Last night’s 6-3 loss for the Milwaukee Admirals was rough to watch. Yes, it’s once again another hard night against the Grand Rapids Griffins. Yes, the Admirals have lost two straight games for the first time this season. But the Admirals didn’t even really look like themselves last night. That’s what concerns me the most. And they have a day to correct that before playing the Rockford IceHogs on Friday night before traveling for a road tilt Sunday afternoon against the Griffins. Adjustments need to be made in a quick amount of time.
The Milwaukee Admirals lost 6-3 against the Grand Rapids Griffins at the UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena on Wednesday night.
This game was a sloppy one for the Admirals. And the Griffins were simply relentless. The Griffins outshot the Admirals 43-20 tonight. The Admirals looked sluggish from the off and they’ve now lost two straight games.
“I don’t know if it’s what they did or what we didn’t do,” said Milwaukee Admirals head coach Dean Evason of tonight’s game. “Right from the drop of the puck the only guy that was ready to play this hockey game was [Anders Lindbäck]. It could have been 6-2 after the first period.”
The Milwaukee Admirals started the season off with only a pair of home games in October. They get to match that Wednesday and Friday night by finally getting back into the swing of things at the UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena. Their first opponent? Why, none other than -that- team which has swept them out of the opening round of the AHL Calder Cup Playoffs the past two seasons – the Grand Rapids Griffins.
Yesterday, we announced our Admiral of the Month for October as Emil Pettersson. The 23-year old from Sundsvall, Sweden has quickly adapted to the North American game and made an impact for the Milwaukee Admirals. Pettersson leads the team with 10 points (3 goals, 7 assists) in 7 games and has done a great job at center and working both sides of special teams. Should he continue as he has started? It wouldn’t surprise me one bit to see him getting involved with the Nashville Predators this season.
The Milwaukee Admirals finished up their slate of seven-games for the month of October. They ended with a record of 5-2-0-0 (10 points, 0.714 points percentage) and are sitting behind only the Rockford IceHogs (0.778) in the Central Division. That’s only thanks to the IceHogs playing, and winning, two further games in October than the Admirals. Though, given the early back and forths between those two, I get a feeling that we could be hearing about that divisional battle until the end of the regular season.
This start for the Admirals has been really impressive. I had a feeling based on Training Camp that this year’s group was a special one. Still, to get things to gel as quickly as they have, it’s a rather impressive feat. As a team, the Admirals are operating really well and their AHL best penalty kill (93.1%) stands out as an example of how well everyone has clicked. Individually, there are many great performers right out of the gate. Which makes this choice a difficult one -but- one that I feel is deserved. The Real Estate Center‘s Admiral of the Month Award for October belongs to Emil Pettersson.
The Milwaukee Admirals lost 2-1 on the road against the Chicago Wolves at the Allstate Arena on Saturday night.
The Admirals were able to take an early lead tonight in Chicago. Unfortunately, the Wolves would score twice inside of two-minutes in the third period to claim victory tonight. It’s the first road defeat of the season for the Admirals as well as the first loss in net for Anders Lindbäck.
The Amtrak Rivalry this season has been given a slight refresh. Out go the St. Louis Blues. In come the Vegas Golden Knights.. and also, partially, the St. Louis Blues too. Alright, the Chicago Wolves as an AHL affiliate is a little messy this season but the core of their affiliation agreement for 2017-18 and beyond is with the NHL’s latest expansion team, Vegas.
The way St. Louis is working their AHL talent this season is how I’d imagine Jackson Pollock would work a farm system in sports as their talent is kind of everywhere. They have a partial agreement to keep some talent in Chicago but, currently, there are only five players contracted by St. Louis playing in Chicago: Ivan Barbashyov, Petteri Lindbohm, MacKenzie MacEachern, Wade Megan, and Jake Walman. The rest are either Vegas property, Chicago property on AHL contracts, or -especially in net- currently on the roster by way of loans or professional try-out (PTO) contracts.
It’s all very well held together by duct tape this AHL business for the 2017-18 season but, thankfully, the Colorado Eagles will be elevated up from the ECHL next season to make it a 31 team league in the AHL to match that of the NHL. The Eagles will be affiliated to the Colorado Avalanche. That means the opening for the San Antonio Rampage is available for the St. Louis Blues who were left without a dance partner this go-around. They’re slightly still attached to Chicago but, as you’ll see, when Vegas starts building and unleashing their own prospect pool it could be really good.
The Milwaukee Admirals were down 2-0 inside of eight-minutes last night. The Rockford IceHogs scored the opener at 1:38 to get their home crowd into it and the speed they were playing with was all to reminiscent of last time out when the Admirals lost 6-2. That narrative changed when a couple of Swedes got into the mix. Emil Pettersson scored a power-play goal with two-seconds remaining in the first period to get the Admirals on the board. And then Anders Lindbäck put on a performance – big saves across the board, huge on the penalty kill, and so smooth working on the puck to help out his defensemen. The Admirals won 5-2 in Rockford. And they now stand atop the Central Division heading into tomorrow night’s first Amtrak Rivalry game in Chicago.
The Milwaukee Admirals won 5-2 on the road against the Rockford IceHogs at the BMO Harris Bank Center on Friday night.
The Admirals were down 2-0 early tonight but stormed back by scoring five-unanswered goals. Tonight’s story was all Anders Lindbäck as he stole the show and kept the Admirals afloat en route to this victory. The Swede stopped twenty-four shots and has now won in all five starts he has made this season.
“He’s such a good pro,” said Milwaukee Admirals head coach Dean Evason of Lindbäck. “He plays the game the right way. We talk about our forwards and defensemen playing the right way – the goalie plays the right way and it filters out to the rest of the team.”
The Milwaukee Admirals opened up the season going 4-1-0-0 (8 points, 0.800 points percentage). Their lone loss so far came last time out on home ice against the Rockford IceHogs. It was a bit of revenge for the IceHogs as they currently have a record of 6-1-0-0 (12 points, 0.857 points percentage). Their lone loss of the season was in their own barn to the Admirals. So, if you are a fan of how this pattern is playing out, tonight’s game taking place at the BMO Harris Bank Center is looking rather good.
Admirals Roundtable 