Chase. Chase. Chase. Tonight’s game ran away from the Admirals. (Photo Credit: Scott Paulus)
The Admirals lost 3-1 against the Iowa Wild Friday night. It was another grinding effort from a visiting team that minimized Ads scoring chances and walked out with a win. It is now the third-straight home loss for the Ads.
“It’s such a hard game to get the pucks back in today’s game because there is no clutching, grabbing, hooking, holding,” said Milwaukee Admirals head coach Dean Evason after the game. “So, once you have the puck, let’s hang onto it a little bit until we get a real good scoring chance. If you just throw it away most teams are collapsing to the front of the net and you’re not going to get pucks to the net if you just throw it there. That was an area of concern for us here and as of late.”
After both enjoyed some time away from the rink during the AHL All Star break the start to this game was always going to be a question mark. Fast? Slow? One better than the other? In truth, both sides came out of the gate fairly slowly – as if to play a mistake free opening period.
The Wild did manage to fire more shots to the net in the opening period, 14-7, but one in particular stung. A smooth entry into the attacking zone for the Wild put the puck on Kyle Medvec’s stick. He passed over to the left wing where Jim McKenzie was breaking in and took his shot first time. His blast beat Marek Mazanec high to the glove-side to give the Wild a first period lead. For McKenzie that was his third goal of the season.
We did have a bout in the second period and it was brewed from some first period antics. The combination of Mathieu Tousignant and Mike Liambas weren’t shying away from the verbal side of the game. After a good whack against Tousignant – Liambas and Curt Cogol dropped the gloves. It didn’t last long. Not many blows it flesh – mainly the helmets took all the good ones – but it was a high charged little scrap. Both wanted to get up and keep swinging. The refs made sure that we’d not see it go any further… shame.
In the third period Erik Haula beat Joe Piskula in the neutral zone and carried all the way on the right wing for a goal. After skating by Piskula Haula had numbers and options with him – it became a three-on-one rush. He kept the puck, maintained a shooting position, and whipped a shot by Mazanec to make it a 2-0 Wild lead.
The Admirals were able to get on the board courtesy of another one-time slapper by Filip Forsberg on the power-play. Bryan Rodney slid a pass into Forsberg’s wheelhouse and his shot just about bowled Iowa netminder John Curry over. It’s the Swede’s seventh-goal of the season and his fifth scored from the power-play.
Then came a real backbreaker. The Admirals get the goal to make it a 2-1 game with just over ten-minutes remaining. A mere twenty-five seconds after Forsberg’s goal the Wild blitzed through the Ads for a response. It was a beautiful effort from Haula to generate his second goal of the game – and eleventh of the season.
“We struggled to find scoring chances,” said Evason. “Then you get one. You want to continue that momentum. Certainly that goal hurt us. We should have had more scoring chances earlier and didn’t.”
With twenty-eight seconds left on the clock the Ads did have a desperation chance in the form of a penalty shot. Corbin Baldwin closed his hand on the puck while behind Curry in the crease – resulting in the officials’ decision for the penalty shot. Taylor Beck was the man up to take it… skated in wide from the left wing… moved to the slot… and his wrister was stopped with a left pad save.
“We need to simplify our game,” said Evason after the game. “Simplified doesn’t mean brain dead and just throwing pucks away. You need to simplify your game as far as short passes, putting them into areas where you could get pucks back, get pucks through to the net.”
Ramblings: Marek Mazanec made his twelfth-consecutive start for the Admirals tonight. In that span he has gone (4-4-1-3). Bryan Rodney returned to the Admirals lineup for his first game since Feb. 1 vs. Grand Rapids. He had been out of the lineup due to the birth of his first child (a baby girl). Scott Darling, reassigned by the Admirals today to the Cincinnati Cyclones of the ECHL, did make a start for Cinci. He made thirty-five saves, including five-of-seven in the shootout, to earn a win in his return to game action.
What do you feel is wrong with the offense recently? What needs to change? And can they solve the problem in time for tomorrow’s game in Chicago?
Scott Darling hasn’t played since 1/12/14 vs. Lake Erie due to an injury he sustained during team practice. (Photo Credit Scott Paulus)
Before tonight’s game against the Iowa Wild we have a roster move in play. The Milwaukee Admirals have reassigned Scott Darling to the Cincinnati Cyclones of the ECHL.
Darling hasn’t played since 1/12/14 vs. Lake Erie due to a lower-body injury he sustained during team practice. He has been one of the better surprises this season. In December he earned the CCM/AHL Goalie of the Month and a weekly honor as the CCM/AHL’s Player of the Week. This season with the Admirals he has played in 15 games, won 8 games, picked up 3 shutouts, has a 2.18 GAA, and a 0.930 SV%.
I’ll certainly ask later tonight to see what this move is all about, but I have the feeling it is the equivalent to a rehab stint for Darling – who began his season in Cincinnati. He has been out of the lineup for a month with a lower-body injury and could use games in net to be properly brought up to speed. There isn’t any other news regarding Hannu Toivonen being released from his PTO – so I think it is safe to assume that Magnus Hellberg isn’t ready to return either – nor impacting the team’s decision to send Darling down.
UPDATE: Darling returned to game action tonight and came away with a 35 save shootout win (also stopping 5-7 in the shootout):
If this is simply a matter of logging games before returning to Milwaukee – how long do you think it should take before we see Darling in an Admirals jersey?
Miikka Salomaki isn’t going to let Chad Rau fool him into skating the wrong way. (Photo Credit: Scott Paulus)
The AHL All Star break is officially over and tonight we’re back in game action. The Admirals players, outside of Colton Sissons, enjoyed plenty of time off this week. I’ve seen a few who: traveled down to Florida, went back home, or stuck around Wisconsin to go hunting. Considering how those last two games finished for the team – the AHL All Star break came at a good time. A little R&R can do the mind and body some serious good in a season as grinding as this. Case and point: welcome back from your vacation, Ads… we have a three-in-three.
The first stop of the weekend three-in-three is with the Iowa Wild who have a record of 20-17-5-4 (49 points). They are still in the basement of the Midwest Division and trail the fourth place Rockford IceHogs by 5 points. If you’re feeling like this sets up well for the Admirals to find their feet after two somewhat disappointing outings – you’re feelings are in the right place!
The Ads have taken all five-games so far against the Wild. The last two games gave been much tighter. Shootout and OT. But, for as bad as the Admirals are beyond regulation, they’ve still managed to get the extra point against the Wild.
Another element that will make games in the AHL that little bit more spicy is that, with the NHL’s Olympic break, a lot of players have been shuffled around. In the case of the Wild they have Erik Haula, Johan Gustafsson, and Stephane Veilleux who were brought in from Minnesota. They also recalled Riley Brace yesterday from Ontario Reign of the ECHL. One more, they traded Mr. Chad Rau (as seen skating the wrong way in the photo used for today’s story) for Curt Gogol of the Worcester Sharks. There’ll be a lot of mixing and matching of line combos for lots of teams in the AHL during this Olympic stretch. Oddly, the Milwaukee Admirals really aren’t one of them.
The Admirals return to action tonight with a record of 22-14-6-5 (55 points). They are third in the Midwest Division and remain sixth in the Western Conference. The Ads trail the Chicago Wolves by 4 points – and they will be playing them on Saturday and Sunday this weekend. It’s those two games that follow this one that make this meeting with the Wild that much more important. Don’t get caught thinking ahead to the bigger opponent. Take the Wild head on and then worry about the Amtrak Rivals.
Iowa gained a few faces. Milwaukee, not so much. Colton Sissons and Taylor Beck will be in the roster tonight but neither have spent that long of time away from the team. Even with Simon Moser doing awesome things in the Olympics I anticipate a pretty familiar lineup card as we’ve seen this season as a result. What could be fun to see is if Sissons, after his nonstop work and travel during the AHL All Star festivities, can hit the ground running that little bit quicker than others on the ice. While others were catching sun – he was playing against Färjestad BK of the Swedish Elite League. In short, he’s been in full playing mode all week. I’d like think that will benefit the team against the Wild tonight.
What are your thoughts on tonight’s game against the Iowa Wild? How about the three-in-three this weekend? Could this be a trap game tonight with the Wolves looming right afterwards?
With a primary assist to the Milwaukee Admirals on Facebook – we have our first real look at the Pink Jersey the team will be wearing tomorrow night against the Iowa Wild. We saw a mock-up of it earlier in the week – now the real deal.
As far as this style of jersey is concerned – we have seen far louder attempts in the past. This is essentially our road blacks with a substitute of Pink for the typical Lake Michigan Blue – with the added Breast Cancer Awareness symbol behind the primary crest and replacing the shoulder anchors. It’s simple. And I like that. Plus, if we mixed in the wrestling promotion from last game, how Bret Hart is this jersey?
Yesterday, for for the sake of fun (honestly boredom), I created some Milwaukee Admirals themed Valentine’s Day cards. I was rather surprised how well it was received by all of you – considering I made them on my phone as a goof.
If there was any complaint against them it was that I didn’t provide you with the full roster. … Challenge Accepted.
36, Joonas Jarvinen.16, Mathieu Tousignant.8, Filip Forsberg.24, Zach Budish.5, Teddy Ruth.11, Paul Crowder.10, Patrick Cehlin.74, Vinny Saponari.22, Scott Valentine.
All photos courtesy of Scott Paulus. All forms of a lack of a social life done by your’s truly, Daniel Lavender.
Good Guy Colton Sissons had a tremendous week in St. John’s as he represented the Milwaukee Admirals present and Nashville Predators future with his typical class. (Photo Credit: @TheAHL on Twitter)
The AHL All Star Classic pitted the league’s top stars against the professionals from the Swedish Elite League – Färjestad BK. The result turned out to be far more shocking than I was expecting. The AHL All Stars absolutely skated circles around Färjestad BK and won by a hefty 7-2 scoreline. Yeeeeeek!
I think we’re all far more interested in two key players: Colton Sissons and Pontus Åberg. Let’s start with the latter – whose team had a hard enough go of things in the first place.
My name is Pontus Åberg. You probably never heard of me before. (Photo Credit: Farjestad_BK on Instagram)
Åberg, a second round draft pick of the Nashville Predators in the 2012 NHL Draft, didn’t have the sharpest of nights. Good news? He wasn’t alone in that respect for Färjestad BK. In truth, he made plenty of good looking plays – particularly working in and out of the neutral zone. Where all his good work seemed to fall flat was that he appeared to want to pass the puck more than shoot it. He was creating some space for himself – but then looking for a teammate. When he would pick out his teammate it seemed to take them by surprise. I was expecting to see more of this from a hodgepodge of AHL talent than a team that played together for a half-season so far.
It might have been a very small sample size – but it was my real first chance to view what Åberg is capable of. What I was left with from this game was the feeling of a player that does very much with very little. Still, that could be extremely harsh considering the circumstances of a game like this. He appears to move, skate, and stickhandle well enough. Should he find himself in Milwaukee in the near future… I’m hoping to see a mix of Miikka Salomaki and the next guy we’ll talk about.
If you didn’t get to watch last night’s AHL All Star Classic, but have watched Sissons play before, good news! You didn’t miss anything. Perhaps what is most impressive of his night might just be that. Regardless of the stage – he played just like he always does: smart, contained, aggressive while on the puck if he has the room to go for it, and defended well around the net. He never looked like anything more or anything less than what we’ve all seen before – and I count that as a plus!
Sissons highlight of the night included earning a plus while being on the ice for the AHL’s third goal of the game scored by Ben Street. Annoyingly, he didn’t get a point from the play – but probably deserved a primary assist as much as Jason Jaffray did. Sissons movements off of the puck created the goal. He was set up on the right faceoff area while the puck was behind the net – moved forward to goal – which sucked in Magnus Nygren from his left wing spot before being drawn back – then, with Nygren abandoning him, he was surrounded by Linus Froberg and Tomas Hyka. Him getting Nygren’s attention, all by skating in on the slot, allowed Street to be all alone on the left wing for a one-timed shot. I talk about it time and time again with Sissons. He just finds the perfect soft spots on the ice to create. In this case, his movement drew in three members of Färjestad BK and freed Street up for a shot. No assist for Sissons – but he did much to set the play up.
The rigorous travel will continue for Sissons now. He flew out to St. John’s late Sunday night after the Admirals played against the Chicago Wolves. Now, he basically has one day off – probably used to travel back – before the team plays on Friday against the Iowa Wild. Busy? Yes. Rewarding? Absolutely.
Catch the AHL All Star Classic? Surprised to see the AHL All Stars rock Färjestad BK like they did? What do you think about Colton Sissons and Pontus Åberg? Where do you see their careers going and could they end up playing together in the near future?
Simon Moser (82) celebrates with his Swiss teammates after a dramatic final second clincher.
The men’s hockey side of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi started today with Simon Moser’s Switzerland taking on Latvia. Moser wound up being the late hero in the game – scoring the primary assist on the game-winning goal with 7.9 seconds remaining. Switzerland beat Latvia on that goal – and that goal alone, 1-0.
You can watch the goal scored by Switzerland in the final seconds here from our good friends at Deadspin. (alright, we might have waved at each other once… alright, I waved to them once and they didn’t see me… we’re still friends)
As it stands, Moser is credited with the primary assist on the goal. Initially that is what I thought it was going to be. Then it was announced in the stadium that he had scored the goal. After the game the scoring changed to a primary assist. No matter how it gets scored – he’s already made a moment at the Olympics to treasure.
UPDATE: According to most statistical websites I’m following associated with these Olympic Games, including here at the IIHF website, Simon Moser is being credited with the game-winning goal. Barring a fifth or twelfth turn through an assist or a goal – it appears as if Moser’s first Olympic game saw him score a crucial game-winning goal in the final seconds.
Who do you have as your medalists for the men’s hockey tournament in the Olympics?
While waiting up last night to view the AHL All Star Skills Competition on the NHL Network (the Olympics aren’t the only thing running on a tape delay) I decided to cook up some Valentine’s Day cards for you folks… on my phone… these are meant to be as cheesy as they actually are. Hey, boredom can sometimes lead to fun things. (I hope.)
2, Anthony Bitetto.41, Taylor Beck.37, Scott Darling.29, Mark Van Guilder.Head Coach Dean Evason.33, Bryan Rodney.4, Scott Ford.51, Austin Watson.31, Marek Mazanec.17, Mike Liambas.21, Simon Moser.18, Colton Sissons.45, Magnus Hellberg.88, Joonas Rask.15, Kevin Henderson.7, Joe Piskula.55, Charles-Olivier Roussel.25, Josh Shalla.20, Miikka Salomaki.22, Scott Valentine.
All photos courtesy of Scott Paulus. All pitiful manipulations of his incredible work done by your’s truly, Daniel Lavender.
Colton Sissons took part in some practice with his fellow AHL All Stars. They’ll be taking today’s AHL All Star Classic against Färjestad BK very seriously. (Photo Credit: TheAHL on Instagram)
The 2014 AHL All Star Skills Competition was a rather good show last night. It pitted the AHL All Stars up against professional players from Färjestad BK of the Swedish Elite League. On the Nashville Predators organization side of things: this entire head-to-head is fun to watch because we get to see two young up and comers in the system. Colton Sissons and Pontus Åberg.
I’m very familiar with Sissons and what he can do, but this was really my first chance to sit down and watch Åberg play – and he took part in the Skills Competition a whole lot more than Sissons. So, how’d our boys do?
Åberg took part in the first event of the night: the puck control relay. This event featured a burst of speed down to one end and then a series of cones to stickhandle through en route to the finish. Åberg competed in the opening three-man relay and was the second of his group to go out. When he took off he was trailing Frederic St. Denis of the Springfield Falcons. After his turn through the course Färjestad BK had a very good cushion that helped them go on and win that first relay race. I was rather impressed by the 20-year old Swede’s explosiveness from out of the gate. His start gave him a good gap, but it was his smooth stick work on the cones that helped him out even more. Simple event. Lots of little qualities that could be measured. I liked what I saw.
The third event of the night was the Rapid Fire competition and our first look at Sissons on the Skills stage. I have to be completely honest with you. Whoever organized this event really set him up to fail. The setup of the Rapid Fire competition was two shooters, both on the opposite sides of the crease, five pucks, one shooter at a time, as quickly as they can hammer a shot. Sissons, a right handed shot, was paired with another right handed shot in Brenden Kichton of the St. John’s IceCaps. Where would the ideal place on the ice be for a right handed shooter be in this situation? The left wing. Where was Sissons placed? The right wing. Kichton went three-for-five of his attempts for goals while Sissons missed all five shots against Frederik Pettersson-Wentzel‘s glove-side. Seeing how that turned out, when most shooters after that where paired lefty and righty, seemed a bit daft.
Åberg then took part in the Hardest Shot competition and hammered a shot at 99.5 mph. Each shooter had three chances. He accomplished that on his first shot and each of his next two were weaker than the next. Nothing to really learn from something like this – but gosh darn was his teammate Magnus Nygren‘s shot of 104.6 mph awesome!
The Åberg Show continued in the next event, Accuracy Shooting. This was somewhat of a disappointment out of him. He hit the four targets on net on eight chances. That put him on equal footing for second lowest in the competition with the Rochester Americans’ Luke Adam – and one better than Ben Street of the Abbotsford Heat (who went three of eight).
The last rodeo for the two Nashville hopefuls came on the Breakaway Challenge. Sissons. Admirals. Shootout. Hey, he has some experience for this scenario at least right? In truth, this season in the shootout for the Admirals he has missed all three chances he has taken and hasn’t factored into the last four shootout games. So, up he went… forehand to backhand and stopped by Pekka Tuokkola.
Speaking of which…
I take photos of my TV because I’m smart like that.
Notice anything from Tuokkola’s mask yet? Well you should, because Magnus Hellberg certain does… not just once… but twice. The reason being is that Hellberg is from Uppsala, Sweden – where the story of Pelle Svanslös, aka Peter No-Tail, originates from. So, why would the Finnish goaltender Tuokkola use Pelle while playing for a Swedish team that is on the opposite side of Sweden from Uppsala? Hurm… Perhaps Hellberg is just a trendsetter? (I digress)
Next up was Åberg. He was actually forced to shoot against a familiar foe to us Admirals fans in Chicago Wolves netminder Jake Allen – the bloke who shut the door on us just this past Sunday in a shootout. Åberg skated in straight, maintained his shooting stance on the forehand the entire way in, did a shoulder pump, and fired right through Allen’s glove. It was rather impressive. I guess, so much so, he tried doing the same move later on in the sudden death portion of the event… where he fooled no one.
The AHL All Stars managed to win the Skills event against Färjestad BK in the sudden death scenario of the shootout. In heroic fashion too – I might add. With the event held in St. John’s it was cool to see captain Jason Jaffray not only score the shootout goal to force sudden death – but also the clincher. Pretty fun for the fans up there – and a great way to set the table for what should be a competitive and exciting AHL All Star Classic.
Did you catch the AHL Skills Competition? If so, what did you make of our two members of the Nashville organization? Will you be tuning in tonight for the AHL All Star Classic?
The voice of the Milwaukee Admirals Aaron Sims and the voice of REO Speedwagon Kevin Cronin. In other words, a couple of rockstars.
This afternoon I had the chance to chat with the voice of the Milwaukee Admirals, Aaron Sims. He’s been a busy, busy man these past few days. From Wednesday all the way to the shootout on Sunday he has called game action for the Admirals and Predators. Here’s our conversation on his first look at the NHL and the Admirals season.
Roundtable: Describe the situation last Thursday. Did you hear about Pete Weber before getting a call up for Nashville’s radio play-by-play spot or was it thrown at you all at once?
Aaron Sims: Pete went to the hospital. They called me and told me that that’s what happened. He had left the locker room in St. Paul by ambulance. Bob Kohl, the director of broadcasting for the Nashville Predators, gave me a call around 10am and explained what happened. And asked if I could be ready to make it up to St. Paul just in case. They didn’t know if that would happen. They kind of, at the time, thought Pete would be discharged after a quick once over to make sure everything was fine and then get rid of him from the hospital to the rink. If that happened, then I would watch a game for free. If not, that would be the case – that I would step in. They would move Willy Daunic to the TV side to fill in for Pete.
I called my wife and told her what was up. And then about eight minutes later Bob called again and said that Pete was indeed going to stay in the hospital for at least the night. And they needed me to come up. By this time it is around 10:30am and he asked if I could catch the 11:56am flight from Milwaukee to St. Paul. Now, I hadn’t showered yet. It was one of the few days that I had actually gotten up fairly early. I was sitting online getting ready to start my day and run some errands. I was going to run my suits to the dry cleaners. But they called and said they needed me. So, I did my best to freshen up the suits as best I could, jumped on the plane, landed in St. Paul around 1pm, got to the hotel about 1:30pm, and that was it. Then I just kind of sat around the rest of the afternoon doing some prep for the night. I went to the rink at about 4pm. They had a bus that went underneath towards the locker room so I went over there and the only player on the bus was Carter Hutton. It was me, Willy Daunic, Terry Crisp, and the first person that I actually saw when I got on the bus was Mitch Korn – we talked briefly. Then Lane Lambert got on the bus and we just kind of had our “how are you’s” and stuff. Got to the rink. Got my pass. And went and sat upstairs.
R: One thing I definitely do not want to lose in all of this is Pete Weber. I had the chance to meet him last season with you and Charlie Larson of the Admirals in Chicago last season. He is an incredibly nice guy. Talk about your relationship with Pete Weber:
Aaron: Unbelievably giving. A couple of year’s ago he had called me and asked me if, when they decided they were going to simulcast their TV and radio and decided they were going to split that up, and Pete called me up and asked me if I would do that and to send something in. At the time, I didn’t get that and that’s fine. Tom Callahan did – and he’s fantastic. From then on, if I needed anything Pete was more than giving. So it was pretty neat.
Pete knows so many people. He’s been in the game for so long. And he has always been nice to me. He has been on our radio show here in Milwaukee. I’ve been on his down in Nashville. Just really giving. We started texting here and there – just goofy things to one-another. So, it sucks how I got up. If there is a nice guy list and he’s not at the top of the list – that’s a stupid list. He is fantastic. He has always been supportive. I’m so happy that he is healthy and hopefully he will be able to come back once the Predators resume.
R: Were you able to talk or speak to Pete while you were up in Minneosta?
Aaron: No. He went in and I texted him when I got there. I wasn’t expecting anything back, right? You figure recovery from a procedure like that. But, within a minute and a half, he texted me back and said, “Thanks. Good luck!” So, that was pretty nice.
R: Just like when I talk Colton Sissons, what was it like experiencing the NHL level?
Aaron: It’s the best! It really is. The play is so great. The buildings are great. It was awesome. For me, the waiting, the anticipation, I guess once I got the call, I kind of figured once the game got going I’d be fine. I knew all the Predators because that’s the team we’re with. I know the majority of the guys personally and I know their numbers and all of that stuff. And then I am from Minnesota so, if the Preds aren’t on, I’m probably at least glancing at a Wild game. So, I know all of those guys and they were all in Houston or Iowa this year.
It was a pretty, as far as players and all of that, it was pretty easy to call. I worked with Stu Grimson and Stu held my hand and was just fantastic. There was an engineer there to make sure everything was good and then guys back at the station – they had to remind me a few times – the big thing for me was the format. They do things a little differently with their pre-game and intermissions and all of that – so I just had to get used to all of that. Once we did that – it was good.
There was a lot of people congratulating me, patting me on the back, and, to get to call a game up there, it was.. I joked to Stu up there during an intermission – he had asked ‘how things were going’ and I said, “Stu, the water is cleaner and the air is a little cleaner.” It was fun. That was the single best night of my professional life. For thirty-three years that has been my dream. When I was 8-years old I decided I wanted to be an NHL announcer for the Minnesota North Stars. And I came pretty close on Thursday night.
R: You typically work a one-man operation with the Admirals. How was it operating with a color-guy such as Stu Grimson?
Aaron: Yeah, it was quite different. Stu made it easy. He knows neutral zone and breakouts and stuff like that. When there’s no pressure he knows that there is nothing going on – when the puck is in a safe area – he knows that he can take it. If there was something, he would wave his hand and I would see it out of the corner of my eye and we were good. So I think, for our first time working together, there weren’t many times that we stepped on one-another. I think that went pretty well.
R: I thought it went real well. You two had a natural chemistry together.
Aaron: I was pretty quiet. We had never worked together. We shook hands once but I don’t think he remembers because he meets so many people. We didn’t know each other. So we had kind of a script just in case say the glass broke or say there was another pink ice delay like in Rockford. We would have a couple of topics to go with. So, we kind of scripted a few things as a ‘just in case’ deal. I kind of just let him take it. He knows what’s going on. He’s been around those guys for so long. I don’t know what he expected, because I was very quiet, but once we got going I think it went ok.
R: It didn’t really come across the airwaves, but were there nerves on your part being in this situation?
Aaron: Not once we got going. I got on the plane and I had time to think about it. I was thinking that this is what I’ve always wanted. I knew that this was going to be the best thing that I’ve ever done. The first time that I’ll do this and it’ll be the most special – and it happened to be in my hometown. That made it all the more special. It’s a building that I’ve been in. I’ve seen concerts and watched games. That made it great.
The nerves, I think I was most anxious about the format and just when I come in, their out-cues, and things like that. In Milwaukee you have to say, “Sports Radio 1250 WSSP,” up there it was, “The Fifth Third Bank Nashville Predators Radio Network.” Out-cues had to be right each time. You had to make sure you hit the sponsor reads. Thankfully, Stu took care of the majority of those.
The nerves went away. The old saying: once the puck drops. And I know the players will say the same thing, too. Once they get that first hit or take that first shot, whatever it might be, the nerves go away at that point.
R: Wednesday in Milwaukee. Thursday in Minnesota. Friday in Milwaukee. Saturday in Nashville. And then Sunday afternoon in Milwaukee. How exhausted were you once that shootout ended? It even had to go all the way to a shootout for your final game in the stretch.
Aaron: I was pretty beat, but that’s ok. I just have to stay awake and keep the energy going. It’s not often that I sit down during a broadcast but I honestly admit that I sat down during half of the broadcast on Sunday afternoon. And I don’t normally do that. Just to try and keep the full sound of my voice, try to keep that as energetic as possible, because.. I don’t know if people could tell, maybe they could maybe they couldn’t, but I am hypersensitive and I thought my voice was sounding tired. So I decided that maybe if I sat down this would help the situation.
The tough thing was, after that, we had to tape a couple of segments for the radio show and then, because of our crazy travel that morning, my car was still at the airport in Milwaukee. I didn’t get home until about 6:30pm. That was obviously a little later than I hoped it to be but it was still ok. Had some dinner. Normally I go to be around midnight. I went to bed around 9:30pm that night.
R: What did you do on Monday? Get to soak in some good ol’ nothingness?
Aaron: Woke up at about, 8:30am. And just kind of hung out. Sat on the computer. Flippin’ channels. I have a guitar lesson that I didn’t practice too much for so I played some guitar yesterday. That was about it. Not a heck of a lot yesterday – which was just fine!
R: Were you able to see a lot of the outpour of support from, not just current Admirals, but past Admirals players? Guys like Michael Latta and Andreas Thuresson all seemed to be tuning in for your broadcast. I know Anthony Bitetto was another guy who was listening in just for you.
Aaron: Yeah. That’s awfully nice. I really appreciate that. I like to say that ‘so and so’ is in my top five Admirals of all-time. I think they all are in my top five favorites. We’ve probably had two-hundred people in here since I’ve been here and they’re all ranked near the top. There are some good kids that have come through here. And I certainly appreciate all of that. Especially all of the guys that have left and don’t have an allegiance to this organization anymore. That was quite flattering.
They’ve been great to me over the years. They’ve never said ‘no’ to an interview. They’ve never said ‘no’ to being on the radio show. It can probably be a little challenging at times to keep a smile on and do it, because, on a day off like a Monday when we do our radio show, they’d rather be doing something else at 6:15pm. But they always do it. So, for them to take a little more time and, even if they heard it or just say nice job, that meant the world to me.
R: With this first taste of the NHL, just like the players, does it have you thinking about any future work in the NHL or will Milwaukee always be your home?
Aaron: You know what – it’s funny. The dream gets altered as you get older and life happens. My wife and I are extremely happy, we love our house, and we love our neighborhood. With the Admirals, I can’t imagine working with better people. So I don’t know. You can’t say never. I can say that the dream was always to be in the NHL.
But I’ve told people all the time that I have the thirty-first best job in world. There are thirty teams in the NHL and then Milwaukee. But, honestly, I might have the “1-A” best job in the world. I get treated so well by these guys. It’s a great place to be. I’m not far from my family. But, we’ll see. That being said I did not grow up when I was 8-years old listening to Al Shaver call North Stars games.. I didn’t grow up thinking: man, if I could do Triple-A hockey that would be the best thing in the world. You always think you want to be in the NHL. You want to be at the top level. Players want to play with the best players and I think broadcasters want to call the games with the best players. I’m close right now I think. I’ve been here nine-seasons and I love it here. If I was here the rest of my life I’d be more than happy – I’d be ecstatic.
R: And I think you would probably get a bobblehead out of it!
Aaron: Yeah, we’ll see. I got the bottle opener so that was pretty special. The bottle opener was pretty good.
R: I remember having one of those with the battery either dead or dying and your voice getting distorted, It was very amusing to hear.
Aaron: One third of the batch came over with batteries that weren’t the best so we had to kind of weed them out. When they gave them out they ended up giving out extra batteries with them. There was one time where we played the bad ones. We played about seven of them at one time and that sound is, of those seven playing at the same time, that sound is what I’d imagine the decent into hell would sound like. It was something else.
R: How would you assess the Admirals season to this point?
Aaron: I think for the most part they’ve done pretty well. The team got off to that great start and ever since then it has kind of been, one up – one back, one up – one back. The good thing is that the lows haven’t been to low. Unfortunately the highs haven’t been very high. There hasn’t been this five, six, seven game winning slash point streak for this team – outside of the beginning of the season.
It would be great to get on a stretch like that once again. Guys like Sissons and Salomaki are playing beyond their years, beyond their experience. Moser has been great. Taylor Beck, since December, has been phenomenal. For the most part defensemen have been solid. There have been some breakdowns here and there but that’s why we’re in the AHL.
Goaltending has been good – across the board. I’m sure Magnus would love to have a better record than he does. It’d be great to get him healthy again. Scott Darling was been a fantastic addition and surprise to the team. And Mazanec as been very good too.
I’d like to say the team can figure out a way to get on a roll here in the near future. They just need to keep playing with some consistency, crash the net, and not have those lulls – and figure out a way to get ready at the start of a game. We saw, in the two games this last week against Hamilton and Utica, the team came out flat. At this time of year, you could say that would be easy to do. But this is a team that came off of a couple of days of rest and should be ready to go.
I’d like to think that the break came at a good time. Some bumps and bruises can be healed up a little bit. The mind can be refreshed. And really we have twenty-nine games to go. In year’s past we would have said there were thirty-five games or thirty-seven games left. It is a shorter sprint to the finish line this year and hopefully these guys are up for it.
R: I had actually talked with Kevin Henderson about plans during the break and he said some guys are looking to get some sun. I see players like Forsberg and Hellberg have taken to Florida for a mental health break. All in all, stuff like that is probably pretty good for the team.
Aaron: Yeah, league wide that’s happening and they should. Even in Nashville, I talked to Michael Del Zotto on the post-game show and he mentioned that he’s going to Cabo. So guys are getting away and they should. It’s a long season and there aren’t many breaks. When you finally get a couple free days take advantage of it. I hope that they are. And I hope they come back ready and refreshed and we can have a push like we did at the end of last season.
R: Who has been the most outstanding player up to the AHL All Star break? No need to single out any one player either. I’m torn between Sissons and Salomaki if I had to choose.
Aaron: There is no doubt that those two have been really good. Taylor Beck. There is a long list of guys that I think have been really good. I think Jarvinen has been pretty good. Joe Piskula has been very good I think. There are quite a few. I think Tousignant has been outstanding. Tousignant has brought exactly what this team thought he would deliver and maybe a little more. I think that has been a great addition to for this club. Saponari coming up from Cincinnati – he has also done a great job too – and he has proven that he can be a regular at this level. So there have been quite a few guys that I think have been outstanding. Certainly Miikka and Sissons would be at the top.
R: You bring up guys like Saponari and Darling, would those two probably rank among the top surprises of this season so far?
Aaron: I would think so. I think Darling for sure because we thought Pekka would be healthy and we never thought we’d have to see Scott play a lot in Milwaukee – and he just let his play do the talking once he did get in. That’s great. He’s a guy who never had a goaltending coach during the season before and now he does. And I think he is reaping the benefits of that. He’s showing that he can play in the AHL and play well in the AHL. If nothing else… he has earned, this year at least, a one-way AHL deal next year from some team if not a two-way NHL deal… of course he has to finish up strong but, based on what he has done so far, I think somebody has to pay attention. He’s a kid that was recruited and played two-seasons and two-seasons very well at one of the elite programs in North America in the University of Maine. He’s got to be up there for the surprises to the season.
Saponari had good numbers down at Cincinnati, he had good numbers in college, and I think a lot of people sort of knew what to expect from him – but he was sent down basically because of a numbers game. But I think it was a good thing for him because he got to go down and be a more offensive player rather than be inserted on a fourth line here where maybe he would have been a bit lost off the bat. I think he is playing in the right role and he’s getting power-play time and he has earned that.
Those guys are certainly at the top of that list and then I think Roussel is the other guy. They brought in Teddy Ruth who spent his entire professional career down in the AHL. He was also like Roussel – a second round draft pick. But Charles played his way into the lineup. There was an injury. And you can’t take him out. On nights where there are seven healthy defensemen – the Admirals have, on a few occasions, played seven healthy defensemen instead of a forward because Roussel has been that important to them this year.
R: If he comes back for a rehab stint, how special would it be for Pekka Rinne and the fans to see him back in an Admirals uniform?
Aaron: If this is what happens. First thing, Nashville needs to make sure he is healthy. I’m sure Pekka wants to comeback immediately. And if it takes coming to Milwaukee for some training.. for some game action.. then I think he would be all for it. He’s rated the top player of all-time in Milwaukee and it wasn’t just because of the way he played in goal it was because he was as accommodating and as nice to the fans and all of that that a player could be.
Here is a guy who, when healthy, is one of the best goaltenders in the world and there are no errors about him. If he needs to come down and play I’m sure he would welcome that opportunity to come down and play in Milwaukee and get some action and get some shots and work his way back up. He’s a guy that, if he did come down, it wouldn’t be a half-hearted effort. He would be out there trying to shut everybody out. He’d be working on his game certainly but not allowing any goals. He wouldn’t mail anything in. It would be thrilling. I think people would respond to that and it that would sell a few tickets if Pekka was in goal.
R: What do you expect from the second half of the Admirals season when we head towards the playoff push?
Aaron: I think we saw it last year, and there have been guys around these last couple of seasons for these playoff pushes that understand the importance of every game. I think you’re going to see a team that handles this in a very mature way. And I think you’ll see a team that will play closer to sixty-minutes than it has in the past few games. I expect nothing but another playoff push from this team and another playoff appearance from this team.
At the outset, I thought this was a special group. I thought the mix of veterans and young players, the people they had, the coaches staff, I thought it was a special group that could go a long way. Nothing has really changed my thought of that. I look at, Chicago has had Milwaukee’s number this season but all of those games have been one-goal games. The Admirals have played well against Grand Rapids and they’re arguably the best team in the league. They’re not what they were but the Admirals also beat them when they were at their best earlier this season.. Abbotsford is a team like that.. Texas is a team like that.. that the Admirals split with. The Admirals have played and beaten the best teams in the AHL – at least in the Western Conference. I think it is going to be a playoff run and I would like to think a deep playoff run.
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