Hat-tip to MiB for pointing me to this…
Want a feel good story to get the taste of Tuesday night’s game out of your mouth? Check out this great article by Jim Diamond, about Chris Mueller’s debut.
Chris’ line: With Nick Spaling and Wade Belak. Later on with Smithson and Ward. Zero shots, -1 defensively, 1-1 on faceoffs, 1 hit. 3:17 of ice time. More than Belak’s 1:54, but next lowest was Spaling’s 11:17.
Looks like Chris Mueller got a slightly post-dated Christmas present from the Nashville Predators. Mueller signed a two-way contract, making him an NHL option for the Predators, who are ravaged by injuries at the current moment.
This appears to be a sign-and-play immediately deal for Mueller, as the forward is expected to make his NHL debut on Tuesday night as the Predators face the Dallas Stars.
Mueller has been nothing short of awesome for Milwaukee in 2010-2011, scoring 12 goals and 20 points. This is a well-deserved promotion for the West Seneca, New York native who was NHL free agent playing on a contract with the Admirals.
Despite the injuries to the Predators you have to wonder what exactly triggered this decision? With Mueller really stepping up his game at the AHL level, interest had to be growing among other NHL clubs.
Did Nashville sign Mueller to prevent him from signing with another NHL club, wanting to keep him within the organization? Or did the Predators sign him, so they could trade him away in the near future? Or did Nashville finally realize what they had in Mueller as a player, and now the organization is ready to mold him into exactly what Barry Trotz wants?
So Roundtable, what do you think?
Have I mentioned lately how awesome Josh Cooper is?
Josh Cooper is the Preds beat writer for the Tennessean. And he provides better coverage in his sleep than John Glennon could fully awake.
Josh brings us these details today.
Linus Klasen is in the house. The Milwaukee sniper was recalled today. The reason? Steve Sullivan (lower-body) and Martin Erat (upper-body) are no-goes for tonight’s game against the Blues. Nashville Coach Barry Trotz said Klasen will most likely slide into Erat’s spot, with Sergei Kostitsyn and Marcel Goc keeping the across-the-pond continuity of the “Euro” line.
Trotz said he hoped Erat would return Tuesday against the Dallas Stars. Sullivan, he was less sure about. Nashville’s leading scorer made the trip to St. Louis, but not to play. Trotz said Sullivan was here to see a doctor.
So it sounds like another cup of coffee for Klasen, but it sounds like it will be short-term. But if he’s able to show some chemistry with those linemates, hopefully he’ll be able to give the coaches a tough decision about sending him back to Milwaukee when Erat is ready to go.
We’ll see how it goes in St. Louis tonight!
Before we get to Part II, I’d like to take this opportunity to wish you the happiest holiday season of your lives. If you’re in to Chirstmas, may it be merry this wonderful day. If you’re in to movies and Chinese food today, may there be a great plot and some hot & sour soup. From all of us at the Roundtable, we wish you all the best, we thank you for your support so far this season, and we thank you for reading and commenting.
Okay! Time for the sequel. Here we go!
On Linus Klasen, and what he needs to do to get some more NHL time:
Poile — I think it’s a little bit of getting used to the North American game. I think it’s also the defensive part of the game…defensive responsibilities. It’s not just all offense, you’ve got to be responsible. The power play is one thing, but most of the game is still played 5-on-5. I’d like to think because of his scoring prowess that we can find a way to give him a chance before not too long.
Poile recognizes the offensive skill, and sounds like he’s hopeful that they’ll be able to make a place for him at some point this season.
He’s more of a mystery to Coach Trotz.
Trotz — He’s a hard guy to gauge, since he does everything with his hands, and he doesn’t really skate and cover a lot of area. He sort of just stands there and makes plays. And that’s very difficult to do in the National Hockey League. Here they have guys they have great hands like Zetterberg and Datsyuk — they’re not standing still when they’re doing that. So it’s going to be very difficult for him to have a lot of success playing a very specific role. And that role would have to be either replacing a JP Dumont or Steve Sullivan or someone like that, who’s really a pure offensive guy, and put a couple responsible guys (with him) and see if we can have some success. I think he’s got a good chance at some point again with us.”
They both end their assessments the same way. I think if Klasen can make some progress with his defensive responsibility, and if the Preds keep mustering only one goal a game (like they have in their last three games), he may find himself back in Music City. But the take-home message is that from a long-term perspective, there needs to be more to his game than just creativity.
On who was impressive in the game against the Wolves on Tuesday:
Trotz: — I’m really happy with our young defense. Laakso, Josi, and Blum. Up front, first time seeing Bourque at this level — I really like him. Chris Mueller, to me is really to come along. Geoffrion still has some holes in his game yet, but he’ll get there. Lane will get that out of him.
I think Blum has had good games and bad games lately, but I think Josi and Laakso have been pretty good. Of course, tough to ignore Mueller’s game these days. Interesting to see him call out Geoffrion like so. Lane’s a great teacher, and it’s nice to see that Trotz has Lane’s back. Geoffrion’s progression will no doubt be one of the keys for the Admirals success as we head into 2011.
And what do the Preds want Santa Claus to bring them today?
Poile: Just want us to be healthy.
Trotz: Some health. We really could use Legwand and Lombardi back on a full time basis.
Ok Roundtable — so what are you hoping Santa will bring the Admirals (or hockey in general) today?
The day before their game against the Chicago Blackhawks this week, Preds GM David Poile, coach Barry Trotz, and other folks from the parent club took in the Admirals game in Rosemont. The aforementioned VIP’s were gracious enough to give me a few minutes of their time during the intermissions of the game, and here are some of the things they had to say. We’ll split it up into two posts…I’ll call this first post…”Part I”. Clever, eh?
On the maturation of Nick Spaling:
David Poile — What he’s really been good at is on the penalty kill and defensively. Our penalty killing was 23rd in the league when he came up and now it’s 6th overall, and he’s a big part of why that has improved. We wish he could produce a bit more offensively.
26 games so far for Spaling with the Preds this year. One goal, and one assist. But he’s getting a ton more ice time than he seemed to last year….no more of this 5:30 per game stuff.
Barry Trotz — Nick has done a really good job. One of the reasons we wanted to send him back to Milwaukee (at the start of the season) was to try and find that offensive sort of touch that he had in juniors a little bit. We’ve just had a lot of injuries especially at the center position with Lombardi and Legwand and that. And our penalty kill wasn’t going very well, and that’s what Nick does – plays center, kills penalties. We called him up and he’s done a real good job. Still looking for a little more offensive from him — he got his first NHL goal…we put him on the power play for a 5-on-3 to get it for him. He’s done a really good job, a detailed guy, and he’s played very well. We were hoping to get him back to Milwaukee, but it hasn’t happened.”
I think when Lombardi is finally ready to go, that may be his ticket back to Milwaukee.
On Mark Dekanich’s callup:
Trotz — He came the first couple practices and he looked really quite good and had a lot of confidence. After a couple of days of practice, guys picked him apart pretty good. That happens — that’s not uncommon. Down here (in the AHL), shooters aren’t quite as quick, aren’t quite as crafty. They started picking him apart, he started losing a little bit of confidence, started cheating, and then they REALLY picked him apart, and that’s not uncommon. He’s very similar to Chris Mason. When he first came up he was like that…he’s a bulldog, he’s got a great spirit, competitiveness, details, athleticism. And that was the first taste of it. He’ll learn from it, and he’ll be much better next time he’s up.”
Loved his assessment about how Dex had been practicing, because that’s a whole side of the game that we’re not privy too in the least bit. For any kind of info about how he had been doing, we pretty much just had to base things on the one game he got in to, and stuff he’d say on his twitter page. And I’m sure he’ll be better next time too.
On Chet Pickard being sent back to the ECHL:
Poile — The idea is that with Dekanich probably playing most of the games here, Pickard will get to play most of the games down there. I think that’ll be a good thing for him. He just needs to play a lot of hockey, get some wins under his belt, get his game back together. It’s another maturing process that we go through with a lot of these young guys.”
It sounds like they haven’t given up hope on Chet yet. We’ll see how he does in Cincy over the next couple of months.
In the next post (which we’ll call “Part II”), GM and Coach weigh in on who impressed them against the Wolves, what they’d like from Santa for Christmas, and their thoughts on the man who has been the center of attention in the comments section of this blog lately — #86, Linus Klasen.
…will be delayed.
Just a quick programming note. I’m going to Rosemont as a fan, so I won’t have my computer with me. I’ll work on a recap when I get back home nort’ of the border.
Maybe see you there?
(By “THERE”, I mean in Rosemont. Not my home. I probably don’t want to see you there.)
Wasn’t there and didn’t listen to the game. But from the people that I’ve talked to, it sounds like it wasn’t that great of a showing.
I’ll let the people who made the trip chime in with their thoughts in the comments section….but to sum up…not a good day for the Nashville organization. Ads lost to the Wolves 5-1, Preds lost to the Kings 6-1, and the Cyclones lost 7-2. So 18-4 is the grand tally.
Turning point in the game? Already down 2-0 in the waning moments of the 2nd period, Blum and Laakso were called for penalties at the same time, and it gave the Wolves a full two minutes with the two-man advantage. They only needed 26 seconds to cash in, scoring at 19:59 of the period. Still on the power play opening the 3rd period, they scored again to make it a 4-0 lead.
Meanwhile in Music City, Mark Dekanich made is NHL debut coming on in relief of Anders Lindback, stopping 22 of 25 shots in a hair under 50 minutes of action. You can check out the game highlights from Dirk’s recap at ontheforecheck.com. Not the best goals he has given up….ok, that’s a weird sentence. Credit the Kings, but I think Dex probably wants one or two of those back.
And then after the game, he was re-assigned to Milwaukee, along with Steve Begin. So I think that will mean the end of Chet Pickard in Milwaukee for a bit, and maybe Dylan Hunter too.
So for those who made the trip to Rosemont….. Was this the worst effort you’ve seen all year? Good thing this wasn’t last last game before the holiday break….
You’ve had your chance to be funny. And now it’s time to select a winner in our latest caption contest.
Honorable Mentions go to:
– Big Red for “Limbo. You’re doing it wrong.” It’s not a bona fide caption contest unless Big Red gets an honorable mention. So there it is.
– Creed Feed for “There’s goes Blake’s shot at getting on ABC’s Skating With The Stars!” It’s funny, but totally piggybacking off of the last winner with the ABC prime time television reference. Can’t give it to ya this time.
And with the help of Mr. Big Shot himself, Eric Kent….. we have selected and are pleased to announce the winner of the delicious media room cookies…..
Even after four years at Wisconsin, Blake Geoffrion still has to be taught how to “Jump Around”.
Mazel tovs to Mark for his caption! Send me a message to admiralsroundtable (at) g(mail) dot com , and we’ll work out the delivery. If you’re coming to tonight’s game, let me know your seat location, and I should be able to get your winnings to you this evening.
As always, thanks to everyone for playing our silly reindeer games.
News out of Nashville is that Steve Begin has been recalled. I fully expected Begin to get the call up to the Music City at some point this season, but what surprised me is that it took this long.
During his time in Milwaukee, Begin got 21 games of AHL seasoning and retooling, chipping in three goals and one assist. Begin started showing signs of shaking off the non-training camp rust before suffering an injury setback.
But this is a well-deserved promotion for a guy who plays hard every night.
In his place the Admirals called up Dylan Hunter from the Cincinnati Cyclones. Hunter bears a striking resemblance to former NHL-er Dale Hunter, one of the toughest guys ever to play the game. Of course Dylan is Dale’s son. Considering the Admirals are losing Begin, there doesn’t seem to be a more perfect player to take his place.
Mark Van Guilder is also close to returning the Admirals. He may be back in the lineup as soon as Tuesday night in Chicago.
So, Roundtable, what are your expectations for Begin in the NHL? Will he fit right in with Nashville, or will this not work out? Do you like the addition of Hunter, who played nine games in Milwaukee last season?
So, I’m just minding my own business…reading some of the headlines and news stories at theahl.com ….. And then I see this:
The AHL also announced that Chicago Wolves right wing Darren Haydar has been suspended for three (3) games as a result of his actions in a game at Abbotsford on Dec. 11.
Haydar was assessed a game misconduct under AHL Rule 40.4 for physical abuse of an official (Category III), resulting in an automatic three-game suspension.
Haydar will miss Chicago’s games tonight (Dec. 15) and Friday (Dec. 17) at Rockford and Saturday (Dec. 18) vs. Milwaukee.
Haydar? Suspended? 3 games? What the hell happened? That’s not like him. Maybe all that time being a Chicago Wolf is rubbing off on him?
I haven’t seen the play yet, but in reading several sources (including the Wolfkeeper.org message boards), here’s how it seems to have happened.
The story starts in a familiar way, with Haydar questioning why referee David Banfield (who is an AWFUL referee) didn’t call a penalty on one of the Abbotsford Heat players after Haydar was taken down. Nothing surprising so far. Haydar does that all the time.
Banfield then gave him two minutes for unsportsmanlike conduct. Then a misconduct for abuse of officials. The linesman escorting him off the ice was apparently being a bit aggressive in his driving. And Haydar gave a push back. That’s definitely a no-no. And that’s where the game misconduct and suspension came from.
We’ve seen linesmen get a little extra fresh with players before. Do you think they should have their actions reviewed by the league too? Where is line drawn where officials can abuse players?
I’ll see if I can find the video somewhere on the internet, and share it with the class….
Admirals Roundtable 