It is the most wonderful time of the year. The playoff season in the world of hockey is upon us and the Nashville Predators, Milwaukee Admirals, and Cincinnati Cyclones are all featuring. It’s a great reflection of the organization and of how it has rebounded a season removed from the Predators AHL and ECHL affiliates missing out on playoff hockey.

When this 2015-16 season began my preview listed a few key points of discussion: (1) The impact last season might have on Dean Evason‘s job security if the Admirals poor finish to the 2014-15 season trickled into the start of the new campaign. (2) The new faces entering the team, either prospects or new additions from the off-season, and how the add to the Admirals. (3) The battle between Kevin Fiala‘s ears. (4) How will the Admirals defense work with familiar names no longer around? (5) How will Marek Mazanec‘s contract year go? (6) How will Miikka Salomäki look in his return from a shoulder injury that ended his season from mid-February to the finish line?

Now, some of what I said in that preview ended up never really making too huge of a dent in Milwaukee. Anthony Bitetto started, stayed, and played in Nashville this entire season with the exception of a conditioning assignment to the Admirals very early in the season. Salomäki started his season in Milwaukee but that didn’t last very long. He’s now up where he belongs. The rest though? They are all worthy of reflecting back on because most of those early season questions have been answered.

~Behind the Bench~

Evason was the recipient of a lot of heat from Admirals fans as last season came to an end. That heat has vanished after a resoundingly positive season from himself and his coaching staff. The Admirals went from a last place finish in the Midwest Division in the 2014-15 season to winning the Central Division in 2015-16. It was the Admirals first divisional crown since the 2010-11 season when Lane Lambert was behind the bench. The Admirals record of 48-23-3-2 (101 points) was the first time since that 2010-11 season in which the Admirals eclipsed 100 points and was the sixth time from fifteen AHL seasons that the Admirals were able to accomplish the feat. The Admirals 0.664 points percentage ranks them third best among the Admirals previous fifteen AHL seasons: 2005-06 (0.675) and 2008-09 (0.669).

All of those numbers and accomplishments are made all the more special when remembering what the Admirals are: an AHL hockey team. The roster is an ever changing chameleon. There were twelve players who played on the Admirals season opener who also played the season finale. Right now there are eight players with the Predators that featured at some point on the Admirals. There were four players currently on the Cyclones roster that logged ice-time for the Admirals. And eight players who dressed for the Admirals at some point that are no longer in the system – be it a PTO contract or the allure of playing in Russia again. For all of what happened last season the biggest issues the Admirals, as a team, seemed to have was being and playing like a team. When certain players were hurt, called up, cleared waivers and sent down, the Admirals were never able to find stability. This season it hasn’t mattered one bit who was in the locker room on gameday. This season’s Admirals showed up game after game, stuck to the identity and game planning established from Evason and his coaching staff, and found consistent results from start to finish. It was a joy to watch seeing so many different permutations of the Admirals deliver on a regular basis. That comes from a multitude of angles, be it the players tasked with entering the team or the veteran leadership group taking people under their wing, but the be all end all falls on the coaching staff to see it all come good. It did. And that shouldn’t be overlooked when considering the flack Evason took a season ago.

I feel a great deal of lessons were learned last season. Even if you happen to be reading this out of Nashville, Cincinnati, or abroad you’ve no doubt probably become familiar with the term suspended for a violation of team rules. This Admirals coaching staff has clamped down on poor behavioral traits. Late to a practice? Late to a team meeting? It doesn’t matter who you are, what round you were drafted in, or the prestige you had in a different country. If you weren’t accountable to behaving like a professional hockey player you were going to be held accountable for your lack of professionalism. It was strict parenting but parenting that needed to be done. There weren’t an alarming number of these situations this season but those that became public knowledge were first offenders who didn’t have those situations happen again. The right work ethic at the AHL level is certainly needed to achieve success at the NHL level. That’s precisely what I viewed the coaching staff doing when these situations occurred. Consider it tough love.

~The New Recruits~

This season’s new additions have been nothing short of impressive. There are many first year professionals or first year pros to the North American game that looked as though they made a seamless transition to life in the AHL with the Admirals. Let’s give a quick jog through a few of them, shall we?

Juuse Saros entered this season with what felt like all the hype in the world. He had been talked up before even signing his entry level contract. Once he did sign it became clear that one of the two goalies that the Admirals had in 2014-15 wasn’t going to return. The goalie left out in the cold would be Magnus Hellberg with Saros joining Mazanec for the 2015-16 season. Saros isn’t the prototypical Predators mountain sized goalie but you’d never know the difference looking at his end-season numbers alone. Saros is so smart at reading plays, so quick laterally, and so competitive at snagging pucks in around the crease that his height is simply irrelevant. In his debut season playing professionally in North America where the rink is smaller, the game is faster, and the art of crashing the net more could throw off most newbies from Europe – Saros went 29-8-4-0 in net from 38 starts. He won 76.3% of his starts as a 20-year old first year pro. He also a 2.24 goals against average and 0.920 save percentage which were both bests among rookies in the AHL. What’s been most exciting has been the idea of this is a goalie in the early stages of learning this North American pro game and look at what he’s accomplished while learning.

When the news hit that Vladislav Kamenev was indeed making the leap from Russia to get his North American playing career going. Initial rumblings sounded as though he would be ushered in slowly and placed on the wing. That never happened. He was one of the Admirals top centers from day one and looked shockingly polished for a kid that turned 19-years old just two months before the Admirals regular season opener. He had played a full-season of senior level hockey in Russia with Metallurg Magnitogorsk of the KHL prior to this season but his numbers in Milwaukee blew those out of the water. In the KHL last season he scored 10 points (4 goals, 6 assists) in 41 games. In the AHL for the Admirals this season he has produced 37 points (15 goals, 22 assists) in 57 games. He’s been placed in all situations and performed well in all situations. No matter what the language barrier has been for him it hasn’t once manifested itself into his play on the ice and he should only get more comfortable with the language and North American game over time.

Tying the aforementioned violators of team rules this season with the current topic and you would find Max Görtz as the dead ringer under both keyword searches. After all, there was a reason why the man who ended up as the Admirals second highest scorer this season was kicked down to the ECHL for a cup of cold coffee. The thing that one quickly appreciates with Görtz is his honesty. He knew he did wrong. Admitted him turning up late for practice was embarrassing and quickly turned a corner. Görtz provided the Admirals with a unique skill set that they’ve not had in awhile. He offers good size, skates well, and had what Evason describes as a world class shot. Görtz set career highs for himself as a pro hockey player while competing in North America for the first time this season with 47 points (18 goals, 29 assists) from 72 games. Perhaps the best part to his season was the sheer consistency of his scoring. Görtz scored in 36 out of 72 games this season which effectively meant he scored every other game. For a debutant to North America – that’s pretty reliable.

Often times when looking at the way certain organizations build their future up it is done by snapping up players that flew under everyone else’s radar. Trevor Murphy has to go down as one of these players who I feel like many teams right now out to be kicking themselves over for not giving the undrafted defenseman playing in the Ontario Hockey League (OHL) the past four-seasons a phone call and contract. The Predators did so much and look at the results. Murphy was a veritable Swiss Army knife for the Admirals. He rarely had a consistent defensive pairing and has been kicked up to play as a winger on many occasions. Why? Well, his skill set is such that if you take the job title away it makes a good deal of sense because of his speed, grit, and whopper of a slap shot. More accurately as to why simply came down to numbers most of the time. The Admirals have lots of defensemen. When you score 6 points (3 goals, 3 assists) on your debut at wing for the Admirals I have to imagine that also tickles the interest of trying it some more. No matter, Murphy’s first professional playing season ended with 32 points (11 goals, 21 assists) from 59 games. That was the most goals scored by an Admirals defenseman in a single season since Bitetto accomplished an 11 goal season in 2013-14.

For the run through of these players so far I think the vibe has been all kinds of positive. Let’s change that up a bit with a chat about Kristian Näkyvä who has had a mixed bag of a season. When the 25-year old Finnish defenseman arrived to the Admirals from Luleå HF of the Swedish Hockey League (SHL) it felt like he was being signed on as an offensive minded defenseman. His 2014-15 season in Sweden ended with him producing 29 points (10 goals, 19 assists) in 55 games. What became apparent right away with Näkyvä though was he, more than most, was being overwhelmed by his debut to the North American pro game. And that’s understandable. It’s far easier to skate up ice as a forward than it should be skating backwards as a defenseman. There were many occasions at the start of this season where Näkyvä was being turned inside out or being at the wrong place at the wrong time in his own zone. This was compounding to the fact that, for what he looked like he was signed on to do, he wasn’t providing offense nor being given much of a chance to run the Admirals power-play. Fortunately he has steadied his game as the season has gone on but his offensive upside just hasn’t manifested itself is all.

~Fiala vs. Fiala~

I’ve written in great length about Fiala’s maturity this season. It all comes in a simple package of his building up this summer, being cut in pre-season camp by the Predators when he felt like he was going to make the opening night roster, starting slow and boarderline uninterested in Milwaukee, suspended by the AHL for flipping off the Lake Erie Monsters bench, and then well and truly getting the wheels to find traction on the tarmac.

In the lag period to Fiala’s 2015-16 season he went 10 games until his suspension from the league came down. He had 5 points (0 goals, 5 assists) in that time and it took him 12 games until finally netting that first goal of the season. He was his own worst enemy at the time. He was either doing too much on the puck or looking like the ghost of Fiala on the ice. The scariest part to me in the beginning stages of the season was that, for how much better of shape he got himself into, he lacked any sort of explosiveness. There wasn’t even that “take over” factor of being the guy playing like his job was on the line every shift that could help make a moment like this one possible. He needed a reboot. Call it fate or not but his suspension seemed to be that reboot. Heading into December Fiala had 6 points (1 goal, 5 assists) from 15 games. In the month of December he provided 12 points (5 goals, 7 assists) in 14 games – in December alone.

There is a reason why Fiala ended the season as the Admirals leading scorer with 50 points (18 goals, 32 assists) in 66 games. He’s that good. The reason for all the immaturity moments have just as easy of an explanation. He’s still only 19-years old. There’s more than a simple on-ice development at work here in Milwaukee with Fiala and his road to Nashville will benefit because of that. He’s aware of the bigger picture. He wants to be an NHL level talent now. But he also knows that he has areas to his game that need brushing up still. That’s a sign of maturity. And that’s a sign to Nashville that they’re going to be having another energetic winger capable of playing NHL hockey a season from now.

~The Retooled Veteran Defense~

This was a big storyline to me when the 2015-16 season was starting up. There wasn’t going to be a Scott Ford anymore on the ice. He was moving to the bench. The Admirals were going to be without their captain and best out-and-out defenseman from a season ago, Joe Piskula, because the Predators opted to let him sign with the Anaheim Ducks organization in the off-season. Instead, the Predators brought in Conor Allen and hoped some of the younger lads like Jonathan Diaby or Garrett Noonan or even a returning to health Johan Alm could step up. None of that happened. And it wasn’t until January until the reset button was pushed.

In January the Admirals made a major change to the way they played defense. Evason wanted to make for an even three-lefties and three-righties approach so the team managed to acquire Stefan Elliott and Patrick Mullen. At the NHL Trade Deadline this went even further when the Predators added yet another right-handed shooting veteran defenseman in Corey Potter. Not too shabby considering Taylor Aronson was effectively the lone true right-handed shot on the Admirals blueline for about a season and a half until these changes were made. The impact of Elliott, Mullen, and Potter have been nothing short of incredible. From Mullen’s debut game for the Admirals on 1/15/16 the team went a shocking 25-10-1-2 from their last 38 games of the season for a 0.697 points percentage in the time the defense was restructured.

It is questionable from an organizational perspective as to why these sorts of changes weren’t implemented from the very beginning. If having a three-left and three-right defensive group was so important why not plunge into or attack the developmental platform right away to purge out some of the surplus of lefties and ship in righties on defense? What was the real draw for adding Allen if only to dump him for Mullen in January? It’s questionable. But, I suppose, a lesson learned from all parties involved. Besides. The same people involved with composing the team at the start of the season were smart enough to make the changes in January, right?

~Out of the Headlights~

This season was as important of a season that Mazanec will have played in his professional playing career. His contract is up after the 2015-16 season ends and it is followed in synchronous fashion with the ending of Predators back-up goaltender Carter Hutton‘s contract as well. With Saros entering the organization this season, and it look more and more likely that Janne Juvonen isn’t far behind him, it’s safe to say that every time you watched Mazanec play a game in net this season it was taken like a job interview for the Predators 2016-17 back-up role to Pekka Rinne.

What Mazanec managed to do this season was perform his best wire-to-wire season since making the trek to North America from his native Czech Republic. In 39 apperances, 38 of which were starts, Mazanec held a record of 19-15-5-2 with a 2.45 goals against average and 0.912 save percentage as well as earning 4 shutouts. If not for that stinker of a defensive outing for the Admirals in the regular season finale, where he was made to suffer a 7-1 loss, Mazanec would have either surpassed or matched career bests in all of those major goaltending categories. It’s quite frankly a shame that he was hung out to dry in that game because it reflects poorly to his numbers and hints that he laid an egg when it just isn’t true. This was perhaps the first season in North America where Mazanec didn’t once have a deer in headlights level performance. He was solid from the start of the season all the way to the end of the season and did it all while under the pressures of a hungry young Finnish goaltending prospect sharing net time and a cloudy future of what could happen to him in the next off-season. Never once did Mazanec and Saros seem flustered by one another. It was an internal competition, yes, but a friendly one. The two really pushed each other hard and did it all while being supportive of who got tabbed as the starting goaltender. There isn’t really much else you could have asked for out of the Czech.

If this was a job interview then for Mazanec: did he get the job? For my money I could see this hilariously coming down to money. Hutton had a fantastic season backing up Rinne in Nashville by logging 17 appearances with a 7-5-4 record, 2.33 goals against average, 0.918 save percentage, and a pair of shutouts. When Hutton first signed on with the Predators organization you have to remember he did it with barely having any NHL experience to his name. The goalies competing for the back-up job at that time all lacked serious NHL experience with Hutton, Mazanec, and Hellberg all vying for the role. Now that three-seasons have effectively passed the back-up role likely comes down to Hutton and Mazanec with the much younger Saros expected to take on a far more significant role as the Admirals number one goaltender in 2016-17. Should Mazanec beat out Hutton it would simply be down to the money factor. He won’t cost near as much as Hutton would. For a Predators organization that still need to lock up Filip Forsberg, Calle Järnkrok, and possibly even Petter Granberg you have to think the lesser the money given to the back-up to Rinne, who will still carry the weight of games on his shoulders, is beyond attractive. The only question is whether or not Hutton would be willing to play for even less than he already does. Because I feel Mazanec, to be an NHL back-up, would take less if it meant a one-way contract was on the table.

~By The Numbers~

When you start looking more at the numbers that the 2015-16 Admirals put up you start to truly have an appreciation for what they actually accomplished. For starters, their 48 wins this season only trailed the likes of the 2005-06 and 2008-09 squads which earned 49 wins. What makes that all the more special is that the two squads with 49 wins did that in an AHL era of an 80-game season as opposed to the current 76-game season the Admirals exist in today. The 2015-16 Admirals points percentage is just behind both of those teams but that sets them apart as the third best Admirals AHL team from fifteen seasons of operation.

When viewing the 76-game era this year’s Admirals team managed to: earn the most wins (48), most points (101), score the most goals (224), allow the second least amount of goals (193) with only the 2011-12 team allowing fewer (190), and they took the second fewest penalty minutes (1045) only coming up shy to the 2012-13 team (1013). Not only did this year’s Admirals team become the first in the 76-game season formula in the team’s AHL history to break the 0.600 points percentage barrier they ended with 0.664. The next closest to that margin in five-seasons was 2013-14 which narrowly missed the barrier with a 0.599 points percentage.

And then there is a statistic specifically aimed at you. Yes, you – the fans. The 2015-16 season wasn’t just a smashing success for the Milwaukee Admirals on the ice but around the ice. Attendance hit 234,404 fans on the season for an average of 6,169 fans per home game. That is the highest attendance figure since the 2011-12 season (6,226) and only the fourth time in fifteen AHL seasons that the Admirals averaged over 6,000+ in attendance for a season. If there were any way to end this retrospective of the regular season it is like that. The team was brilliant. And so were all of you.

What were some of your favorite moments from the regular season? What were some of the big surprises that cropped up during this season? Is the success of the season a sign of even better things to come as the Nashville Predators drafting and scouting has provided the Milwaukee Admirals with such a solid and young team for this season?

Be sure to keep updated with Admirals Roundtable through social media platform of your choice: follow along Twitter, like us on Facebook, get photo updates on Instagram, and listen along on SoundCloud.

The regular season has ended. The playoffs are set. Times are about to get very exciting for the Milwaukee Admirals. What better way to lead into the Admirals first home playoff game in nearly two-years than by having a big week of feature stories here on Roundtable? It should be a packed week and I’m hoping to drop features down each day of the week until we reach Friday when the Admirals open up the 2016 Calder Cup Playoffs at home against the Grand Rapids Griffins.

~Fifteen~

The time in which the Admirals signed Matt White to a PTO contract was as grueling of a period in the Admirals season as their might have been. The roster was being stretched to the limit. The Nashville Predators were banged up. The Admirals affiliate in the ECHL was banged up. It meant seeking outside help and, amusingly, bringing in familiar faces like Vinny Saponari and Zach Budish. When that started to not go as well as perhaps the Admirals would have liked they then turned to the Los Angeles Kings ECHL affiliate the Manchester Monarchs. White came first and he was followed by Zac Larraza and Matt Leitner. All played their part. White just felt like he always was part of the Admirals from the moment he joined.

White had a terrific collegiate career at the University of Nebraska-Omaha where his efforts on and off the ice are worthy of noting. In his 2010-11 season he was named to the All-Academic Team for the NCAA’s Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA). In total, he scored 99 points (47 goals, 52 assists) in 114 career games with Nebraska-Omaha. He went undrafted but the California native signed on as part of the Kings ECHL affiliate at the time, the Ontario Reign. He had a great debut season and followed that up with an attempt to play in Europe with Olimpija Ljubljana in Austria before returning to Ontario in the ECHL.

White was in the Kings’ ECHL camp for a total of 158 games scoring 139 points (60 goals, 79 assists) before the Admirals provided him his chance to make his AHL debut on 12/5/15 on the road against the Chicago Wolves. The very next night he scored a pair of goals and an assist, including the Teddy Bear Toss goal, in only his second career AHL game.

Ever since that grand intro to Milwaukee fans things have only continued to go well for White. His play is incredibly smooth and, in 54 games, he managed to produce 27 points (12 goals, 15 assists). That’s quite the bonus production for an Admirals team that couldn’t have had him on their radar come pre-season camp. Yet, his consistent play and solid work ethic earned him a contract that extended past this season and through to the 2016-17 season.

Thanks very much to Matt White on taking the time for this interview. Next up this week there will be three more features that will come in no particular order: Fifteen with Stefan Elliott, Scott Ford: Trading Sticks for Suits, and a 2015-16 Regular Season Retrospective.

Be sure to keep updated with Admirals Roundtable through social media platform of your choice: follow along Twitter, like us on Facebook, get photo updates on Instagram, and listen along on SoundCloud.

2/29/16. NHL Trade Deadline Day. If you were like me you woke up bright and early, flipped on any channel that was featuring TSN’s TradeCentre coverage, and was eagerly awaiting a day in which the Nashville Predators might make another one of those “go for it” types of trades that impacts the future talent pool currently residing within the ranks of the Milwaukee Admirals depths. I was almost certain that Scott Hartnell might find his way back into Nashville. But, as it turned out, the Predators didn’t do anything for themselves this season. Instead they actually turned to their AHL affiliate and made a trade to make them stronger.

I know for most Predators fans they didn’t think much of anything when Corey Potter was attached to the team’s lone trade made on Trade Deadline Day but it has quickly been proven to be a tremendous move for the Admirals. At the start of this season the Admirals lone right handed shooting defenseman was Taylor Aronson. Around mid-January the Admirals aimed to shake up their defense by balancing out righties and lefties on defense. Conor Allen out, Patrick Mullen in (1/14/16). Victor Bartley out, Stefan Elliott in (1/15/16). With Potter added to the mix the Admirals actually find themselves in an amusingly new territory where there is often a defensive pairing of two righties now as opposed to what had been a pair of lefties.

All things told, this shake up to the Admirals defense has made a big difference on the team. Since Mullen’s debut for the Admirals on 1/15/16 the team has gone 23-8-1-2. Since Potter’s Admirals debut on 3/3/16 the team has gone 12-2-0-2.

For someone in Potter’s position this has to be a wonderful feeling. The Admirals are the top team in the AHL’s Central Division at the moment and currently have the second most points (95) in the entire league behind the Toronto Marlies (105). The team that Potter had been playing for this season prior to the trade, the Springfield Falcons (AHL affiliate of the Arizona Coyotes), is currently dead last in the AHL’s Atlantic Division and Eastern Conference standings. He went from the bottom of one conference to a team attempting to bust through the Ontario Reign’s clinch to the top spot in the Western Conference.

While Potter is yet to score a goal as a member of the Admirals, only posting three assists to date from sixteen games, you can’t argue with what his two-way ability has done for the team. His pairing with shutdown defenseman Jimmy Oligny is a night after night lock. And, perhaps, what Potter provides even better might not entirely be seen on the ice but off it. Potter is 32-years old on a team full of young up and coming talent. He offers tremendous experience: 129 NHL games, 420 AHL games, and 33 games worth of playoff experience between the AHL and NHL. The Admirals don’t just want a strong regular season. They want a Calder Cup. A player of Potter’s caliber and experience makes waves on and off the ice. He might have been an eyebrow raiser to some at the NHL Trade Deadline being penciled as a trade by Nashville. But his importance to Milwaukee could be potentially massive if the season continues trending as wickedly hot as it has been since his arrival.

~Fifteen~

A big time thanks to Corey Potter for taking the time for this interview. Fifteen will hopefully continue shortly after the Milwaukee Admirals return home. As for now, the team is off to Charlotte where they will play against the Checkers on Saturday and Sunday. Fun Fact. Potter’s first professional team was the Charlotte Checkers back when they were an ECHL team in 2006-07.

Be sure to keep updated with Admirals Roundtable through social media platform of your choice: follow along Twitter, like us on Facebook, get photo updates on Instagram, and listen along on SoundCloud.

The Fifteen series is back in your life. Apologies from myself for the layoff between new editions of the series but, with an AHL team fluctuating between roster moves and road trips, it can be tricky to lock down certain players for interviews. With the Milwaukee Admirals set to embark on a road trip for this week that will see them travel to Manitoba and then Charlotte I have two to share for this week. The first one is one I’ve been meaning to do for awhile because I think this guy deserves a spotlight.

Taylor Aronson was a third round draft pick of the Nashville Predators in the 2010 NHL Draft. That came after his debut season playing in the WHL with a Portland Winterhawks program that has developed and continues to develop very notable talent for the Predators organization. In the time that Aronson was in Portland the California native played alongside the likes of Ryan Johansen and Brendan Leipsic. His career with the Winterhawks lasted two-seasons where he played 142 games, scored 67 points (10 goals, 57 assists), and lost out in the 2011 WHL Finals to the Kootenay Ice.

Upon becoming pro in 2011-12 Aronson spent his first two seasons fluctuating between the AHL and ECHL. He had 26 games of AHL experience with only 3 assists to show for it upon entering his third pro playing season. That season of 2013-14 was spent entirely with the Cincinnati Cyclones and he performed very strongly. He was the Cyclones top scoring defenseman with 38 points (6 goals, 32 assists) in 65 games. His plus/minus rating of +28 ranked him tied for fourth in the entire ECHL that season and he and his Cyclones team would fall in the Kelly Cup Finals to the Alaska Aces.

When the 2014-15 rolled in it did so with an opening for Aronson. The Admirals defense offered no other right-handed shots from the defense other than him. But, that wasn’t the real reason why he ended up earning a spot. His work throughout the season proved exactly why he was brought up from the ECHL ranks. He went from becoming the top scoring defenseman in Cincinnati the previous season to the top scoring defenseman in Milwaukee: 32 points (3 goals, 29 assists) in 73 games.

Of note for Nashville readers, you might recall a situation last year in which a certain Shea Weber was questionable with an illness and another certain kid by the name of Aronson was called up under emergency conditions. All things said, that story didn’t end with Aronson getting an NHL game. Weber played that night. It could have been considered a brief whirlwind moment in the life of an AHL hockey player but for those around the team last season it was a quick wave from the brass topside to a player deserving of an NHL look. He didn’t get the game. But they game him the recognition. That’s something a player who spent the better part of three pro playing seasons in the ECHL doesn’t often get. When that player does it is more of a sign of the player and the man sticking with the program and forcing the big wigs to take note of consistent performances. That same reasoning behind the choice of Aronson as the emergency call up probably came back when the Predators re-signed Aronson to a one-year two-way contract last off-season.

Aronson may have been in the discussion once again with the recent knock to Ryan Ellis but the recall under emergency conditions assignment this time went to Stefan Elliott. That’s not to say Aronson was the lesser of the two options but more so that the Predators have plenty of options should they need them. Aronson is enjoying his best professional playing season in 2015-16 having grown leaps and bounds as a two-way defenseman. He is the Admirals current top scoring defenseman and has career highs across the board: 37 points (4 goals, 33 assists) from 60 games.

The lone thing that I’m sure Aronson would like to see change is the script of his career so far. Before leaving the Winterhawks his team lost in the 2011 WHL Finals. Before being elevated to the Admirals his final season with the Cyclones saw him losing in the 2014 Kelly Cup Finals. After this season Aronson’s contract is up. There are no guarantees as to where he goes from here. Should you believe his story to date the Admirals could well be on their way to a 2016 Calder Cup Finals appearance. The only thing I’m sure he’d like to change is getting to raise some silverware on the back of a hard season’s work.

~Fifteen~

Cheers to Taylor Aronson for taking the time to do this interview. Programming note for this week will be as follows: Fifteen with Corey Potter (Thursday) and new Cyclones Report on Friday with a guest appearance from Sin Bin Cyclones.

Be sure to keep updated with Admirals Roundtable through social media platform of your choice: follow along Twitter, like us on Facebook, get photo updates on Instagram, and listen along on SoundCloud.

The marathon month of March came to an end on a very positive note for the Milwaukee Admirals. Their 4-1 win over the Grand Rapids Griffins gave them an extra bit of wiggle room at the top of the Central Division and saw the Admirals extend their current point streak to seven-games. Quite an impressive finish when you consider that this month was tied with December for the most amount of games played within a month this season at fourteen games.

For all the constant movement, travel, and -oh yeah.. games- the Admirals level of consistency during both marathon months were outstanding. In December the Admirals went 9-5-0-0. In March the Admirals went 9-3-0-2. Both featured a point streak of five or more games and certain key individuals really standing out from the group. December was really the Frédérick Gaudreau breaking out party as he produced 12 points (4 goals, 8 assists) while operating in the then absent Colton Sissons top center role. When looking at March another name stands out as well.

With fourteen games in March, and two back-to-back weekends of three games in three days, the work load in net for the Admirals was going to be grinding. It’s pivotal that the Admirals goaltending duo works as well as they do because it allows the team to not drive one into the ground during a month as hefty as March was. Both did their part really well. But this might just have been the best month of hockey that young Juuse Saros has put together in his first season of North American pro hockey. And it’s for that reason that he gets my nod for Admiral of the Month for March.

In March, Saros took eight of the Admirals fourteen games in net and responded with a 7-1-0-0 record, 1.61 goals against average, 0.936 save percentage, and 2 shutouts. Every game this month he has looked composed and played so smoothly in net that it calmed a lot of games down. There were games in which he actually played so well that the focus was less on him and more on what was simply going on in front of him. The win over the Griffins that ended the month of March was that type of performance. He was in control at all times. He helped bring the pace of the game in the Admirals favor by making smart plays with the puck – either gloving it down to get the whistle or making stops behind the net. It’s something that might get taken for granted as you’re watching the game play out but, when the final horn sounds, it adds up a lot to where the result came to.

As it stands today, Saros currently leads nearly all major goaltending categories as it pertains to rookie goaltenders in the AHL this season: goals against average (2.22 – which is good for fourth best in the entire league), save percentage (0.920 – which is eighth best in the entire league), and wins (24 – which has him seventh amongst all goaltenders in the league). The lone exception among rookie goaltending stats that alludes Saros comes in the form of Tristan Jarry (Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins) who has one more shutout than Saros has. If you want to include “minutes” as one of those, alright fair enough, Saros trails: Eric Comrie (Manitoba Moose), Zachary Fucale (St. John’s IceCaps), Niklas Treutle (Springfield Falcons), Chris Driedger (Binghamton Senators), and Maxime Lagacé (Texas Stars).

There sure were plenty of great performers in front of the net. No doubt about that. But, the more I reviewed a lot of what everyone did I kept thinking back to how solid Saros really was for the Admirals in March. I feel ashamed to admit this but he really did play so smoothly this month that I probably overlooked how well he played – as he played – and just figured he was going to deliver as he had been. That’s just how good Saros has been this past month. He’s been so consistent and sharp that you’re not surprised by him delivering the way that he is.

Admirable Mentions: Kevin Fiala, 14 points (6 goals, 8 assists)… Pontus Åberg, 13 points (5 goals, 8 assists)… Taylor Aronson, 11 points (0 goals, 11 assists)… Max Görtz, 9 points (5 goals, 4 assists)… Matt White, 8 points (3 goals, 5 assists)… Vladislav Kamenev, 7 points (4 goals, 3 assists)… Marek Mazanec, 6 starts (2-2-0-2 record, 2.11 goals against average, 0.918 save percentage)… and a worthy mention to the non-statistically inclined but defensively sound group of the French Fries (Jimmy Oligny, Félix Girard, and Frédérick Gaudreau) and Cody Bass for countless great plays in the defensive zone or on the penalty kill.

~Admiral of the Month Award~

October: Félix Girard
November: Viktor Arvidsson
December: Frédérick Gaudreau
January: Marek Mazanec
February: Colton Sissons
March: Juuse Saros

Who do you feel was the Milwaukee Admirals top performer during the month of March? Was it Juuse Saros, Kevin Fiala, or someone else? Answer in the comment section below.

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This entire season has had a running story in the background. The story read like a question that was asked in louder and louder tones of voice as the season dragged on. Will Jimmy Vesey, the Nashville Predators third round selection in the 2012 NHL Draft, sign? The answer to that question came last night and it was an emphatic no.

There are several places to read about all things Vesey and the Predators’ General Manager David Poile‘s response to the news. For things specific to that I’d say they should be rather easy to find via search. That news story is really all for the Nashville media to pick to pieces on-site and I’m sure, in the days to come, there will be more reactions and opinions made from Vesey’s decision to opt for free agency rather than sign with the Predators.

This story isn’t about Vesey as much as it is why a person in my position hasn’t really cared too much about the question, “will Vesey sign?” It’s not that I don’t care about him as a prospect or person. Far from it. He’s had a tremendous collegiate career and I feel that his decision to enjoy a full college experience and earn a degree is something that more people should actually be applauding him for. Where my lack of caring comes in is quite simple. My eyes are always gazing at the Predators prospect talent pool and, considering Vesey wasn’t under contract in the first place, that pool’s depth hasn’t been decreased. It’s deep. It’s young. And it gets better with every draft class.

Playing for the Milwaukee Admirals right now there are currently ten players, who I would deem prospects, that I would have no problem saying they could play in the NHL tomorrow if they were absolutely needed. Amazingly, one of those players isn’t even under contract to the Predators but rather the Admirals on an AHL contract for the next two-seasons. That list, in no particular order, goes as follows: Kevin Fiala, Frédérick Gaudreau, Vladislav Kamenev, Max Görtz, Pontus Åberg, Félix Girard, Jimmy Oligny, Taylor Aronson, Marek Mazanec, and Juuse Saros.

For those that don’t know – the man under contract to the Admirals, not the Predators, that is on that list is the shutdown defenseman Oligny.

All of those players I feel could go up, log a game, and perform well. There is a rather good reason for that, too. They’ve been in the system already this season, for some even longer, and can make the transition rather seamlessly. It’s something that has made the moves up for players such as Austin Watson, Miikka Salomäki, Anthony Bitetto, Viktor Arvidsson, and Colton Sissons feel like the evolution in their developmental process that it really should be. They’ve absorbed Predators hockey already. They’ve performed it at the AHL level. And now they’re stretching their legs and warming up in Predators gold. If it sounds familiar at all it is because the Predators have made something of a process out of their developmental and roster organization throughout the years. The Predators roster right now features fourteen players who spent significant time at the AHL level before being familiar names to the NHL circuit. It’s how they’ve operated for years: draft, develop, and promote from within.

What many seem to lose sight of in the mystique factor of having Vesey enter the Predators fold, only to seemingly lose him via free agency now, is that it doesn’t lessen the current team in Nashville nor the future team in the years to come.

The Predators 4-3 loss to the Colorado Avalanche last night was just their third regulation loss from their last twenty-two games. They’re doing fine. The Admirals are currently leading the AHL’s Central Division, have the most points (87) in the AHL’s Western Conference, and are tied with their opponent tonight -the Grand Rapids Griffins- for the most wins (41) in the AHL’s Western Conference. The Admirals are doing fine. And, not to sound harsh or nasty because it isn’t the intent when I say it, but this has all happened without Vesey on either team.

A look even further down the road has more and more prospects on the radar. There are currently four players under contract to the Predators playing junior hockey right now: Yakov Trenin, Alexandre Carrier, Anthony Richard, and Jack Dougherty. There are also several names drafted by the Predators who have been enjoying great 2015-16 seasons at the moment that have yet to sign entry level contracts: Justin Kirkland, Aaron Irving, and Janne Juvonen. The future wave of prospects will only make the Predators and the Admirals continue to operate at the high rate of success that they have.

A season ago, the Predators didn’t even have a first round draft choice. That pick was packaged alongside Brendan Leipsic to the Toronto Maple Leafs in one of those “we’re going all in” trades that failed. The lesson of that scenario was learned from and the Predators made a massive trade by acquiring Ryan Johansen from the Columbus Blue Jackets in exchange for Seth Jones. The move was made long in advance of the NHL Trade Deadline and, on that day, the lone trade the Predators made was one that was specifically aimed at bolstering the Admirals defense. Should Vesey had told the Predators organization in advance of the NHL Trade Deadline that he would be testing free agency would that have been the case? Would the Predators have traded more future assets in an effort to rent a booster to the current campaign? And, if that happened, who is to say the exact same unfortunate failure of last season wouldn’t be playing out once again now?

The current state of things is great right where it is across the organization. It really is. One player entering, leaving, or never joining doesn’t quite rattle that.

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The 2015-16 season is the Milwaukee Admirals fifteenth season as members of the American Hockey League (AHL). At the moment they stand in first place of the Central Division through sixty-seven games with a record of 41-21-3-2 (87 points) and have the second best record based on points percentage in the Western Conference.

Around this time a season ago things weren’t all that great. A calendar year ago the Admirals record was 32-25-6-5 (75 points) and it was trending downwards – fast. The Admirals record in March, through today’s date, was a woeful 3-8-2-1. Jump ahead to present day and the Admirals one-year later have a 8-3-0-2 record in the month of March with things trending very steadily in the upright position.

During this past month one of the real bright spots has come in the form of the line combination of Kevin Fiala, Vladislav Kamenev, and Adam Payerl. This group has been paired together for the last twelve games and, during that time, have a combined 24 points (11 goals, 13 assists). It’s funny to think, through all the roster moves and permutations that an AHL season provides, that over such a long period of time this line reformed. They were paired together all the way back on 10/20/15 when the Admirals won their first game of this season. After that, it wasn’t until 3/3/16 when all three were placed together again after many different variations of one playing with one or the other. In particular, the 2014 NHL Draft duo of Fiala and Kamenev have been paired together for a total of sixteen games this season.

If there was ever a storyline that was going to be fun to watch develop over the course of the 2015-16 season it was going to be how these two teenagers take to a full-season of North American hockey. That storyline expands to much more than simply the on-ice product as well.

For Fiala, he was looking to capitalize from his first taste of the North American game that he took in last season and make a case for time spent with the Nashville Predators. For Kamenev, he was set to join a very alien world in which no one on the Admirals roster spoke Russian and the one place where he would perhaps feel most comfortable, the ice, was a more smaller and confined version to that which he became accustomed to as a senior team player with Metallurg Magnitogorsk of Russia’s Kontinental Hockey League (KHL). The good news was that they were both joining an organization in the Admirals that is rather experienced in developing talent from around the globe. In fact, this teenage tandem playing the better majority of a season is the fourth in the AHL history of the team following the likes of: 2004-05, Kevin Klein and Ryan Suter… 2009-10, Colin Wilson and Chet Pickard… 2013-14, Colton Sissons and Filip Forsberg.

Fiala’s season expectations started off massively high for himself. Having taken in some of what the North American game has to provide from his entry to the 2014-15 season it makes sense that the level of confidence from the Switzerland native was as high as it was. He had played thirty-three games for the Admirals at the AHL level scoring 20 points (11 goals, 9 assists) and also managed to make both his NHL debut and NHL Playoffs debut. That introduction was a good one but it felt early on in the off-season that he had set the bar extremely high on himself by saying the following to Predators General Manager David Poile.

“At the end-of-the-year meetings when [Head Coach] Peter Laviolette and I are talking to players, we’re usually the ones doing 90 percent of the talking,” Poile said. “So we did the talking to Kevin and then he says, ‘What do I need to do, I’m going to be playing for the Nashville Predators next season. I’m not going to [AHL affiliate] Milwaukee, I’m going to be playing [in Nashville].’” ~David Poile

Fiala did go to Milwaukee. And he did arrive after having failed to deliver on that statement. His competition in pre-season camp was a stacked one. Austin Watson, Viktor Arvidsson, Miikka Salomäki, Colton Sissons, and Stevie Moses were all in the running for spots out of camp and Fiala was one of the early birds to get bumped down to Milwaukee. When he arrived he did so by scoring a game-winning overtime goal in the Admirals final pre-season game where he played on a line with, you guessed it, Kamenev.

The regular season unfortunately didn’t have the same level of explosiveness for Fiala. It took nearly a month and a half into the season before he scored his first goal of 2015-16. By that point Fiala has already made enough noise doing different kinds of damage.

On 11/11/15, Fiala became a target to the Lake Erie Monsters after running through their goaltender Joonas Korpisalo with 8:38 remaining in regulation. Fiala received charging minor for the hit to Korpisalo and an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for the scrum that followed. As the game was in its final seconds Brett Gallant tried to go after Fiala and clocked him with an illegal check to the head. Cody Bass stepped in on Fiala’s behalf to buddy-up with Gallant. From there Fiala would proceed to make his way from the Admirals attacking zone, skate past the Monsters bench, flip the bench off, get caught for his gesture, and be sent packing from the game nineteen seconds before the final horn sounded. Fiala received a two-game suspension from the AHL for his actions.

While that moment was indeed a bad one it appeared to generate the desired wake-up call effect needed for Fiala to get with the program. After being pretty much dormant for the opening two months of the season he blew up in December by scoring 12 points (5 goals, 7 assists) in fourteen-games during a time in which the Admirals went 9-5-0-0. His next eighteen games would see him produce 11 points (4 goals, 7 assists) with an interruption inbetween from his first NHL action of the season where he would score his first career NHL goal on his first shift with the Predators in 2015-16. Yet, it is this current stretch where he has been playing alongside Kamenev and Payerl where things have really all come together. Fiala has 14 points (6 goals, 8 assists) in his last twelve games.

What is perhaps more important than what can be read out of a box score is the evolution of his demeanor off of the ice. When Fiala arrived in Milwaukee last season he came across as nervous and stiff. When you’re playing in your third different country in four years – it kind of makes sense. The weight of expectations for an 18-year old player to make a good first impression on the organization that drafted him with a fifteenth overall selection is huge. Those same expectations were on his shoulders as he stated he wasn’t going to Milwaukee and that he was going to be playing in Nashville. The pressure ratcheted up when that didn’t happen and the poor start to his AHL season was dragging along all the way until he earned a suspension. Somewhere along the way it seemed as if the focus became less between the ears and more straight out of his eyes. Fiala’s far more loose and relaxed and, dare I say it, acting his age. He’s having fun. He’s looked to have been enjoying himself and his current status in Milwaukee for a long time now. The correlation to the shoulders dropping a bit off the ice and the on ice product taking a step forward doesn’t come across as very coincidental. He’s grown up a ton these last six months.

On the opposite side of the spectrum there is the Russian teenager, Kamenev. It’s fun comparing the likes of Fiala and Kamenev just because the two are so different. Fiala is the brash, flashy, and highlight reel making one of the two. While Kamenev on the other hand has the language barrier keeping him rather quiet and low key and the manner in which he plays can pretty much be summed up the same way. It’s not that Kamenev isn’t flashy or worthy of making the highlight reel. It’s that he plays so smoothly on the ice that he makes things look slowed down or easier than they actually were to accomplish. His arrival to the North America seemed as if he’d be placed on the wing as a bit of an eased transition to a much faster and more physically demanding game. That hasn’t happened at all. He’s worked entirely from center this entire season and taken up all responsibilities that that entails: even-strength, power-play, penalty kill, etc. He does it all and does it all in a very calm manner on the ice. Which is perhaps why his lone flare up this season was a bit of an eyebrow raiser.

Like Fiala, Kamenev did actually earn a two-game suspension from the AHL this season. It was a consequence of a boarding incident on 10/29/15 when he hit Matt Fraser of the Manitoba Moose hard. There was no penalty called for the play on the ice but the incident was reviewed by the league itself which brought about the suspension. This, however, was not the eyebrow raising flare up for Kamenev. Instead, his incident didn’t happen like Fiala’s at the AHL level but instead with the whole world watching.

The 2016 IIHF World Junior Championships Gold Medal Game this year was between the host nation Finland and Russia. Kamenev was captain of Team Russia and putting together a tremendous tournament. Unfortunately, not too many are going to remember what Kamenev did on the goal scoring side of things in the tournament as much as they will all remember him losing his cool with the officials late in the game, picking up a misconduct penalty with 2:09 remaining in regulation after Finland just took a 3-2 lead, skating to the penalty box and breaking his stick at the door which struck an official sitting in the penalty box, and earning a game misconduct for doing so. Russia would managed to actually equalize with six-seconds remaining in regulation to force overtime but Kamenev could only watch from deep in Team Russia’s locker room tunnel as Kasperi Kapanen scored the game winning goal in the overtime period.

While Fiala’s low point this season happened around his team with a supporting cast around him to provide prospective and insight going forward – Kamenev’s low point was followed by a flight back to the United States. It might not be the comparison all would immediately understand but the first thing that I thought of was when David Beckham was red carded in the 1998 World Cup. For those unfamiliar I’d give this a watch but the short story of it is being “the man” of your national team only to be the one figure that could stand out as a let down or scapegoat as to why the team failed. At a team or club level the taste of failure is a bitter one. At the national level with as much media attention focused around the game as a World Juniors Final? Failure, specifically individual failure, is down right toxic. The true test of Kamenev’s first season in North America wasn’t necessarily coming from something that happened on the ice in Milwaukee as much as it was how he was going to bounce back from making an emotional mistake at the penalty box in the Hartwall Arena.

There aren’t many stories I’d be willing to tell of things I see happen in the locker room of the Milwaukee Admirals -but- there is one too good to not put a spotlight on. After Kamenev did return to the Admirals from his World Juniors experience there was a small spell in which he sat out to get recovered from the tournament wear and travel. He watched the game from the media section not too far from myself and, after the game, sat alone in his equipment stall. As I was awaiting to conduct interviews Marek Mazanec approached the Russian teenager. He went to shake his hand but, before doing so, mocked Kamenev breaking his stick at World Juniors. Those in the locker room at the time were all laughing. It was the perfect way of letting the rookie know he’s just one of the boys and that the team was there for him.

Kamenev made his return to the Admirals lineup from his World Juniors on 1/15/16 in San Antonio. He scored a goal four-minutes into the second period with the secondary assist coming from none other that Mazanec who would proceed to earn a shutout on the evening. This was followed the next night by yet another goal for Kamenev. His first two-games back from such a low moment resulted in a pair of two-point nights (goal and an assist) and wins for the Admirals.

The high-highs of getting back into the groove of things back in the AHL was sadly short lived. Kamenev had been selected to participate in the 2016 AHL All-Star festivities in Syracuse where he would have joined both Frédérick Gaudreau and head coach Dean Evason as Admirals representatives. Unfortunately, a lower-body injury prevented that from happening and he was sidelined for four-games. It would take awhile before he sprung back into gear but, like Fiala, it all seems to have come into place once this line combination of the teenage tandem and Payerl came back together. Kamenev has scored 6 points (3 goals, 3 assists) from his last twelve games. Once again, he’s not just doing the flashy things that make the stat-sheets busy he’s also doing things that exemplify why Team Russia would want someone such as him as a captain. He’s a smooth and steady player in all game situations. His intelligence of the game is something that has transcended the language barrier and helped to make his first pro season in North America a joy to watch as he gets more and more comfortable with the different style of play and the English language itself.

There is a difference between what Fiala and Kamenev bring to the table. No doubt about that. But, for how there first full-season of North American hockey has developed, it seems very fitting that these two have found themselves playing on the exact same line and having a high level of success. The Admirals string of twelve consecutive playoff appearances came to a thunderous end last season with the Admirals finishing dead last in their division. A season later the eyes are set for a return to playoff hockey as well as the potential for the Admirals first division title since the 2010-11 season. Times have changed for the Admirals. And time is serving both Fiala and Kamenev very well on their road to Nashville.

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Being traded midway through a season is never easy. For 29-year old defenseman Patrick Mullen arriving to the Milwaukee Admirals from the Binghamton Senators was the second time in his career that he was moved out in the middle of an AHL season. In 2013-14 he was flipped from the Vancouver Canucks organization, where he had been playing for the Utica Comets, to the Ottawa Senators.

When he was traded away from the Senators organization in exchange for Conor Allen it was part of a big defensive transformation done in a way to balance out the Admirals who lacked right handed shots. The results of that change were rather immediate and effective. In his first 13 games with the Admirals the team went 9-3-1-0. Then the unfortunate happened.

While playing against the Iowa Wild in Milwaukee on 2/21/16 Mullen suffered an injury that always leaves me shocked that it doesn’t happen more often than it does. He was falling down and an opponent’s skate caught him underneath the cuff of his glove and sliced into him badly. I had initially been told he suffered thirteen stitches and narrowly avoided tendon damage. In sitting down with him Monday night at organization’s Celebrity Serve event he showed me the scar and said it was fourteen stitches. He went on to miss eight-games as his wound healed and has since suited up for the last three-games.

Mullen is yet another one of those players on the Admirals roster who I wonder if folks know the family from which he comes from. His father, Joe Mullen, had a tremendous collegiate and professional career. He was a three-time Stanley Cup winner, the recipient of the Lady Byng Memorial Trophy twice, and inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2000. His uncle, Brian Mullen, also had an outstanding professional playing career that included an NCAA Championship with the Wisconsin Badgers (1980-81), an NHL All-Star Game selection (1988-89), and 832 games of NHL experience as a member of the Winnipeg Jets, New York Rangers, San Jose Sharks, and New York Islanders.

~Fifteen~

Thanks very much to Patrick Mullen for taking the time to conduct this interview as well as our ol’ pal Max Reinhart for his cameo appearances in it. Fifteen currently is at a stand still until the next wave of interviews can be conducted. Until then, keep tuned because the list of players is almost completed.

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For those that missed out on the festivities of Celebrity Serve at Major Goolsby’s on Monday night I did try my best to live tweet one of my favorite events that goes down: the player shirt auction. All players, who act as various servers on the evening, wear specialty shirts with their name and number on the back with a specialty theme behind the shirt. This year’s theme was Mardi Gras. This year’s top dollar shirt belonged to Cody Bass whose shirt was auctioned off for $2,000.

In short, it was a fantastic night for the Milwaukee Admirals and specifically the Admirals Power Play Foundation thanks to its tremendous fans.

Bass being the top dog for the shirt auction makes a great deal of sense for reasons that will come clear once you listen to today’s interview. He is far more than that guy you see stick up for his teammates and get into a fight on the ice. He’s been every bit the part of a captain for the Admirals this season as an on and off ice leader. When the Admirals last played at home, after a frantic first period, head coach Dean Evason left the locker room for Bass to conduct discussion among the team during the first intermission. If that sounds familiar that’s because Evason would allow current assistant coach, and long time Admirals team captain, Scott Ford do just that all the time when the time called for it to be done.

This season Bass has been able to log 14 games at the NHL level with the Nashville Predators. It was the first time since the 2013-14 season that he had played in the NHL and the most games he had logged in the NHL since the 2011-12 season when he also played 14 games as a member of the Columbus Blue Jackets organization. His season to date for the Admirals has seen him produce 7 points (3 goals, 4 assists) in 32 games while accumulating 14 fighting majors.

~Fifteen~

Thanks so much to Cody Bass for taking the time to do this interview. It might have been one of the most fun interviews I’ve been able to have with a member of the Admirals since coming on-board here at Admirals Roundtable. Really appreciate that. Tomorrow will see yet another edition of Fifteen as Patrick Mullen joins in on the fun as well.

Be sure to keep updated with Admirals Roundtable through social media platform of your choice: follow along Twitter, like us on Facebook, get photo updates on Instagram, and listen along on SoundCloud.