The Admirals are going to see if lightning can strike twice.
Chet Pickard has been reassigned to the Cincinnati Cyclones of the ECHL, after starting this season 0-3-1, and not having won in his last 13 decisions dating back to last season.
This isn’t uncharted territory, as Mark Dekanich had a similar demotion last season. He played two games for the Cyclones at the start of December, and he gave up just one goal over those two games.
Dekanich then won his next five games for the Admirals when he arrived back in Cream City, and was noticably more comfortable in net.
So here’s hoping Chet has a productive stint in Ohio. The Cyclones play Friday, Saturday, Tuesday, and then Wednesday. We’ll keep you posted on his performance this weekend.
Meanwhile, Jeremy Smith has been recalled to Milwaukee, likely to be in charge of opening the bench door.
Chet Pickard has now lost 13 straight decisions, the latest a 4-3 loss in Chicago last night.
For his last win, you need to go back to February 5th, 2010. He still gave up 3 goals to the Houston Aeros in that game, but the Admirals provided him with 5 goals of support, including staking him to a 3-0 lead in the first 25:04 of the game.
So has it been a case of lacking offensive support in those 13 losses?
Partially. The Admirals have averaged exactly two goals per game over those 13 losses. And if you take out the 5 goals they scored in a game last season that Pickard lost after relieving Mark Dekanich, that’s a 1.75 goals per game average over the other 12 games. So the lack of offense has certainly made it a little more challenging for Chet.
Tough luck? Maybe a little bit. But Chet needs to be able to make his own luck sometimes. And when we’re throwing around words like “softie”, “unacceptable”, “stoppable”, and “weak” to describe the goals he’s allowing, he can be his own worst enemy too.
We’ve seen the talent. But the confidence has got to be…let’s say…on the low side.
So Roundtable — what do we do about Chet?
– Have him spend some time in Cincy? Worked well for Mark Dekanich last season. – Have him spend some quality time with Mitch Korn this week? – Practice, practice, practice, and just be ready for next game? – Other _______________ (be creative)
Teemu Laakso has been returned to the Admirals. He did manage to get into a game while he was in Nashville, playing 2:43 against Dallas on a night when the Preds dressed seven defensemen.
The Preds don’t play again until Thursday, so if Ryan Suter isn’t ready to come off the IR by then, they may call someone up again to be the 7th defensemen. Or they might roll with the 6 they have and hope that nothing freaky happens.
As for the Admirals, this may slide Scott Lehman back to being a healthy scratch.
The Admirals almost fought back from a four goal deficit but fell a goal shy, losing 4-3 to the Wolves in Chicago. The Ads have now lost to the Wolves three different ways with a loss in regulation, overtime and a shootout.
(Video highlights in the comments section of this post)
Following the loss, coach Lane Lambert said they would be “assessing” Chet Pickard’s performance over the next couple of days, but he didn’t want to discuss Pickard’s future from there. Pickard allowed three goals in less than four minutes in the second period, two of which were unacceptable. When you add in that he has now lost thirteen straight games (counting the 09-10 season) the coming days may include a trip to Cincinnati for Chet.
Chicago’s Fredrik Pettersson notched the only goal in the first period for either team, scoring five-hole at 5:41 of the first. The Ads weren’t as sharp as in the previous games but still had their share of opportunities.
However, that fight disappeared quickly when Jared Ross beat Pickard glove side with a slapshot from above the top of the circle at 13:59 of the second. The Wolves from that point through the end of the second period controlled play. Darren Haydar scored at 15:33 and Andre Deveaux beat Pickard at 17:48 to give the Wolves a 4-0 lead entering the third.
Coach Lambert talks about how deflating the second period was…….
Lambert said the team heard the message loud and clear during the second intermission and responded quickly. Linus Klasen continued his hot start to season scoring top shelf on the power play just 52 seconds into the third period. The snap shot that rang off both posts before crossing the goal line was assisted by Blake Geoffrion and Jonathon Blum.
Less then three minutes later the Ads caught a break when Gabriel Bourque took advantage of Wolves goaltender Edward Pasquale misplaying the puck behind his net. Bourque was able to wrap around the vacated net to score and make a game out of it at 3:22 of the third.
Andreas Thuresson’s goal at 16:02 brought the Ads one step closer when he received a Blake Geoffrion pass in the slot and one-timed his shot past Pasquale. The play was made with Klasen hustling to beat out a close icing call, and Klasen then moved the puck to Geoffrion who found Thuresson.
The Ads continued to pressure the Wolves but ended up on the wrong side of a interference call with 1:51 left in the third. Steve Begin, in his first game with Milwaukee, cut through the offensive slot and ran over a Wolf player. Here’s Lamberts opinion on the call……
With the penalty the Ads had a couple of shots but no serious chances with the goalie pulled but still playing 5 on 5.
Pickard finished the game with 31 saves and Pasquale turned away 28.
All in all the Ads took two out of three games over the weekend and made a comeback in a game that they could have rolled over in. Here’s coach’s take on the weekend…..
The Abbotsford Heat had very little momentum for the majority of the game. And when they did manage to get some momentum, the Admirals were able to answer back.
With the Admirals opening the 3rd period with a 2-0 lead (similar to last home game against Chicago), Abbotsford center John Armstrong scored just 1:47 into the frame. He took down Jon Blum along the near boards, picked up the loose puck, and fired a perfect shot over a well positioned Mark Dekanich.
21 seconds later, the Admirals zapped all the momentum out of the Heat.
Ads defenseman Brett Palin took a shot from the point that deflected off Linus Klasen en route to the net, giving Klasen his 6th goal of the year.
Coach Lambert says the huge goal came from sticking to the game plan.
Klasen also assisted on the Admirals first goal, a power play marker that also went in on a deflection. Klasen and Jamie Lundmark were at the point, and Klasen fed the puck over to Lundmark, whose slapshot went off a Heat defender and into the net.
Coach Lambert has great things to say about Klasen….and so does Linus Klasen.
I like the confidence. A lot.
Mark Dekanich looked like a #1 goalie tonight. And I’ve been hesitant to use that kind of language with him up to this point. But he played a helluva game. His rebound control was outstanding. There was a breakdown in the second period when a shot was deflected on its way to the net. He stayed with the deflection, and stuck a quick right pad out to stop a couple more follow-up shots.
But it wasn’t just Dekanich, as coach was happy to point out.
– Scott Lehman played his first game of the season, and I think he held his own pretty well. He wasn’t afraid to be physical.
– Scott Ford…another awful fight, and he somehow got an extra two for roughing out of it. At least he didn’t get his face bloodied up this time.
– Mark “The Proof” Santorelli scored his second of the year. He was leading a two-on-one rush, and his shot went off of Leland Irving’s glove and in the net. Great to see The Proof on the scoresheet, but wow….that was a very weak goal for Irving.
– So far so good for the first 3-games-in-3-days stretch of the season. It’s a matinee in Chicago tomorrow afternoon, and the Wolves will be playing in just their second straight day. They lost in OT to Rockford Saturday night. Coach Lambert looks ahead to the game.
OK Roundtable — Here are some questions for you.
1) Got our first chance to see Jamie Lundmark. First impressions? 2) We know the offense that Klasen can provide. Do you think he’s holding his own on defense? 3) After two straight solid performances by Dekanich….would you play him again tomorrow? 4) Who will get benched in favor of Steve Begin tomomrrow? 5) Give us your unsung hero for the game.
Still waiting for the official release to hit the presses, but defenseman Teemu Laakso has been recalled by the Predators.
UPDATE 1:07pm, Joshua Cooper from the Tennessean is tweeting that “Preds recall Teemu Laakso from Milwaukee per a team release.” So it’s officially official now.
With road games on Saturday and Sunday, Nashville has apparently elected to carry a 7th defenseman on the roster.
While Laakso has had a nice start to the season, playing some solid D and contributing offensively to the tune of four assists in five games (that ties him for 3rd on the team in points), raise your hand if you are surprised that it’s not Aaron Johnson getting the call?
I’m raising my hand.
Johnson hadn’t played very well in his first four games, but he did play his best game Friday night in Grand Rapids. Still, I thought his NHL experience would trump the underwhelming early season play.
If Laakso is up for the weekend, the Ads should still be fine on the defensive side of things, as it may open up the door for Scott Lehman to suit up for the first time this year. And if Laakso is up for awhile, we’ll still be fine, as reports are saying that Roman Josi may be ready to go in about another week.
Game two of the Admirals’ first 3-in-3 set is tonight at the Bradley Center.
More update — Josh Cooper (who is still pretty awesome) has a blog post out there saying that part of the reason for Laakso’s call-up is due to some defensemen who are a little under the weather. He may or may not play, but it’s good to have the flexibility just in case Cody Franson is horking up his lunch.
Milwaukee started their three games in three days on the positive side with a 3-2 victory over Grand Rapids. It wasn’t a pretty game for either side but the Ads defense and goal-tending stepped up and earned two points on the road
Dekanich played well in his first game since being recalled to the Ads and made crucial saves in the closing minutes. Dekanich ended the night with 24 saves.
Linus Klasen scored the game winner for the Ads after a sloppy first period.
The Ads led after the first period 2-1 and carried that lead into the third. Three minutes into the third Griffins Jan Mursak scored a shorthanded breakaway goal off of a Blum mistake.
Couple things that stand out from this game:
Ads finally able to score that key third goal.
Dekanich strong in return.
Klasen a goal scorer but how will the rest of his game develop as the season progresses?
Milwaukee heads back home tomorrow to face the Abbotsford Heat at 7 p.m.
(Hat-tip to ManInTheBox for pointing me to this story.).
The Copper And Blue blog is the Oilers version of Ontheforecheck.com . The Oilers AHL team is the Oklahoma City Barons, a team that one might argue stocked up on 4A players, and spent some good cash to get them.
Some payrolls are high due to one-way contracts — Michael Nylander is making 3-mil to play in Rochester this year. But even taking him out of the equation, Rochester is still paying two players over $200,000.
The Wolves have 8 players making over $100k. Patrick Rissmiller (you may remember him from the game tying goal on Friday night) is making a million, Jason Krog is making $550k, Drew MacIntyre at $500k, and Darren Haydar 200k. Does this make them the Yankees of the division?
Just the salaries of Rissmiller and Krog eclipse that of the entire Admirals roster.
Tough to find any kind of correlation between payroll and team performance so far…we’re just too early in the season and the sample size is way too small. But let’s revisit this after teams play about 20 games. I’m hopeful that the smaller payrolls will make some noise and that playing with heart will elevate their performance. Tough to say how much heart 4A players still have once they’ve realized that they’re likely to be 4A players for awhile.
One of the few drawbacks of playing hockey in the AHL is the occurrence of three game stretches played in three nights. As marquee draw in many of the league’s markets, maximizing the amount of weekend dates is a must.
How a coach like Milwaukee’s Lane Lambert handles the three in three can make or break a season.
“In the games we as coaches have to manage our players and manage our ice times a little bit more,” Lambert said. “We also have to look at potentially putting other players into our lineup and switching it up a little bit over the course of the weekend.”
October 23-25 marks the first of eight of those such occasions for Milwaukee on the schedule, with a road game at Grand Rapids, home game against Abbotsford and a road game at Chicago. Managing goaltenders properly is perhaps the most difficult variable Lambert has to deal with during the long weekend.
“We will play both goaltenders,” Lambert said. “As far as how the rotation goes I haven’t decided yet, but (Mark) Dekanich will start in Grand Rapids and we will go from there.”
As stressful as a three in three can be for a coach, it can be exhausting for a player. College teams only play a long weekend during the conference playoffs in a best two out of three situation.
Therefore it will be a big adjustment for rookies like Blake Geoffrion.
“Three games in three nights is something I have to get used to,” Geoffrion said. “It requires recovering properly so you can play at your best each night.”
So Roundtable, I ask you, what do you think Milwaukee should do to maximize their chances for success this weekend? Rotate the goalies or stick with the hot hand? Change up the lineup every night or stick with what is working?
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