Big news this afternoon, as it has been announced that the affiliation agreement between the Nashville Predators and the Milwaukee Admirals is being extended through the 2013-14 season, with a mutual option for the 14-15 season.
The Admirals and Predators will be extending what is currently the third longest continuous relationship, behind the Providence-Boston and New York Rangers-Connecticut duos.
This is very good news, especially considering the doubt that was cast upon the partnership at the start of the season. You may recall that Jeff Cogen , the Chief Executive Officer and alternate Governor of the Predators, reportedly commented at their Skate Of The Union event that he expected all of the primary affiliates to be within three hours driving distance.
I think the best quote in the press release comes from David Poile, where he recognizes that the staff in Milwaukee have ‘created a major league environment for our prospects.’ I think that’s one of the under-appreciated aspects of the relationship between the two teams. They get to train in first class facilities, and get to live and play in a great city. Do you think the Flyers feel the same way about the Adirondack Phantoms? (I’m sure Glens Falls, NY is nice and all….but…..)
So here’s to the future. Here’s to the new boss….same as the old boss. Which is great. And you can still drink every time you hear the phrase “The road to Nashville goes through Milwaukee.”
The Admirals did a lot of good things on Sunday evening. But a few poor decisions ended up leading to Peoria goals, as the Rivermen handed the Admirals their 11th straight divisional loss. 4-2 was the final.
Atte Engren made his fourth start in the last five games, and made some big saves over the course of the game. Coach Herbers doesn’t really fault him for the three that went in.
Chris Mueller opened the scoring in the final minute of the first period on a play that 50% of the time might have been flagged as an offsides play. Blake Geoffrion had a long pass up the left wing boards to find Taylor Beck, who was ruled on-side. From the far corner, Beck fed Mueller, who was crashing the net, and that 14th shot of the first period finally beat Rivermen goalie Ben Bishop.
The Rivermen answered back in the opening minute of the second period, with an Adam Cracknell shot that went off the pipe and in. A snipe, we’ll call it. Some great passing on that play too.
Zack Stortini answered back at the 10:37 mark, but it was Brodie Dupont and Chris Mueller that did the dirty work on the play. After a great forecheck that kept the puck in the offensive zone, Dupont found Mueller in the far circle. Mueller was being worked over by Cheechoo, but was able to send a no-look pass to Stortini all alone in front of Bishop.
Brett Sterling tied it up a little less than three minutes later on a goal that his back-side deflected.
Sterling had a second goal while Jon Blum was serving a holding penalty. Two Admirals were caught up ice on a short-handed chance, which led to a 4-on-2 rush the other way. The Rivermen are skilled enough to usually make you pay in those situations.
Stortini received five for boarding in a game misconduct on a play against Cheechoo with less than a minute remaining in the game. I didn’t get a good look at how nasty the hit was from my vantage point….I just saw the train coming. Tough to say if he’s likely to be unavailable Tuesday or not. I expected to see the Rivermen send the big guns out on their power play and get some payback, but they didn’t.
But it all comes back to mistakes. Here’s the Coach on all three Rivermen goals….although not in order….
Don’t usually hear Coach’s say that forwards were outworked by the other goaltender when battling for the puck.
And that’s how it’s kind of going for the Admirals these days. That, and how difficult it’s been for them to score.
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I won’t bother with the lines, because they were jumbled late in the first period, after Mark Van Guilder left with an upper body injury.
Jeff Foss played again tonight in lieu of Scott Valentine. No injury — he’s a healthy scratch.
– Jon Blum — defensively a -11 in 21 games for Milwaukee now. No goals since his second game. Ford is +11, Sloan is + 9, Bartley is +5, Laakso is a -6.
– Three straight games the Admirals have not scored in the third period.
– After this weekend’s action, the Admirals sit in 11th place in the conference with 51 points. Four points behind Abbotsford and Peorio, who sit in 7th and 8th place with 55 points.
– In case you didn’t see it on twitter….Chris Cahill quit. Don’t know the story, but it may be one of those cases where the guy was frustrated that other players were being signed to PTO’s instead of him getting called up from Cincy. Don’t know if he has plans for Europe a la Jamie Lundmark, or if he’s leaving hockey altogether….but he’s done with this organization, apparently.
Also — responding to a comment in last game’s thread….the Ads/Preds certainly have the power to send Blum to the ECHL. Chet Pickard is there. Blum can go too. Now, there’s absolutely no chance that he WILL actually get sent down, but I wanted to clarify that unless there is something exotic about his contract that most other players don’t have….he can be sent to the E.
QUESTIONS:
– Are you impressed with the play of Atte Engren of late? Do you expect to see him again on Tuesday? And how badly will you miss Ben Bishop when he finally gets his chance in the NHL?
– Do you think Stortini will be suspended for more than a game?
– How badly do you miss Michael Latta right about now?
The Admirals scoring woes continued against the first place Charlotte Checkers, but they were able to salvage a point in the standings in a 2-1 OT loss at the Bradley Center. It’s their 10th straight loss against a division opponent.
Zac Dalpe scored the game winner, as he was all alone at the left doorstep, after a Justin Krueger shot from the point bounced off Jerome Samson. Dalpe beat goaltender Atte Engren up high for the winner with 12.5 seconds left in the overtime period.
Here are three descriptions of the play.
Coach Herbers.
Scott Ford.
Atte Engren.
Obviously the offense couldn’t get on track, but Coach Herbers was happy with how the defense kept the Checkers in check for the most part.
The Checkers got on the board first. A Nicolas Blanchard shot from the right point was saved by Engren, but he didn’t couldn’t find the puck. Former Badger Sean Dolan did, as he was camped on the right doorstep, and he put it in to give the Checkers the 1-0 lead.
The Ads had a four minute power play late in the first period, but came away empty-handed.
With 1:15 left in the 2nd period, Kyle Wilson tied it up. Joel Champagne created a turnover at center ice, and fed Ryan Thang at the blue line. While the defensemen were focused on Thang, Kyle Wilson took a tap pass from Thang, split the D, and went in all alone on Muse.
– Kevin Henderson is the new guy. And Coach Herbers talks about what he will hopefully be bringing to the team.
– Didn’t like the Blum and Ford pairing. It’s great that Ford is a stay-at-home guy to compliment Blum, but he shouldn’t be the guy that has to bail out Blum multiple times every game. Blum owes both Ford and Engren some steaks.
– Interesting seeing Van Guilder on a wing.
– I liked Stortini tonight. The fight was kind of meh, but it was good that he went right away after the Checkers goal. Sloan’s fight? Didn’t see what happened behind the play to spark the fight, but I was pretty surprised to see #89 drop the gloves.
– Ryan Flynn remains day to day with his injury.
– Peoria comes to town Sunday Sunday Sunday.
So Roundtable….first game back from the Texas roadtrip…. give me the name of one guy that stood out in a good way, and one guy that stood out in a bad way.
Usually when a hockey team jumps out to a 3-0 lead in the first 13:27 of the game, that bodes well.
They don’t usually give up the next six goals after that.
But that’s what the Admirals did, as the Texas Stars got some payback in the rematch Wednesday, dropping Milwaukee 6-3.
Ryan Garbutt had a hat-trick, Andrew Raycroft settled down after an unstable first period, stopping all 15 shots he faced in the 2nd and 3rd periods.
Raycroft was having some rebound issues, as the Admirals scored their first two goals on second chances. Kyle Wilson scored first, putting back the rebound of his own shot. And then Zack Stortini put in a rebound after Raycroft made a pad save on a shot from Jani Lajunen.
After a Tousignant slashing penalty, Raycroft was whistled a pair of his own infractions, leading to a pair of 5-on-3 power plays for the Admirals. They scored on their first one, as Chris Mueller converted on a back door play. Tousignant came out of the box. And then the Ads had the distinction of being on a 5-on-3 courtesy of two penalties on the goaltender. Not something you see every day.
And then the first period ended. A good period for the Admirals, who were strong on the forecheck, strong going to the net, and sticking to the gameplan.
The players got away from the gameplan in the second period. Coach Drulia said on the post-game radio interview that there were some guys who were trying to be too cute with the puck, and it was on some of those plays that the pucks ended up behind Jeremy Smith.
This has been a recurring theme in 2012. Getting away from the gameplan, and then paying for mistakes. I know a lot of fans have complained that the coach is the problem, but the players have to execute. They’re professionals. When they are calling audibles after an extraordinarily successful first period, the responsibility falls to the players for collapses like tonight. It’s like they were already on the flight back to Milwaukee.
Colton Sceviour scored on a 3-on-2 just over six minutes into the second period.
Ryan Garbutt scored on a 2-on-1 with Jon Blum caught up ice.
Garbutt scored his second goal just 59 seconds into the third period on a shot that went just under Smith’s glove.
Matt Fraser got behind the defense and scored on an even strength breakaway for what was eventually the game winning goal.
Scott Glennie knocked a puck out of mid-air past Smith 1:34 after Fraser’s goal. And then Garbutt got the empty netter for the hat-trick.
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I was all ready to write about what a successful Texas road trip it was. The Admirals did get 4 out of a possible 6 points…but after a collapse like tonight, I can’t help but curb my enthusiasm a bit. First place Charlotte comes to town on Friday, and if it turns to improv night at the BC again, it’ll be the Checkers that’ll be ‘jumping around’ to the Badger Band.
Atte got two wins this week. Smitty was left out to dry and gave up six goals tonight. Who starts on Friday?
The Admirals were outshot badly. They gave up a go-ahead goal from the red line. They took two delay of game penalties in the third period to give the Stars a 5-on-3 advantage for over a minute.
And they still found a way to win.
In the context of how they played in January of 2012….I think we can call this win an improbable victory. The Admirals defeated the Texas Stars 4-3 in overtime Tuesday night.
Atte Engren got his second straight start, after netting the win in Houston on Sunday, and he made 37 saves tonight. He had about a three and a half minute span in the third period that he’d like to have back, as he let a shot from the red line skip by him into the net, and then was called for playing the puck in the restricted area. But outside of those two plays, it’s tough to argue that Engren was not solid in net.
The Admiral offense? Dormant early on. They didn’t get their first shot until there was 7:53 left in the first period. But it went in. Mark Van Guilder intercepted a pass in the offensive zone, and then Taylor Beck put it in for his ninth of the year. This was Van Guilder’s first point of 2012. The Ads were being outshot 14-0 at that time.
They got their second shot 2:43 later, and found the net again. Van Guilder had a shot from the slot that beat goaltender Tyler Beskorowany.
In the second period, the Stars were able to tie the game with a power play goal from Colton Sceviour, and a Travis Morin shot that went in off of Jon Blum’s skates (Blum’s first goal since December 17th…har har har).
After two periods, the Stars were outshooting the Admirals 27-9.
In the third period, Sceviour got his second of the game, on that shot from the red line that skipped past Engren.
Then the Engren delay of game penalty. Then a Ryan Thang delay of game penalty to send the Ads down two men. They were able to kill off the power plays, with Engren making some key saves.
Thang made up for his Yonking penalty by netting the game-tying goal with a snipe from the left circle that beat Beskorowany short-side over his right shoulder with 5:25 to play in the third.
The game went to overtime, and Chris Mueller was the OT hero again, putting in a rebound with a backhand shot at 3:15 mark of the extra session.
Taylor Beck had his first pro three point game. Great to see MVG contributing offensively again. Great to see Thang make the big play late in the third. And great to see Engren regain his composure after the fluky goal, and give the Admirals a chance to make the comeback.
Same two teams tomorrow night, as the Ads go for THREE in a row.
So as the All-Star break comes to a close, it’s usually the time that pontificators (I’ll stop short of calling us “writers”) look back on the season so far and dish out grades to the players. We’ve done it in previous years. Makes for good discussion.
Grades. That was the plan for this week. I sent out some emails to Jason and Sutty asking them for their opinions. They sent their thoughts back. It was going to be a great big post.
And then I sat down to write it, and it just made me feel depressed.
The entire team deserves a big fat “D” grade for the last month.
What a 180 degree turn this season took. I really can’t remember a more dreadful month than the January that we just finished. 13 games. 3 wins. 2 of them against Lake Erie, 1 against Texas. 0-8 against the Midwest Division. It started off with a whimper, losing 1-0 to the Rivermen on New Years Day against a goalie playing his third game in three days. And it ended with a sad effort against the Rockford IceHogs, who guess what, sit just a point behind the Admirals in the standings now.
It’s depressing because we’re not used to this.
And sure, as fans, we’ve been spoiled. We’ve been spoiled to have a team that hasn’t missed the playoffs since the 01-02 season. Sitting in 10th place in the conference (despite still having a few games in hand) is scary new territory.
So rather than a big grades post….I’ll just summarize the general thoughts in one paragraph.
Latta and Mueller had A’s. Blum and Engren had D’s. Everyone else was somewhere in the B and C range. Sutty had the best line, equating Blum to the guy that tested into an advanced science class, then failed it, and is now failing the 101 level class.
Since looking back is unpleasant at the moment, let’s look ahead instead. Here’s what I’d like to see starting Friday against the Rivermen:
– I want to see a team that re-charged their batteries at home over the break. A little Tim Hortons coffee here….a little home cooked meal there….
– I want to see guys like Blum and Geoffrion make more of an impact on the ice than on their twitter pages. Their presence was supposed to make this a better team. They haven’t.
– I want to see rookies come of age.
– And I want to see the same energy and enthusiasm and swagger that the team had in October. And November. And December.
There are 34 more games in the regular season for the Admirals. Lots of time left. It’s a long season and every team goes through rough stretches. Let’s hope the stormy weather is officially behind us now, and that we get a good effort against Peoria out of the gate here.
This doesn’t look like the same team that started the season so well, even though much of the personnel is the same.
The Admirals have hit the All-Star Break losers of four in a row, and six of their last seven, as they lost to the Rockford IceHogs 3-1 on Saturday night.
Goals are still a premium for the Admirals, as they scored just one goal in three of their four losses.
We’re tired of asking about it, and I’m sure Coach Herbers is tired of talking about it.
The Admirals found themselves trailing 4:15 into the first period after a Joe Lavin shot from the far point was deflected by Rostislav Olesz just inside of the far circle. The shot went down, and went between Jeremy Smith’s legs.
The Ads tied it up about eight a half minutes later with Taylor Beck’s 8th of the year. Scott Valentine had a nice keep-in at the point, and sent the puck towards the net. Joel Champagne had the initial shot, but Beck was able to deflect it in.
In the second period, Lavin got a goal for himself. A shot from the near point that beat Smith far side. A Chet Pickard style goal that makes you scratch your head.
Brain Fahey made it a two-goal lead with a power play marker. Ben Smith was behind the goal-line, and sent a pass to Fahey pinching to the far faceoff dot. Blake Geoffrion was the forward on that side, and couldn’t decide whether to go after Smith or watch Fahey.
Carter Hutton continued his strong play for the IceHogs, netting his 10th win of the season. Coach Herbers credits not only the hot goalie, but the hot team playing in front of him too.
Confidence. Attitude. Energy. Gel-ing. If you were playing the $25,000 Pyramid, those would be “Things Not Associated With The Admirals Right Now.”
– Jon Blum. A big disappointment. Although, to his credit, he did make some nice plays in crunch time late in the third period. But he doesn’t look like he’s particularly invested in this team right now. Easy for me to say in press row, but I think he played better when he was here last year. (This just in….10:08 pm, Jon Blum tweets “Well, All-Star Break is here. Heading back to sunny southern California for a few days to celebrate my birthday with family. Can’t wait.”
Draw your own conclusions. Make up your own punchlines.
– Blake Geoffrion. Not much better. Not making a positive impact like he should be. He stood out tonight.
– I’d really like to point to someone who stood out in a good way by having a pretty good game, and I’m having a tough time doing it. Yes, the effort in the third period was much much better…but this team needs to find a way to bottle that and play like that for longer stretches of time.
So as the zamboni circles the BMO Harris Bank Center ice to clean up the pink highlights….we’ll wrap this up. We’ll leave with one question for the Roundtable: How do you fix the Admirals right now?
It was the 2nd largest crowd since they joined the AHL.
It was the 7th largest crowd in franchise history.
It was their 17th regulation loss of the year.
The Admirals gave up a pair of first period goals, and couldn’t claw back into the game to get the equalizer, as the Wolves dropped the Admirals 2-1 Friday night in front of 17,386 customers.
Don’t want to read anymore? Here’s a summary of the game from Coach Herbers.
Coach talked about lost battles and not sealing guys off, but the thing that jumped out at me on the two Chicago goals was that Jeremy Smith was doing a lot of sliding around. And when the puck bounced a couple of odd ways, there wasn’t any way he was going to be back in position. That first goal that Reinprecht scored will be one of the easiest of his career.
It really was a different game after the first period. The Wolves only had nine shots on net the rest of the way, and the Ads put 23 on Wolves goalie Matt Climie. The different in those two periods? Matt Climie. Climie moves to 5-1 on the season against the Admirals.
Meet 6’2 winger Daniel Koger! Called up today with Juuso Puustinen on the shelf as a scratch. Koger has five goals and ten assists in 19 games with the Cyclones in the ECHL. It’s his third PTO of the year, after playing three games with St. Johns, and five games with Providence. Here’s coach on Koger’s debut, and some expected vagueness about Puustinen.
I didn’t care for Geoffrion in his first game back from the injury, but Coach liked his game. He thought he was good on both ends, and had a good week of practice this week.
So this is a slump, eh? I’m sure the coach is tired of us asking about it, but I think he’s sincere in his optimism that we’ll be okay soon.
Ryan Thang says something along the same lines.
Fun facts: The Predators were 15-14-4 with Jon Blum in their lineup. They are 15-2 without him.
Okay. Tomorrow in Rockford, and then it’s the All-Star break. The schedule-makers did us a favor by having Rockford play in Charlotte tonight. So with a gameday travel day tomorrow for the IceHogs, maybe the Ads can have a leg up. And the Flames did us a favor by trading for All-Star defenseman Brian Connelly. So that may help. But don’t look now…the IceHogs are just three points behind the Admirals in the standings (having played four more games, though).
See you in Rockford tomorrow. But feel free to leave your thoughts of the game in the comments section.
With news coming out today that Michael Latta suffered a broken bone (in arm or wrist) while blocking a shot in Cleveland on Thursday night, center Aaron Marvin was signed to a PTO contract in time for today’s game against Rockford.
Good pick. Because if he hadn’t been called up, the Admirals may have been shutout.
Marvin scored the first goal of the game, but then Brandon Pirri scored a pair of power play goals, and that was all the IceHogs needed to defeat the Admirals 2-1.
Add Latta’s name to the list of the walking wounded. Also out: Blake Geoffrion, Taylor Beck, and Tyler Sloan.
Milwaukee hadn’t played since Thursday, and the IceHogs were finishing their third game in three days. Actually was a pretty good week for the IceHogs — four games, four wins….including a pair against the Wolves.
These were two points the Admirals needed to get.
Both of Pirri’s goals were from about the same spot….the right face-off dot. Perhaps a credit to the special teams gameplan for the IceHogs, getting Jeremy Smith moving from right to left in the crease.
Pirri has officially reached “nemesis” status. In his three games against the Admirals this season, he has 4 goals and 2 assists.
Marvin deflected a shot from Jon Blum for his first of the season. The new guy had been playing for the Chicago Express of the ECHL, where his counting stats were 8 goals and 13 assists in 32 games. If his name sounds familiar…he participated in Milwaukee’s training camp at the start of the season.
The Admirals were unable to score on their 3 power play chances tonight, ending their streak of games with at least one power play goal at 8 games. Meanwhile, the PK — still an issue. Rockford scored on 2 of their 5 chances.
The Admirals sent a parade to the penalty box in the second period, giving the IceHogs four power play chances in that period alone.
The Ads will conclude their 4-game road trip Tuesday morning (!) when they visit the Peoria Rivermen. 10am opening face-off.
Admirals Roundtable 