Category: Chatterbox

Chatterbox

The Chatterbox, Vol. 10
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Mark Van Guilder scored last night’s game-winning goal. This was the bromance that followed. (Photo Credit: Scott Paulus)

Last night the Admirals defeated the Rockford IceHogs 3-2 in front of a jam packed Bradley Center. The win puts the Ads in second place of the Midwest Division as well as fifth place in the Western Conference. The team fighting right behind Milwaukee are the Amtrak Rivals, Chicago Wolves, who are two points back – but were inactive last night.

Plenty of goods to banter about from last night’s contest. Let’s start with this candidate for best Admirals goal of the season from Colton Sissons. To me this play pretty much sums up Sissons. He’s on the penalty kill, intelligently stays tight to the point, keeps his stick active, intercepts the pass to Adam Clendening, burns past him, avoids getting stick checked, and scores shorthanded on Kent Simpson. This is his first professional season of hockey. When he makes multidimensional plays, like that goal, you nearly forget about that.

There were also some interesting things that took place prior to the game. Filip Forsberg was a late scratch due to illness. Charles-Olivier Roussel, who was going to be a scratch, suited up in his place and actually played right wing the entire game rather than his typical defenseman role. In truth, he didn’t play that bad – actually having a near goal scoring chance in the first period from a slicing backhander in front of the net.

There is no telling whether or not Forsberg will be out longer than one game with illness but, good news, reinforcements are coming! Patrick Cehlin made a cameo appearance during last night’s pre-game skate. He participated in the full warm up and looked to be in good form. He spent the latter part of the session taking shots from the left wing face off area – something that tells me he was preparing for Forsberg’s spot on the power-play unit just in case they wanted to use him over Roussel last night. He may well make his return to game action for the first time since early November at some point this weekend.

After the game I had the chance to chat with plenty of upbeat Admirals around the locker room. Along with head coach Dean Evason, I spoke with Mike Liambas, Austin Watson, Mathieu Tousignant, and Zach Budish. Here is what was said after the game.

Continue reading “The Chatterbox, Vol. 10” →

Chatterbox

The Chatterbox, Vol. 9
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Mark Van Guilder reacts to the official telling him how many penalties the Marlies have taken… I’m guessing. (Photo Credit: Scott Paulus)

It was a fairly wacky hockey game last night. The Admirals won 3-2 over the Toronto Marlies. All goals scored by the Ads were from the power-play – which had eleven opportunities on the man-advantage thanks to an ill-tempered Marlies team. It could have been a blow out for the Ads last night. Instead it was a one-goal game with the Marlies pressing hard with an extra attacker on for the final minute of the game. Fortunately for the Ads – they skated off with the win regardless of just how many “shoulda, woulda, coulda” moments were had on the power-play. The win, combined with a Chicago Wolves loss to the Utica Comets last night, pushed the Ads back into second place in the Midwest Division.

As always, after the game I spoke with Milwaukee Admirals head coach Dean Evason. I also caught up with Miikka Salomaki and Marek Mazanec. Here is what they had to say after the game.

Continue reading “The Chatterbox, Vol. 9” →

Chatterbox

The Chatterbox, Vol. 7
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(Photo Credit: Scott Paulus)

The Ads lost another one-goal contest to the Amtrak Rivals last night, 2-1. There was plenty to talk about after this game with the Wolves. Forsberg’s return to game action since his MVP performance at World Juniors. Hellberg making a second consecutive start for the first time in nearly two months. And, oh yeah, Bryan Rodney made a play or two last night which ignited the Anti-Rodney Thunderdome amongst Ads fans.

After the game I spoke with Dean Evason, Bryan Rodney, Filip Forsberg, and Magnus Hellberg. Here is what they had to say following last night’s tough loss.

Continue reading “The Chatterbox, Vol. 7” →

Blender, Chatterbox, Scouting

The Blender, Vol. 2
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(Photo credit to Scott Paulus.. “so doge” work by me.)

This has been an exciting week in Admirals hockey. Simon Moser to the Olympics. Colton Sissons named to the AHL All Star Classic. And, as of this morning, the recently named World Juniors MVP Filip Forsberg will be joining the team this weekend.

My plan was to write a feature story on Mike Liambas for today. Unfortunately, due to a Pink concert rocking the Bradley Center, I couldn’t get in for interviews until today – and even then our assistant coach Stan Drulia had a matter to attend to after practice. Long story short: expect that feature story to turn up on Monday. As always, I had lots of fun chatting with our resident enforcer and all-around good guy Mike. Should be a fun write up.

That not getting posted today does give way to this edition of the Blender, though. I did also interview the likes of Colton “The All Star” Sissons, Anthony Bitetto, and Scott Valentine today. So here is a little of what they had to say regarding the week’s news and the road ahead.

Continue reading “The Blender, Vol. 2” →

Chatterbox

The Chatterbox, Vol. 6
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(Photo Credit: Scott Paulus)

Last night the Ads came out with a 4-3 shootout victory against the Iowa Wild. Compared to my last locker room visit after the defeat to the Charlotte Checkers – this was an upbeat hockey team. There were many positives to take from last night’s performance: great play from the forwards, Hellberg picking up his first win in nearly a month, power-play success, and a well-earned win. If there were any real negative it might have been that the game should have probably been polished off before overtime – BUT – the team did pick up the two points in the end anyways.

After the game I spoke with Admirals head coach Dean Evason, center Mathieu Tousignant, and winning goaltender Magnus Hellberg. Here is what they had to say on the game and much more.

Continue reading “The Chatterbox, Vol. 6” →

Chatterbox

The Chatterbox, Vol. 5
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(Photo Credit: Scott Paulus)

There is no going around it. Last night’s 3-2 loss at home to the Charlotte Checkers was a downer. The spirits were through the roof after a blazing victory over the top team in the Western Conference the night before. Then a harsh dose of reality.

The truth is, it is an incredibly long season with highs and lows like this happening all the time. What’s so disappointing is that you don’t expect such a swing to happen so quickly in the space of twenty-four hours. There was plenty of confidence going in. There was a rocking house. Yet it all seemingly went out the window after the Checkers first shot of the game in the opening minute. The Ads rallied to get two goals back in the first period but failed to finish off a much weaker team than the Griffins in the Checkers – who really controlled most of the game from the second period onwards.

It was a bummer. And that mood carried over into the post-game interviews with Magnus Hellberg, Dean Evason, and Zach Budish.

Continue reading “The Chatterbox, Vol. 5” →

Blender, Chatterbox, Scouting

The Blender, Vol. 1
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(Photo Credit: Scott Paulus)

Last night I didn’t chat with many people after the game. I interviewed head coach Dean Evason and the game’s number one star Kevin Henderson. That was it. So, in lieu of a standard Chatterbox being short and a Scouting the Enemy for the Checkers still being pretty relevant to the last meetings between the sides, I figure I’ll blend some audio, video, notes, and musings this morning!

Last Night’s 4-1 Ads Win

Coming into last night’s game I felt the best and worst games of the season so far have been against the Grand Rapids Griffins. The best: 11/13, Griffins 1-2 Ads (video highlights). The worst: 11/20, Ads 0-5 Griffins (Video Highlights). After last night I think I have a new best. That was one of the best start to finish jobs of the entire season for the Ads.

We talked an awful lot in the early months of the season of that let down period for the Ads. Sometimes it was the opening period. Other nights it was in the third. When it came to the early season Texas road trip it was the second period. Last night, start to finish, that team played great – played great against the Western Conference’s best team – and actually managed to beat them while playing their style of hockey.

The first period, while the shots don’t tell the story, was pretty well controlled for the Ads with a few good chances that missed out. In the second period, ker-blammo. I’m not exactly sure if the coaching staff wanted to play a breed of hockey that was that wide open but, if the other team isn’t going to disrupt the speed or deny odd man rushes, why not?

I think the second period could easily be summed up in the space between the Salomaki penalty call of the second period and his subsequent goal after breaking out of the box from that penalty. The Ads scored quickly on the four-on-four situation caused by the penalty (Sissons). When the Griffins take to their abbreviated power-play – Watson gets a takeaway from neutral ice, skated in all alone from the blueline, and narrowly misses out on a shorthanded goal. Then the Griffins power-play expires… Ryan Sproul and company are leaving the ice to change… and completely ignore the fact that Salomaki is out of the box with Henderson’s clearance setting him up for a breakaway – which he made look all fancy-like with a forehand to backhand finish (video).

It’s a game like last night that can really put some life into a team. The hope here is for the Ads to not instantly crash back down to Earth with a poor result against a woeful Charlotte Checkers group (we’ll get to them soon). With a good weekend put in last weekend, two wins and earning a point from an overtime loss, this team looks to have found its groove.

Injury Updates

Remember when the news came that Joshua Shalla and Filip Forsberg were joining the mix? There were lots of bodies in camp. Which is good for two reasons. One, you now have an even higher stake of internal competition just to make it out on the ice and log minutes. Two, reasons like this previous weekend where the injury bug came around. Over last weekend the team was without Mike Liambas, Joonas Rask, Anthony Bitetto, and Scott Valentine for all at least one game. Bitetto missed one game due to an illness and returned the next day. That turned out to be a good thing because Valentine crashed into the boards the night Bitetto was out and injured his leg. Rask, who was on the receiving end of a boarding hit by Steve Pinizzotto as well as a body splash from him after the fact, hurt his right shoulder from the incident and missed all last weekend.

Last night, Mike Liambas returned to the ice after missing all of last week. He looked back up to speed and played his usual style of gritty and aggressive forechecking and backchecking. Whatever knock he took while playing in Grand Rapids, which there were many to choose from, it didn’t show last night.

Not expected to return this weekend are Joonas Rask and Scott Valentine. Evason said that the two are day-to-day types of injuries. Considering he typically talks in “short or long term” speak that is a good indication that these are not injuries that will keep them out for a significant amount of time.

Continue reading “The Blender, Vol. 1” →

Chatterbox

The Chatterbox, Vol. 4
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(Photo Credit: Scott Paulus)

Last night the Ads shutout the San Antonio Rampage by a 4-0 final. After the game I managed to catch up with Dean Evason, Filip Forsberg, and Scott Darling who gave their thoughts on the game.

Also, we at the Roundtable were given a bonus treat when Mike Liambas joined myself and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Dave Boehler to interview Scott Darling after the game.

Continue reading “The Chatterbox, Vol. 4” →