Welcome to the Media Day Extravaganza Edition of the Chatterbox. That’s right, today the Milwaukee Admirals were under the media spotlight of local news stations – and the usual suspects that cover the team game-by-game. This morning I attended practice at the BMO Harris Bradley Center and then rounded up as many players as I could for interviews. Before getting straight to the interviews. Let’s do a quick run down of practice.

Moses-Sissons-Salomäki
Fiala-Reinhart-Payerl
Bass-Kamenev-Åberg (Gaudreau)
(Devane) Pendenza-Girard-Görtz

Allen-Näkyvä
Noonan-Oligny
Alm-Aronson
Diaby-Murphy

Mazanec
Saros

These are how the lines looked at practice. And, first things first, today’s practice was the longest practice in the Dean Evason era of this team – clocking in comfortably at over two hours with a halftime inbetween. Whether or not they’ll in fact be used on the road Saturday night against the Chicago Wolves is uncertain. My guess is that they either will be or should be pretty darn close.

Steve Moses, Cody Bass, and Jamie Devane were all on the ice this morning. It was also the first time in training camp that I noticed Johan Alm on the ice, as well. I’m pretty impressed with what I saw out of the line combinations. It’s also entertaining that effectively last year’s third line is now the fourth line due to the amount of talent at forward right now.

~Captains~

Evason always likes to have the players vote for their captains. This season’s turn out saw Colton Sissons named this year’s team captain with Conor Allen and the aforementioned Bass as the alternates.

It was incredible when Sissons was named an alternate last season at the age of 20-years old with only one year of professional playing experience to his name. Jump ahead a year and into the present and he is now the captain. It says a ton about the way he conducts himself on and off the ice that he is so well respected by everyone at such a young age. Not having a list of all the captains in front of me in team history – I’d have to assume him to be the youngest ever captain in the history of the Admirals at 21-years old.

~Chatterbox~

Once practice wrapped up and the played cooled down it was time for Media Day. Players were all set to take this season’s headshots and all were available for interviews. I grabbed as many as I could and, as a result, have a Chatterbox record of nine interviews.

Also, after finally having enough with WordPress’ media player for audio files giving you folks -and me- headaches, I have started up a SoundCloud profile for Admirals Roundtable. I will now be uploading Chatterbox as a block of full-interviews in a playlist. Here goes the trial run and let me know if you feel this is an upgrade.

~ECHL~

Another small note to end on is that the Cincinnati Cyclones played a pre-season game last night and came away with a 6-1 thrashing of the Wheeling Nailers. Eric Robinson had a nice first impression for the Cyclones by scoring 3 points (1 goal, 2 assists). In addition, Jaynen Rissling scored a goal – Mikko Vainonen had an assist – and former member of the Admirals, and last year’s Man of the Year, Zach Budish scored a goal. With how stacked the Nashville Predators are, how loaded the Admirals are, I do feel fans in Cincinnati are in for an exciting turn-around season. I expect good things out of the Cyclones in the ECHL this season.

Comments on the comments? What are your expectations for this season? Can the Admirals youth hit the ground running and remain hot for the length of an entire season? Will this season see a return to playoff hockey? What, if anything, concerns you about the Admirals this season?

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You can only practice for so long before that itch to get into game situations drives you a bit crazy. Last night was finally the Milwaukee Admirals chance to take the ice and test themselves. That opening couple of seconds might have come as a slight surprise. Thankfully the entire game that followed was a different story.

What impressed me the most about the Admirals 5-2 win over the Rockford IceHogs was the puck movement and puck pressure. Defending smart. Winning pucks. And then countering with pace and precision.

The team defense was solid and hounding the IceHogs the entire game. For a team that played the night before and pelted the Chicago Wolves with numerous shots on goal – the Admirals didn’t allow them to play an open ended game. The Admirals took away a lot of time and space which made for a relatively comfortable night in net for Juuse Saros.

Once the defense won back pucks the movement in transition by the Admirals from defending to attacking was a joy to watch. It was an area last season that was such a struggle as opponents would clog the neutral zone and win puck battles on the dump and chase. Last night’s work through neutral ice was composed, passes connected, and entering the offensive zone -and then holding it- was good. The passing felt incredibly precise for the Admirals first exhibition game of the season when you’d expect certain players to have timing wrong or still understanding the dynamics of new teammates. It either simply wasn’t there tonight or didn’t show in this game.

Another highlight for me was the defensive pairing of Conor Allen and Kristian Näkyvä. The two defensemen mirror one-another in terms of skill set and they seem to have a natural chemistry as a result. When figuring in Peter Laviolette‘s system, where defensemen jump up in attack, it’s important to not get burnt on a counter attack. Allen and Näkyvä didn’t fall into that trap where some other defensemen did on the night – which led to some odd-man breaks. The paring covered ice well enough to trek back defensively and both gauged the distance of “how far up ice is too far when helping out in the offensive zone” really good.

All in all, I was impressed by much of what I saw from the Admirals. They played a very smart game and there were lots of good individual performances to speak of. With how loaded the roster is it’s going to be an interesting next week to see just who stays and who goes as far as PTO contracts and the Cincinnati Cyclones of the ECHL are concerned. For example, what does the addition of Steve Moses mean for guys like David Moss and Adam Payerl? Even players who went through Cincinnati last season like Joe Pendenza, Frédérick Gaudreau, Jaynen Rissling, Jonathan Diaby, and Garrett Noonan are all on that cusp of starting their seasons in the ECHL depending on how things play out. For the coaching staff I imagine this to be a wonderful problem to have. For the players this is a battle for roster spots. I have to believe that mentality factors into a performance like the Admirals had against the IceHogs.

After the game, I spoke with head coach Dean Evason. I also was able to chat with Saros and Gaudreau. Here is what they had to say after defeating the IceHogs at the MSOE Kern Center.

Continue reading “The Chatterbox, Vol. 84” →

It was the third day of training camp for the Milwaukee Admirals at the MSOE Kern Center. They are set to play an exhibition game tomorrow night at the college facility. To get another good look at the team before then I trekked in to see just how things looked after the latest round of roster cuts.

Oddly enough, there weren’t really specific line drills performed at practice today. The team was dressed in white and black uniforms. When I saw this I assumed the roster was split up to do a mock-scrimmage or something extensive but that wasn’t really the case. So, for the additions of Colton Sissons and David Moss in camp, lines weren’t exactly noticeable. Prior to tomorrow night’s exhibition game should be a little more telling.

One of the new names in town at practice today was Juuse Saros. The 20-year old Finnish netminder looked sharp during multiple shooting drills and I’m very impressed by his side-to-side movements. That photo I snapped up top for this story? He made the initial save, the rebound kicked out, and he pushed aside the follow up. He’s quick, a wee lad, but oh so very quick. I’m hoping he either gets the net tomorrow night or in full for Saturday night. That all depends on Marek Mazanec‘s travel arrangements and fatigue from jet lag because he is still not in Milwaukee yet.

After practice I had the chance to speak with new assistant coach Scott Ford, winger Max Görtz, and the aforementioned Sissons. This is what everyone had to say this afternoon.

Continue reading “The Chatterbox, Vol. 83” →

Today marked the first day of training camp for the Milwaukee Admirals. Practice at the MSOE Kern Center went on for a little over an hour and a half. And it was fantastic getting a glimpse of the new and returning talent.

The roster revealed yesterday was all there minus one name, Marek Mazanec. The Czech goaltender was back home to be there for the birth of his first child. The Admirals received help in the form of Dov Grumet-Morris to fill the void in net at practice today. Mazanec is expected to rejoin the Admirals this weekend. The plan initially was to have him start Saturday night’s exhibition game on the road against the Chicago Wolves but, due to fatigue or jet lag, there is a question mark as to whether or not that holds true. It seems very likely that Brandon Whitney gets the nod for Friday night’s game against the Rockford IceHogs.

As far as line combinations go I expect things to change up here and there as training camp marches on. I’m not entirely expecting the lines I saw today in practice be what we see on opening night. That said, here is how the forwards rolled out today.

Adam Payerl – Max Reinhart – Kevin Fiala
Pontus Åberg – Vladislav Kamenev – Miikka Salomäki
Max Görtz – Félix Girard – Joe Pendenza
Eric Robinson – Frédérick Gaudreau – Jaynen Rissling

 If any line catches my eye it’d be that second line. I’d love for that pairing to stick because the skill level of all three would be a joy to watch in a game situation. Another note worth mentioning. It seems the Admirals will be committed to Rissling as a winger rather than as a defenseman. Hey, that move worked out for Mike Liambas – and Rissling is a bit bigger of a bulldozer than Liambas.

What about the defense you say? Well, all were accounted for but there was never really any pairings to speak of. You get that a lot with Admirals practices but even more so when there are as many defensemen in a training camp like this right now. Things are static and it’s more down to individual looks and performance than forming a tandem. For what it’s worth, today was my first serious look at Kristian Näkyvä and I really loved what I saw from him. He can skate really well and has a nasty shot. If the goal is to emulate the parent club then that means having defensemen that are capable of stepping up and helping out on the rush. Näkyvä might possess that ability better than any current Admirals defenseman.

After practice came to a close I had the chance to speak with head coach Dean Evason. I also spoke with Fiala and Salomäki. While the audio clips by Fiala might come off as short one-word answers I wouldn’t take that as some sort of a slight from him to the media. My secondary language when I was his age was limited to asking where the library was so I’m used to European players such as him keeping things brief or to the point. Evason’s dialogue on him was far more telling than anything when it comes to Fiala’s situation of starting his season in the AHL. And that’s good enough for me. Here’s what everyone had to say after today’s opening practice in Milwaukee.

Continue reading “The Chatterbox, Vol. 82” →