(Photo Credit:  Scott Paulus)

Geez, if he had known that all he had to do was score one goal and get a callup, he would have done it 30 games ago!

Baffled.  Absolutely baffled.  But he’s reportedly in San Jose already, so he may get some icetime tonight.

If it’s at the expense of Chris Mueller, that’ll be very disappointing.

You work hard, you do all the right things, you say all the right things, you practice, you produce, and it’s great.  And then someone else who doesn’t produce gets the promotion.  That’s got to be rough for a guy like Matt Halischuk who has been pretty good lately.

I’m happy for Andreas because I like the guy, but I refuse to believe that he was the most deserving of a callup.

I’m sure there’s a reason why they chose him.  Maybe his previous NHL experience.  Maybe he fits tonight’s gameplan better than others.  Maybe they were tired of dressing Wade Belak and wanted someone who could play some D.  Maybe it’s just for depth.  Maybe it’s blackmail.  Maybe they’re going to try to showcase him for a possible trade.  Maybe Lane just said that he had enough.

Lots of maybees.  Feel free to add your best theory in the comments section.

This weekend the Admirals will continue their stretch of playing 5-straight games against teams from the North division.  Teams we don’t get to see that often.  But that doesn’t make the importance of the games any less.

“We talk about ‘division games’ and ‘four point games’,” Coach Lambert says.  “They’re all four pointers.  Doesn’t matter if it’s the North division or our division because there is a crossover in the playoff race.”

Yes, back again this year in the Western Conference, is the crossover rule.  There are eight teams in the West Division, and just seven in the North.  So if the fifth place team in the West Division has a better record than the 4th place team in the North Division, the West Division team would play in the North playoff bracket as the 4th place team.

Would that have been great for the NFL playoffs this year?

If the season ended today, the 5th place Wolves (45 points) would crossover because their record is better than the 4th place Abbotsford Heat (39 points).  Hell, they’d be tied for 1st place if they played in the North (although, they’ve played more games than everyone).

So it’s more than just a novelty playing Toronto tonight and Hamilton tomorrow afternoon.  The Admirals will look to build on their 10-3 record against teams from the North this weekend, and strengthen their position in the conference.

Ok, time to give you the caption contest winner.

We went straight to the man himself, Matt Moore!  He hand picked the winner from all the wonderful responses.

First though, I’d like to give an honorable mention to Big Red.  Love the ACME reference.  Man, the ACME factory just has all the coolest stuff to do anything but catch a roadrunner!

But the winner……and now two-time defending caption contest champion….is Mark.

“Matt Moore has flashbacks of being bullied in grade school while watching the stretching of the bungee cord. Thus resulting in Moore picking out his ‘pseudo-wedgie’.”

Way to go Mark!  You’ve won a second helping of media room cookies!

Also, Matt wanted me to let you know that he still hears everyone saying “That’s debatable!” after penalties end, and he absolutely loves it.

——–

Three home games in four days.  Word on Mark Dekanich is that he’s been practicing, but nothing official about whether he’ll be ready to go for tonight or not.  Looks like Chet Pickard is still on the roster just in case.

Here are some more links, mostly from the Tennessean.

Blake Geoffrion wrote another post for the newspaper.  It’s par for the course.

Need something to do Friday night since there’s no Admirals game?  Go catch the Badgers!  Friday’s Badger game is Geoffrion night.  Here’s an article about it, with a few quotes from Blake.

Here’s a bit about Chris Mueller, who should be getting some more ice time on this west coast trip.

An update on Cal O’Reilly’s injury.  “That’s not so good, Al.”

See you tonight!

Photo credits:  Ryan freaking Miller, ya’ll.

Eh, I’m not a pro….I can’t hold a candle to Chris Jerina or Scott Paulus.  I don’t even deserve to be mentioned in the same paragraph as them.  But with Sutty holding down the recap, it allowed me to roam around and try to pretend that I knew how to work my wife’s fancy schmancy camera.

So here you go.

First, the man of the hour.  His Yonkness.

Gabriel Bourque attempting to check his Yonkness.  Kind of reminds me of this.

Bourque working hard around the crease.

The puck sitting in the middle of the of the scrum.  If I knew a rugby joke, I’d make it here.

This is a rare one indeed.  Jeff Smith calling a penalty.  Looks of disbelief all around.  And Matt Halischuk lost a contact lens.

And I’ll leave you with a photo for a caption contest.  You know the rules by now.

Featuring our good friends, Matt Moore, John W. Bitter, Nate Harker, Brian Martens, and HHP contestant….

So this is the new year.  And I don’t feel any different. 

Here’s a resolution for me — learn how to use all the bells and whistles in this blogging software that I have ignored up to this point.

So let’s try a timely poll question.  Hopefully, everyone votes correctly…

You can see them here, via The 3rd Intermission blog in Houston.

I was looking forward to reading their take on the game, but sadly, they phoned it in.  We’ll link to it anyway, because we’re swell like that.

Enjoy the pictures.

UPDATE:  Speaking of going through the motions, let’s hear it for the editors at the Journal Sentinel!

Here’s the thing…our friend Dave Boehler writes the story.  But he doesn’t write the headline or photo captions or anything else.  Most people don’t know that, but it’s true.  Dave has nothing to do with the attempted wit of the headlines.

Great headline in the story for the game against Houston:  “Admirals finally has the bounces go their way.”

Ok, everybody makes mistakes….we all do.  We all butcher some  grammar rules and take some liberties with others….But their job is to make a headline fit for publishing, and anything short of that is unacceptable.   This makes Dave look bad, and I can’t get behind that.  What a joke.

Also, would it kill them to make sure they spell the names of the players correctly in the photo caption?  Who is Peter Zigoni?   And really….THAT was the photo they chose to run with?  I’d use it for a caption contest, if I didn’t already know what everyone was going to write….

Watch the football game later on your DVR or VCR or whatever you have set up.

Be at the Bradley Center on Sunday, as the San Antionio Rampage come visit, with former Admiral Nolan Yonkman included.

The Phoenix Coyotes just sent Yonkman back to San Antonio after he played his first games in the NHL since the 05-06 season.  In 12 games, he recorded one assist, eight shots, 24 PIMs, 34 hits, 9 blocks, and was a +3 defensively.

So here’s your question:  How do you plan to greet Yonkman in his first return to his former stomping grounds?  Cheers?  Boos?  Indifference?  And how do you think the Admirals faithful will react in general?

Hat-tip to MiB for pointing me to this…

Want a feel good story to get the taste of Tuesday night’s game out of your mouth?  Check out this great article by Jim Diamond, about Chris Mueller’s debut.

Chris’ line:  With Nick Spaling and Wade Belak.  Later on with Smithson and Ward.  Zero shots, -1 defensively, 1-1 on faceoffs, 1 hit.  3:17 of ice time.  More than Belak’s 1:54, but next lowest was Spaling’s 11:17.