Hey hey!

Business first — Hat tip to Dirk at On The Forecheck, who is reporting that Andreas Thuresson and Teemu Laakso have been placed on waivers.  We assume that the intention is that they’d end up being reassigned to Milwaukee.  But they’re out there now, and they can be claimed.

Dirk also takes it further to share that some other former Admirals are in the same boat with their new teams, including Nolan Yonkman, Triston Grant, and sadly, Hugh Jessiman…..who will still have to wait a little bit longer to get that last-in-his-draft-class-monkey off of his back.

Speaking of monkeys, I’m going to be a guest on the Admirals Center Ice Radio Show, tonight at 6 on Sportsradio 1250 WSSP.  It’s a big two hour extravaganza this week, and now that hockey is being played, Aaron and Woj will have LOTS to talk about.  So make it your business to tune in!

Expect some more roster moves later tonight, after the Preds pre-season game against Atlanta.

The Preds started today with 50 guys still in training camp.  They end the day with 38.

Their press release looked a little something like this…

Nashville Predators President of Hockey Operations/General Manager David Poile announced tonight that the club has assigned forwards Gabriel Bourque, Ryan Flynn, Mark Santorelli and Ryan Thang; defensemen Jonathon Blum and Roman Josi; and goaltender Jeremy Smith to Milwaukee (AHL). The Predators also sent forward Taylor Beck back to his junior team (Guelph, OHL) and released forwards Chris Mueller and Mark Van Guilder, and defensemen Scott Ford and Scott Lehman from Professional Tryout Agreements (PTOs).

Absolutely ZERO of that should be unexpected.  I think Josi is the only name on the list who may have been able to force his way onto the Preds opening night roster with a good training camp, but injuring one’s wrist in practice kind of put the damper on that.  And while not technically “assigned to Milwaukee”, Ford, Mueller, Van Guilder, and Lehman should be heading to town as well.

Still in camp for the Preds :

22 forwards, including  Jonas Andersson, Blake Geoffrion, Matt Halischuk, Linus Klasen, Sergei Kostitsyn, Jamie Lundmark, Cal O’Reilly, Nick Spaling, Andreas Thuresson, and Kelsey Wilson.

12 defensemen including Cody Franson, Aaron Johnson, Teemu Laakso, Grant Lewis, Brett Palin, Ryan Parent, Alexander Sulzer.

And 4 goaltenders, including Mark Dekanich, Anders Lindback, and Chet Pickard.

Admirals training camp opens on Tuesday, and I’m sure we’ll see some more names heading our way before then.  But for now, with Jeremy Smith in town, that bumps Aaron Sims and Wojo down to numbers 2 and 3 on the goalie depth chart.

The score won’t make Gary Bettman all that happy, but the end result was a win for the Preds. 2-1 over the Canes.

Again, our travel budget is….how you say…..minimal. So we couldn’t make it to Raleigh for the game. But you can read up about what happened in places like this.

Nuts and bolts are here.

Recap from On The Forecheck.

The view from Canes Country.

Section 303 looks ahead to tonight’s game against the Caps.  And they notice that there’s one player who will be playing his third game in three days…one of our favorites too.

Again, it doesn’t look like Dekanich was really tested that much, as he only faced 7 shots.  The one that beat him was on a 5×3 power play that the Canes reporter described as trickling by Dex (we’ve seen our fair share of those).  So tough to say how he helped or didn’t help his cause.  Lindback stopped all the shots he faced (10), and will get to play another half game tonight.

Honestly, I’m a little disappointed that they could only get two goals off of Justin Pogge — with one of them being gift-wrapped by Pogge himself.  The Admirals went 3-1 against him last season, and he didn’t look very sharp until the 4th game (a 2-1 decision over Chet Pickard).

He won't be sending Nick Boynton a Christmas card this year.  But it's good to see that his teammates have his back -- even in pre-season.

Well, it’s just pre-season, right?  Preds score first, but surrender three straight goals.  You can check out the box score here.

Here are some thoughts from Preds bloggers that attended the game, to give you an idea how things went.

cellblock303   Kelsey Wilson, after being hit while going back to bench, gets a roughing penalty while trying to start a fight w/ his instigator. #Preds

That sort of scenario sounds strangely familiar…

cellblock303 Kostitsyn-O’Reilly-Hornqvist generating some serious pressure each time they’re on the ice

Great news for Cal fans…but too bad his line didn’t put any in the net.  Cal did have three shots on goal, though.

cellblock303 Blum with a terrible giveaway in front of his own net, results in a 1-on-0 against Dekanich. Shot went wide. Wow that was bad.

Hear that sound?  That’s the sound of his plane ticket to Milwaukee being printed.

cellblock303 I’ll be shocked if Kelsey Wilson is here past Saturday.

Forechecker I think after tonight, Preds fans will be comfortable letting Beck, Ellis & Blum continue developing in junior & the AHL.

brandon_felder I do believe that Laakso has had the definition of a terrible game.

A couple of minor penalties (and one that led to the game winning goal).

predatweeter Good save from Dekanich on Staal, there. Mark’s not done his campaign for backup any harm tonight.

He only faced 7 shots in just under 18 minutes.  Obviously, I wasn’t there, but if he looked comfortable in net instead of playing whack-a-mole during the game, he may have made an ok case for himself tonight.

Rematch is Friday night @ Carolina.

The Preds have announced who will be on the 20 man roster for their opening pre-season game against Carolina on Thursday night.  Of the 50 players still in camp, the lineup includes 9 players who spent some decent time in Milwaukee last year, and one former Admiral who ditched us to play in Europe last year…(cough Kelsey cough)

These are the guys that are going to get the first crack at impressing the coaching staff in a live-game situation.  And rather than just list the names, I’ll also sprinkle in some commentary about how they’ve done in training camp so far, courtesy of Seth Lake at On The Forecheck.  I do encourage you to read his full report here and keep up with his analysis on that blog as training camp continues.

Jon Blum –  “I think (Francis) Bouillon has been a calming influence for his young partner Jonathon Blum and seems to keep things under control when he’s out there.”

Alexander Sulzer:  “Honestly, I haven’t noticed him that much.  He seems to be playing a simple game and not drawing attention to himself regularly.  Active at the blueline keeping pucks alive and making good outlet passes in transition.”

Andreas Thuresson:  “After making a very impressive NHL debut last season, Thuresson slid down the lineup and eventually back to Milwaukee due to a lack of refined offensive talent.  While he has shown glimpses of it, I haven’t yet seen enough yet to warrant a legitimate shot at making the NHL roster for opening night.  Still playing with a ton of energy and being physical at every opportunity, Thuresson must improve his consistency at the offensive end of the rink to make it as a full time NHL player.”

Blake Geoffrion: “Had an excellent performance yesterday working primarily with Colin Wilson throughout the drills, but faded quietly into the background this afternoon in the scrimmage.  Will likely see some preseason action which will present him another opportunity to make an impression on the coaching staff in a game situation, but after today’s action I can’t help but think Geoffrion is heading to Milwaukee and there’s no problem with that.”

Nick Spaling:  “One of my biggest criticisms of Spaling last season though was his lack of confidence with the puck.  After two days I’m impressed with his improvement in that area and believe he could potentially force his way onto the roster again this season, likely at the expense of Jerred Smithson.”

Cal O’Reilly:   “Unfortunately, O’Reilly doesn’t appear to have a roster spot among the top 12 forwards right now and with Wade Belak potentially taking up one of the two remaining spots…Cal O’Reilly is in an absolute dogfight to make the opening night roster and avoid being placed on waivers to start the season.  It’s just a numbers game, but with Lombardi, Legwand, Goc, Smithson or Spaling, and Wilson already being on the roster…I’m just not sure where O’Reilly fits in. Good news for him though was that Kevin Allen reported today that Trotz plans on keeping Wilson on the wing this season, which could effectively open up a roster spot for O’Reilly and put a wing like Kostitsyn or even Belak on the chopping block.”

Kelsey Wilson:  “was playing very recklessly in Monday’s scrimmage trying to put people through the boards with every hit, viciously boarding one of the defensemen on the forecheck, and running the goalie twice.  Exchanged words and several jabs with Jordin Tootoo on Monday after running Jeremy Smith, but couldn’t bait Tootoo into a fight.  Sorry, but not leaving me with a good impression.  There’s a difference in a guy trying to make an impression by playing tough and a guy simply playing recklessly with little care for the welfare of his opponent.  I think Wilson’s pushing that line too far right now for my tastes.”

Also playing Thursday:  Mark Dekanich, Cody Franson, Teemu Laakso.

As for discussion (this is supposed to be a roundtable, after all), what do you think Cal O’Reilly’s fate is going to be?  Even if he does have a nice camp, do you see him sticking with Nashville?  Do you think he would clear waivers and make an encore appearance in Milwaukee?

Here’s the first list of players that have been invited to the Admirals training camp that will open next week.  Do any of them have a chance to make the opening night roster?  Absolutely.  Wacey Rabbit was on this list last year, and ended up playing in 76 regular season games.  But most of them will return to the ECHL team that they are already signed with for this year.

It’ll look like more of a full roster when Nashville makes their first set of cuts, which are expected this weekend.

But here is some info on the new guys.  I encourage you to make up some bad-ass nicknames for them.

RJ Anderson (D) — 2004 draft pick of the Flyers, Anderson was a Golden Gopher for four years, he played under Ian Herbers when he was the coach in Johnstown.  Some decent offense from Anderson last year, as he had 43 points in 65 games.  He is signed to play with Elmira this year.

Julien Brouillette (D) — Spent two full seasons in the ECHL before splitting time between the E and the A last season. Played 24 games with Hartford and Providence.  Signed to play with Greenville this year.

Wes Cunningham (LW) — 5th leading scorer for the Elmira Jackals in the ECHL last year.  Signed to play with Greenville this year.

Kevin DeVergilio (C) — Spent 4 years at St. Lawrence University, and split last season between Idaho of the ECHL and the Texas Stars.  With Idaho, he had 18 goals and 20 assists in 48 games.

Chad Painchaud (RW) — Former Atlanta Thrashers 2004 draft pick, he has bounced around a lot between the E and the A over the last few years, playing for Gwinnett, Chicago, Bakersfield, Iowa, Victoria, and Manitoba.  When in the E, he has put up some nice offensive numbers, including 30g/38a last season.

Brett Robinson (F) — Was part of the championship Cincinnati Cyclones team last year, and had the second most goals for the squad in the playoffs.  Signed to play in Cincy again.

Jean-Claude Sawyer (D) — Former Minnesota Wild draft pick in 2004, he played in Toledo last season, and put up a stat line of 23g/38a.  Signed to play in Cincy this year, so if he makes a good impression, we may see him again later.

Connor Shields (F) — Another smart guy….played for Dartmouth.  5 games in the AHL last year, 70 with Johnstown in the ECHL, and scored 28g/34a.

In addition, a couple of guys that signed PTO’s during the season last year will be in camp.  Dylan Hunter and Mike Bartlett are signed to 2-way contracts already.

You’ll notice no goaltenders on the list.  So until further notice, Wojo and Aaron Sims will be tending goal.  Nah, we’re likely to get a couple of goalies when Nashville makes their cuts this weekend.

Question is — which ones will they be?  Dekanich, Pickard, Lindback, or Jeremy Smith?  What do you think?

So most of the news is currently happening in Nashville.  So for a short while, we’re going to outsource for some content!

Read up on Preds training camp in places like these:

Aaron Sims had a conversation with Admirals assistant coach Ian Herbers.  Check out his latest blog entry here!

An opinion about the race to backup Pekka Rinne this year.  Mark Dekanich supposedly is the early favorite.  And Dex has our favorite quote about “The road to Nashville…..”  Get ready to hear that about 242 more times over the course of the season.

Are you in to Twitter?  If you are, you should follow us @adsroundtable.  But also follow @SLakePreds , as he’s tweeting from the scrimmages at training camp today.  SLake (aka Seth) is brought to you by the good people at On The Forecheck.

And we should have some news a little later today about the Milwaukee opening training camp roster… Stay tuned!

Welcome to the ribbon-cutting post of a new blog.

Here’s a quick introduction, and an explanation on what you should expect from the this exciting new project.

My name is Ryan Miller, and for the last two seasons, I contributed to the Admirals Short Shifts blog at Sportsbubbler.com, and then eventually JSOnline.com.  The blog was shut down at the end of last season, as the authors were suffering from symptoms related to an ailment known as “burnout”.

But that left a void in the Admirals web-universe.  We had a great community of hockey fans that posted their thoughts on a regular basis at the Short Shifts blog.  And it is the mission of this new blog to provide Admirals fans a similar outlet, while not keeping me at the rink until 11pm transcribing quotes and writing game recaps.

Let me be clear:  This is not going to be Short Shifts Part II.  The cast is going to be different, and the focus is going to be different.  While Short Shifts was more of a snarky-beat-writer kind of format, this blog is intended to be news and discussion driven.

Some things may be the same….there may be some running jokes, we may still give Mark Santorelli a hard time, and we may be able to coax Eric Kent out of retirement to create an April Fools Day post for the ages.  But first and foremost, this is intended to be an outlet for you to speak your mind about the local hockey team that you love, and hopefully you will feel inclined to contribute often to the roundtable.

So update your bookmarks!  And let’s get this show on the road!

More to come….