So while the Calder Cup Finals are taking Conestoga wagons up to Binghamton (come on….Game 2 was Saturday….game 3 is Wednesday)the Admirals/Predators have signed a few guys to AHL contracts.

Please welcome back center Mark Van Guilder, and defenseman Jeff Foss. And please welcome center Joel Champagne.

I’m thrilled to see MVG back in the fold. I’m sure that we didn’t see Foss’ best in his limited action at the end of the season, so I expect that after some training and some coaching, he’ll be serviceable on the blue line. He’s got the size. We’ll see if he’s got the hockey smarts too (in addition to those RPI book smarts).

That brings us to Joel Champagne. Drafted by Toronto in 2008, but never signed. A 6’4 center, Champagne played last year on the Quebec Remparts in the QMJHL, and was the second leading scorer on the squad in the regular season. 24 goals, 58 assists, 68 games. Also was over a point per game in the playoffs this season for his team.

I’ll be interested to see what he’ll bring to the table.  If he can use his size effectively, he may be a pretty good find.

But here’s what I want to know — why did Toronto have drafter’s remorse with him?

Pension Plan Puppets is the On The Forecheck equivalent for the Maple Leafs, and they had this post and this discussion when the Leafs relinquished the rights to Champagne.

It’s an interesting discussion, and it seems to come back to skating ability.

Big guy. Some scoring skills. Not a great skater. Castaway from previous organization.

Maybe this is Hugh Jessiman part deux?

In game 7 against the Admirals, the Aeros got the game winning goal with 1:21 left in the 3rd period.

In game 7 against the Bulldogs, the Aeros got the game winning goal with 1:13 left in regulation, and now move on to play the Binghamton Senators in the Calder Cup Finals.

I was listening to the Hamilton broadcast for the last few minutes of the game, and they were upset about a few things in those final minutes.  On the game winning goal, Drew Mac-In-Tyre seemed to have control of the puck, but with no whistle, the Aeros were able to whack at it and eventually put it past him.

And then in a scramble in front of the Aeros net with less than 10 seconds left, the Hamilton broadcast was saying that an Aeros player covered the puck with his hand in the crease…..which would be a penalty shot.  But nothing was called.

But something needs to be said for the Aeros ability to score important goals in crunch time.  It’s a pretty good hockey team.

I didn’t think that we’d be talking about new players this early…but the Predators have signed defenseman Victor Bartley to a two-year two-way contract.

Here’s a link to his career stats from Hockeydb.com.

Last season in Sweden, he was second among defensemen in the league in assists and points, and was a +11 defensively.

Now, I tend to take the Hockey’s Future essays with grains cubes of salt.  But here’s what they said about him in 2007.

13. Victor Bartley, D (Free Agent)
Height: 6’0. Weight: 195lbs. DOB: February 17, 1987

Victor Bartley went undrafted last summer, a notion that has had many a WHL prognosticator shaking their head. The Maple Ridge, B.C. native has scored four goals and 34 assists in 48 games for the Kamloops Blazers.

A pivotal contributor to the strong backend in Kamloops this season, Bartley has maintained the same high level of intensity he brought to the ice during his draft year. With the Blazers among the top teams in the country this season, compared to last year when the club missed the playoffs for the first time in decades, Bartley is certain to get a better look from NHL scouts. He brings leadership and poise to the Blazers and has been a steadying influence for young prospects like Keaton Ellerby and Ryan Bender, who are both 2007 eligible.

The post was ranking the top 20 prospects in the WHL at the time.  I think the more interesting thing about the link is who else was on this list, and who was honorably mentioned.  Some former Admirals, and some full time NHL’ers that are still playing hockey as of right now.

Where does he fit in our universe?  It’s a pretty crowded blueline in Nashville already.  And if we’ve seen the end of Ford, Johnson, and Palin, then this 24 year old may end up being one of the senior members of the Milwaukee defensive group.

Or not.  It’s May.  Who knows.

After the Houston Aeros jumped out to that 3-games-to-none lead in the series against Hamilton, things were looking pretty good for the Aeros.

Then this happened.  Hamilton 8, Houston 1.

Then this happened.  Hamilton 4, Houston 2.

Then this happened last night.  Hamilton 5, Houston 4, 2 OT.  Drew Mac-In-Tyre took a page out of the Jeremy Smith book, making 57 saves in the game.

The Bulldogs have become the 3rd team in AHL history to come back to force a game 7 after being down three-games-to-none.  And they now have history on their side, as the other two teams went on to win Game 7.

Game 7 is Tuesday in Houston.  Who are you cheering for?

The dates for the Admirals’ annual garage sale have been released.  So if you’re in the market for some jerseys, skates, pads, sticks, gloves, and other assorted merch, you’ll want to highlight Tuesday June 14th and Wednesday June 15th on your calendar.

Here are the details!

Those AHL conference finals?  Not nearly as exciting as the semis….both the Aeros and Senators can sweep their way to the Calder Cup finals with wins tonight.

And with all the talk about the Atlanta Thrashers moving to Winnipeg, that would leave an opening in the Southeast Division.  Our friend Dirk from On The Forecheck profiles the idea of the Preds being the chosen team to switch to the Eastern Conference.

What do you think?  Would the Preds be better off in the east?

This is about the time of the off-season that we typically put up a post, thanking the readers for their support, and thanking the significant others for their patience.  So we won’t stray from tradition….here’s the end of season thank you post.

Oh, and we’re not retiring again.  Let’s just get that out of the way.

Thank you very much for reading and participating on this site.  I really cannot say that enough.  After closing down the Short Shifts blog at the end of last season, I really didn’t know what was going to be in store for this year.  Hockey news was happening in the summertime, and my first thought would be, “Oh!  I’ve got to go get a post up about that!”  And then I’d remind myself that I didn’t have a legit place to write it.

As the new season approached, our friend Charlie Larson with the Admirals introduced me to Jason Karnosky — an actual clinically trained bona fide WRITER.  And we decided to put this little blog together.

I wanted this site to be different than Short Shifts so that it would be more discussion-driven, and less beat-writery.  And again, I must thank you for embracing this platform in that way.  A Roundtable isn’t a Roundtable unless lots of voices are heard.

And I must also compliment you on your temperment.  There are some sites where the fans are just brutal to each other, making people like me more of a babysitter than a moderator.  Disagreement drives discussion, but disrespectful rhetoric doesn’t work out well for anybody.  The fact that there’s only been a handful of comments that I’ve needed to edit for content or delete, it speaks volumes to the character of the fans.  So thank you for that.

Specific thank yous…..

Thank you to Jason for providing a lot of the non-gamestory content each week.  You are an absolute pro, and you brought a kind of credibility to the table that I just don’t have in me!

Thank you to Sutty, for being hilarious, and for stepping up to the plate as a writer, instead of just a twitter guy.  The off-season is UNDER THERE!

Thank you to Andy Grebe, who helped out a lot with the audio clips that you listened to on this site.

Thanks to Kristen, for her patience, and for being more actively interested in the team than ever before.  Glad we could make a hockey fan out of you.  Plenty of room on the bandwagon.

And let’s thank the readers one more time.  I’m not in this for the site hits, but it sure makes things a lot more fun when there are discussions going on about the team that we all love.  Thank you for making this site exceed my wildest expectations.

We’ll still put content up during the off-season, so when news breaks, and you have an opinion about it, your thoughts will definitely be welcome here.

Talk to you soon.

No doubt about it, Tuesday night was pretty rough.  Wednesday was pretty rough too.  Hopefully everyone is feeling a little bit better today.

So now we shift our focus to mostly season reviews, league news, and organization news for the next little while.  We’ll roll with it.

This morning, we’ll do it in the form of links to other sites.

Here’s Aaron Sims’ blog post about the end of the season.

The Predators signed another European player to a three year contract.  Meet defenseman Mattias Ekholm.  Our friends at On The Forecheck also posted a highlight reel video….it’s not of the Klasen variety, but still worth checking out.

A 6’4 defenseman?  We’ll take it!

If he is ticketed for Milwaukee, you’d have to think that he’ll be slotted for some playing time, and he may be a part of a very young group of blueliners in Milwaukee.

For discussion:  Rank these unrestricted free agent defensemen in the order of how much you’d like them to re-sign with Milwaukee, to help provide some leadership for the young guys.

Brett Palin (C)
Aaron Johnson (A)
Scott Ford (A)
Grant Lewis

Press release is out there now.  Jon Blum, Matt Halischuk, and Blake Geoffrion have been officially assigned to the Admirals.

Chris Mueller and Teem Laakso aren’t in the press release, probably because they were never ‘officially’ called up.  Has something to do with emergency call-ups due to injury…. more CBA stuff that I’ve given up trying to understand how it works.

But don’t let the press release make you think otherwise — All five SHOULD be in Milwaukee for tonight’s game.

And now, back to your regularly scheduled line combinations suggestions….. and with 8 capable defensemen on the roster, who do you think gets to sit?  Lewis and ____?  Or do they go with 7 defensemen for the night?

The Journal-Sentinel must be catching playoff fever, because they’ve given our friend Dave Boehler some space in the sports section to actually write some hockey features.

Delightful!

A story about superstitions…

And a story about how Kelsey Wilson was able to lighten the mood a bit in the locker room before Sunday’s game.

Hopefully, he’s doing something similar this afternoon.  Maybe the full Boss Hog getup might do the trick?

The winner of Game 7 tomorrow night will win the right to play the Hamilton Bulldogs, after the Montreal affiliate defeated the Manitoba Moose 6 seconds into the 3rd overtime period Monday night.

Now THAT is a game 7 for the ages.

The Bulldogs outshot the Moose 57-30, but Moose goaltender Eddie Lack was outstanding.  (Does this scenario sound familiar?)

Drew MacIntyre was the winner for the Bulldogs, and Dustin Boyd scored his first of the playoffs for the dramatic OT win.

Meanwhile in Music City, as you’ve probably seen referenced on Facebook and on the Preds blogs and twitter feeds, the Preds came up just short, losing 2-1 to the Vancouver Canucks.

Will the Admirals get some reinforcements?  I’m inclined to say that it’s likely, but we shouldn’t count on it until we see a press release or see them on the ice.  I seem to recall that a couple of years ago, Antti Pihlstrom was on our clear day roster, but never actually came back when the Preds were done.  If they do come back tomorrow, hopefully they’ll all be mentally and physically tough enough to keep truckin’ for another huge game.

(continued)

Per Josh’s lead in the comments section…..assuming we get Mueller, Halischuk, and Geoffrion back, how would you like to see the forward lines?