When it comes to fan giveaways and promotions – nothing is better in my book than the bobblehead. This season the Milwaukee Admirals will feature two bobblehead giveaways. We’ll see a combination of past and present with the two fan giveaways. Vern Fiddler and Magnus Hellberg.
Friday, February, 28th – Vern Fiddler Calder Cup Bobblehead Day
This Friday the first 5,000 fans in attendance will be receiving the Vern Fiddler bobblehead -complete with the Calder Cup and the Calder Cup Champions hat. This being the 10 year anniversary of when the 2003-04 Milwaukee Admirals won the Calder Cup over the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins – it is brilliant to see a throwback to that team and its Calder Cup victory celebration.
Friday, March 28th – Magnus Hellberg Bobblehead Day
It was exactly around this time last season when Magnus Hellberg truly burst onto the scene for the Milwaukee Admirals. He wracked up AHL honors along the way and helped guide the Admirals into the last and final playoff spot on the final day of the season: starting all games of a three-in-three, winning all games of the three-in-three, and recording back-to-back shutouts to end the season. Now, he gets his own bobblehead! Next month the first 5,000 fans will receive their very own Magnus Hellberg bobblehead. He’ll be in the team’s all black away uniform and will come with a goalie stick (not pictured).
Now, it doesn’t take a rocket surgeon to figure out that there is an issue with the Magnus Hellberg bobblehead. Catch it? Yep, he has the glove on the wrong hand. Fear not! This was an early prototype that was sent back to the Milwaukee Admirals front office in advance of serious mass production of the bobblehead giveaway. The glove will be on the right left hand come Magnus Hellberg bobblehead day. Though, if you did get an error bobble, that could be kind of fun right?
What do you think of this year’s bobbleheads? How do they look? Will you be picking both up? Who would you most like to see, past or present, made into bobblehead form next?
“SOON,” says the on again off again Pekka Watch news cycle.
With my day out at the Admirals locker room in hand – I figured it’d be nice to follow up on Jason’s story yesterday regarding the possibility of Pekka Rinne making a return to Milwaukee under rehab conditions.
I’m working on a feature story on Scott Darling at the moment. Being on site, I decided to ask him and Admirals head coach Dean Evason questions regarding Pekka Watch 2014.
“It’s a daily thing with him to see where he’s at. I think there is a possibility that he comes to us at some point to get his game back once he is cleared to play. But, having said that, day-to-day – we don’t know how he practiced today, we don’t know how he is going to practice tomorrow. We’ll just wait and see when that happens, or if that happens, we’ll make our decisions from there.” Dean Evason
AUDIO, Dean Evason on Pekka Rinne in Milwaukee:
“I don’t hear anymore than you guys. Every day I am waiting to show up at the rink and have another goalie here. I’ve been playing pro for four-years this is, I think, my fourteenth pro team. So it’s like I expect everything to happen. Plan for the best. Prepare for the worst. And just see what happens.” Scott Darling
AUDIO, Scott Darling on the day-to-day life of being in goal for the Admirals:
“I’d like to think [Pekka Rinne] would be my backup but, no, I’m just kidding. He’d play. And I don’t know what they would do in that situation. I don’t know if they just healthy [scratch] us or some of us go to Cincinnati. I don’t know what happens, but we’ll cross that bridge when we get there. I would love to back him up a game. It’d be cool to be goalie partners with Pekka Rinne. But we’ll see what happens when the time comes, if it comes.” Scott Darling
AUDIO, Scott Darling on the possibility of Pekka Rinne rehabbing with the Admirals:
The operative term, as has been the case with this story for months now, is wait and see. I certainly feel like the Admirals would be prepared for the move should it happen. The fact that it would be a stint of two-weeks under rehab conditions, and he probably wouldn’t be down for the full extend of the 14 days allotted in rehab conditions, makes it even easier to shuffle bodies around for a short while.
If it were to happen under the current state of the team I feel like Darling probably would be the man sent down to the Cincinnati Cyclones of the ECHL to allow him to start games in net – while Marek Mazanec pairs up with Rinne as an understudy for his brief time down in Milwaukee. Just as Darling said though: we’ll cross that bridge when we get there.
How do you feel the Predators should handle Pekka Rinne’s return? Would a rehab stint in Milwaukee make the most sense or could he find himself right back in the mix in Nashville? If an AHL rehab stint is in the agenda, who is the more likely candidate to be sent down to the ECHL during that time – Darling or Mazanec?
Now we’ll need Hannu player to create awesome puns. (Photo Credit: Andy Morrison)
Today I had the chance to swing by the Admirals locker room to talk with the team. In talking with head coach Dean Evason today I learned that Hannu Toivonen has officially been released from his PTO contract.
The news comes with the additional news that Marek Mazanec is officially fit and able to return as soon as tomorrow – should the team decide to start him over Scott Darling. With Mazanec and Darling healthy – Toivonen was the odd man out. He had played in 4 games with the Admirals, sported a 2.50 GAA, and a 0.909 SV%. He was also the man in net for the Ads when they last recorded a win: 3-2 (OT) @ Chicago on Feb. 15th.
With Darling and Mazanec now the Admirals battery in net – who should start the majority of games? Should one start more than the other or would an even distribution of games suit both goalies and the team well moving forward?
Pekka Rinne last played with the Milwaukee Admirals in the 2008 Calder Cup playoffs against the Chicago Wolves on April 26, 2008.
With Pekka Rinne now practicing in Nashville, the next logical step for the Finnish goaltender in his recovery process will be to get into game action. Though it is possible that Rinne might jump right into the lineup for Nashville when he’s ready, another possibility, discussed recently by Lavender, is that 31-year-old might play some trial games in Milwaukee to shake off the rust and see how he feels.
“The next step is playing games, and hopefully that is really soon here.”
The article also states that:
The Predators, who return from the Olympic break hosting Tampa Bay on Thursday, could have Rinne play some games soon in Milwaukee with their American Hockey League affiliate.
Earlier today John Glennon of the Tennessean also stated that a short stint in Milwaukee would make sense for Rinne:
It would seem logical that Rinne would spend some time in Milwaukee of the American Hockey League before playing for the Predators, but that’s not a certainty. The Predators return to action on Thursday, but Trotz said Rinne would not play in that game.
Glennon also quoted Rinne, who seems optomistic that he’ll be cleared at some point this week to return to game action:
“I feel like it’s coming. I’m not too nervous anymore. I feel really optimistic about it that I’m going to get the go-ahead this week at some point and that’s all I care about. In practice, we’ve done everything we possibly can to kind of simulate game action and whatever situations you might face. The next step is playing games. Hopefully that’s really soon here.”
Rinne is set to meet with Nashville coach Barry Trotz later today to decide how to move forward. Yesterday Rinne was quoted in the Tennessean, stating that in today’s practice that he was hoping to work on shootouts and breakaways:
“I need to get back on that because with this last stretch of games, there’s going to be games that come down to that,” he said. “I need to be comfortable with (shootouts) again. But the next step after that is playing games. If everything goes well here, I might be going to Milwaukee for a few games, but that’s still up in the air.”
In case Nashville does send Rinne down for conditioning, here’s a little information on what that could entail, courtesy of On the Forecheck’s Dirk Hoag last spring. Hoag wrote about the process last year when Nashville sent Brian McGrattan, Matt Halischuk and Craig Smith down to Milwaukee on seperate conditioning assignments.
NHL Conditioning Assignment Rules (via Hoag):
13.8 Conditioning Loan. Unless a Player consents, he shall not be Loaned on a Conditioning Loan to a minor league club. Such Conditioning Loan shall not extend for more than fourteen (14) consecutive days. The Commissioner may take whatever steps he deems necessary to investigate the circumstances under which a Player is Loaned on a Conditioning Loan. If the Commissioner has reason to believe or determines that the Club has used the Conditioning Loan to evade the Re-Entry Waivers, or otherwise Circumvent any provision of this Agreement, he may take such disciplinary action against the Club, as he deems appropriate. The Player shall continue, during the period of such Conditioning Loan, to receive the same Paragraph 1 NHL Salary, and be entitled to the same benefits, that he would have received had he continued to play with the Club.
So Roundtable, do you have your fingers crossed waiting on today’s meeting? Are you preparing to break out your Rinne jersey one more time?
Simon Moser, come on down! (Photo Credit: Scott Paulus)
With the NHL schedule set to resume very soon – now is the time for moving and shaking to take place. For the Nashville Predators it starts with the recall of Simon Moser this afternoon.
This will be Moser’s second stint with the Predators in the NHL. He was recalled just prior to his time with Team Switzerland in the Olympics. With the Preds he played in 3 games and was able to record his first career NHL point, an assist, against the Anaheim Ducks.
With the Admirals this season he has suited up for 42 games, produced 25 points (8 goals, 17 assists), has a plus/minus of +1, and 8 penalty minutes. He is among only three other forwards on the team to have a positive plus/minus: Zach Budish (+5), Joonas Rask (+5), and Filip Forsberg (+2).
As I made mention after Team Switzerland’s defeat in the Olympics – I feel Moser’s next big step is to continue the form that he displayed in the Olympics against top level talent. He was really fun to watch play on both sides of the puck in Sochi. I believe his work rate for the Swiss was highly deserving of this recall. Now it’s just on him to continue delivering at the NHL level.
Thoughts on the move? Should Nashville have considered a different winger or was Moser the obvious choice? Should we expect to not see Moser for awhile?
The Roundtable has enjoyed Roscoe levels of fun over the years. This is thanks to silly writers such as us being fans like you! (Photo Credit: Scott Paulus)
Today we take the focus ever so slightly away from the Milwaukee Admirals to something different. With this post, the Roundtable has officially reached 1,000 posts over the course of four seasons of Admirals hockey.
It all starts with Ryan Miller and his brilliant work that has established the Admirals Roundtable name, smarts, and fun! His work created this great environment for fans of the Admirals to come in, banter, banter some more, and act like the kids we all know and love that we are. Cheers Ryan!
The next “Cheers” goes out to all of our readers, frequent folks in the comments section, and our Twitter followers that chirp in during games. A website like this doesn’t last without such great readership and people who enjoy adding to the conversation. I feel at the Roundtable we’re incredibly blessed to have such a wide range of fans who all add to the different flavors of the Roundtable. Whether you’re reading right at home here in Wisconsin, in Nashville looking towards the future, in Canada, Finland, Sweden, Switzerland, or more – we can’t thank you all enough! It’s such a blast having an international audience who loves this international game as much as us. Cheers to all of you for making this such a fun place to write for.
It’s not even been a full-season for myself at the helm of the Roundtable but I can already say I love everything about this. I greatly enjoy interacting with you Admirals fans, seeing and chatting with you at games, or bantering online. It has been phenomenal to be a part of something like this and I only hope we continue delivering you readers with news, wit, and great access to your Milwaukee Admirals. Let the good times continue, peoples! Cheers again for all of your fantastic and continued support of the Roundtable.
Our Olympian Simon Moser made some memories he’ll remember forever – starting right here with his last second game-winning goal against Latvia in Switzerland’s opening game of the tournament.
The Olympics wrapped up today with Team Canada shutting out Sweden for the Gold. Finland put a hurting down on Team USA for the bronze yesterday – rounding out the medal podium.
Once again, it was a fantastic Olympics for hockey. There were great performances from NHL’s top stars. We saw a total of 49 former AHL players earn themselves medals. It was another great show for the game of hockey.
I feel like we were all cheering on our nations but also our players. This go-round, it was really special to have a player like Simon Moser to root for – having spent the majority of his season to date as a member of the Milwaukee Admirals. He, and Team Switzerland for that matter, may not have been an offensively explosive team as some were in the Olympics – but Moser really played brilliantly in the tournament. His highlight came with his game-winning goal in the opening game for the Swiss against Latvia. Even beyond that, the way that he played throughout was great – and, when the NHL season resumes, I do feel as if he has earned his way into Nashville’s roster for his efforts in Sochi.
Other solid performances from Admiral alumni included Shea Weber, Roman Josi, and Antti Pihlstrom. Weber earned a gold medal with Canada – and he was his usual beastly self from game one. Josi chewed up the minutes for the Switzerland defense – and was great playing both ways for the Swiss – especially for a Swiss defense that was fantastic. Pihlstrom played a great tournament for a Finnish side that perhaps surprised some teams for how complete they were despite some missing names in the mix.
Whenever the Olympics go away, I’m sad that we don’t get more of these major international tournaments with this level of talent. It is such a great watch. The passion from the players to represent their country and succeed makes the games absolutely thrilling -USA against Russia anyone? And, while World Juniors gives us a slice of the fun, seeing the big dogs play alongside one-another and against one-another – is hard to really top.
See you in four-years, Pyeongchang Games!
Did you guess the medalists? What was your favorite moment of the Sochi Games? Who stood out to you as the tournament’s best player?
Miikka Salomaki is a bull. The Abbotsford Heat wear red. Explosions! (Photo Credit: Scott Paulus)
The Admirals start a highly competitive three-in-three weekend with the top team in the Western Conference the Abbotsford Heat. This will be the fourth and final meeting between the two teams in the regular season. With road games against the Rockford IceHogs and Grand Rapids Griffins looming in the days to follow – this is a big first step to a weekend where the Ads should start looking to right the ship after a few off-games.
First and foremost let’s talk Admirals. Entering tonight’s game they are now trailing the Rockford IceHogs in the Midwest Division and Western Conference by 2 points – sporting an overall record of 23-16-6-5 (57 points). In fact, with a win on Wednesday, the Rochester Americans bumped the Ads down to eighth place in Conference. Yep, that’s the bubble spot. What we then have tonight is a very possible playoff scenario, first seed versus the eighth seed, Heat against the Admirals.
The Ads have been a bit hot and cold the past few games and are on a run of 3-4-1-2 (9 points) from their last ten games. The offense has been very erratic. The goaltending has also been a bit hit and miss as well. After a solid week of practice – we’ll get a look tonight to see just what kind of response the team will have after some flat performances. They will also have a fresh goaltending duo in the form of Scott Darling and Hannu Toivonen. Darling provided the Admirals with AHL award winning work in December. It’s going to be great to see him back in net and, hopefully, continue where he left off before his lower-body injury nearly a month ago.
For those who happened to miss the news yesterday, Marek Mazanec picked up a slight injury during team practice on Wednesday. As I said – slight injury. Dean Evason said he sees this as a short term injury. Mazanec should miss the weekend games and be re-evaluated on Monday before the team makes a decision ahead of their Wednesday game against the Griffins.
One thing that I didn’t make too public yesterday, outside of a tweet on the Roundtable Twitters, was that Joonas Rask practiced with the team. He was in full-gear and leading the group on the way back to the locker room. I talked with him briefly and he seems his ol’ self. I’m not certain he could factor into the weekend – but I certainly wasn’t expecting to see him back and practicing with the team as quickly as he did.
Our enemy tonight, the Abbotsford Heat, are a perfect storm of party crashers for tonight’s Cheap Trick concert game. They are the best team in the Western Conference: 32-15-4-1 (69 points). They have gone 6-1-3-0 (15 points) from their last ten games and are on a two-game point streak. The Admirals started off the season against them and also had a previous meeting against the Heat in Milwaukee in November:
If the big concert crowd is looking for a show – they might be in for some extra hockey. The previous three-games spilled beyond regulation. Sadly, that is a major sore spot for the Admirals. As far as the entire AHL is concerned – only the San Antonio Rampage have played as many overtime games, 17, as the Admirals. In overtime, the Ads are tied with the Iowa Wild with a league-high 6 overtime losses. The Ads also have 6 losses from a shootout and, for those wondering, their skaters have yet to score in the shootout from 10-consecutive shootout attempts. The last time the Admirals have scored in a shootout came three shootouts ago when Simon Moser beat Richard Bachman. While every point is nice, even against the best in the West, overtime is the Ads kryptonite this season. It’d be fantastic to not go past sixty-minutes.
The Heat are loaded with scorers. They have three players on the team who have 40-or-more points: Markus Granlund, Ben Street, and Max Reinhart. They also have three others who are in the 30-or-more points range: Corban Knight, Chad Billins, and Corey Locke. Perspective, the Admirals top scorers are in the 30-point range: Miikka Salomaki, Colton Sissons, and Taylor Beck. It makes sense that a team like the Heat has scorers and is out in front in the West. You have to have some sort of firepower to be playing a team like the Texas Stars and be ahead of them in the standings! The Ads defense will need to have a highly detailed game if it means beating the Heat. Either that or Darling or Toivonen will need to play out of their mind.
In net the Heat have Joni Ortio who has been really good for the team this season. Only two other goalies in the entire AHL, Jake Allen (22) and Drew MacIntyre (22), have more wins than Ortio (20). He has a 2.22 GAA, 0.926 SV%, and has 2 shutouts. He played against the Admirals the last time these two team met back in November: making 37 saves, allowed 3 goals, and earned the overtime win. How did they put the pucks past him? See for yourself and hope they get that and a bit more tonight.
What are your expectations for tonight’s game against the Abbotsford Heat? What does the team need to do to beat the best in the West? If they’re able to take a regulation win tonight – how well does that set them up for the rest of the weekend?
Vinny Saponari. A Toe-Dragging Expert. (Photo Credit: Scott Paulus)
During last week’s AHL All Star break I took the time to highlight two players I considered to be the Admirals’ Underrated All Stars. I picked Zach Budish and Joonas Jarvinen because I feel their work can sometimes be lost in all the focus on the scoring aspects of the game. Perhaps then, as a few pointed out, I overlooked Vinny Saponari in the mix for such a title. It wasn’t that I missed him or anything. Far from it actually. I feel what Saponari has been doing this season as a member of the Admirals pushes him beyond underrated and into a certain spotlight that he has earned for his hard work.
Saponari was one of the last cuts in Milwaukee’s pre-season camp. His season started off with one month of games in the ECHL with the Cincinnati Cyclones. He played 14 games, scored 11 points (1 goal, 10 assists), had 25 shots on goal, 4 penalty minutes, and a plus/minus of +3. He had done enough to get that next chance with the Admirals. From the time that he was called up to right now – he’s never felt out of place on the ice despite getting himself in different line combos and earning time on the power-play.
To me, he took Joshua Shalla‘s place on the team when he was called up – and he has solidly kept it. He started off on those lower-end lines but quickly found himself getting paired with Austin Watson and Mark Van Guilder on a consistent basis. The thing that I like about Saponari’s game the most is that, where ever he gets plugged in, he seems to maintain his game very well. He forechecks well. He skates and stickhandles really good. He’s already scored a few dandies when it comes to toe-dragging and letting rip. He’s crafty with that when he has to be but he doesn’t often work his way into trouble. When he does – it does make for a terrific photo … herp derp.
Since he recall to Milwaukee, Saponari has suited up for 33 games, produced 17 points (9 goals, 8 assists), scored 4 power-play goals, plus/minus -2, and gone to the penalty box for 10 minutes. While the month of January was brutal for many Admirals – he really did so well: 5 goals, 2 assists, and generated 22 shots on goal in 13 January games.
I suppose what I want to really say with all of this is that Saponari isn’t really someone I’d classify as an underrated player. You look at his numbers from just prior to this season (here’s his Hockey DB profile again) and you see a player who has always been pretty reliable and responsible when it comes to his game. 24-years old, longest stint he’s played at the highest professional level of hockey that he’s played in… he’s doing superbly.
If there was any true quality about Vinny Saponari that I would classify as underrated it is that he is one of the few Admirals players where I know what I’m going to see from him time-and-time-again. He’s going to skate hard, create, and be smart on defense. I never go to the rink thinking about him in the way that I do with a, say, Bryan Rodney wondering if we’re getting a 2 assists game or a 2 assists for the other team game. Saponari can score a flashy goal here and there. But it’s the smoothness about his game away from those toe-drags that has done him very well so far this season. Make no mistake about it. He has earned every second of ice time he has been logging with the Admirals. And it has often been time well spent.
How have you felt about Vinny Saponari’s season? What can you see from him going forward? This is really his best AHL experience to date – so should we expect more and more in his development or is this just about what we should expect?
Pekka Rinne was under the impression we didn’t have enough goaltending news lately so he did something today.
Welcome to the latest and greatest post on the newly renamed Goaltenders Roundtable (I know, I know.). The latest news out of Nashville camp is that Pekka Rinne returned to team practice for the first time since late October. About two weeks ago we had discussed the news of Rinne returning to the ice in full-gear. That was about a fifteen-minute skate around more than anything. Today, he actually participated in a proper team practice.
“It feels great to be on the ice with the boys, just taking shots,” said Pekka Rinne. “It’s been a long time. So it feels great.”
“I don’t want to come back and be 80 percent or anything like that. I want to be strong,” Rinne said. “I want to be able to help this team. As of right now, I feel great and I’m just super-excited and can’t wait to get back between the pipes.”
“You have to listen to the doctors and listen to your own body,” Rinne said. “It’s been a tough go at times but now I’m enjoying this, being back on the ice and feeling good. There’s not really a set timetable. I’m sure each day you kind of feel how it goes and how it reacts.”
As far as this news goes – it’s a nice sign for the Predators and Pekka Rinne that he has taken another step forward in his recovery process. This does act as another interesting aspect to what happened today though in the world of the Milwaukee Admirals.
When I heard of today’s news for Toivonen I assumed another body went down or a trade is in the works. If Mazanec is healthy and Rinne is close to returning… what do you think that means could happen next when, between the Predators and Admirals, there are currently seven goalies (Rinne, Hutton, Dubnyk, Mazanec, Darling, Toivonen, and Hellberg). See why I might think an actual move could be rumbling? This could easily be swayed off to pure speculation on my part if, when I got to practice tomorrow, I find out Mazanec is actually injured – hence the need to call up Darling a day before he could play another game in the ECHL before joining the Admirals – and the need to re-sign Toivonen.
Something is up. Injury? Trade? There are far too many numbers at one position right now With the possible returns of Rinne and Hellberg between the NHL and AHL – it will only grow.
What is your impression of the amount of goaltenders in NHL/AHL camp right now? How does this shake out? Does Pekka Rinne’s return to the ice say a trade could be imminent for anyone beneath him on the system’s depth chart?
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