(Hat-tip to ManInTheBox for pointing me to this story.).
The Copper And Blue blog is the Oilers version of Ontheforecheck.com . The Oilers AHL team is the Oklahoma City Barons, a team that one might argue stocked up on 4A players, and spent some good cash to get them.
Some payrolls are high due to one-way contracts — Michael Nylander is making 3-mil to play in Rochester this year. But even taking him out of the equation, Rochester is still paying two players over $200,000.
The Wolves have 8 players making over $100k. Patrick Rissmiller (you may remember him from the game tying goal on Friday night) is making a million, Jason Krog is making $550k, Drew MacIntyre at $500k, and Darren Haydar 200k. Does this make them the Yankees of the division?
Just the salaries of Rissmiller and Krog eclipse that of the entire Admirals roster.
Tough to find any kind of correlation between payroll and team performance so far…we’re just too early in the season and the sample size is way too small. But let’s revisit this after teams play about 20 games. I’m hopeful that the smaller payrolls will make some noise and that playing with heart will elevate their performance. Tough to say how much heart 4A players still have once they’ve realized that they’re likely to be 4A players for awhile.
So the Predators have signed Steve Begin to a two-way contract. On The Forecheck has a nice write-up about the signing here, which I’d recommend that you read.
Begin played 77 games last year with the Boston Bruins (and 13 more in the playoffs), but was not re-signed during the off-season by the Bruins, or anybody else. He can play center or on the wing.
He also has some AHL hardware with his name on it, named the MVP of the 2000-01 AHL Calder Cup playoffs (that’s the Jack A Butterfield Trophy). That post-season with the St. John Flames, he scored 10 goals and 7 assists in 19 playoff games. And former Admiral Marty Murray was also on that team…
Just for perspective…2000-01….that was the last year the Admirals were in the IHL.
Admirals sources have told me that provided Begin passes a physical, there’s a decent chance he’ll see some action this Saturday night at the Bradley Center. And word is also that Jamie Lundmark may be in town by then as well.
If Lundmark plays, I’d like to see him centering Thuresson and Klasen. And if Begin is ready to go, I’d like to see him playing on a line with Gabriel Bourque. We’ll see how it shakes out on Saturday.
Some bad news for the Preds, as defenseman Ryan Suter left tonight’s game against Calgary with what looked like a knee injury of some kind. He didn’t return to the game.
The Predators play next on Thursday night, hosting the Penguins. And the question now — do they call up a defenseman?
Alexander Sulzer has been scratched in all of the Preds games so far this season, so one line of thinking is that he’ll slide into the starting lineup, and the Preds may or may not elect to call someone up to be the 7th defender. They have gone both routes when presented with this scenerio in previous seasons.
But if they aren’t sold on Sulzer playing, or if they’d like the security of a 7th defender, who do they call up?
Aaron Johnson — The last defenseman sent down during training camp, who reportedly had a better camp than Sulzer. I think we’ve made it pretty clear how he has played since he has been in Milwaukee so far, but he’s got 225 games of NHL experience, which may trump the last four games here.
Teemu Laakso — Seven games of NHL experience, and kicked a 50 yard field goal the other day. So he’s got that going for him, which is nice.
Brett Palin — Training camp critiques gave him decent marks. Would be his NHL debut if he skated Thursday.
Jon Blum — After watching Nashville bring in new defenseman after new defenseman….could this be his time to get his first cup of coffee?
Josh Cooper from the Tennessean is tweeting that it’s a minor injury for Suter, with the following quote from Barry Trotz: “No, not too serious, he may miss a little bit of time here, but nothing major.” So it sounds like it would be just a cup of coffee if someone would get called up.
If there IS a promotion, who do you think it’ll be?
I’m sure that headline couldn’t be farther from the truth, but I wanted to fit in with all the mis-information that has been spread by both sides in the campaign to be the next governor of Wisconsin. You can’t talk about the race without putting words in people’s mouths.
That big news Jon Greenberg was tweeting about yesterday? They were hoping to announce that both candidates would be at the Admirals game this Saturday night, to go along with the promotions that are already planned.
Scott Walker declined the invitation. Tom Barrett accepted the invitation, and will be there to drop the first puck, and meet and greet with fans/voters/mascots.
According to Greeny, they had been working to get both candidates for the last couple of weeks, but Walker officially turned them down today.
But wouldn’t it have been awesome to see them go sled-to-sled in the human hockey puck? Or have them skate as racing cups of Merkt’s cheese? Maybe in the next election….
Suddenly feeling the pinch at the center position, the Predators have recalled Nick Spaling, who should be making is season debut for the Preds on Tuesday night against Calgary.
Matthew Lombardi and Marcel Goc were placed on IR today. And if you saw any of the game against the Capitals on Saturday night, Jerred Smithson kind of looked out of place on a scoring line.
So in the short term, it looks like Colin Wilson and Spaling will handle the center-duties on the 2nd and 3rd lines. Wilson had been playing the wing, but is certainly capable of playing in the middle.
So that’s great for Nick. But what about the Admirals?
Reports are saying that Jamie Lundmark is close to recovering from his groin injury, and he may be ticketed to Milwaukee soon. He could certainly step right into the spot on the first line vacated by Spaling. Mike Bartlett or Blake Geoffrion could get promoted to the first line, although Geoffrion hasn’t exactly shown anything to deserve the privilege of playing with Linus Klasen…
Still plenty of time to get the roster sorted out before the Admirals next game on Friday.
Dexshow has officially been re-assigned to the Admirals. And after our adventures with Chet this past weekend, don’t be surprised to see Dex in two of the three games next weekend.
Meanwhile, on Jon Greenberg’s twitter page, we get this message:
“Hoping for a major news announcement regarding next Saturday’s game vs Abbotsford on Monday. Fingers crossed for some good news.”
Well, October 23rd is my father’s birthday, so they’re probably flying him in for the game. They delay is that he hates flying, so they’re trying to work out the details.
That would totally be a major news announcement.
Or, some kind of big announcement with Mole Day. You chemists out there know what I’m talking about!
Maybe the candidates for Wisconsin Governor will be present and handing out the masks at the gates to go along with that promotion? And kissing hands and shaking babies and whatever else they do.
Maybe a special guest as the Admirals continue The Hunt For Pink October?
Maybe something related to the Packers/Vikings game next weekend?
Just thinking typing out loud. I guess we’ll find out when we find out.
– Lots of guys in black jerseys unable to pick up the puck on the Wolves 1st goal. Yes, Johnson was right there.
– Shootout: They had the right idea going on the right side, and they would have been goals if there could have been a little more elevation. And then nice to see Klasen go forehand this time on Pasquale, you know, for a change of pace.
One thing I’d like to put up for discussion: Interesting choice of the first four shootout players:
1. Santorelli
2. Klasen
3. Van Guilder
4. Bourque
Don’t know who the fifth shooter would have been, but I’m surprised to see that the following names did not get the chance to shoot:
Nursing a one goal lead in the 3rd period, the Admirals one again coughed it up. The Wolves scored the equalizer while Aaron Johnson (surprise) was serving a slashing penalty, and eventually were victorious in the shootout. Box score is here, Ads recap here, and Wolves recap here.
Johnson, incidentally, is leading the team in penalty minutes. All minor penalties too.
Chet Pickard didn’t let in any softies this time, but is now winless in his last 12 decisions. He stopped 30 of 32 shots in 65 minutes, and then two of five shots in the shootout.
Meanwhile, Mark “The Proof” Santorelli made his case for some more playing time, scoring the first goal of the game. Chicago goalie Edward Pasquale was kicking out rebounds, and The Proof was able to put one of them into the net.
Mark Van Guilder continued his solid play, assisting on The Proof’s goal, and scoring his own in the 2nd period. Don’t forget to check out Aaron Sim’s interview/listening session with Van Guilder on his blog… The way he’s been playing, would it be surprising to see him replacing Geoffrion on the 2nd scoring line in the near future?
So who made the trip to Chicago? Did the Admirals play like a different team than the one that played in Milwaukee the previous night?
The Admirals blew a two goal 3rd period lead, eventually losing in overtime to the Chicago Wolves 3-2 on Friday night. Nuts and bolts are here.
The discipline of this team was tested by the Wolves, and the Admirals failed that test. I’d like to say that it’s due to the youth of the team, but it’s not the young guys who are losing their heads.
Aaron Johnson (27 years old, 225 NHL games, alternate captain) got knocked down in front of his net in the 3rd period, and his head was not clear the rest of the game. He took a STUPID interference penalty with just under 2 minutes left in regulation that COULD have handed the game to Chicago. Fortunately, the PK was up to the task (major props to Mark Van Guilder), and the Admirals were able to get off the ice with a point in the standings.
Here’s coach Lambert on discipline.
I’m a little disappointed that he didn’t cite Johnson as an example when talking about discipline.
It’s awful that we have to talk about discipline, because I’d rather be writing about how Linus Klasen is not long for this league. He scored on a penalty shot, on the power play, and almost had a 3rd goal on a play where it looked like Wolves netminder Edward Pasquale may have brought the puck back out from over the line. But referee Lemelin was right there and made the call a good save, and there wasn’t much arguing from anybody afterwards. Here’s coach Lambert talking about Klasen’s North American learning curve.
I’d also rather be writing about how Chet Pickard was able to snap his streak of losses — he had lost 10 straight decisions coming into tonight, and now 11 straight. Through 40 minutes, he looked very solid. The first Chicago goal came early in the 3rd period on the power play, and was a nice play by Jason Krog, a nice finish from Andre Deveaux, and poor play from Johnson to lose sight of the puck and let Deveaux get a whack at it.
The 2nd Wolves goal was ALL on Pickard. Patrick Rissmiller had a shot from the top of the near faceoff circle that just flat out beat Chet. Maybe Palin was screening him a bit or maybe a small deflection, but the action was so far away from the goal that I’m reluctant to give him that excuse. Stoppable shot. Chet agrees.
The one in overtime I think was stoppable too. Spencer Machacek had a pass from the far boards right at the goal line and found defenseman Jamie Sifers pinching down to the near goal line. The pass was a mile long, and Sifer’s shot still beat Chet to the near side post.
– Klasen’s penalty shot. I’m a little surprised they called it. He had a breakaway, and Arturs Kulda caught up just before Klasen got the shot on goal. He one-handedly waved his stick at Klasen and made contact. And that “slash” gave them the penalty shot. I’ve seen more contact on a play like that go uncalled. But the ref pointed to center ice right away. Klasen’s attempt was in slow motion, and he almost stopped his forward motion. But the last deke opened up the net, and he was able to beat Pasquale. He also did a little hot-dogging cupping his glove around his ear, asking the crowd to get louder. I thought that was going to be an invitation to get his face washed by someone in a red uniform. (photo credit: Scott Paulus)
– Mark Santorelli made his season debut, and looked okay. He took an interference penalty with 5:36 left in the game that didn’t need to be taken. Ryan Flynn was the forward scratch.
– Klasen was duped into a penalty in the overtime session. Wolves forward Fredrik Pettersson was trying to get into Klasen’s head, and he succeeded. After knocking Klasen’s stick out of hands near the Admirals blue line, and giving him a shove after the whistle, Klasen slashed him back. Coincidental minors that kept the Admirals most dynamic scorer off the ice for two minutes of the 4×4 period.
POINTS FOR DISCUSSION:
– Am I being too hard on Aaron Johnson? – Has anyone seen Blake Geoffrion lately? – The two teams face each other again on Saturday night. If you are coach Lambert, what is the message that you try to deliver to the team to prepare them for the rematch? – How much longer do you think Klasen will be an Admiral?
– Anything else you’d like to share about this heartbreaker?
I might be what one would call a music snob. I’m not a huge country music fan, but I know a lot of people are really into it, and that’s cool.
Chris Young (no, not the Padres pitcher, D-backs outfielder, or Broncos defensive back) was in town on Thursday night performing at the beautiful Pabst Theater. One of the Roundtable regular readers happened to be at that show, and happened to snap this photo…
Is that the new Admirals road jersey that he’s sporting?
Why yes it is! (Thanks to Mr. and soon-to-be-Mrs. ManInTheBox for forwarding this picture).
Turns out, the winner of the Nashville Star competition back in 2006 is a huge Preds fan. So much that the Preds website has a special video with him.
So that’s pretty cool.
You know what else is pretty cool? Cal O’Reilly with 3 assists in the Preds 4-3 win over the Blues on Thursday night. Preds TV caught up with Cal after the game. We’re just……so damn proud…..sniffle sniffle.
Ads and Wolves Friday night at the Bradley Center. See you there!
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