Marek Mazanec’s night in net was a tad bit busy last night don’t you think? (Photo Credit: Sara Stathas)
We are in the run of the Admirals longest losing streak, five games, since last season when the team went on a winless drought of six games: 1/11/13 to 1/23/13.
While a part of me would love to rant and rave over just how rough this game was, how defeated the team was early in the game, or deliver a speech to the level of Peter Finch in Network –which is fantastic– I merely accept this run as one of the many ups and downs of a hockey season.
The Admirals were ahead of the Rockford IceHogs in the Midwest Division for much of this season. What happened? One team got hot. The other team went cold. In time, the IceHogs run of incredible success will run into a wall and they’ll be left to gather themselves for the next big run.
The Admirals, who have been in a cycle of up-one down-one for most of the season, have probably long been due a stretch of games like this. Not because they’re not good enough to win these games – but because of the massive amounts of knowledge there is to learn from a defeat. At the core, Milwaukee is a young team looking for the right balance in their game. Some nights they have it. Others – not so much. Right now, the team is spinning in place looking for traction as they charge into the thick of the playoff push. The lessons being learned right now could be an instrumental part of late season success.
Whether it’s hockey, baseball, or football – it is all about getting hot at the right time in the season. The season isn’t over in a week. The panic button shouldn’t be punched just yet. Instead, the time to see a team work through some massive growing pains is at hand. It’s all about how quickly the group responds from successive defeats, seeing their weaknesses so easily exploited, and rebounding back stronger than before the plunge.
I’m not panicked about this team. And I don’t think anyone who follows them should be. Bad run of games? Sure. Players and coaches hanging by a thread? No chance.
After the game I spoke with head coach Dean Evason as well as Anthony Bitetto and Joonas Rask. This is what they had to say following the team’s 5-1 defeat to the Grand Rapids Griffins.
Joonas Rask, Marek Mazanec, and captain Scott Ford all returned tonight. That was about it. (Photo Credit: Sara Stathas)
The Admirals lost 5-1 against the Grand Rapids Griffins Wednesday night. The lone saving grace from this game may have come in the form on Kevin Henderson’s late third period goal that ended a scoreless streak of 127:18 for the Admirals – who fell behind by 5-0 prior to that happening. The season long losing streak for the Ads is now at five games.
“I don’t know singularly offense was the problem tonight it was our entire game,” said head coach Dean Evason. “We were as flat and as dead as our group has been.”
After their meeting on Sunday where no goals were scored through regulation and overtime – Grand Rapids was able to score the opener inside of five minutes of the first period tonight. A great pass from right wing to left wing by Teemu Pulkkinen picked out a breaking Andrej Nestrasil. His shot went across the grain of a sliding Marek Mazanec to beat him high blocker side. That’s Nestrasil’s sixth goal of the season.
Then some rough stuff. Mike Liambas dropped the gloves with former-Admiral Triston Grant. They scrapped along the bench and, if we’re scoring this one, it was a solid win for Liambas who landed countless blows to the top of Grant’s exposed noggin. Fight Card: Liambas 10, Grant 9.
The Admirals power-play woes continued as they saw a two-man advantage for more than one-minute go to waste. The Admirals best chance from that came from Taylor Beck to, in close, beat Petr Mrazek high but nailed the far post. There was far too much passing, too much skating, and not enough shooting. It’s been the story of the Ads power-play all season long. To see it continually happen from a five-on-three situation is honestly a sad, sad sight to witness.
“A group that struggles in to score needs to certainly score on the power-play,” said Evason. “In the five-on-three, the shot from [Bryan Rodney] he has no idea where it is – hits him – Beck hits the post. We have a couple other opportunities throughout that sequence to score – we don’t. Our confidence level – you could just feel it on the bench it just was a sag. If a team that can’t score all of the sudden can’t score five-on-three on the [power-play] it really compounds your psyche right now. The littlest thing is hurting our mental outlook right now.”
The second period was cruising along until the final five minutes of the period. Grand Rapids was able to score two-goals against Mazanec in the space of 2:11 of ice time.
The Griffins second goal of the game came from a play that looked dangerously offsides as both Nestrasil and Calle Jarnkrok broke into the zone. Jarnkrok broke in hard and straight to the net and appeared ever so slightly offsides ahead of Nestrasil on the puck. The result was no offsides, a fluttering pass in-line with Jarnkrok from Nestrasil, and a chip over Mazanec for Jarnkrok’s twelfth goal of the season.
2:11 later, David McIntyre ripped a slaper from the left wing faceoff circle and the puck kicked out from Mazanec and into the net front presence of Trevor Parkes. It was a tap in after Mazanec made the initial save on the McIntyre shot. That was Parkes third goal of the season and it extended the Griffins lead to 3-0.
“It’s obviously frustrating,” said Anthony Bitetto. “You work so hard in practice. Played them Sunday – zero-zero tie – and then you come out and a couple bounces don’t go your way and it feels like you’re clawing the whole night.”
It was always going to be difficult for the Admirals to crawl out of a two period deficit of 3-0 against the likes of the Griffins. What happened in the opening minute to the start of the third period seemed like the Ads bought into that notion of hopelessness. They allowed two goals by Teemu Pulkkinen in the space of nine-seconds. Yes. Nine-seconds.
The first of the Pulkkinen bomb shots came off of a speed rush from the right wing. He hammered a slap shot to the high blocker-side, near post, and had Mazanec fooled completely.
Only nine-seconds later, same man – same spot on the ice – different choice to finish the slap shot. Pulkkinen wired another slapper by Mazanec and, this time, beat him low to the glove as Mazanec was cheating to the blocker side. When the puck went through Mazanec he was visibly irate with himself. For Pulkkinen he had goals twenty and twenty-one on his season before some fans returned to their seats with their late game burgers and chips.
“That’s what happens when your group is fragile,” cited Evason. “You come out of the intermission and think, if we get one here it’s a two-goal hockey game, and all of the sudden boom they score and it’s just game over.”
It was the third time this season that the Grand Rapids Griffins held a 5-0 lead over the Milwaukee Admirals: 11/20/13 @ Grand Rapids, 5-0… 12/14/13 @ Grand Rapids, 5-0.
“[Grand Rapids] is a good team,” said Bitetto. “They are well coached. They have four-lines that can play the game. Good goaltending. It’s going to take that extra step. Our hardest win right now is getting that first one back under our belt. That’s where we have to bear down and get that first win. We have a good team here. If every guy believes in that we’ll be fine.”
The Ads finally ended the scoreless streak at 127:18 when Kevin Henderson beat Mrazek with a huge assist to a screen from Mark Van Guilder. Henderson spun off of the right wing wall, scaled back around the faceoff circle, and tossed a puck to net. Mrazek clearly never saw the puck as he had his own defenseman and Van Guilder blocking his sight-line on Henderson – allowing for his seventh goal of the season.
Ramblings: Scott Ford and Marek Mazanec returned to the lineup tonight after missing last weekend’s three-in-three. Joonas Rask also returned to the team’s roster tonight after missing eight games with a left shoulder injury. The healthy scratches for tonight included Zach Budish and Scott Valentine.
Thoughts of this game? What needs to change? How do they get out of this funk? Can Pekka Rinne score goals?
After months of speculation, especially recent days, the wait is finally over. Pekka Rinne is heading to the Milwaukee Admirals under rehab conditions from the Nashville Predators.
This has long been a “wait and see” scenario. First Rinne had his hip surgery, then an infection related to the surgery, and finally the slow progression back to where we are today. We’ve covered his trail back here on the Roundtable: return to light practice (2/8/14), return to full-team practice (2/19/14), and yesterday’s audio driven “what are we hearing in Milwaukee about this” story (2/25/14). Now, he is back. Pekka Watch is over. He could well be back in town last tonight. He should be practicing with the team tomorrow. And is no doubt expected to start both games this weekend for the Admirals in Milwaukee.
The real question now is whether or not he will play any more than just those two games. As coach Trotz said, “We’ll go day-by-day.” To me, it is another wait and see sort of mentality. Let’s see how he handles game one, game two, and judge from there. If he plays well and his body responds well… we’re probably seeing him leave after the weekend. Should it be a battle for him during these two games. Who knows? As Jason pointed out with his Pekka Watch story this week: conditioning Loan shall not extend for more than fourteen (14) consecutive days. There is time and games to play with for the Nashville organization should they feel the need to use them. Day-by-day until then.
Pekka Rinne spent three-seasons with the Admirals. In that time he played in 145 games, posted 81 wins, had a 2.54 GAA, a 0.911 SV%, and recorded 10 shutouts. He last played with the Admirals on 4/26/08 in the Calder Cup playoffs against the Chicago Wolves. During last season’s 35th Anniversary campaign he was voted as the top Admiral of all-time.
Bought your tickets yet? Are you ready for the return of Pekka Rinne in Milwaukee? How long do you think this rehab stint will last?
Mike Liambas. Jordin Tootoo. Fight. Please? (Photo Credit: Scott Paulus)
The Admirals are currently on their biggest losing skid of the season: 4 games. While that isn’t great by any means – these past two games, including the last one against these same Grand Rapids Griffins, have been very good games for the Ads.
With their meeting in Rockford they consistently peppered shots on goal while minimizing shots against. The problem? They were playing against a team that, as of last night, is in the middle of the hottest run in the AHL: 10 straight games with a point – including 5 straight wins.
The last game in Grand Rapids hurt just that little bit to lose because it came down to a shootout. The Admirals and Griffins were engaged the entire game in a fantastic goaltending duel between Scott Darling and Petr Mrazek. Neither surrendered a goal through regulation or overtime. Both earned, and I mean earned, 29-save shutouts. Yet again it was an overtime or shootout that nipped the Admirals in the end. The Ads have no played in 18 games that went beyond regulation. They have won 3 OT games and lost a league high 6 OT games. In the shootout they have won 3 SO’s and lost 6 SO’s. It has been a problem area for the team all season long. Sadly for the team, and for Darling in a duel like he had with Mrazek, they came up short in yet another shootout defeat.
The Admirals now have a record of 23-18-6-6 (58 points). They are fourth in the Midwest Division – trailing the next closest team, the Rockford IceHogs, by 7 points. The Admirals do have 4 games in hand over the IceHogs. That’ll come in handy moving forward because, right now, tie-breakers are going the way of all division rivals. Use those games wisely, Admirals.
There will be some good news for this game. Healthy bodies are returning to the team in the form of Scott Ford, Marek Mazanec, and Joonas Rask.
Dean Evason provides an injury update on Ford, Mazanec, and Rask:
Ford and Mazanec both played their last game 2/16 at Chicago. Ford was ruled out of last weekend’s three-in-three with an upper body injury. While Mazanec was out with, I’m guessing, and lower-body injury of some kind.
Rask has been out of the Admirals lineup since getting injured at the start of the month, 2/5 vs. Hamilton. In that game he re-injured his left shoulder that had put him out earlier in the season for 8 games. I saw him outside of the Ads locker room, doing his typical high-tech stick maintenance, and saw he was still heavily iced up. If I had to hazard a guess – Rask will not be playing tonight but could have a shot at returning on the weekend.
The Grand Rapids Griffins will be playing tonight’s game with a record of 32-17-2-3 (69 points). They still lead the Midwest Division but only by a single point over the Chicago Wolves. It seems as if, while teams like the Wolves and IceHogs are on a roll, the Griffins and Admirals are somewhat stumbling through the month of February.
When the two met on Sunday they were both in a rut. The Griffins had lost three-straight games of their own until a gutsy 4-3 win against the Oklahoma City Barons the day prior to the showdown with the Ads. When the two met? Yeah. Neither could score until the shootout. Both the Ads and Griffins are trying to regain their footing all while teams in their division, save for perhaps the Iowa Wild, are playing dominant hockey.
The co-star of the last game, Petr Mrazek, is having himself another solid season. He has split time between the AHL and NHL this season but has spent the bulk with Grand Rapids. In the AHL this season he has played in 19 games, won 13, has a 2.21 GAA, 0.923 SV%, and 2 shutouts. With the Red Wings in the NHL he played in 7 games, record 1 win, had a 1.64 GAA, 0.924 SV%, and recorded a shutout.
Against Milwaukee, Mrazek currently holds a shutout streak of 108:40 minutes against the Admirals that dates back to when Patrick Cehlin scored in the second period of a game on 2/1/14. Simply put: if the Admirals have any hope of ending their four-game losing skid – if starts by putting pucks past Petr Mrazek for them to do it.
How will the Admirals fair in this game? Will the losing streak end tonight? Who should start in net for the Milwaukee Admirals, Scott Darling or Marek Mazanec? What do the Admirals need to do in order to score against Petr Mrazek?
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?
It was all about Petr Mrazek and Scott Darling in this one. Both goalies earned 29-save shutouts in a game that creeped along scoreless all the way until the shootout. (Photo Credit to @griffinshockey on Twitter)
The Milwaukee Admirals lost 1-0 in a shootout against the Grand Rapids Griffins Sunday afternoon.
This game was a thriller and all about goaltending. The game stormed on through regulation and overtime without a goal – needing a shootout to find the break through. Both starting goalies, Scott Darling and Petr Mrazek, earned themselves 29-save shutouts for their efforts in this game. It wasn’t until Martin Frk in the first round of the shootout until a puck trickled past the goal line. These goalies were that good today.
In the shootout there were some great goals scored. It’s always cheeky to pull off five hole dekes on the shootout and the Admirals were able to do it twice on Mrazek. Both Mathieu Tousignant and Taylor Beck scored with strikes through the fivehole – and the Admirals found themselves even at 3-3 entering the fifth and final round of the shootout. Simon Moser, only two games into the flow of things state-side since returning from the Olympics, was stopped by Mrazek’s blocker – giving Brendan Evans a chance to seal it. Darling squared him up – but Evans was able to win it for the Griffins in the shootout.
This was a phenomenal game. Both the Admirals and Griffins tend to play very tight, structured, dump and chase, forechecking games. Today things were a bit open throttle and it came down to quality goaltending to disrupt odd-man rushes and five-on-three power-play situations.
Both teams went 0/5 on the power-play. The Admirals had two chances of five-on-three power-plays – one being 1:17 long – another being around 0:24 seconds. The Griffins also had their chance on a two-man advantage but Mark Van Guilder’s work killed it off and nearly found Austin Watson, fresh from the box, for a one-timer. Again, the goalies were there to deny quality chances – time and time again.
The shootout loss means the Admirals have now gone winless in their last four games. They do earn a point today – but it is a loss nonetheless. It is their longest losing skid of the entire season. I must say though, between yesterday and today, there are plenty of good things for the team to take out of these defeats moving forward. I feel the results are soon to follow.
What are your thoughts from today’s game? Are games like this a reason why you’d rather see the game go on or do you prefer it finishing in a shootout? How do you feel about Scott Darling moving forward? Is Darling the starter over Mazanec?
News & Discussion Site For Your Milwaukee Admirals
Admirals Roundtable 