This week the Binghamton Senators and Hamilton Bulldogs are staging a home-and-home series at their respective NHL team’s rinks for the third consecutive year.
Why do I bring up this fact?
In its brief history this miniseries has been extremely successful at the gate. At Scotiabank Place, the AHL Sens drew 8,427 for Hamilton’s 5-2 win over Binghamton on November 13. Meanwhile, in all five of Hamilton games played in Montreal, attendance has not dipped below 14,500 for any contest.
Obviously, Montreal and Ottawa are hockey-mad Canadian markets where just about any professional game would sell tickets, but with the addition of the Charlotte Checkers to the Midwest division, a new possibility has developed that Nashville and Carolina could potentially choose to exploit.
What if Milwaukee and Charlotte staged a home-and-home series in their respective NHL affiliate’s rinks, paired with a Nashville-Carolina series?
It is no secret that come this upcoming summer’s realignment, Nashville would favor a move into a division with the rest of the teams located in the geographic Southeast–this idea might help the cause.
Normally, a Nashville-Carolina game isn’t a marquee event that would draw sellouts. But this could draw interest with the fan bases of both Milwaukee and Charlotte, who could travel to attend a two-game combo–an AHL game in the afternoon combined with an NHL game at night.
With some luck Nashville vs. Carolina and Milwaukee vs. Charlotte could develop into a rivalry, with opposing tailgates to boot. The Predators and Hurricanes play often during the preseason, this would just take things a step further.
So Roundtable . . . What do you think? Is this idea too far-fetched, or would you be interested in a fan bus to Tennessee for a Milwaukee/Nashville combo day against Charlotte and Carolina?
For some reason, people still like to give Hockey’s Future some kind of credibility when it comes to scouting and writing.
Frankly, I think they fail miserably at both. If you have an Internet connection and can memorize the hockeydb.com URL, you have met the prerequisites for being a Hockey’s Future writer! Mazel tov!
They published something yesterday called the Nashville Predators Depth Analysis, Fall 2011. It was penned by a bloke named Evgeny Oliker.
I encourage you to read the whole abomination, but here are some cherry-picked highlights. Starting with a quote from the introduction.
During the past five seasons, the Predators have only had one forward surpass the thirty goal mark. A new fleet of forwards can change that history and write its own.
Changing history. Yep. Good luck changing things that have already happened. Unless Taylor Beck and Michael Latta will be playing the parts of Bill and Ted, and strange things will be afoot at the Circle K. (Who would Rufus be in this scenario? Stortini maybe?)
On Gabriel Bourque…
Now in his second season in the AHL, it will be crucial for Bourque to show that he can improve on those totals and continue to prove his doubters wrong.
Who are these doubters you speak of? And what exactly are they saying about him that he must disprove?
On Ben Ryan…
Ben Ryan’s professional career may be in jeopardy as his goal totals in the CCHA have dropped for the past few seasons.
Sorry Ben, your goal totals have decreased in the past few seasons at Notre Dame, including that one year you only played in 29 games… So much for being a professional hockey player. Anything that you actually do now as a pro is meaningless compared to your college stats. If only you could have scored two more goals your senior year, the Hockey’s Future writer would have lost his justification for ending your career.
On Juuso Puustinen…
Puustinen can be compared to current Predators forward Patric Hornqvist in terms of style of play. Like Hornqvist, Puustinen has a knack for scoring goals around the net and loves to shoot.
Puustinen can be compared to Hornqvist in terms of hair color and continent they were born on. I don’t think any of his five goals have been garbage goals around the net so far this year.
On Charles-Olivier Roussel…
Charles-Olivier Roussel is a great all-around defenseman who can contribute offensively, defensively and even play a physical game when needed.
I’m just going to re-write this one. Charles-Olivier Roussel is a defenseman. (pause). He was sent back to juniors for a 5th year because he’s not a very good defenseman. The fact that Hockey’s Future lists him as the 6th best prospect in the organization is really all the evidence you need to remove a level or two of credibility.
On Scott Valentine…
Scott Valentine is a very mean defenseman…
Okay, there was more to the sentence….it went on to say how many penalty minutes he logged last year, because OBVIOUSLY one’s penalty minutes is proportionate to one’s meanness quotient. But still. All you have to say about that guy is that he’s “very mean”? Was your source his 2nd grade teacher?
On Teemu Laakso…
The problem that Laakso faces is that he does not have any outstanding qualities.
I bet he’s a better writer than you are.
And finally, on Chet Pickard…
Chet Pickard was picked 18th overall in 2008. However, being picked that high can at times be a curse for a goalie.
Sure. Chet Pickard is cursed because of where he was drafted. Nah, I don’t think Chet is cursed. I think he lets in too many bad goals. That’s all, really. Yet they still have him higher on the prospect list than Jeremy Smith?
Hockey’s Future….Quantity Before Quality Content since 1998.
After a bad bounce led to a quick Barons score 30 seconds into the game, the Admirals scored three of their own in the first period, and cruised to a 3-2 win over the Oklahoma City Barons.
Coach Muller says it was a team win.
As previously alluded to, the Barons took the 1-0 lead just 30 seconds into the contest. As the Barons were entering the zone from the near side, Alex Plante sent the puck around the glass. Harmless enough, right? Jeremy Smith skated out behind the net to play the puck. Sounds logical, right? As the puck was about to reach Smith it hit a seam in the glass and shot out into the slot where Phillippe Cornet had what will be probably one of the easiest goals of his career. It was one of those, “what’ya gonna do” plays.
After the first goal it would have been easy for the Admirals to put their head down and say “it’s not our day again”. Instead they bounced right back with a Mark Van Guilder goal. At the 8:33 mark, Ryan Flynn had the puck behind the net with a defender crashing on him. Flynn dished a great pass to MVG who redirected it past David LeNeveu, tying the game at 1.
The Admirals wern’t done yet. They only needed 1:20 to light the lamp again. This time it was on the Mountain Fury Power Play. (Serioulsy where is our internet money Roundys? Pay up.) Ryan Ellis had the puck at the point and fired a rocket that was deflected in traffic. The puck was re-directed to the far circle where Juuso Puustinen put a slap shot on net to beat LeNeveu short-side and give the Ads a 2-1 lead.
But wait! There’s more! About a minute and a half later, the Barons’ Taylor Chorney had a pretty bad turnover — reminiscent of Roman Josi’s from the last game. Chorney tried to pass the puck up to a player on his own team, the puck wasn’t even close and instead found Kyle Wilson’s stick. Wilson skated in uncontested and fired a shot that beat LeNeveu to give the Ads their 3rd goal of the period.
Three goals in six minutes. Coach said it was good they capitalized when they did.
The Barons finally put up a crooked number with about four and a half minutes left in the game. Chorney had the puck at the point. He fired a shot on net that was redirected by Phillippe Cornet. The puck somehow found light behind Smith off the redirect and cut the Barons deficit to one.
That was as close as they would get as the Admirals held on for a 3-2 final.
Notes:
Some shuffled lines tonight.
Bourque – Mueller – Stortini
Wilson – Van Guilder – Flynn
Thang – Latta – Beck
Ryan – Lajunen – Puustinen
After the first 3 goals I thought David LeNeveu really played well. He had some HUGE saves; among them some dandies against Roman Josi.
The Barons recorded 17 official shots on net (a few were added after the game). That sure makes life easy for a goaltender when you can keep the other team from him.
The Barons were a team playing their third in three days, after playing the first two at home, splitting a pair of games with the Charlotte Checkers. They looked a bit tired. But that’s life in the AHL, Holmes.
Questions: Josi look better to you tonight? Like the new line combos? I don’t want to hear about the officiating…both teams got away with some stuff in the 3rd. Do you think the team was able to keep the pressure on over the last 45 minutes or did you see a form of the prevent defense out there? Ready to see Chicago again next Friday? What was the funniest thing a player said to you during the camera night festivities?
The fourth time was the charm for the Chicago Wolves. In their fourth meeting with the Admirals, the Wolves capitalized on a plethora of Milwaukee miscues, and came away with a 6-3 win.
The Wolves shutdown the Admirals offense over the last half of the game, and scored four of their own during that time to take the lead and then pull away in the final minutes.
Were the Wolves that good or were the Admirals that bad? I think it’s a combination of both. And Coach Muller says something along those lines.
Scott Ford, of all people, opened the scoring, finishing after some strong play in the offensive zone by Jani Lajunen. The Fin brought the puck in along the right wing, circled around the net, and tried to hit Gabriel Bourque with a pass in the slot. Colliding with a Wolf player or two, Bourque couldn’t control the pass, but the puck then came to Ford on the near point. Bourque kept going straight to the net to screen Matt Climie, and Ford’s shot made it through traffic for his first score of the year.
About 3 minutes later, Stefan Schneider sprung Kevin Connauton on a breakaway, right after the latter’s hooking penalty had expired. Both Ryan Ellis and Victor Bartley were caught up ice, and couldn’t catch up with Connauton, who beat Jeremy Smith.
Then came a wild second period.
Connauton scored his second of the game, taking a cross-ice pass from Darren Haydar on the power play. Wide. Open.
Roman Josi and Michael Latta then connected to tie the game at 2. Josi brought the puck all the way up ice in that very familar way for him, and tapped a pass over to Latta in the slot for the goal.
Latta scored his second of the game 27 seconds later. After a Zack Stortini shot from the point didn’t quite make it on Climie, the puck bounced right to Latta in the low slot.
The defense then took the rest of the period off.
Roman Josi, deep in his own zone, made a perfect pass to Nathan Longpre. After a short-distance give-and-go with Darren Haydar in front of the crease, Longpre scored his third of the year.
Then Tyler Sloan just handed the puck to Mark Mancari at the offensive blue line, springing him on a breakaway. That one ended up being the game winning goal.
4 goals. Smith hung out to dry on all of them. Still, it was a winnable game, and here’s the message Coach told the team in second intermission.
The Ads seemed to have a tough time getting anything going in the 3rd period, and credit the Wolves for that.
Mike Duco had a quasi-empty net goal with 1:27 to play, as Smitty had started to head to the bench, but saw the offense turn the puck over. Duco’s shot made it just past the stretched out reach of Smitty, as he was trying to get back to the crease.
Mark Matheson added an official empty-netter on a shot that was flipped just in front of the Chicago crease. The puck just barely beat Scott Valentine into the net.
———–
Lines
Thang – Lajunen – Bourque
Wilson – Mueller – Puustinen
Flynn – Van Guilder – Beck
Stortini – Latta – Ryan
Josi’s first game. We’ll start with Coach’s assessment.
Personally, I was surprised to see him in action so soon after being cleared to play. I thought they might have liked him to get his hockey legs back a bit before getting thrown to the Wolves. But there he was out there tonight.
A mixed bag I think. Lots of his shots were blocked, and there was his gaffe that led to the game-tying goal. But we saw some of the things that make Josi Josi — the smooth puck-carrier, the guy that has no panic in his game. Looks like he still needs to get used to playing with his new defensive partners, Valentine at even strength and Ellis on the power play. Hopefully it won’t take too long to get some of that chemistry.
Ellis was okay. He needs to be better than okay.
Yeah, Smith was hung out to dry. Would have been nice for him to come up with a save or two on those chances, but there were plenty of times he was bailing out his defenders at other points in the game. Tough one for Smitty. He deserved a better fate. The rest of the team didn’t.
Kyle Wilson was invisible. He was credited with three shots, though. So I guess the shot counter saw him.
Darren Haydar played like the Darren Haydar we know.
Oklahoma City comes to town tomorrow, so it’s a quick turnaround…which coach says is nice after a game like this one.
Discussion:
– Thoughts on Josi’s debut? – Were the defensive turnovers uncharacteristic, or have the d-men just done a better job concealing them over the season so far? – Did you like Valentine’s effort at the end of the game on the empty net goal? – Do you get the sense with Coach Muller’s quotes so far that he’s never too high after a win or too low after a tough loss? – For those of you who have seen them on the road…do they look like a different team at home? Getting too cute with the puck? – Looking forward to seeing Triston Grant tomorrow? Think he would drop the gloves against Fordo?
–
Your magnetic schedule, or your schedule pen, or your ticket may be showing today’s game as an afternoon matinee.
It’s not a matinee. Thanks to the NBA lockout, the game has been moved to 7pm.
If you do show up at 1pm, you will be treated to a couple of Concordia University hockey games, which will be nice. But the Admirals and Wolves will play at 7pm.
Happy Veterans Day. Even though this post is going to be a fluff piece, let’s not forget how important it is to recognize those who have served in any way in any of the Armed Forces. To those who served (including my father, who was a Marine), the words “thank you” really don’t seem like enough. But thank you.
Okay. On to the fluff now.
Happy 11-11-11 day. Raise a glass to all of the guys who have worn #11 for your Milwaukee Admirals over the years. If you have any good stories about some of the older guys on the list, we’d love to hear them.
(For all of your uniform number questions, please visit the wonderful resource that is Milwaukeehockey.com)
Chris Cahill
Mark Santorelli
John Vigilante
Kevin Ulanski
Paul Brown
Raitis Ivanans
Greg Koehler
Marc Moro
Jason Cipolla
Steve Tuttle
Richard Zemlak
Eric Murano
Terry Menard
Dwaine Hutton
Tim Loven
Jeff Larmer
Rick Dorman
Doug Robb
Don Madson
Jean Trottier
Yves Bernier
Mike Tardani
Paul Doud
Today the American Hockey League announced that four former players have been named to the Hall of Fame Class of 2012.
The inductees are: Joe Crozier, Jack Gordon, John Stevens and Zellio Toppazzini.
“These four individuals enjoyed significant careers and are legendary figures in the rich history of the American Hockey League,” said David Andrews, AHL President and Chief Executive Officer.” The AHL Board of Governors is pleased to support the selection committee’s recommendation for their induction into the American Hockey League Hall of Fame.”
Certainly this is an impressive list of inductees, though I am only familiar with John Stevens’ career both as a coach and player. The addition of these four members brings the AHL Hall of Fame list to 30 in total.
Though Milwaukee has only existed as an AHL franchise since 2001, I am curious to think about which former or current Admirals might eventually belong on this list. My two initial Milwaukee inductees would be Tony Hrkac and Darren Haydar.
So Roundtable, What do think? Which former or current Admirals would you select for the AHL Hall of Fame and why?
The road streak is now 22 straight regular season road games with at least a point in the standings, as the Admirals broke a 1-1 tie early in the 3rd period, and held on to defeat the Rivermen 2-1 Saturday night in Peoria. (Check out the Rivermen Blog recap here)
TJ Hensick served just 7 seconds of his elbowing penalty, as Kyle Wilson fired a shot past Ben Bishop after a great pass through the slot from Juuso Puustinen just 1:07 into the 3rd period.
The Admirals seem to have had a knack early in the season for striking in the first 10 minutes of the third period to either take the lead or increase a lead.
Ryan Ellis opened the scoring with his third goal in his last four games. Ben Ryan did the work in the corner, and then Michael Latta found Ellis at the far point. His shot through traffic beat Ben Bishop.
The Admirals outshot the Rivermen 16-7 in the first period…another strong start out of the gate.
In the second, the Rivermen tied the game with a power play goal by Jonathan Cheechoo. The veteran fed a bad pass into the slot that was blocked by Victor Bartley, but Jani Lajunen tried to stick-handle instead of get the puck out of trouble right away. As Lajunen was fumbling with the puck, Cheechoo slapped it past Jeremy Smith to even the score.
The Admirals took the lead back on Wilson’s goal, and then proceeded to kill off a couple of penalties, including a Ryan Thang penalty with 44 seconds remaining, giving the Rivermen a 6-on-4 advantage with Bishop on the bench. Smith stopped all 16 shots he faced in the third period, and held on to get his sixth win of the season.
———–
Oh yeah, there were 30 minutes of penalties assessed before the game was 10 seconds old. Zack Stortini and Anthony Peluso lined up against each other for the opening draw, cross-checked each other a couple times, and were sent to the box for 10-minute misconduct penalties before referee Shaun Davis even dropped the puck. So those two penalties came at the 0:00 mark of the first period. Then 10 seconds in, Scott Ford and Kyle Hagel dropped the gloves. Hagel did not return to the game, presumably injured in some capacity.
While Smitty was great at stopping shots, so was the iron behind him. The Rivermen hit at least two posts, and missed open nets on multiple occasions too. A bit snake-bitten, they were.
The college schedule continues…as the Admirals have the week to practice before a pair of home games next weekend against Chicago and Oklahoma City (and the return of Triston Grant!)
Remember that power play we talked about earlier this week?
The Admirals almost doubled their Mountain Fury power play conversions for the season tonight.
Three power play goals, a goaltender that was in the zone, and a defense that got their sticks on a lot of passes helped the Admirals skate away with a 3-1 win Friday night over the Charlotte Checkers.
Coach Muller was happy to see the hard work in practice this week pay off.
The special teams were certainly on display in the first period, as there were 20 minutes of penalty time just in the first frame alone, and plenty of power play time for both squads. The Admirals were able to kill off all their penalties, and scored on a pair of their own power plays.
Kyle Wilson got on the board first at the 13:15 mark of the period. After Chris Mueller carried the puck into the offensive zone, the puck got knocked off of his stick…right to Wilson who was trailing the play. His shot from the top of the far circle beat Checker goaltender Mark Murphy.
Two minutes later the Admirals cashed in again, this time on a two-man-advantage that actually looked like a two-man-advantage. Good puck movement, good decisions, and a bang-bang-bang play led to the goal. Juuso Puustinen with the pass from the point down to Wilson, who had the quick pass across the crease to Mueller for the goal. It’s a play we’ve seen so many times executed against us…what a treat to see that play work on our own power play.
Five-on-five hockey brought us some good chances on both ends, but better chances for Charlotte in the 2nd period. Jeremy Smith stood on his head until Chris Durno redirected a shot from the point past him.
Saying that Smitty stood on his head really is an understatement. We had run into a bunch of hot goaltenders earlier in the season, and Smitty was doing a great job tonight keeping the team in the lead. Coach liked his game too.
High marks also for Victor Bartley who blocked a slew of shots on the PK.
Bartley scored an insurance goal 8:15 into the period, with a shot from the slot that finished a give-and-go with Taylor Beck. It was exactly what the doctor ordered.
(Editors note: they just gave an assist to Bourque on the Bartley goal. Apparently for the scorers or whoever made the update after the game, it was a give-and-give-and-go)
Murphy spent the last 1:51 of the game on the bench, but the Checkers could get no closer.
NOTES:
Lots to like tonight.
– Obviously, the special teams were a step or two or ten notches above where they were last weekend. Bartley told us after the game that they knew the Checkers were good on special teams, and they knew what they needed to do to be effective against them.
– The Admirals were blocking shots and deflecting passes all game in their own end. Bartley was huge in those departments in the first period. And on the forecheck, I thought Jani Lajunen’s stick was a magnet for errant passes.
– Early in the 3rd period, I thought the Ads did a nice job picking up the physical play. Scott Valentine had some nice hits, and Scott Ford had a great hit up ice that led to his fight dance recital. Stortini’s fight wasn’t much to talk about, and the timing was odd….after a handpass call…but Durno apparently said the magic word to get it going.
– Thanger had an off-night. I don’t blame it on his cup of coffee with the Preds earlier this week. Just an off-night. I bet he’ll be back to his normal self tomorrow in Peoria. But I think there are a few chances from tonight that he’d like to have back.
– I didn’t care for Ben Ryan’s debut. Sutty says, “Who’s that?”. Sutty apparently doesn’t read the blog during the week. (Sutty says, “What blog?”). But it says something that Ryan was getting ice-time in the 3rd period, which is something Joel Champagne hadn’t received very often.
Ok Roundtable: Feel better about special teams now, or is it like a box of chocolates? We’ve gushed about Bartley for most of this post…who else impressed you tonight? What was your first impression of the Checkers? Ever seen that many penalties in the first period? Do you think the Admirals pull this one out if more of the game was spent 5×5?
So tomorrow night, the Admirals are going to do something they haven’t done since February of 2008.
They are playing a team whose hometown is east of Toronto.
We’ll be welcoming the Charlotte Checkers to the Bradley Center for their first of four visits.
Charlotte, having played two more games than the Admirals, find themselves at the top of the Midwest Division standings going into the game on Friday. And for some more insight on their team, we will once again call upon Jenni from the Chasing Checkers blog for a quick Q&A.
AR: What’s the biggest difference between this team and last year’s team that took down Wilkes-Barre and Hershey in the playoffs?
CC: The biggest difference between last year and this year is the performance of (goaltender) Mike Murphy. His play really took off during the last half of the season. He has this incredible level of confidence and play that is really a huge asset to the Checkers, where as last year there was a season long battle of who the number one goalie was. That debate was set to return this year between Justin Peters and Murphy, but with Peters early injury troubles and Murphy’s dominance, Murph is making a case for being the number one.
Additionally, the Checkers are just more experienced and have a core of guys who played together last year. The chemistry is apparent on all fronts.
AR: Have the Checkers been playing as well as their record in the standings suggests?
CC: Overall, the Checkers have had an impressive start. They are preventing scoring chances, and playing a style of hockey more reminiscent of playoff hockey then the sloppy stuff we usually see this early on in the season.
AR: If you were the GM of the Canes, who do you think deserves to be called up right now?
CC: If I called anyone up, it would be Brett Sutter, hands down. The Hurricanes organization is overflowing with scoring talent in the “young gun” category. Guys like Bowman, Dalpe, Boychuk, Jeff Skinner all have that speedy forward thing going for them, but Brett Sutter has grit. He’s a grinder, plays hard and aggressively every game, and has a skill set that is more valuable in a third or fourth line situation, which is what our call ups are usually fulfilling. Most of the young guys who have had a couple of games with the big club are getting five or six minutes a game and not really contributing in a way Brett Sutter could on the same line.
So Roundtable…how excited are you to see a new jersey for the first time in awhile?
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