The first post-lockout dominoes are starting to fall. Jon Blum tweeted that he’s ‘packing’. And two skaters have been called up to the Admirals from the ECHL.
About the callups — Welcome back defenseman Anthony Bitetto. After starting the season in MKE, he then spent 23 games in Cincy, sporting a goal, two assists, and a -6 defensive rating. It’s the ECHL…I don’t read too much into the -6. But with Ryan Ellis and Blum likely Nashville bound, and with Ekholm out for a bit, I think we’ll be seeing a fair amount of Bitetto for awhile.
Forward Andre Bouvet-Morrissette is also on his way back to Milwaukee. He’s been injured a bit down in Cincy, but had an assist in 14 games. Those stats probably don’t knock anybody’s socks off. But last year in the Quebec junior league? Over a point per game, leading the Drummondville Voltigeuers in scoring as a 20 year old. He was with Milwaukee’s training camp, so he got some time with the coaching staff. So that should hopefully be helpful in getting him where he needs to be before the three-in-three this weekend.
So I’m waking up this morning to the same great news you’re waking up to. The negotiators had a marathon session last night, and have come to a tentative agreement on the framework of a new CBA.
Want to read about it? Try TSN or SBNation. Stay away from the TMZ styled so-called ‘insiders’ that contributed as much to the roller-coaster ride as Gary and Donald did. You know…the ones that are now patting themselves on the back because they said they always knew there’d be an NHL season this year. Yeah. Go take your victory lap. Aren’t you the greatest?
So what happens next?
In our universe, I don’t expect anything to happen today.
The Admirals have a 3pm game against the Grand Rapids Griffins. Expect everything to be business as usual today.
Until the contract is ratified and signed and sealed and delivered and whatever else they need to do, there’s no deal. And until there’s a deal, don’t expect any Admirals to be sitting out.
I’m confident that Ellis and Blum will be on their way to Nashville when this is done. And unless there are some AHL transactions that just haven’t hit the wire yet, we simply don’t have bodies to replace them in today’s lineup.
As for forwards, I think it’ll depend on what Nashville needs. Strong cases can be made for Mueller, Henderson, and Latta right now. But I think it’ll come down to wherever the openings are in the Nashville lineup.
Other teams are reacting differently….word from Jason Shaver and the Wolves, who are playing the Barons today, is that the young guys are heading back to Oklahoma City. So Eberle and Hall may have ended their AHL careers in Milwaukee. Lucky us.
But, things can change super quick….so we’ll see what happens here.
Josh Shalla was recalled today, but he may be here to replace Mark Van Guilder, who got a bit banged up yesterday.
In the meantime, let’s raise a glass to the 2012-13….or rather…just the 2013 hockey season!
It’s no secret. There’s some great talent on the Oklahoma City Barons. Jordan Eberle. Taylor Hall. Justin Schultz.
All three of them had key roles in the Baron’s 3-2 shootout win over the Admirals on Saturday night.
Hall and Eberle scored power play goals in the third period, with Schultz assisting on both of them. Schultz then put the exclamation point on the night with the game winning try in the shootout in the 6th round.
The Admirals blew a 2-0 third period lead, but managed to get a point in the standings. While Coach Evason is disappointed to not have the second point, he is happy with how the team played overall.
And Coach is happy that they didn’t giftwrap any of the goals, unlike the game on Thursday.
The Admirals hopped out to a lead 8:24 into the game with a Victor Bartley goal. And even though Michael Latta didn’t get an assist on the score sheet, it was something that he didn’t do that set up the goal.
After two big and legal hits on Baron players, Alex Plante wanted to dance. Latta said, (paraphrasing) you know, it’s not you, it’s me. I think we should spend some time apart. Plante ended up with a roughing penalty, and the Admirals ended up with the power play, thanks to Latta’s discipline. Coach thought it was a smart play by Latta.
The goal had some similarities to Bartley’s goal on Thursday night. There’s Bartley, crashing the net on the left wing side, and he was able to score off of the centering feed from Chris Mueller. Nice looking play.
Kevin Henderson scored shorthanded in the second period to make it a 2-0 lead. After a dump in behind Baron goaltender Olivier Roy (think he’s French Canadian?), Henderson was able to steal the puck from him. While Roy was able to win the race back to the other side of the net, Henderson came around the other side and his shot gave him his 8th goal of the season, and 6th point in his last 5 games. (They didn’t cue the video up well, but the replay is pretty good)
Then there was the third period, where the Admirals were outshot 15-1.
Those numbers were aided by two power plays for OKC…the first a double minor for high sticking assessed to Latta. I say “assessed” because it sure looked like Mark Van Guilder was the culprit on the replay. The Ads killed off the first 3:45, but Hall had a one-timer off of a circle-to-circle pass from Mark Arcobello to get the Barons on the board.
Taylor Beck was flagged for a tripping penalty with 2:26 remaining, and 15 seconds later the game was tied. Jordan Eberle received the final pass ‘around the world’ on the near side this time, and his shot beat Jeremy Smith.
Say what you want about the tripping call on Beck. He certainly didn’t need to be waiving his stick around like that at that point of the game. And the ref certainly let some more flagrant stuff go….but that penalty isn’t the reason why they lost. 1 shot on goal in any period isn’t going to cut it. Coach Evason credits the Baron’s for making it hard on his team late in the game.
The Admirals did outshoot the Barons 4-1 in overtime, and Latta did have a nice up-ending of Roy in the near corner that went without a penalty call. But as I review the box score…looks like Latta was assessed a 10 minute misconduct at the end of OT. May explain why we didn’t see him in the shootout.
Austin Watson scored for Milwaukee in the shootout in the second round. That was it. There were multiple attempts to beat Roy on the stick side, but he shut the door. Magnus Paajarvi and Schultz scored for the Barons in the 1st and 6th rounds.
NOTES:
– The shootout loss DID vault the Admirals into second place in the division. So that’s something, I suppose.
– Juuso Puustinen was promoted to the Mueller and Beck line, with Patrick Cehlin switching spots with Juuso. Puustinen didn’t have a shot on goal. His linemantes had 6 total (more than a third of ALL Milwaukee shots). Cehlin had a pair of shots on his line.
– Smitty seemed to be seeing the puck very well. Here’s the Coach.
– What is there to say? There’s a lot of talent on that team — even with The Nuge not in uniform. But it’s tough to win with 13 shots in regulation, and just one shot in the third period. That’s really what sticks out to me. It’s great to play well 5×5, and the 15-29-17 line really stepped up their game against their top line. But it’s disappointing to see a multi-goal lead evaporate, and it’s disappointing to only get the one point.
– The 1st place Griffins come to town tomorrow afternoon, riding a three game winning streak. They’re finishing off a 3-in-3, after a win Friday against the Barons, and shootout win tonight against the Wolves.
Questions:
– Do you feel that Eberle, Hall, and Schultz are that much head-and-shoulders talent-wise above everybody else?
– If the lockout ends soon….do you think Kevin Henderson is playing himself into the conversation for a callup if the Preds need a left winger?
– Announced attendance was 3,685. Not a good number for a Saturday night, but do you think it’s a good number for going against a Packer game? I was actually impressed by the size of the crowd, considering the circumstances.
(Editors note: With Trey back in Tampa during the Marquette break, and Ryan doing whatever it is he does on the microphone, we are proud to welcome back the man, the myth, the legend, the FURY….making his first cameo of the season, it’s SUTTY!)
After constantly being reminded by Ryan that he has “several” lawyers on retainer that would “sue my pants off” for a contract violation, I have decided to dust off my media credential and report on the first game of 2013.
I am also contractually obligated to remind you that Sutty’s opening rant was brought to you by Mountain Fury.(R)
So there was a hockey game tonight. After trailing by a goal heading into the third period, the Admirals scored the equalizer about five minutes in, and then the game winner with a buck-thirty-three left in the game. Call it a 4-3 victory over the Chicago Wolves.
Coach Evason appreciates the resilience…but also recognizes that they shouldn’t have had to be resilient tonight.
The Chicago Wolves were the first to light the lame mid way through the first period. Jeremy Smith gloved a shot from mid-ice and had some indecision on whether he should play it or not. He chose to drop the puck and try to play it but got caught up on the near side of the net. Brett Sterling (insert groan here) took the puck and sent it to the top of the slot where Andrew Gordon was waiting to fire a shot that beat Smitty far side. Just one of those plays where Smitty should hang on to it when he is unsure. Easy for me to say though.
The Admirals answered back just under two minutes later off a Houdini style redirect by Victor Bartley. Taylor Beck fired a shot towards the net from the right wing. Bartley, while crashing towards the net, got his stick up and redirected the puck out of the air past Matt Climie. It never ceases to amaze me how players are so accurate with a puck out of the air, and this was no exception. Good marks for V-Bart, and good marks for Beck just putting the puck on net. Good things happen.
The Admirals were able to pick up right where they left off in the second period on a Kevin Henderson seeing-eye goal. At 3:54 into the stanza, the Wolves were attacking the Admirals net. The puck came loose on the near side where Smith looked out of place. Andrew Ebbett put a shot on the empty net but Brett Sterling (insert boo here) had his stick in the way. The Admirals’ Mark Van Guilder corralled the loose puck and dished it two feet to Kevin Henderson who started up the boards. Henderson kept the puck away on the from the lone defender and pushed past him to send a soft shot thought the five hole of Climie from about three feet out. This is one that will probably haunt Climie’s dreams.
The Wolves were able to answer right back just as the Ads did in the first period…only difference was that the Wolves had the man advantage. With Jack MacLellan serving a too-much-man penalty, Chris Tanev sent the puck to Jordan Schroeder who was at the top of the far circle. He dribbled it a bit and loosed a wrister that beat Smitty top glove side. From my angle and on the replays this looked like a clear shot from the point, there wasn’t much traffic in front. I am sure Smitty would have loved to have been able to hit the reset button on this shot and goal.
Allow me to preface this next part by telling you that I am really trying hard not to say “you had to see it”, so i will try to explain what happened as best as I can.
With :08 left in the second period the Wolves were able to take the lead on a Darren Haydar goal. Andrew Ebbett had the puck in the far circle and drew the attention of several Ads players. Before the Ads could close on Ebbett he sent a puck acorss ice to Haydar who was waiting all alone in the near circle. The pass from Ebbett forced Haydar to reach for the puck causing him spin in place. Once he came back around to face the net, he fired the puck hitting a diving Admirals’ Scott Valentine in the arm causing the puck to flutter into the net over a sprawled out Smith for the goal. While Haydar had the wide open shot it took him a little bit to fire it on net. It looked like the delay in the shot caught Smith guessing and diving forward for a non existent save. Valentine got an arm on it but it wasn’t enough to keep it from the back of the net where an upright Smith would have easily blocked it. In fairness, this one is not Smitty’s fault, there is no reason Haydar should be that open on the backside.
Oh? We’ve got the video? So I didn’t need to spend 100 words describing it? Oh, I see how it is.
At 4:56 into the 3rd period Mark Van Guilder netted tying goal for the Ads after a great individual play by Henderson. Henderson drove the net from the nearside boards. He overpowered the Wolves defenders and got a shot on net from very close. The puck trickled away from Climie right to the stick of MVG who put it past the recovering goaltender. Henderson is playing like a manimal. The end!
With 1:33 left in the third the Ads seal the deal on an Austin Watson goal. Milwaukee had the Wolves reeling in their own zone. Taylor Beck fired a shot on net from the near side circle that hit Climie in the chest. As the goaltender was trying to catch the puck off of his own chest, Patrick Cehlin batted the puck away from him. The loose puck caromed to a crashing Watson who backhanded the loose puck past Climie for the game winner.
NOTES:
That Henderson-MVG-Latta line was pretty great tonight, wasn’t it? Coach thinks so too.
They ended up giving Bartley an assist on Henderson’s goal…so him, Henderson, and MVG all had a goal and an assist. Patrick Cehlin had a pair of helpers, doubling his point output from the last 16 games. Taylor Beck had a pair of helpers to continue his strong play.
Smith was good when he needed to be, especially in the third period. The goals he gave up weren’t great, but he was a shutdown goalie in the third. And that was huge.
Questions:
– I don’t know…it’s been awhile since I’ve done this. Just overall thoughts on the game? Are you surprised that Kevin Henderson was the best player on the ice for both teams tonight?
– What do you think is going to be the difference between announced attendance on Saturday and ACTUAL attendance on Saturday?
Only one player has been signed to a PTO contract so far this year for the Admirals, and that’s forward Cam Reid.
A 7th round draft pick of the Preds in 2009, Reid was not signed to a contract, and became a free agent. He played last year with St Cloud State of the WCHA and the Portland Winterhawks of the WHL, making it to the finals of their playoffs, before participating in Milwaukee’s training camp this year. Reid played one game for Peoria before signing a new PTO contract with the Admirals on November 20th.
17 games later, he’s getting regular minutes, most recently playing on a line with Austin Watson and Juuso Puustinen. He has five assists on the season, with a couple of them of the spin-o-rama variety.
The PTO contract is up after 25 games. Based on his play, do you feel that he deserves to have his PTO turned into an SPC (standard player contract)?
In the ebb and flow of NHL labor negotiations, we seem to currently be ebbing in optimism. Sides are talking, concessions are being…umm…conceded, and there may be some kind of resolution this week.
This would be great for hockey. I hope it works out.
In the event that it does work out, what will happen to the Admirals?
We didn’t have a ton of Nashville guys come down, but we will still feel the sting when they go back up.
I think it’s safe to say that Ryan Ellis will be going back up to Nashville. I think a strong argument can be made that Jon Blum will probably be the 7th defender in Nashville.
With Mike Moore and Mattias Ekholm already out with injuries, losing Ellis and Blum would be quite a blow to our blue line in the short term.
Imagine a defensive lineup with: Bartley, Valentine, Jarvinen, Roussel, Bitetto, and ____? Taylor Aronson maybe?
And then up front… with Gabriel Bourque’s injuries (he’s only played in 13 of 31 games), is it still a guarantee that he’ll go back up to Nashville right away when he’s healthy? I think that is up for debate.
Chris Mueller should probably be in the discussion too. A constant in Milwaukee over the last 3 and a half seasons, does he really have anything left to prove here? And is there enough healthy talent in Nashville to keep him off their roster?
Things will certainly look different around here when the lockout ends. But as we’ve heard every coach tell us over the last bunch of years, this will create new opportunities for other guys to step into larger roles, and hopefully raise their own games. Every team will have to make some adjustments. Such is life in the “A”.
Okay Roundtable….just the one question…..Who do you think we’ll lose to the Preds when the lockout ends?
Well, we touched on this in the last post a bit, about our concerns about Magnus Hellberg’s performance so far.
Hellberg has now been reassigned to the Cyclones in the ECHL, likely just to get some playing time in this weekend. Cincy has games Friday and Saturday night, while Milwaukee just has tomorrow’s game against Chicago on the schedule for this weekend.
I wouldn’t read into it that it’s some kind of demotion or depth chart shakeup….just need to get Hellberg some minutes.
So that’ll bring Zoltan Hetenyi up to Milwaukee to open the bench door in tomorrow’s game, get some practice time with the Admirals, and putz around with the continuumtransfunctioner. Zoltan has had better stats than Hellberg this year, but still nothing that should make him think that his stay in Milwaukee will be long term…3.02 GAA, .878 s% in seven games for Cincy.
Expect Zoltan to wear #37.
So Roundtable….This ‘get-work-in-Cincy’ trip for goalies has historically paid dividends for the Admirals. Do you think Magnus will come back the same way Dexshow did previously?
The game tomorrow night against the Wolves at the BMO-Harris Bradley Center will be the 19th game of the season, marking the completion of the first quarter of the 2012-13 campaign. The Admirals currently sport an 8-8-1-1 record, good for 18 points, and 4th place in the Midwest Division. But they’re just 4 points out of 1st place, and 1 point out of 8th place in the conference.
With just four home games so far….doesn’t it still feel like the season just started? We’re a quarter done already???
I wouldn’t read very much into the standings yet. But it’s been quite the rollercoaster so far this season, that’s for sure. And it’s amazing how quickly the storylines change week-to-week. Prior to the game this past Saturday night, the Admirals were arguably in a tail-spin, losing their last four games (although getting points in 2 of them). And then with big wins in Rosemont and Grand Rapids on Saturday and Sunday, they took five out a of a possible six points last weekend. All of a sudden, things are looking a lot brighter.
Should they be?
Are you a glass-is-half-full or glass-is-half-empty type? Here are some talking points for both sides.
Half Full:
– Of the rookies from last year, Taylor Beck has probably taken the biggest step forward offensively, with 12 points in 13 games prior to his injury.
– The Puustinen – Watson – Bang line really came together during this past roadtrip and started producing. Watson has points in 7 of his last 9 games, and Bang has points in 7 of his last 8. That line may stay together for awhile.
– They boast a top 10 penalty kill unit.
– The travel schedule doesn’t appear to be extraordinarily taxing in the near future.
– The adversity faced early on may be helpful in the long term.
Half Empty:
– Goaltending. Jeremy Smith has played better than his 5-9-1 record would suggest, but he has given up four goals in three of his last four starts, and received little offensive support prior to that. Meanwhile, Magnus Hellberg has let in some weak goals in his 5 games of action, but still boasts a 3-0 record. His last game against the Wolves was encouraging, but he needs to string a few more of those together for us to stop collectively holding our breaths when the opponent takes a shot from the point on him. A .862 save percentage won’t cut it.
– Injuries. Yeah, every team has to deal with them. But losing three starters in those pair of games in Oklahoma City was brutal.
– Playing from behind. Not being able to score the first goal of the game until game #8 certainly has made things more challenging early on. They are 2-6-0-1 when trailing after one period, and 1-7-0-1 when trailing after two.
– A power play ranked 25th in the league.
So Roundtable, what do you feel about the first quarter so far? Can this team hang with the teams that have some major NHL star-power on them? Is the ship sinking, or staying comfortably afloat? Do you like the new Coach? Are you ready for some home games?!?!
Here’s a story about it from the Montreal Gazette, and here’s Puck Daddy’s story about it. In short, Blake suffered a depressed skull fracture. He’s still in the hospital and out of action indefinitely, but reports are saying he’ll make a full recovery.
After spotting the Grand Rapids Griffins a 2-0 lead, the Admirals battled back to take home a 3-2 victory to open the 2012-13 campaign.
Rookie Patrick Cehlin scored the game-tying and game-winning goals in the third period, while Jeremy Smith made 19 saves on 21 shots to pick up his first win of the season.
Of course Coach Evason is pleased to get that first win out of the way right out of the gate. And he was very pleased with how the team played 5-on-5 throughout the night.
The Griffins opened the scoring 9:49 into the game while Michael Latta was serving an interference penalty. The penalty kill was moving along very well, with a couple of quick clears. But one attempted clear by Blum was kept in at the point. About 20 seconds later, Joakim Andersson stuffed it home after Smitty made a couple of saves from in close.
With the Admirals on a power play in the 2nd period, the puck wasn’t held in by Blum at the blue line, and Landon Ferraro scooped up the puck. He went in all alone and was able to beat Smitty for the shorthanded goal at 15:31 of the second.
Let me be clear — I am not dumping on Jon Blum’s game. He played very well over the course of the game, and assisted on one of Cehlin’s goals. So don’t let the fact that he was on the ice for both Griffin goals detract from the fact that he was good tonight. Okay? Okay.
In the final minute of the second period, the Admirals scored their first of the year. Jeremy Smith passed the puck to Mattias Ekholm, who then fed a long pass to Chris Mueller at the offensive blue line. Mueller went in all alone on Griffins goaltender Jordan Pearce. It was his 70th career Admiral goal, and it couldn’t have come at a better time.
More from the coach:
Smitty wasn’t originally awarded the second assist on the goal, but the scorers eventually added it. And it was a GREAT pass by Ekholm.
Cehlin tied it in the 3:28 into the third period, putting in a rebound of a Jon Blum shot. Pearce made a good save, but the rebound kicked right to Cehlin who was driving to the net from the near face-off circle.
Cehlin’s second goal came on a Mountain Fury power play about four minutes later. He certainly deserves the credit for finishing the play, but Taylor Beck deserves a ton of credit for the perfect cross-ice pass to find him.
Late in the game, the Admirals were shot blocking machines, with Austin Watson getting name-checked by the coach after the game for his defense.
Moore – Bartley
Blum – Valentine
Jarvinen – Ekholm
– Smitty was sharp in net, and Coach Evason had some nice praise for him.
– Daniel Bang had a breakaway chance in the first period, and had a nice game….until he left with an injury. Here’s the coach.
Cehlin was bumped up to take his place on that line…and scored two goals.
– The Mountain Fury power play? Yeah, it was great to get a goal, but they finished 1-7 on the night. The didn’t score on a minute of 5×3 time, nor did they score on a four-minute power play after a Louis-Marc Aubry high stick. (full disclosure…those did overlap). But it was at a crucial time at the game, midway through the third period after the Admirals had taken the lead. A goal at that point would have been huge to finish the Griffins off. And Coach says they’ll be working on the power play this week.
– I thought all the lines did some good things tonight….none of them were invisible. And all of the defensive pairings did good things as well. The Admirals really did have the better chances 5-on-5 throughout the vast majority of the game.
So the team will have a happy bus-ride back to Milwaukee tonight, and they’ll have a week of practice before the home opener next Friday night.
– Chuck-a-puck cleanup time: 3:16
QUESTIONS:
– Just an easy one….. How great is it that hockey season is finally back?
Enjoy the highlights….
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