(photo credit:  Scott Paulus)

Welcome home indeed.

After a rollercoaster of a ten game road trip, the Admirals played their first home game in almost a month on Wednesday night.  They spoiled the return of Claude Noel and Jonas Andersson to the tune of a 6-3 victory.

After the long power play drought on the road trip, this marked the second game in a row with a power play goal.  3:18 into the game, Jamie Lundmark got the goal just in front of the goalie, but Andreas Thuresson and Kelsey Wilson deserve a ton of credit as well.  After an offensive zone dump-in, Wilson won the chase to recover the puck.  He found Thuresson by the right goalpost, who backhanded a perfect pass to Lundmark by the left goalpost.

Coach Lambert liked the way they came out at the start of the game.

47 seconds into the second period, Gabriel Bourque took a long feed from Jon Blum, and cashed on a beautiful breakaway goal.  He picked up the pass right at the offensive blue line, deked just in front of the crease, and beat Tyler Weiman with a backhand up top.

And then in a 3:06 minute span, both teams scored twice.  Chris Mueller scored his ninth of the year on a great second effort, after his first shot was saved by Weiman’s right pad. Mueller took a couple wacks at the small rebound, and was about to give the Admirals the three goal lead.

That lasted for 19 seconds.  Former Admiral Jonas Andersson (pronounced Joe-nus these days, apparently) deked Ryan Thang out of his skates, and had way too much space to operate on a delayed penalty call.  His shot beat Dex low.

Jordan Schroeder scored 1:18 later on a goal that I think Dex wants back.  Might have been re-directed en route, but it looked like he had a tough time picking it up.

Linus Klasen finished a rush with Chris Mueller to give the Ads their two goal lead back.  It was a great hustle play to get behind some out-of-place defensemen, and it’s great to see Klasen score his second in as many games.

In the 3rd period, the Moose found some of their legs, and outshot Milwaukee 12-3 in the final frame.  They scored a power play goal at the 9:56 mark on a play that would never have happened if the Admirals defender had been able to clear the puck out of the zone.  Instead, the puck was kept in at the point, and Evan Oberg’s shot found the top left corner of the net, past a screened Mark Dekanich.

Mueller got his second of the game, scoring into an empty net.  And then Mike Bartlett beat Weiman on a shot that he didn’t seem too interested in stopping with 21 seconds left.

NOTES:

– Steve Begin was a late scratch with an upper-body injury.

– What else does Chris Mueller need to do to get an NHL contract already?  Here’s Coach Lambert on his hottest forward right now.

– Sooooooo while we were getting ready to come to the game today, we found out about the Admirals signing center Andrew Lord to a PTO contract.  Lord had been playing with Wheeling of the ECHL, and he made his debut tonight.  And Dan Gendur made his home debut.  Here’s coach Lambert on the new guys.

– Admirals were outshot again, this time by a 30-20 tab.  Getting those numbers flipped around is something that coach Lambert says the team needs to work on.

– Our friend “Sutty” was back in press row tonight, and he gives us this great description of the Ford/Maxwell fight.  Enjoy.

“About 2 minutes later Ford and Maxwell (not the pig from the Geico commercials going wee wee wee all the way home) got into a fight. Well, they were mostly standing around and they looked to be running their fingers through each other’s hair. But all in all it was called a fight and they both went to the bin for said infraction.”

Welcome back, Sutty.  You paint a picture like none other.

OK ROUNDTABLE!  Here are some items for discussion:

1.  You may or may not have read/heard that Klasen got called out by coach Lambert recently.  Seeing him tonight, do you think Klasen played with more detail than he has been?

2. Who had the better deke — Bourque or Andersson?

3. Give me a haiku about Chris Mueller.

4.  Simply put — did you like the way they looked?  I think it was a pretty good effort considering how shorthanded the team is right now.  What do you think?

5.  Do you have a favorite Claude Noel moment?

(Photo Credit:  Scott Paulus)

After setting the league on fire in October, Linus Klasen’s production has settled down a bit.  On this roadtrip, he has only produced one goal and one assist.  And on Friday night, Klasen found himself as a healthy scratch against the Texas Stars.

This may come as a surprise to many, that a team would bench their leading scorer.  But there’s a lot more to the story.

In Lane Lambert’s pre-game interview with Aaron Sims, which will be broadcast before the game against the Houston Aeros tonight on Sportsradio1250 WSSP, Coach talks about a lot of things….Faceoffs, Steve Begin, Dan Gendur, penalty killing, Houston scouting report….oh, and what’s up with Klasen.

Here’s a clip from the interview.

“Well he’s got to raise his compete level.  He’s got to be a lot more detailed.  It’s not pond hockey here; we’re playing under a team system and a team structure.  He’s a terrific individual skilled player, and we need him.  We need him to be on our team and we need him to be playing well.  And he’s going to score for us yes, but at the end of the day, Linus has been more of a liability lately on the ice turning pucks over and in the defensive zone, than he has been putting up any numbers.  At some point in time when we’re asking our team to be detailed and be committed, the players or player that isn’t has to sit and watch and get on board.  And that’s what happened to him last night.

This sounds like it could be Peter Olvecky part two, here.  I hope not….because we all know how that ended….and it wasn’t well.

No word yet on whether or not he’ll be scratched again tonight in Houston.

I’ll go on record saying that I support Lane’s decision 100%.  There’s no room for players in such a structured system at this level to just do their own thing.  The question now is going to be how will Linus respond on the ice and at practice.

Again, catch the full interview in the pre-game show of tonight’s broadcast on Sportsradio 1250 WSSP.

(Photo credit:  Scott Paulus)

This concept was brought up in the comments section of another post, but I think it would be worth an entire post.

A Preds blogger had mentioned that it might be good for the Preds to swap out Wilson and Nick Spaling for Steve Begin and Jamie Lundmark.

I’ve presented the scenerio to some of the folks over at Ontheforecheck.com, and I’ll cherry pick some of their thoughts throughout this post.

Colin Wilson has two goals and four assists on the season so far, playing in  20 games.  Obviously, expectations were higher for Wilson this year and one could look at that stat line and suggest that maybe he’s not ready yet.  Seth Lake offers this summation of Wilson’s season so far.

“My thought was (and still largely is) that Wilson has been the most displaced player on the roster this season due to the injuries that have plagued our lineup.  In the season opener he was on the wing with Lombardi at center and Erat on the wing.  Within two games both of his linemates were out of the lineup with injuries and Wilson started to get shuffled as the other lines simply moved up and he slid backward.  After Goc was injured, Wilson got switched to center where he was very inconsistent, then when Goc returned he was again moved back to wing until Legwand went down and he was yo-yo’d back and forth from shift to shift as Trotz tried to find some chemistry.”

In the last 12 games, Wilson has just one assist…November 3rd at Phoenix.

Now, last season, Wilson had two goals and two assists before a groin injury sidelined him after a Halloween game.  Less than a month later, Wilson was sent to Milwaukee on an extended conditioning assignment.  40 games later, Wilson was almost a point per game, and was starting to play with the confidence that you’d expect from such an elite prospect.  We watched the change right in front of us.  He had points in 11 of his last 12 games in Milwaukee, and knew it was only a matter of time before he’d be recalled.

Would it be beneficial for his development to spend some more time in Milwaukee, getting minutes on a top line?

Seth thinks so.

“It’s a long term development and asset management issue more than anything else for me right now.  I think Wilson’s not being as effective as he can be at the NHL level with limited minutes and not really having any consistency in his role from game to game and needs to get back to playing bigger minutes as a top-six forward to avoid stunting his development.

“Is it realistic to expect the Predators to make these moves?  Probably not, but to me…I don’t see a real reason not to right now.”

Chris Burton, from OTF has a similar take.

“I think that the idea of swapping these players out is a good one, but unrealistic. Spaling will be sent down eventually, when Lombardi returns, but I don’t think Wilson goes anywhere. Would it help his game to center Klasen and Thuresson, or whoever? Most likely. The Predators are struggling right now, and so is Wilson – but Trotz isn’t putting him in a position to succeed. Nine minutes a game is NOT giving him the best opportunity. Maybe he’s not showing Trotz what he needs to see, but its impossible to do so alongside Spaling and Kostitsyn. Wilson is very much a top six forward.  At any rate, I’d say there’s an outside possibility Wilson is demoted for Lundmark. Jamie would provide hustle and a “Swiss Army Knife” type ability, but in the end, nothing’s gonna happen.”

So Roundtable, what do you think?  Obviously, from the Admirals perspective, we could use any kind of offensive jump-start possible right now.  But from the Preds perspective, and from the perspective of Wilson’s long-term development, do you think this move would be beneficial or realistic?

The last time the Admirals played in Milwaukee, it was a feel-good 4-1 drubbing of the Chicago Wolves.  The Ads scored twice on the power-play, and outside of the Blake Geoffrion hit that has knocked him out of action, it was a great send off for the team as they embarked on this 10-game road trip.

The Admirals have not scored on the power play since.  That’s zero  for 24 with the man-advantage in seven games on this road trip.

Meanwhile, on Tuesday night, the Oklahoma City Barons scored three power play goals of their own, en route to a 4-1 victory over the Admirals.

The first goal came after a 5×3 power play expired, with Kelsey Wilson still in the box serving a hooking penalty.  Credit to the PK unit for killing off the 5×3, especially since one of the Admirals skaters was playing without a stick.  That unit was out there a long time with the Admirals unable to clear the zone.  And while Mark Dekanich made a spectacular save on Linus Omark’s first shot, Omark was able to score on the follow-up.

Colin McDonald deflected a Taylor Chorney pass in the 2nd period for a power play goal while Linus Klasen served a high-sticking penalty that was called behind the play.

Liam Reddox scored an even strength breakaway goal for the Barons after Mark Santorelli giftwrapped it for him in the neutral zone.  Made it a 3-0 lead 54 seconds into the 3rd period.  A backbreaker.

Linus Omark scored his second power play marker of the game later in the 3rd period just after another 5×3 power play finished up.  Mark Santorelli had just come back on the ice when Omark’s backhand shot lifted the puck over Dex’s pads.

Chris Mueller answered back, finishing a 2-on-1 rush with his 7th goal of the year 50 seconds later.   Santorelli got his first assist of the year on the goal.

Memo to the rest of the team — whatever Chris Mueller is eating for breakfast on this roadtrip, make it your business to do the same.  Whatever music he’s listening to to get ready for the game, make it your business to learn the words.  Outside of Mark Dekanich, Chris Mueller has been the MVP of this road trip.

———

NOTES:

– Linus Klasen was able to play after leaving Sunday evening’s game.  Blake Geoffrion is still out.

– Dan Gendur did not make his Admiral debut.

– Seven games into the ten game road trip, the Admirals have outshot their opponent just once — the 4-0 win over Lake Erie.

– In these two games against OKC, the Admirals gave up 5 power play goals on 12 chances.

-QUESTION FOR DISCUSSION:

Hopefully you aren’t hitting the panic button just yet…..but in light of this southern swing, what are you concerned about the most with the way this team is playing?

The Admirals continue their southern trip tonight with a rematch against the Oklahoma City Barons.  And they’ve also made a roster move, recalling Dan Gendur from Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees of the CHL.

Gendur….Gendur….Gendur….where have we heard that name before?

He was the throw-in player in the deal that brought defenseman Shane O’Brien to Nashville, and sent Jonas Anderson and Ryan Parent to the Vancouver organization. 

In ten games, Gendur has two goals and six assists.

If he dresses tonight, he’ll be wearing #15.

UPDATE:

Klasen is questionable for tonight.  He’s practicing, but we’ll see how he feels.  Blake is out for tonight.  Mueller should be good to go.

This post is going to be link-tastic!

– Aaron Sims shares an anecdote about what life is like travelling in the AHL.  There were some bumps in the road last week as the Admirals were travelling from Grand Rapids to Cleveland.  It’s a great story.  And as a wise girl once said, “there is no aspect, no facet, no moment of life that can’t be improved with pizza.”

– Chet Pickard got his first win in….. awhile…. earlier this week.  I think that giving an interview to Josh Cooper of the Tennessean was what sparked it.  It’s a very good read, and it finds Chet reflecting a lot on what the last 9 months have been like.  You can also download an mp3 of a radio interview that goaltending coach Mitch Korn gave, and he addresses Chet’s growth a bit.

– So the Admirals are going to play 1st place San Antonio on Friday.  (wait…is that right?  Let me check my notes here….yep….1ST PLACE SAN ANTONIO).   They have the most points in the whole league right now….partly credited to the fact that they’ve played more games than almost every other team, but partly credited to the fact that they are winning.  They’ve got a six game winning streak already this season, and are currently riding a five game winning streak.  Pretty nice.  They’ve also played 12 of their 18 games at home, winning 9 of those games.  Also doesn’t hurt that their #1 goalie has a GAA under 2.

Former Admirals?  Yeah, some.  Nolan Yonkman is probably the first one that comes to mind, but he just recently got called up to the ‘Yotes.  Here is an article with some quotes from our ex-captain.  So he might not be around on Friday.  But Jed Ortmeyer should be.  As should Bracken Kearns, and Matt Beaudoin — who incidentally is their leading scorer right now.  And Admirals nemesis Tim Stapleton is holding his own down there too.

– I think Bruce Bochy was robbed.

–  Anyone notice who is leading the Predators in points so far this season?

– And finally, Hockey’s Future ranks the Predators as having the best organization in terms of prospects.  Check out their most recent writeup, and I’d be interested to know where you think they have missed the mark.