored with the net emptied and the extra attacker on. Little did we know at the time but that’s basically been the staple of the season to date. The Admirals have emptied their net and brought that extra attacker on in every game but one this season. Which one didn’t they do it? Last time out in Iowa when Max Görtz scored just as Marek Mazanec was on his way to the bench. That game would end up going a bit more grim than the previous meeting in overtime. The Admirals took a pair of penalties that gave the Wild a five-on-three power-play to work with including an Anthony Bitetto major for crosschecking to give them all of the overtime to be on the power-play. Iowa would cash in off of a Mike Reilly five-on-four goal just as the two-man advantage ended to win 3-2.

I feel as if these two games against the Wild really put a stamp down on how the Admirals have played this season. They are put on the back foot and left to play catch up late. Even when you consider the last game when the Admirals managed to get and hold an early lead for an exciting 24:09 of ice time that second period was all Wild on all sides of the puck. The Wild’s defense in particular were huge in the second game. The Admirals rallied up 42 shots on goal and outshot the Wild by an outrageous 17-2 in the third period. But how many of those chances were perimeter shots that made life easy for Jeremy Smith in the Wild’s net? Shooting for the sake of shooting isn’t a bad thing. Shooting from deep direct to a goalie with a clean line of sight is. If the Admirals are forced to take those types of looks once again they should consider setting their sights low and towards the pads of Smith in an effort to create rebounds or loose pucks around the goal mouth to cause a frenzy amongst Smith but, more importantly, the Wild defense. The Admirals can clearly tilt the ice against this team. They need to try different things that actually make that advantage mean something.

~Playing Smarter~

Another thing to consider in this match-up are the goals against that the Admirals have conceded. They’re pretty much all goals that could have been avoided.

Goal #1: Zack Mitchell takes advantage of a botched play from Stevie Moses on the blue line on an Admirals power-play, Moses gets a stick in on Mitchell, penalty shot called, and penalty shot scored. With better composure on the Admirals power-play this could have been avoided completely.

Goal #2: A shot by Brett Bulmer ricocheted off the end-boards and sent the puck rolling towards the goal mouth and left skate of Juuse Saros. Rather than drop and cover the puck Saros opted to squirm out of the way and nearly fell backwards into his own net. Matt Carey would be on hand to smack home the puck as it trickled further out in front of goal. The fault on this goal isn’t squarely on Saros’ reaction. The fault can be shared with Kristian Näkyvä and Vladislav Kamenev who let Carey fly clean past them both to earn the front net position clean. Don’t puck watch. Act. Not react.

Goal #3: The Wild’s passing cuts through Admirals defensive zone pressure and leads to an in-lose to the net two-on-one situation with Carey on the right of goal, Brett Sutter on the left wing, and Näkyvä as the last man back in front of Mazanec. Carey shot a forehander off the pads of Mazanec and that allowed Sutter to get the rebound goal. How such a simple play led to a two-on-one with everyone stuck in the high right wing trailing the puck movement of the Wild is just plain confusing to me. Once again, act – not react. Defensive structure and composure to hold true to assignments needs to be adhered to.

Goal #4: This is one where you might be able to let everyone off of the hook. It was an absolute bomb of a shot by Joe Finley from the left point that rifled in up under the roof of the net. Could traffic in front of Mazanec have played a part in him seeing the puck? Sure, but I don’t think many goalies on Earth are going to stop that shot. It was pinpoint with power from a guy who last scored three-years ago prior to that shot. The term one in a million can safely be used here.

Goal #5: Simply put, this was the Admirals shooting themselves in the foot. After the roaring comeback of a third period that they had the Admirals proceeded to take a slashing penalty (Conor Allen) and then Bitetto dropped the hammer on the nail of the Admirals own coffin by taking a major penalty for crosschecking – five seconds into the Admirals penalty kill in overtime. You’re begging to be put out of your own misery by doing something like that and Iowa, being being a merciful lord, obliged.

~The AM Element~

Oh yeah. About that start time. I have to imagine it won’t be the biggest shock to the system of the players. It’s more so on the fans who’ll be trying to keep up in work, really. The Admirals tend to practice at the MSOE Kern Center at 10 AM most of the time. What changes here is that you’re switching from a practice mentality to a fully blown competitive atmosphere of a regular season environment. If there is any flag raised due to the start time of this game it will be that. The good news is that it’s a situation that both teams are experiencing. There’s no getting cheated here with that. Though, I wonder if Lake Erie will be citing that with the Admirals getting the experience of tomorrow in their system before Wednesday’s game in Milwaukee.

Thoughts and expectations on tomorrow morning’s game? How will you be keeping up with the action tomorrow? Can the Admirals get this ship pointed in the right direction and shouldn’t a team like the Iowa Wild be the one to do it against?

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