So the guy who writes for the Tennessean that isn’t Josh Cooper tweeted and reported yesterday that Kevin Henderson and Daniel Bang are going to join the Preds for their game in Chicago against the Blackhawks tonight.
Coach Barry Trotz (or Tritz, according to the tweet from the guy who writes for the Tennessean that isn’t Josh Cooper) obviously thought he was talking to Josh Cooper, so he gave a thoughtful answer about Henderson’s pending promotion.
“A couple of times (this year) when we were getting lean on forwards, he was the next guy to be called up,” Trotz said. “He was playing well and all that, and then when we would actually need guys when everybody (on the NHL roster) was hurt, he was hurt. So he’s just had some bad timing in terms of playing really well at certain times … This is an opportunity for him to show what he can do.”
I haven’t seen an official press release about it yet from the Preds or the Admirals, and the transactions haven’t posted on the AHL’s page yet. So nothing is official until it’s official.
It’s official now, say the Admirals, Preds, and AHL website.
I’m hopeful that they’ll be returned back after the game tonight so that they can continue to play for Milwaukee as they finish their season-ending-3-in-3 this weekend. Cheap travel costs too….Preds are in Chicago tonight, and then the Admirals are in Rosemont Saturday night. Piece of cake, right?
Perhaps expecting another four guys being called up to the Predators at some point this week (I kid, I kid), the Admirals have acquired Zach Hamill, on loan from the Florida Panthers.
Hamill is a 24 year old center who was drafted 8th overall by the Bruins in 2007.
This is his third AHL team this season, as he was previously traded from Washington to Florida for forward Casey Wellman.
In 66 games this season between Hershey and San Antonio, he was good for 16 goals and 24 assists, with six of those goals coming on the power play. Those six power play goals make him now the team leader in that category for the Admirals. And those 40 points are one off the team lead of Taylor Beck.
Tony Uminski, from the AHL beat of the My San Antonio blog, called him a “career set the table guy with a pass first mentality.” So maybe he’s a playmaker kind of guy that will give us flashbacks to Cal O’Reilly.
Boston fans? Don’t remember him nearly as fondly.
For a scathing report card grade from the 2011-12 season, and equally scathing reader comments, here’s an article from Boston’s version of the On The Forecheck blog….it’s on SBNation and it’s called Stanley Cup Of Chowder.
Tough crowd. To give a guy an F-…..wow….how bad does a player have to be to get an F-? I don’t think we’ve ever given out an F- in our mid-season report cards! (Although Jamie Lundmark sure was tempting….quitter). Hamill split time with Providence and Boston in the 11-12 season. Good enough to earn an NHL paycheck for a chunk of the year. And the evaluation puts, I think, an extraordinarily high emphasis on points per game. Counting stats are counting stats, and I’m sure expectations were super high for him as a high draft pick….but unless he steals candy from babies in his free time, I get the sense that the failing grade was more drafter’s remorse than season evaluation. Maybe the rest of his game was dreadful? I don’t know. Never seen him play. But I’d like to give him the benefit of the doubt.
Dan Weiss, the play-by-play guy from the San Antonio Rampage offered this insight via twitter: “Good on the PP. Creates a lot working off the half wall. Not as effective 5-on-5 as we thought he would be.”
So he’s here now. He’s a healthy body, a former WHL scoring champ, with 322 games of AHL experience, who can hopefully provide a bit of an offensive spark for this team down the stretch. We’ll take it.
Austin Watson didn’t play in last night’s 3-0 shutout over the Checkers. Today, we officially found out why.
Watson has been recalled to Nashville, and will make his NHL debut tonight against the Blackhawks.
The blogworld and twitterverse are in the process of exploding over this news, so there isn’t too much more for me to add. Everyone who reads this blog knows how good Watson has been this season overall. Officially, 20 goals, 16 assists. Goes to the net, especially on the power play, and is a tremendous shot blocker.
Is this long term or just a cup of coffee? If this is technically an ’emergency call-up’, then once one of the injured Preds can play again (Gaustad was hurt last night), we should expect Watson sent back. An NHL team is able to make 4 non-emergency call-ups after the trade deadline. I don’t know if the paper transactions that took place on the 3rd count, or whether the Ellis and Mueller transactions this week were emergency or otherwise. Will do some digging on that…
But congrats to Austin Watson, and we hope it’ll be a productive debut tonight.
Ads and Checkers at 2pm. Preds and Blackhawks play at 6pm.
After the game in Rosemont on Saturday, Coach Evason said regarding the goaltending situation, “With three in three coming up we need to look for a more veteran type of guy that can help us out.”
Jeremy Smith is injured. Andrew D’Agostini was released. And now Joel Martin has been signed to a PTO.
How much of a veteran is he?
He played his first pro game in the 2003-04 season. (that was a good year, wasn’t it?)
395 regular season games later, the 30 year old goaltender from Fort Worth, Texas is now a Milwaukee Admiral. For the second time, actually. He signed a PTO with the Admirals back in December of 2008 prior to a game against the Griffins in Grand Rapids. I don’t recall the circumstances for sure, but this may have been when Drew MacIntyre left the road trip for the birth of a child, and the Admirals needed a body to operate the bench door. Martin was released after his one game on 12/20, and then a line of Kyle Gajewski, Ryan Ludzik, and Scott Fankhouser followed.
Martin last played in the AHL in the 2010-11 season as a member of the Bridgeport Sound Tigers. But his counting stats weren’t anything to write home about… 2-12-2 with a 3.54 GAA.
The next season he went overseas to play in Europe, and he’s been a steady hand in the ECHL this season. And by steady, I mean he’s the hockey equivalent of an “innings-eating pitcher” in baseball. The guy led the ECHL in appearances and minutes BY FAR.
For the Kalamazoo Wings, he appeared in a whopping 63 of their 72 games, which is 14 more than the guy in second place (Joe Fallon, from Las Vegas). He logged 3,739 minutes of ice time, which is 843 more than Fallon.
He even played three games in three days on seven separate occasions this season, with a record of 13-5-2 in those games (he had a no-decision in one of them).
So coming into this three in three weekend, the last thing you can say about Martin is that he’s coming in cold due to a lack of work.
With that large a sample size, it’s not surprising that he led the ECHL in wins. But he also finished 3rd in save percentage on a team that finished four points out of the final playoff spot.
So Martin’s epic season presses on in Milwaukee. After that workload in the ECHL, we’ll see how much is left in the tank. Figure he’ll get one of the games in Charlotte this weekend?
The Admirals are continuing to celebrate 35 years of professional hockey in Milwaukee, presented by BMO Harris Bank. And this week, they’re announcing the #4 greatest Admiral, as voted by the fans and a special blue ribbon panel.
A bit of a surprise coming in at #4….It’s Beer Cheese, from the Merkt’s Cheese Race promotion.
“He was without a doubt, one of the all-time greats,” says Mike Wojciewchowski, VP of Business Development with the Admirals. “It didn’t matter what you threw at him — he was always ready to race and put on a show for our fans. And such a great attitude off the ice too. He was living the dream every day.”
Beer Cheese was one of the four racing cheese mascots that usually competed in the first intermission at Admirals games from 2007-2012. While Sharp Cheddar, Port Wine, and Almond Swiss all won their share of races, none of them did it with the frequency and showmanship of Beer Cheese.
When Merkt’s pulled the sponsorship after the 2011-12 season, Beer Cheese had a career record of 134-91. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, that winning percentage is tops among all racing mascots in professional sports. Better than Polish Sausage at the Brewer games. Better than George Washington at the Nationals games.
Better than everybody.
“And some of those losses should have been wins, had I not been disqualified for some bogus infraction called by Matt or Meg or Roscoe!” Beer Cheese says while chuckling. “As far as I was concerned, there were no rules. Sometimes I had to play the body, sometimes I had to fight through double teams. I just had to do whatever I needed to win. To hear everyone in the building cheering for me as I crossed the finish line…it was the best feeling in the world.”
One of the most memorable victories came on March 8th, 2008 in a game between the Admirals and Rockford IceHogs. Bret Michaels was performing a post-game concert, so there were over 10,000 fans in the stands, and Beer Cheese had something up his sleeve.
“It was a must-win race for me. I knew it had to be my night. So after I left everyone in my dust, I pulled out a sharpie marker and a regular sized tub of Beer Cheese spread. I signed it, and tossed it into the audience. I told the fan that the tub was going to be worth something someday. And now that I’m the 4th greatest Admiral of all time, today is apparently that day. I hope they still have it.”
But behind the scenes, there was lots of jealousy and resentment among the other competitors.
“I’m pretty sure those skates aren’t regulation size, or they may have been rocket powered,” says a still bitter Almond Swiss. “I remember a game where he missed the start of the race because he was reading the newspaper over at the bench. And then he still came back to win. And he used to make that Roadrunner chirp as he went by. I really wanted to slug him, but you know, the costume kind of restricts what your arms can do.”
Sharp Cheddar talks about how the resentment got to be so out of control, she hired a professional to knock Beer Cheese out of a race back in 2010.
“It was a Salute To Wrestling promotion at the Admirals game, and Hacksaw Jim Duggan was a special guest. And he just happened to find himself on the Admiral bench during the cheese race. And he just happened to have a 2×4 on hand. And he just happened to catch Beer Cheese at the start of the second lap. Best $500 I ever spent, even though referee Roscoe blew the call.”
Port Wine is far less bitter, and has remained a close friend of Beer Cheese over the years.
“I’m really happy for old Beery. This is such a great and well deserved honor for him. And yeah, I still have a few nightmares about him taking me out in turn four…but that’s just Beery being Beery. His drive to win and be the best makes him special, and that’s obviously why he did so well in the fan vote. The race results speak for themselves, but I think he’s more proud of that fan vote.”
Beer Cheese’s influence even made its way into the Admirals locker room.
“We would all gather around the video monitors in the locker room to watch the cheese race every game,” former head coach Lane Lambert recalls. “I’d tell the guys that if they had as much compete in them as Beer Cheese had, we would give ourselves a good chance to win each and every night.”
Since the sponsorship was pulled, Beer Cheese has retired from ice racing. But he still is very visible in the dairy community in Wisconsin.
“I give motivational speeches at many of the dairies around the state. For the bovines out there that can use a metaphorical kick in the udder, I show them that the only things keeping their production down are the imaginary fence-posts in their heads. It’s very rewarding work — I love making a difference. But if ever given the opportunity to lace up the old skates again, I want all my fans out there to know that I’d do it in a heartbeat. I’ll see you in the winner’s circle.”
Juuso Puustinen scored a late power play goal to give the Admirals some breathing room. And they needed every inch of it.
The Wolves answered with a score of their own after pulling their goalie, and then the Admirals found themselves killing a penalty in the final minute. But Magnus Hellberg and the Admirals defense held on to knock off Chicago 4-3 Saturday night in Rosemont.
The win gives the Admirals sole possession of 7th place in the Western Conference, and was their EIGHTH of the year against the Wolves.
Puustinen’s goal made it a 4-2 lead with 3:35 left in the game, and Coach Evason says that it was a huge conversion.
It was the second power play goal on the night for the Admirals, as earlier in the game the Mattias Ekholm-Austin Watson connection scored again. Ekholm with the shot from the point, Watson deflected it past Matt Climie. I’d say it’s about the third time we’ve seen that scenario in the last few weeks. Here’s Watson on their success.
That power play goal gave the Admirals a 1-0 lead 8:54 into the game.
Darren Haydar evened it up about five minutes later with a wrist shot from the top of the far circle that while well placed, I think Hellberg would want back.
In the second period, Daniel Bang got credit for a goal, but Patrick Cehlin did all the heavy lifting. Moments after a Cam Reid penalty expired, Cehlin got around Brad Hunt on the left wing and made a strong move to the net. He couldn’t get the shot on net once he got there, but the puck came right to Bang, who was there to finish.
I mentioned that there was a Cam Reid penalty. That was the first of five Chicago power plays that the Admirals had to kill that period. Reid for a hook. Latta for a trip. Jarvinen for a board. Winchester for giving Brett Sterling what he deserved, but getting called for it. And then Ford for a retaliation fist swing at the back of Guillaume Desbiens’ head (that one carried over into the third).
The Admirals killed off all of them but one. A Kevin Connauton shot from the point that beat a screened Hellberg at 15:27 of the second.
Coach Evason was overall happy with the penalty kill, but not so happy about how often they were needed.
The Wolves dominated play early in the third, and the Admirals didn’t get their first shot on goal until the 7:25 mark. But it was a goal. Austin Watson intercepted a pass in the Wolves zone, and then sent the puck towards the net from the right wing. It went off of Jeremie Blain’s skate and in the net.
An interference penalty on Jim Vandermeer set up the late Milwaukee power play, and Puustinen’s shot from the bottom of the far circle just dribbled past Climie.
They dressed seven defensemen tonight. Winchester was double shifting early on, but others took their turn to center that last line.
– The was a scare at the end of the game, as once again, our goaltender was at the bottom of a pile of hockey players. As the final seconds ticked off, Brett Sterling took a healthy whack at Hellberg after a save with no rebound. Then with the help of some Admiral defenders and the laws of physics, Sterling ended up on top of Hellberg. And that little scrum is how the game ended. It’s in the replay package below.
– Sterling was a pest all night, and was responsible for drawing multiple Admiral penalties.
– This was the Admirals’ 24th win against a division opponent. That’s tops in the league. They’re 8-1-1-0 in their last 10 games.
– We had a goaltender dress as #1 for the first time since….geez, I don’t know. Drew MacIntyre? Andrew D’Agostini was signed to an ATO today after Jeremy Smith was injured in Rockford last night. D’Agostini was a former teammate of Austin Watson, and he was surprised when he heard that D’Agostini got the call today.
This will probably be D’Agostini’s only game with Milwaukee for now. Here’s Coach Evason with an update on Smitty, and what they’re looking at for this week.
So this week? It’s the Rockford and Charlotte show, is what it is. A pair of games against each. Home game Friday, and then fly to Charlotte for a game on Saturday. One of the more unpleasant schedule quirks this season, but I’m sure there are some Western Conference teams that have those quirks a little more often….so we’ll just make it work.
Questions:
– What do you attribute this in-division success to? Is it just rivalries giving them a little extra push in their compete levels?
– Do you think Magnus Hellberg is ready for it to be the Magnus Hellberg Show around here if Smitty is out for a long stretch?
– With the team playing so well right now, do you want to tell Nashville to just keep Mueller and Beck and Bartley? We’re fine?
– Sterling is a nuisance….but do you think you could ever love him if he wore an Admirals uniform?
In our last episode, you may recall that Jeremy Smith was removed from the game in the last minute with what could only officially be described as a ‘lower body injury’. With the Admirals playing again tonight in Rosemont, they needed to find another goalie and get him to Rosemont quick.
That goalie is going to be former Peterborough Pete (and former Austin Watson teammate) Andrew D’Agostini.
I don’t know if he is going to be the long term answer if Smitty is out for an extended period of time, but he’ll do for today at least.
D’Agostini had just signed an ATO with the Cyclones in the ECHL earlier this month, after his junior season concluded.
Peterborough hasn’t been very good for awhile. They have finished in 9th (out of 10 teams) in their conference the last three seasons, missing the playoffs. Perhaps the Watson crew that reads this blog can elaborate on why the Petes weren’t so good (was it goaltending? Lack of defense? Lack of scoring? All of the above?). Depending on what their biggest issues were, his counting stats may not accurately tell the story of his talent. Or they might. D’Agostini sported a four year record of 46-64-9, with his best save percentage and goals against average coming this year: .911 and 3.24.
D’Agostini has suited up for one game with the Cyclones so far. Last Saturday, he appeared in relief, playing just the final 20 minutes of a 5-1 loss to the Florida Everblades. He surrendered one power play goal on five shots in that game.
So welcome to the AHL. Important safety tip, though: The bench doors at Allstate Arena? Their correct operation is very important. Or else, crazy stuff like this happens. (video credit: Wolfkeeper) Be advised.
Tonight’s game against the Cleveland Lake Erie Monsters is a significant one for Brad Winchester.
Not only is he riding a three game goal scoring streak, and not only has he scored in five of his last six games… but this will be his 25th game with the Milwaukee Admirals.
And thus, the end of the ride on his current PTO contract.
So if we hope to see him again on Friday night in Rockford, something official will need to happen pretty quickly.
His options? Maybe an NHL team would like to sign him. They’ve had the capability to this whole time. But now that he’s playing arguably his best hockey of the year, maybe there’s a team on the playoff bubble that could use his services. He’s not tied to Nashville – they don’t retain his rights. He can go anywhere that wants him.
He could sign a second PTO contract with the Admirals…or any other team in the AHL.
He will be as free of an agent as one can be after the game tonight.
Would it make sense for him to sign a PTO somewhere else if there’s no whiff of an NHL deal? I’m not sure it would. With just 9-14 games left in the AHL regular season, would he want to start completely fresh with a new group? Uproot everything that he’s had here for the last couple months? I don’t see that happening.
We’ll check in with him after the game tonight and see where he’s at with this.
The Craig Smith points parade continued in Rosemont on Sunday afternoon with a goal and an assist, as the Admirals clinched the Amtrak Rivalry title with a 4-1 victory over the Wolves.
Smith’s goal turned out to be the game winner, and he was on the ice for all four Admiral goals.
Brad Winchester opened the scoring with his third in as many nights (all with primary assists from Craig Smith), as Smith picked off an errant pass from Kevin Connauton, and fed a wide open Winchester for the first goal.
Smith then finished off a tic-tac-toe passing play with the man advantage at 1:28 of the second period.
Connauton got some redemption as he made it a one-goal game at 13:41 of the second with a shot from the point that made its way through a screen.
Later in the period, with Jeremie Blain serving a double minor for high sticking Patrick Cehlin, Austin Watson deflected another Mattias Ekholm shot for another power play goal. It was the second time we’ve seen that routine this weekend.
Michael Latta got the empty netter in the final minute.
—-
Notes:
– The win bumped the Admirals up to 7th place in the Western Conference, and they now have points in seven straight games. (6-0-1-0 in that span)
– Special teams were special again. Admirals were 2 for 6 on the power play, and killed off all four Wolves chances.
– The Admirals outshot the Wolves 38-20, but that large differential is deceiving. The Wolves had a lot of shots attempted and some phenomenal chances…but they had a tough time getting them through to Jeremy Smith. Lots of them were blocked or simply missed the net. Still, to see that kind of a number for the Admirals in the third game of a 3-in-3 is outstanding. Over the weekend, they put 115 shots on net. Sustainable? We’ll see.
– High marks for Jeremy Smith, who had his first action since March 8th, also a win against the Wolves.
– They’ve been doing this Amtrak Rivalry thing since 2009, and this is the first time the Admirals have won it. And they did it with three games against the Wolves still to go.
– Still waiting for the Badger Trifecta…. with a scoring play including Smith, Winchester, and Piskula. We’ve come close a few times this weekend…
– Coach Evason had said that they were going to reevaluate Craig Smith’s situation after the games this weekend. That may be the last we see of him. Or maybe we’ll see him back at the Bradley Center on Wednesday night against the Lake Erie Monsters. Preds play Monday and Thursday this week.
– Latta and Mike Liambas both were involved in fights in the first period. Liambas fared a little better than Latta did…but check out the very thorough game highlights below…the fights went on a very long time.
For the second game in as many nights, the Toronto Marlies forced extra time after trailing at the start of the third period. This time, they finished the job, as Greg Scott made a sick move around Juuso Puustinen, and fired a perfect shot top shelf to give the Marlies a 3-2 overtime win over the Admirals.
The Admirals outshot the Marlies 41-26 on the night, and had the better of the scoring chances. But a few lost battles and mental errors were the difference in the game.
With the overtime loss, the Admirals remain in 8th place in the conference with 69 points, tied with Chicago and Oklahoma City. And Rockford. And Abbotsford.
The Admirals did get off to a quick start. Brad Winchester had the empty-netter with 1:34 left in the third yesterday. And he netted the first one tonight 1:23 into the game. A shot from the point by Joonas Jarvinen made it through to Marlie starting goaltender Jussi Rynnas, and Winchester was there to put in the rebound to give the Admirals the early lead.
A sloppy Admiral turnover in the defensive zone led to the tying goal. Mike Liambas couldn’t find the puck in his skates. But Jamie Devane did. He then fed a pass to Sam Carrick, who fired a nice shot in the corner of the net.
On the next shift, Liambas was on tilt, and then started looking for a dance partner. He found one…the aforementioned and much taller Jamie Devane. 5’9 vs 6’4. Not only did Liambas not really have that great of a showing, he got an extra two minutes for roughing out of it. Couple that with a goaltender interference penalty that Josh Shalla was assessed just before that sequence, and it turned into a full two minutes of 5×3 time for the Marlies.
The Admirals killed off all the full two minutes. They were in the passing and shooting lanes, and Austin Watson even had a shorthanded scoring chance…and hustled back nicely to get back into position.
In the second period, Liambas got some redemption, by drawing an elbowing penalty from Korbinian Holzer. On the ensuing power play, Anthony Bitetto scored his first career AHL goal. A shot from the point through a nice screen by Watson, Shalla, and defenseman Dylan Yeo. I don’t think Rynnas ever saw it.
Later in the period, Rynnas was injured after a collision with Austin Watson. But it wasn’t a Lucic-Miller type collision. Watson was guided off balance and into the side of the net by a Marlie defender, and there was a little bit of contact made with Rynnas as he was hugging the post. Drew Mac-In-Tyre returned to the Bradley Center ice for the rest of the game, and eventually, picked up the win.
In the third period, the Magnus Hellberg from October made a brief appearance, as he let in a softie goal from Jerry D’Amigo.
You can tell by listening to him….he feels pretty bad about that one.
Other than that play, it was another solid outing from Magnus. His rebound control was very good, and with the exception of that second goal, his glove was very good all night too.
He wishes that he could have extended the game to a shootout.
NOTES:
Lines:
15-29-17
10-16-11
20-51-71
8-43-25
Another good showing for special teams overall. They killed off all five Toronto power plays, and went 1-4 on their own. Still would have been nice to get that last one in overtime, though. Here’s Coach Evason on that last power play chance.
Craig Smith played his second game with the Admirals, and Coach gave him a little more work tonight.
A win in Rosemont tomorrow afternoon would get the Admirals five out of a possible six points this weekend, without the help of Bartley, Mueller, and Beck….who, incidentally….got his first NHL goal tonight.
Questions:
– Craig Smith — Do you think he was better tonight? There is obvious skill there, but I’d like to see the puck not get knocked off of his stick when he tries to do some stickhandling.
– Do you think the Admirals deserved a better fate? Did they get the momentum that they deserved when the killed that 5-on-3?
– Great to see Bitetto get his first goal. Are you surprised that we’re seeing more of him than Scott Valentine these days?
News & Discussion Site For Your Milwaukee Admirals
After the game in Rosemont on Saturday, Coach Evason said regarding the goaltending situation, “With three in three coming up we need to look for a more veteran type of guy that can help us out.”
That goalie is going to be former Peterborough Pete (and former Austin Watson teammate) Andrew D’Agostini.
Admirals Roundtable 