Still no word for a defensive call-up, and the closer we get to the opening face-off in Phoenix tonight, the more likely the Preds will be taking the ice with only six healthy defensemen on the roster.

There are reports that The Cube’s injury isn’t thought to be long term (that’s a relief, because it didn’t look that great), and he may be playing by the end of the week!  So, families of Laakso and Johnson….if you’re reading this….sorry to get your hopes up.

But things change.  We’ll see what the Preds elect to do after tonight.

It sounds like “The Cube” may miss some time after a hit in the game against the Blackhawks Sunday night.  A call-up may be in order prior to the Preds’ next game on Tuesday in Phoenix, unless the Preds like the idea of skating into AZ with just six healthy defensemen.

Two questions….

1.  If you were David Poile, which Admirals defenseman do you think is most deserving of a call-up to the big club?

2.  Who do you think will actually be called up?

Teemu Laakso
Jon Blum
Roman Josi
Brett Palin
Aaron Johnson
Scott Ford

My answers:

Laakso and Laakso.

I don’t think they want to rush Josi, and I think Laakso has been playing better/making less mistakes than Blum lately.

So news doesn’t wait for authors to return from vacation.

While I was at Verizon Center watching the Capitals defeat the Senators, the Preds sent Andreas Thuresson back to Milwaukee, and called up Matt Halischuk.  (Thanks to CreedFeed for the comment in the previous post…)

Not sure how long he’ll be there, but he’ll certainly be missed in Milwaukee if he’s with Nashville for awhile.

Halischuk is in the lineup tonight against the Blackhawks.

Ok!  Ryan Thang!  Start learning to play center!

We’ll probably do just one or two more of these….

So what do you think of these fellas?

Roman Josi

Mark Van Guilder

Matt Halischuk

Steve Begin

Jeremy Smith

If you haven’t weighed on the first two rounds, we’d love to hear what you think.  Leave a comment in those posts, after you speak your mind in this one.

Again….classic A through F scale, and write a sentence or two to back it up.

Jon Blum

Kelsey Wilson

Ryan Thang

Mark “The Proof” Santorelli

Tell us what you REALLY think about these guys…

(classic A through F grading scale)

Andreas Thuresson

Chris Mueller

Brett Palin

Aaron Johnson

Cue up the Smash Mouth, peoples.

We interupt the mid-season grades to pass along good cheer for Mark Dekanich and Linus Klasen.

They’ve been selected to play in the AHL All-Star Game at the end of the month.  It’s an East VS West game this year, and maybe we’ll see a line of Linus Klasen, Linus Omark, and…some other guy….I don’t know…Linus Van Pelt?

Dekanich won’t start, but he’ll play.

Incidentally….that Smash Mouth song was in the movie Mystery Men, which I think is quite the underrated film.

Good day.

So the Admirals have played 40 games.  I don’t think there will be a better time than this to dish out some mid-season grades.

Now, at the other blog….Eric and Sutty and I would do the grading, we’d be snarky, make stupid jokes, and then we’d call it a post.

Over here, I’m going to delegate the grading to you.

We’ll do a few posts like this.  We’ll throw up the names of four players, and you’ll give us a grade and a couple of sentences about what you think of their season so far.

Let’s use the classic A, B, C, D, F scale.  Plusses and minuses are acceptable.

In round 1, here are your contestants….

Mark Dekanich

Gabriel Bourque

Blake Geoffrion

Teemu Laakso

Get out your red pens, and go to town.

(Photo credit:  Chris Jerina)

Forward Jamie Lundmark has left the Milwaukee Admirals.  He has been placed on unconditional waivers, and there have been Internet reports that he has been in contact with a team in Europe.

Head Coach Lane Lambert broke the news during the pre-game show of the Admirals’ radio broadcast, prior to their game Saturday night against the Toronto Marlies.

“(Linus) Klasen is back with us, that should provide us with some offense.  And Jamie Lundmark, who was supposed to provide us with offense this year, and didn’t really….decided to pack it in.  And that’s okay.  We certainly would rather see him do that than give us half an effort or decide that he wanted to do that later on in crunch time.

“Our team has always been about commitment, and commitment to each other, and we don’t want anybody in our locker room who isn’t committed, and committed to their teammates.  That’s fine, we’ll move forward.  Matt Halischuk is going to have to play center for now until we can sort things out with Chris Mueller being up in Nashville, and Steve Begin being hurt.  When it all plays out and when it’s all said and done, I think it’s a good thing for our team because it just gives us a chance to reiterate the level of commitment that you have to have to be able to play on this hockey team.”

Lundmark had 6 goals and 12 assists in 34 games the season, and had recently been having success skating with linemates Matt Halischuk and Ryan Thang.  While he hadn’t scored since December 17th, Lundmark had tallied five assists in his last four games.

I know public opinion on Lundmark varied amongst the Roundtable readers from very positive (SLake) to very negative (Maninthebox).  For awhile, it seemed he was the only guy who would crash the net, knowing he’d get some punishment there, and then cash in on some dirty hard-working goals.

Whenever someone is injured, called up, or departs the team, we have to go with this spin:  this opens the door for a younger guy to step up and be a difference maker.  I’m hopeful somebody will.

Dan Gendur has been recalled to take Lundmark’s place on the roster.