Hooray! We’ve got a schedule!

While many of you have given your first impressions in the previous post, here are a few other tidbits about the schedule.

– Let’s call out the elephant in the room…..There is a particular car race on February 26th. There is also a home game that day, as the Admirals will entertain the Rampage. Sorry Todd. Better luck next year. Hey, Bert Blyleven got into the Hall eventually…maybe next year will be your year?

– Yes. April looks to be brutal. 9 games in 15 days, and 7 of them in a row on the road…but only one set of games on back-to-back nights, and that’s once they return to the midwest to close out the season. They’ll cover a lot of miles on that trip, but they shouldn’t have any days where they’ll be playing the same day that they are travelling. So that’s nice.

– The AHL got rid of the 4-games-in-5-days stretches….but they kept the 3-in-3’s. And the Admirals have 9 3-in-3’s this year. Of interest: 8 of those stretches have two games as home dates. The last one is the closing weekend of the season, with one home date.

– Sunday December 18th, the Admirals host Peoria. They won’t play again until the day after Christmas. 7 off-days. I’ll just go ahead and pencil in ‘caption contest’ during that week.

– No odd one-off travel dates. No home game Friday, and then game in San Antonio on Saturday. I don’t book the flights, but it looks like there should only be 7 trips requiring air travel this season.

– The Admirals will play road games in different cities on back-to-back days three times. Lake Erie/Hamilton, Lake Erie/Toronto, and then Rockford/Chicago the last weekend of the season.

– Day hockey anyone? 1:30 start at home against Chicago on Saturday November 12th. 10am at Peoria Tuesday January 24th. And early Sunday games at Charlotte (11/27) and Houston (2/5).

– I thought the team did well last year with 75% of their home games on a Friday, Saturday, or Sunday. Somehow, they managed to get a better percentage, as 32 ofo 38 home games (84%) will be on those weekend dates. Just 15 of the 76 full season games are M, T, W, or Th.

– The schedule-makers did a pretty nice job breaking up the division games this season. Of course, with 44 games against division foes this year, that’s a tough task. But there are only two stretches all season where the Admirals will play over three straight games against division foes.

– How many calendar weeks (Sunday through Saturday) of the regular season will the Admirals not have at least one home game (Excluding opening night in Peoria)? Three. Once for the Abbotsford trip in October, once in March, and once in April. (Yes, I know I’m fudging the numbers a bit…a more useful stat would be weeks that go Monday-Sunday, but that number isn’t as aesthetically pleasing)

– Speaking of Abbotsford, three out of the four games will be played before December 1st. But they’ll re-appear at the Bradley Center in February.

– By December 10th, the Admirals will have played 22 games. 6 of them will have been against the Wolves.

– Half of the season series against Rockford will take place after March 1st.

To be honest, I expected a lot worse. Yes, April appears to be unpleasant, but I don’t have a lot to complain about here outside of the usual gripes (lack of Eastern Conference, etc). The team isn’t gone for a long time, and they are never home for a really long time. Seems like as balanced of an unbalanced AHL schedule that we could hope for. Lots of chances to travel on weekends to Rockford and Rosemont (and Peoria if you get good gas mileage on your vehicle).

Feel free to weigh in on the schedule in the comments section.

So the pre-season games were announced yesterday, and now the team has announced five regular season home dates, including the home opener.

October 14th will be the home opener, although I think it’s a little late to be a season opener.  So we’ll probably open somewhere on the road the previous weekend.  The opponent has not been announced yet, but there is a ticket pre-sale going on….you can go to milwaukeeadmirals.com for more info about that. (The Pre-sale is done now.  You missed it!

Other announced home games include games Monday December 26th and Wednesday the 28th.  Those Christmas-break games traditionally have some great crowds, and the high school hockey tournament usually goes on during that week too.  Saturday November 12th and Saturday January 27th are also guaranteed home dates.

So Roundtable….last year we had a plethora of Friday and Sunday home games, and just a handful of Saturday games, thanks partially to the Bucks schedule.  With the NBA season in jeopardy, that may even things out a bit.  Do you prefer games on Saturdays compared to Fridays and Sundays afternoons?

Note:  February 26th is the Daytona 500…..if there’s another home game conflicting with the race, I’ll reach out to Todd from (the re-designed) Milwaukeehockey.com for his annual comment.

First off, thanks to everyone who has shared so far in the previous post.  I’ve enjoyed reading your responses, and I love the passion and loyalty that many of you have had with this team over the years.

So here’s today’s news — the Preds have signed defenseman Jack Hillen to a two-way deal.  He’s 25 years old, 5’11, and has the distinction of being an undrafted free agent that went straight to the NHL as soon as his college season at Colorado College was done.  He played two games with an assist and four penalty minutes that year.  He split time the next season with Isles (40 games) and their AHL team in Bridgeport (33 games).  He was an Islander exclusively the last two seasons, and comes to the Preds organization with 175 games of NHL experience.  He was -5 defensively last year on the team that gave up the second most goals in the Eastern Conference.  You can probably twist that stat to make an argument that he’s better than the stats suggest, or that he was part of the problem.

Why was he available?  He wasn’t given a qualifying offer from the Islanders.  They are also in a position where they have some kids on the cusp of the NHL level, and the Isles had more stock in them than him.

Tough to say if he’ll be ticketed to Milwaukee…but he gives the Predators some more depth and some more options in case they aren’t quite ready to rush Ryan Ellis or Roman Josi to the big time yet.

And in other news….while the AHL still figures out how to schedule their games without the benefit of four-games-in-five-days stretches, the Admirals did announce their pre-season schedule today.

Friday September 30th @ Kern Center VS Rockford
Saturday October 1st @ Hoffman Estates VS Chicago

I always get excited for these games, not just because it’s our first taste of live hockey after such an eternal summer, but I enjoy watching the guys who come in to the AHL training camp trying to make a good impression with the coaching staff in hopes that their phone will ring later in the season when injuries and callups inevitably take their toll.

So these are the first dates to put on your calendar.  Make it so.

I love listening to Wojo talk.

Which is good, because he likes to talk….but I especially enjoy hearing him tell stories about many of the earlier days of the organization.  Stories that I know next to nothing about due to my relative newness to the region.

So with that in my mind, I wanted to ask all of our friends at the Roundtable how far back you go with the team.  What was it that sparked your interest?  Who were some of your early favorite players?  And what keeps you coming back season after season?

My story:  I grew up in Maryland as a Washington Capitals fan, and came to college out here in Milwaukee starting in the fall of 97.  I attended my first Admirals games that season, and recognized some of the names right away, as they had been in the Caps organization in the not too distant past.  Ken Sabourin, Jeff Nelson, and Martin Gendron made it easy for me to jump on the bandwagon right away.  Al Sims was the coach.   And as a poor college kid, it was easy to afford tickets….at the time, I think it was the last two rows of the upper deck that were just $5.  I’d come to games with friends, and sometimes I’d come by myself and just move to various seats over the course of the game (I did more of the latter, to be quite honest).

The night before an 8am final exam, I convinced myself that it’d be okay to go to a playoff hockey game.  “I’ll study during the intermissions,” was my reasoning.  Uh-huh.  Sure.  That didn’t happen.  Game went to double or triple overtime too…I don’t remember which.  As for the exam…there weren’t any flying colors, but I passed.  That night was the first all-nighter of my college career, thanks to my superior time management skills…. But looking back on it, no regrets.  It was a hell of a game.

So that’s how it started for me.  I go back 14 years.  I’m sure many of you have me beat.  I encourage you to share some of your stories and favorite memories, as we pass some time this week waiting on the schedule.

So there were two caption contests out there, and it’s time to announce who the winners are.

I delegated the task of selecting the winners to Eric Kent.  You may remember him from such public service videos as “Designated Drivers – The Life-Saving Nerds” and “Phony Tornado Alarms Reduce Readiness”.  You may also remember him as the guy who used to write at the Short Shifts blog with me.

So here are the winners!

From Frontrowjon:

Bourque is leading the crowd in the “Haaaaaaaaaackett Haaaaaaaackett Haaaaaaaaaaackett YOU SUCK!!” Chant.

Eric’s comments:  “The imagery created by this hypothetical goal celebration is gold, baby. Gold. Forget jumping into the boards or sliding on one knee. Tauntung a goalie in three-part harmony after scoring a goal is the sort of bush-league showmanship that should be the bedrock of all sports comeptitions….but sadly isn’t.”

So Jon, you’ll get some cookies coming your way in October.  Mazel tov!

And then the Kelsey Wilson one with the manufactured outrage on my part…

From BrianTheAdsFan:

“Captain Ahab” Wilson harpoons Ortmeyer to keep him from scoring.

Eric’s comments:  ” I give mad props to the literary reference. The Ads Facebook page may have MORE fans, but how many of them have even READ Treasure Island, let alone use it in a caption contest??!! Well done!”

I did explain to Eric that Ahab wasn’t from Treasure Island.  And then he tried to argue that I should call him Ishmael… And then I hung up the phone on him.

So nice job Brian!  As a side note, I also enjoyed your Facebook mockery.  You’ll get media room cookies at a game early in the season.

Oh yeah…that season…. We should be getting a schedule pretty soon.  Hopefully by the end of next week.

(Photo Credit:  Scott Paulus)

That’s a lot of beard conditioner.

The Preds blogs have the coverage pretty well…um….covered, so I don’t really have anything all that new to add to the mix.

But after reading the highlights from the media conference call, the two sides went back to the optimistic tone that had preceded the hearing.  It’s not that I don’t believe them….but hell, what else are they going to say?  Poile is optimistic that they’ll be able to lock Shea up with a long term deal.  Shea loves playing in Nashville.  It’s just a business, it’s not personal.  Committed to winning.

I would have been surprised if that conference call had gone anywhere other than that line of comments.

But at the end of the day, he’s a Predator.  He’s the fifth highest paid defenseman this year in the league, a hair behind Pronger, and a few hairs above the Brian Campbell Albatross (that sounds like a good band name, incidentally….maybe they can open up for Brian Jonestown Massacre….or for Chili Sabotage).  He also has the highest cap hit among defenseman for this year, and is tied for the 7th largest cap hit in the league.

And they can start working on that extension right now.   Get to work.

Today was arbitration day for the Predators and Shea Weber.  Josh Cooper from the Tennessean has been an all-star with the twitter updates, and the usual suspects in the Predator blogworld have done a great job covering the event as well.

In short…

Predators offered $4.75 million.
Weber camp requested $8.5 million.

I imagine that whatever was being discussed prior to the hearing was somewhere in the middle… but those were the numbers that they filed with the arbiter.

The Predators can still work out a deal with the Weber camp before the arbiter rules, or the arbiter will work out a number likely somewhere in between.

Just for kicks….let’s take a look at what other folks are set to make this year.

Preds offer:  $4.75 million
Keith Yandle (PHO): $4.75
Dan Hamhuis (Van): $5 million  (Yes that’s right.  The Preds arbitration offer was less than what Dan Hamhuis is scheduled to make this year.)
37-year old Sergei Gonchar (OTT):  $5.5 million
Dion Phaneuf (TOR):  $6.5 million
Zdeno Chara (BOS): $8.5 million
Weber request: $8.5 million
Christian Ehrhoff (BUF): Top paid D-man, $10 million

We may never know what the sticking point was in the negotiations leading up to the hearing, but hopefully nothing that came out in the hearing will be taken so personally that there may be a divorce on the horizon.  Is that wishful thinking?  Maybe.

Good evening.  Thank you for joining us tonight.

Four score and seven months ago (ballpark figure), our bloggers brought forth, upon this Internet, a new idea, conceived in photos, and dedicated to the proposition that our readers were pretty funny and could make funny captions to those photos.

Yes, our world famous caption contests.  (Famous in our world at least).  They have been a staple of the old blog and the new blog, and helped us pass the time during slow news weeks.  And we have offered prizes that you just can’t win anywhere else.  Media room cookies.  Delicious.  Especially when I’m able to yoink them from under the heat lamp, so that the chocolate is just a littly gooey, and the cookies kind of melt in your  mouth when you eat them….man, that’s the stuff.

The folks from the Admirals have taken notice.  And just a few short hours ago, they have declared war on Admirals Roundtable.

(Disclaimer:  They haven’t declared war….they love us…..but I’m taking this opportunity to be overdramatic…. so follow me on this here.  I repeat — this is supposed to be over-the-top, and in no way suggesting that we are in some kind of a feud with the team.  Have I made this disclaimer clear enough?  If so, great.  You may proceed.)

Just 2 days after we released our latest caption contest, the Admirals have started their own caption contest, promoting it on Facebook, Twitter, and more.  And in just 3 short hours, they’ve got 62 comments already on their Facebook page.  They have the firepower and reach, that a simple working class blog like mine just doesn’t have.

The timing is very suspect.

Yet, what are they offering as prizes?  I have seen it advertised as “something you will treasure forever.”  and “something amazing”.  They’re out of autographed James Sixsmith nameplates, so really, what could it be?  Right?  Right.

They are trying to silence our piece of the caption contest pie.  Or cookie, if you will.

So what can YOU do help our cause?

Go to that caption contest on the Admirals Facebook page and/or twitter account, and tell them that you support your working class blog, Admiralsroundtable.com, and that while you acknowledge their contest and interest in passing the time duriing the dog days of summer, you refuse to participate on principle.

Or, you can take their picture, and leave a BETTER caption on this blog here.  Show the Admirals that it’s not about quantity, it’s about QUALITY.

(photo credit:  Scott Paulus)

Or you can do nothing, and that’s fine too.

Ok.  /silliness.

Back to regular content tomorrow….hopefully with some good news about Shea Weber’s contract.

To help pass the time, here’s another caption contest.

We Scott Paulus provides the picture, you provide the funny.  And if your funny is funnier than everyone else’s funny, you’ll win media room cookies at a game this season.

For example:  Jamie Koharski conducts the Ad-Tones in a performance of “Coney Island Baby”

Good luck!

(Photo credit:  Scott Paulus)

As he was exiting the ice at the Bradley Center after Game 7 against the Aeros, it looked like he was trying to soak it all in.

Still, there was hope that he’d stick around with the Ads/Preds for another year.

Today, the Marlies announced that they’ve signed Wilson to a contract.  (It was the GM of the Marlies making the announcement….not Brian Burke.)

Kelsey has suited up in more games as an Admiral than any other player since the team joined the AHL in 2001.  His demeanor on and off the ice will be missed, for sure.

Leave a comment with your favorite Kelsey moment from over the years, if you have one.