Mattias Ekholm has taken a bit of a beating in the web-media after his assignment back to his Swedish team.  I’m guilty of some of that, as I’ve piled on in previous posts.

And on tonight’s Admirals Center Ice radio show, Preds Assistant GM Paul Fenton explained to Aaron Sims and Wojo that there indeed was more to the story.

Turns out it wasn’t Ekholm’s decision at all.

The short version:  The Swedish team, whose contract he put on hold to come play in North America, has the first right of refusal before Ekholm could be assigned to the AHL.

And Brynas wanted him.

So he goes to Sweden.

End of story.

So it’s not Ekholm who is stunting his own development by playing away from the North American game — it’s the Swedish team that’s responsible.

The podcast of the Admirals Center Ice Radio Show should be on the Admirals website Tuesday afternoon at some point (UPDATE:  it’s there right now), and you can hear it explained in Fenton’s own words.

But wow, that perspective really changes everything.

The Predators made it official today — Mattias Ekholm has been assigned to a team in Sweden.

Ekholm had a clause in his contract that allowed him to go back to Sweden if he didn’t make the Predators roster, but to exercise the clause is so completely counterproductive to what we assumed was his goal:  to play in the NHL.

It must not really be his goal.  And if it’s not, then good riddence.

If the goal is to play in the NHL, it’s a lot easier to get back to Nashville from Milwaukee than it is Brynas.

If the coach says that the single most important thing he needs to work on is adjusting to the North American game, how exactly does he think he’s going to do that in Sweden?

Is it a money thing?  According to capgeek.com, his NHL salary was $900k, but his AHL salary would have been $67,500.  I have no idea what compensation would be in Sweden, whether Nashville is on the hook for some of that, or if Brynas would pay whatever they want.

Here are some of his quotes from the last  month.

From the Predators Examiner

When asked Friday if he would consider going to Milwaukee, Ekholm was noncommittal.

First off, I’m not jinxing anything.  We’ve been talking about this streak for months now.  And if they lose tonight, we’ll move on.  Abbotsford is a good team.

But let’s talk about the road streak.

The last time the Admirals lost a regular season road game in regulation was January 13th, 2011, in Manitoba.  It’s been 18 straight road games with at least a point in the standings.

The date is pretty jaw-dropping, but for some perspective, note that the Admirals had played 60% of the road schedule with that game.  From mid-January through the end of the regular season, the Admirals had just 16 of their 39 remaining games on the road.  Even with that grain of salt, it’s nothing short of amazing, and an AHL record.

Breaking down those 18 games…

– 12 wins
– 4 OT losses
– 2 shootout losses
– 30 of a possible 36 points.
– Outscoring opponents 60-39 (although, 2 of those 39 are the goals awarded for the shootout wins)
– 6-2-1 against playoff teams last season….(and 8-2-1 if you’re the Hockey News and you want to count the wins against Peoria and Chicago this year)
– 6-2 in Illinois
– 3-1-2 in Texas/Oklahoma City
– 2-1 in Canada
– 1-0 in Michigan
– Longest streak of wins:  5 games, from January 29th – February 23rd.  There weren’t consecutive road wins the rest of the season, but they won their final road game in April, and have won the first two this season.  So the current streak is 3 games.

We’ll see if they can extend it tonight.

After the first two weekends of the season, Milwaukee is one of just three AHL teams remaining without a loss.  The Admirals are also the only unbeaten club left in the Western Conference, and the only one of the three unbeaten teams (Syracuse and Worchester are the other two squads) that has won more than two games.

Today the AHL Weekly Release leads with props for Midwest Division Leaders:

The Milwaukee Admirals are the only team in the Western Conference without a defeat to date, opening the year with three victories. The Admirals, who have registered at least 40 wins and 90 points in each of their last eight seasons, have a new head coach in Kirk Muller and the fourth-youngest roster in the league (as of opening night), including rookie defenseman and 2009 first-round draft choice (11th overall) Ryan Ellis. With wins in Peoria and Chicago to start the season, Milwaukee has extended its own AHL record by earning standings points in 18 consecutive regular-season road games (12-0-4-2).

Roundtable…Feel free to add your own superlatives describing Milwaukee’s fast start in the comments section below.

We’ve got some time to kill before the next game.

So let’s talk about shootout lineups.

In the first shootout of the season, Coach Muller sent these guys out in this order:

Latta (Scored)
Bartley (No Goal)
Thang (Scored)
Wilson (Scored)
Puustinen (Scored)

While that was a recipe for success on Saturday, what five skaters would YOU send it in a shootout, and in what order?  Do you think Latta will be the new Santorelli, and the first guy out every time?  Is there a scenario where you would send a defenseman out? (Todd, I’d like to link to your original story about defensemen taking shootout attempts, if the URL still exists).

Did you see what happened in the Oklahoma City/Texas game yesterday?

10-1.  Those aren’t odds.  That’s the final score.  Score was 9-nil after two periods.  Call it sweet revenge, after the Stars dropped the Barons 7-0 on opening night.

Our old pal Triston Grant scored a pair of goals last night for the Barons.

As pointed out by AdsAndPredsFan in a previous post, and confirmed with a big headline on the Cyclones website, forwards Ben Ryan and Robert Slaney have been assigned to the ECHL.

Ryan was injured during training camp, so this will be his chance to get back into playing shape and maybe join the Admirals a little later in the season.  Slaney is the only piece remaining in the organization from the trade that sent Lombardi and Franson to Toronto.

Truth be told, I think a lot of what the Hockey’s Future site writes is rubbish.

That said, I was pleasantly surprised by their preview of the 2011-12 Admirals that was published yesterday.

In previous years, I could go paragraph by paragraph and find something that was worth mocking.  For the most part this year, they did a nice job summarizing the off-season, and adequately scouting most of the players on the roster.

There are two things that jumped out at me though.

The Admirals will be looking to Tyler Sloan, Scott Foss, and Scott Ford for veteran leadership on the blue line while the AHL rookies get their bearings at the professional level.

That Scott Foss…. Maybe that’s what his friends call him….but we call him Jeff Foss.  And I’m not sure that his 6 games of pro experience really make him look like the go-to-guy for leadership on the blue line.

“With “Captain Kirk” at the helm of Milwaukee’s ship, the Admirals will make their tenth consecutive AHL Calder Cup playoffs appearance this season.”

That’s not even a prediction.  That’s a grand declaration.  I try to stay away from those kinds of things this time of year.  But it’s nice to know they have a little more faith in the team than The Hockey News did.

After a long offseason, the Admirals will return to the Bradley Center tonight for the first home game of the 2011-12 season.

Admirals and Wolves.  Tonight at 7.  Get there early as they’ll introduce the whole roster (and you can learn how to pronounce Lajunen), and there will be a special pregame tribute to the family members the team lost over the summer.

As for the game itself….. In the comments section, give me three things you want to see tonight.

The race to backup Jeremy Smith to start the season has been won by Atte Engren, with the news that Chet Pickard has been assigned to the ECHL.

And depending on which horse you supported in the race, there are lots of different conclusions that you may…um….conclude…..from that move.  Purely speculation at this point.

– Atte is the better goalie.

– Chet needs to play the majority of the games for the benefit of his development.  He can do that in Cincy.

– Nothing more than a demotion for Chet.

– Coaches weren’t that impressed by either of the goalies…they just flipped a coin.

– Atte may not have accepted an assignment to Cincy, and gone back to Europe instead.

Personally, my first thought is that he’s going to Cincy to get the work.  If he stays in Milwaukee, he may just see the ice during the middle games of the 3-in-3 sets, or in relief of Smitty if he doesn’t seem so sharp one night.  And from a developmental standpoint (and yes, the Preds are still trying to develop the guy), keeping him in Milwaukee might stunt the growth that they’re looking for.

But we’ll see if we can get an official comment from the Coach to try to clear up the motivation behind the decision.