If you’re like me you find yourself every now and then forcing yourself to stop and think about a certain player to really appreciate just how good they are. Juuse Saros is one of those special types of talents. He arrived for his first professional season of North American hockey last year as a member of the Milwaukee Admirals in the AHL and never showed any signs of struggling to adapt to a brand new style of hockey. He was only 20-years old last season and made that leap look effortless. To put it bluntly. That doesn’t happen.
Saros is where he is now because that’s how good he is. It’s just that simple. He works so incredibly hard and puts tremendous amounts of time in away from the rink to hone in what he needs to do to be a success on the ice. The results as a member of the Admirals say enough about that. In his AHL career he went 42-10-0-0 from 53 career starts with a 2.13 goals against average, 0.924 save percentage, and 5 shutouts. That is an AHL career winning percentage of 79.2%.
You knew it was time for Saros to be given the nod with the Predators as a back-up when on 11/17/16 he earned a 35-save shutout for the Admirals in a 1-0 road victory over the Cleveland Monsters after having been stationary for just shy of two weeks without game action. That is how good, how prepared, and how mentally strong he already is as a 21-year old.
Saros now finds himself backing up a fellow Finn in Pekka Rinne. The two share a very great goaltending tandem relationship and one that extends away from the rink, as well. Rinne houses Saros as well as another Finn in the form of Miikka Salomäki. Rinne helps his young teammates out whenever he can and sets a great example of not only how to be a professional on the ice but off of it. For as talented as Saros is at such a young age having someone like Rinne around to assist in that respect could pay dividends for the years to come.
Cheers to the Nashville Predators and Juuse Saros for providing me the time to hear from our ol’ Milwaukee Admirals player all grown up! Based on fan voting tomorrow we’ll be hearing from Calle Järnkrok followed by Anthony Bitetto and Miikka Salomäki on Monday.
The Milwaukee Admirals won 5-3 on the road against the Grand Rapids Griffins at the Van Andel Arena on Friday night.
It is always a beautiful thing for the Admirals to escape the dreaded House of Horrors in Grand Rapids with a win but they ended up making this game far more terrifying than it had any right to be. The Admirals jumped to a 4-0 lead only to see the Griffins rally back with three third period goals. The game would get sealed with an Adam Payerl empty netter to finally relieve the tension to see the Admirals extend their winning streak to four games.
After a lackluster first period that saw mostly chances for the Griffins go begging things didn’t intensify until the next frame. Adam Payerl and Dan Renouf started the second period off with a scrap. There weren’t too many punches that clearly landed but the most obvious one that did was an over-hand right by Payerl. That’s enough to give him the win in my fight card, anyways.
Past the midway point in the contest the Admirals found the first breakthrough. Frédérick Gaudreau was racing down the slot with the puck which scattered back behind him where Anthony Richard popped a low shot to the net. Gaudreau continued his run and was able to get the rebound from Jared Coreau’s left pad save with a backhander to record his fourteenth goal of the season.
In the final minutes of the second period the Admirals added another tally to make it a 2-0 lead. Trevor Murphy was racing around the boards when he decided to push a puck towards the net front area from the left wing corner. Murphy’s shot appeared to hit off the leg of defenseman Brian Lashoff and everyone around the net lost sight of the puck. That is everyone except Justin Kirkland who was quick to poke the loose puck in for his sixth AHL goal of the season.
The hot run for Gaudreau would continue with a beauty of a goal for his second of the night. Richard was gliding down the left wing as Gaudreau was opposite wing with two defenders around them. Richard lofted a pass up towards the net and it looked like Coreau might get a glove to it but Gaudreau batted it out of mid-air to notch his fifteenth goal of the season.
Pontus Åberg then followed Gaudreau’s footsteps by tallying his fifteenth goal of the season, as well. Petter Granberg ripped a low shot from the right wing wall that kicked out for Matt White to go digging for a rebound. As it so happens that rebound opportunity ended up shifting to the left side of goal for Åberg to collect the goods and give the Admirals a 4-0 lead.
The Griffins would draw one back after getting 1:27 worth of five-on-three power-play time. Their approach was rather straight forward: shoot the puck. Eventually Matt Lorito setup a backdoor feed for Mitch Callahan from the low left wing for a one-timer that Marek Mazanec had little hope to stop. The goal was Callahan’s fourteenth scored this season.
The run for the Griffins would continue as Tomas Nosek flew around the endboards and dished a pass into the net front area where Martin Frk was able to get a one-timer off and then secure his own rebound to earn his nineteenth goal of the season.
It then shockingly became a one-goal game as the Griffins scored their third goal in the space of 5:35 of ice time to make it a 4-3 Admirals lead. Yevgeni Svechnikov appeared to vault Jack Dougherty from the back into Mazanec. In the scramble that followed Tyler Bertuzzi whipped a low backhander past the Czech netminder just as he was settling back into the cage. There was no fuss made for goaltender interference and it isn’t even reviewable in the AHL. That meant Bertuzzi had himself his ninth goal of the season.
The ending was a bizarre one. The Admirals had a power-play with 3:14 remaining in regulation. As that was starting to roll along Trevor Smith would tangle up slightly with former Admirals defenseman Conor Allen who proceeded to throw right haymakers to the face of the Admirals captain. The resulting penalties saw the Admirals go on a two-man advantage and Allen exit with a misconduct.
It would have been nice for the Admirals to treat the resulting five-on-three power-play like exactly what it is but they instead proceeded to play a game of keep away. The Griffins killed the penalty off and then had the chance in a one-goal game to go empty net and extra attacker to push in the dying seconds for overtime. Thankfully Adam Payerl helped to see that not be the case as his empty netter would result in the final score to make it a 5-3 Admirals win in Grand Rapids tonight. Payerl has now set a career high this season in points scored in the AHL with thirty and his empty netter matched his career high goal total from a season ago with his thirteenth.
Tomorrow night the Admirals are back in action, same time and same place, against these very same Griffins. I suspect that the “rest vs. rust” factor will be a non-issue as they lock horns tomorrow so the Admirals are going to need to do a bit better job knuckling down for a win than they did at the end of this contest. It was far closer than it needed to be.
Ramblings: Since the Milwaukee Admirals last played on Sunday there were no roster moves made by the organization. Tonight’s line combinations were: White-Smith-Åberg, Richard-Ribeiro-Gaudreau, Kirkland-Kamenev-Payerl, Florek-Army-Liambas, Oligny-Carrier, Murphy-Granberg, O’Brien-Dougherty. Tonight’s lone scratch was Adam Pardy who missed his fifteenth straight game after suffering a compound fracture to his left arm. Mike Ribeiro recorded three assists in tonight’s contest. The last three-games that the Admirals won in Grand Rapids came with the Griffins starting goaltender in on a conditioning assignment.
What is your reaction to tonight’s game? Did the Milwaukee Admirals get a solid result tonight with this win over the Grand Rapids Griffins or did that finish take some of the edge off? What will the Admirals need to do tomorrow to slow down the attack of the Griffins that almost saw a 4-0 lead evaporate late tonight?
While I might be on the road in Nashville this week that doesn’t mean I’m ignoring Priority #1: the Milwaukee Admirals. Yes, the schedule has opened up rather nicely this past week for the group but they are going to need those rest days.
Tonight and tomorrow the Admirals will be playing against the Grand Rapids Griffins on the road. That will be quickly followed up with a two-in-two, Tuesday and Wednesday, on the road to see last weekend’s enemy of choice – the Charlotte Checkers. For as great as the down time was for the Admirals at the start of the week it all gets a bit cramped as far as road travel in a quick space of time. And it starts in grandiose fashion.
This weekend’s match-up is a very big test for the Admirals. They may have swept their three-game homestand but they did so while shooting themselves in the foot along the way. The Griffins simply aren’t a team that will let mistakes like that slide while creating many of their own. What the Admirals need to do this weekend is more of what made their comebacks a success: be direct, play North-South, and go to the net.
The Griffins enter this weekend’s two-in-two against the Admirals with a record of 34-14-1-2 (71 points, 0.696 points percentage). That has them seated atop the Central Division ahead of the Chicago Wolves (0.627) and Admirals (0.625). The only team with a better record in the Western Conference than the Griffins right now are the San Jose Barracuda (0.717) who are currently riding a 12-game winning streak.
On the Griffins roster they certainly don’t lack for offense. They have seven players with 30 points or more and AHL All-Star defenseman Robbie Russo is a point away from adding to that. The Admirals, by comparison, only have 4 players at that plateau.
As far as the top scorer title goes for the Griffins it is currently being shared. Ben Street has 40 points (16 goals, 24 assists). Matt Lorito has 40 points (14 goals, 26 assists). The difference between the two players can best be summed up with Lorito having played 3 games less than Street.
In net the Griffins have Jared Coreau back on a conditioning assignment as the Detroit Red Wings begin their NHL mandated bye-week. The 25-year old played 13 games with the Red Wings this season but has played the bulk of time as part of the Griffins in the AHL: 11-6-0-0 record from 17 appearances, 2.18 goals against average, 0.924 save percentage, and a shutout.
What are your expectations for the Milwaukee Admirals this weekend on the road against the Grand Rapids Griffins? How big of a moment will these two games against the Griffins be for the Admirals as far as the season is concerned?
If you’ve been following along with the feature interview series “Fifteen” this season you may have noticed an extremely common theme. The funniest player that everyone has played with in their careers has come this season in the form of Harry Zolnierczyk.
When I last saw Zolnierczyk was after a practice at the UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena. I gave him a small head nod as he walked out the building. Then, moments later, he raced back in. He had just been informed that he was being recalled by the Nashville Predators. We spoke briefly before he left the second time and the general conversation went as follows: So, you’re going up? “I think they just need an extra body for a road trip or something.” Well, congrats. I think that team could use your speed and energy about now.
That happened on January 2nd and the man they call “Z” hasn’t been back in Milwaukee since.
The 2016-17 season to date for Zolnierczyk has him playing 24 games in the AHL with the Admirals where he has scored 16 points (6 goals, 10 assists) and, following last night’s Predators game, 18 games in the NHL with the Predators where he has produced 3 points (1 goal, 2 assists). It is the first time since the 2013-14 season as a member of the Pittsburgh Penguins that Zolnierczyk has logged more than 10 games in an NHL season.
Cheers to the Nashville Predators and Harry Zolnierczyk for providing me the time to hear from our ol’ Milwaukee Admirals player all grown up! Coming up today will be practice at the Bridgestone Arena at 12 PM CST. Hoping to round off what will be the last day of “Catching Up” interviews as the weekend slate for the Predators will be game action only.
Vern Fiddler‘s return to the Nashville Predators was a move that just felt right for a number of reasons. He is a well respected veteran who still delivers the grit and grind you want when the going gets tough come playoff time. His pro career started with the Roanoke Express of the ECHL as well as the -other- Admirals in Norfolk in the 2001-02 season. Yet, when things started climbing upwards into the NHL career that he’s had it begins with the Nashville Predators and Milwaukee Admirals organization the following season.
Admirals fans will always remember Fiddler as being part of the 2003-04 team that helped win the Calder Cup. He produced 24 points (9 goals, 15 assists) in 47 games that season and then 8 points (5 goals, 3 assists) in 22 games during the Calder Cup Playoffs en route to winning it all.
In Fiddler’s Admirals career he played 185 games, tallied 97 points (38 goals, 59 assists), and accumulated 232 penalty minutes. He has now played 865 career games in the NHL and continues on with his NHL career with the team that he started it with in Nashville.
Cheers to the Nashville Predators and Vern Fiddler for providing me the time to hear from our ol’ Milwaukee Admirals player all grown up! Coming up today will be practice at the Bridgestone Arena at 12 PM CST. Hoping to round off what will be the last day of “Catching Up” interviews as the weekend slate for the Predators will be game action only.
Whenever you bring up the name Jeremy Smith around the hockey circles one of the first things that usually comes up is what a great person he is. It’s stories such as his that are why I greatly enjoyed covering the game from the AHL level because Smith’s path to making his NHL debut this season is one that went clean through the ladder in order to achieve it.
Smith was drafted in the second round of the 2007 NHL Draft by the Nashville Predators. In his first professional playing season, 2009-10, he would spend a massive majority of it as a member of the Cincinnati Cyclones in the ECHL. That season ended with him and his Cyclones teammates lifting the Kelly Cup. It was the second time in team history that the Cyclones won the Kelly Cup.
Following the ECHL run Smith’s attention turned to duties with the Milwaukee Admirals in the AHL. He played 128 career games with the Admirals before moving towards a journey that have him bounce around a bit over these last four seasons: Springfield Falcons, Providence Bruins, Iowa Wild on loan, back to the Providence Bruins, and then the San Antonio Rampage.
At the age of 27-years old, after a career mainly spent on the AHL map, Smith finally had his opportunity to play in the NHL as a member of the Colorado Avalanche on Valentine’s Day this year. He made 37-saves in a losing effort on the road against the New Jersey Devils – but was a standout player on the night. More than anything, it was the hopeful beginning of a new path and the one that Smith has worked so hard for so long to finally be on.
Cheers to the Nashville Predators for letting me swing in for practice and a big thanks to the Colorado Avalanche and Jeremy Smith for providing me the time to hear from our ol’ Milwaukee Admirals player all grown up! Coming up next we’ll hear from Vern Fiddler and Harry Zolnierczyk.
There almost isn’t a need for an introduction for this one. Pekka Rinne was named the top Admiral of All-Time during the Milwaukee Admirals 35th Anniversary season and with good reason. He was phenomenal from the day he arrived from Finland.
The 2005-06 season was Rinne’s debut to the North American pro game. He did well enough to get a cup of coffee in the NHL and then was the backbone of an Admirals team that made it to the AHL Calder Cup Finals against the Hershey Bears. He would spend a further two seasons in the AHL as the go-to option in net for the Admirals before becoming a staple for the Nashville Predators.
The photo used for this story came from his conditioning assignment with the Admirals during the 2013-14 season. Rinne was back in Milwaukee for two games, won on both occasions, and proceeded to giveback to the fans who introduced him to North America. My biggest takeaway from that small stint was seeing Rinne give a child his goaltending stick after being announced as the game’s second star. He knew it was his last time out in Milwaukee and made a kid’s day without giving a second thought about it. So, when ushering in a new goaltender such as Juuse Saros, it isn’t surprising to see him look after him with much the same care with the exact same instinct of, “why not?”
Cheers to the Nashville Predators and Pekka Rinne for providing me the time to hear from our ol’ Milwaukee Admirals player all grown up! Coming up next we’ll hear from Jeremy Smith, Vern Fiddler, and Harry Zolnierczyk.
Perhaps the only people who aren’t surprised by what Viktor Arvidsson is doing right now in the NHL are people he played alongside or fans who watched him play as a member of the Milwaukee Admirals. In his 87 career games in the AHL he produced 73 points (30 goals, 43 assists). He might not be the biggest player on the ice but it will never stop him from going to the most damaging areas of the ice needed to be a threat.
By now it feels that Arvidsson is a very well documented player. It still seems surreal that the 5’9″ forward from Kusmark, Sweden -for all that he does- went undrafted twice. It wasn’t until his final season with Skellefteå AIK when he made too big of a statement that the NHL had to take notice. He scored 40 points (16 goals, 24 assists) in 50 games during the 2013-14 season that ended in his Skellefteå team successfully defending the SHL Championship they had won the season prior.
When Arvidsson finally found an NHL destination it was with the Nashville Predators who selected him with the 112th overall selection in the fourth round of the 2014 NHL Draft. He was selected in a class that includes: Kevin Fiala, Vladislav Kamenev, Jack Dougherty, and Justin Kirkland. Arvidsson would be the first of that group to make the splash into the AHL ranks and he did it in a big way.
While the 2014-15 season may go down as “that one season where the Admirals missed the playoffs for the first time in twelve seasons” it did offer early flashes for several players that now play their trade in Nashville. Arvidsson is on the top of that list. In his first North American pro playing season he was the leading scorer for the Admirals with 55 points (22 goals, 33 assists) in 70 games. He also did so well that he earned the opportunity to play 6 games in the NHL during that debut season.
In the time after Arvidsson’s one solid season playing in Milwaukee he has grown from NHL regular to someone that the Predators just can’t wait to put back on the ice. What impresses me the most with Arvidsson is that -when you watch him play now versus his time spent in Milwaukee- you see the exact same player. Arvidsson is the most relentless player that I have ever watched, period. He never stops working. And that attitude that people see during a game is performed in the exact same fashion away from the rink. He only wants to keep pushing himself to be the best that he can be.
Cheers to the Nashville Predators and Viktor Arvidsson for providing me the time to hear from our ol’ Milwaukee Admirals player all grown up! Today is a scheduled off-day for the Predators so there won’t be anything gather today. Hopefully Thursday will provide some more.
It didn’t take long for Colton Sissons to ascend to where he is today. Even when you view the step-by-step path that he had in his 176 game career with the Milwaukee Admirals in the AHL it wasn’t that surprising to see he had the qualities to make him a success for the Nashville Predators.
Sissons was part of a 2010 NHL Draft Class by the Predators that saw him selected in the second round behind Pontus Åberg. Sissons would get a year leap on the Swede by playing pro hockey with the Admirals but the two would face-off against one another in the 2014 AHL All-Star Classic that pitted Sissons on the AHL All-Stars against Åberg as a member of Färjestad BK. Sissons’ side would win 7-2 that night.
The following season Sissons at the age of 20 was voted by the Admirals locker room to be an alternate captain. The very next season he would be voted by the Admirals locker room to be the team captain. His leadership qualities were made that apparent by how mature he was from the moment he arrived after a junior playing career with the Kelowna Rockets.
As the 2016-17 season goes by it does so as the first season of Sissons professional playing career that he has not spent time in Milwaukee. That doesn’t detract from the way the Predators organization can make players in Sissons’ position feel comfortable. All he has to do is simply look around and he will find countless players he has directly played with at the AHL level as a member of the Admirals.
Cheers to the Nashville Predators and Colton Sissons for providing me the time to hear from our ol’ Milwaukee Admirals player all grown up! Expect plenty of these this week and feel free to leave suggestions in the comment section below.
(Photo Credit: Darren Abate // San Antonio Rampage)
This week I am on the road in Nashville, Tennessee as the Milwaukee Admirals actually have a nice gap in the schedule in which I can travel down and take in Nashville Predators hockey. Having the chance to watch the process from the AHL for so long this is a great way to catch up with former Admirals who have accomplished their pursuit of playing in the NHL.
I start with someone I’ve known since my tenure around the Admirals started, Austin Watson. For many they see his 2016-17 season as a resurgence despite having started the campaign off being place on waivers, clearing waivers, and playing for the Admirals. He was brought up by the Predators when they suffered a bout of food poisoning. He’s not been in the AHL since.
Watson was the eighteenth overall selection by the Predators in the 2010 NHL Draft. He played 232 games in the AHL with the Admirals prior to finally getting on the big run topside with the team that drafted him over six-years ago. His NHL career now spans 117 career games and that will continue as takes further steps forward.
Watson’s time a season ago for the Predators doesn’t quite feel anywhere close to what he has found in himself this season. His skating has improved and the physical elements he has added to his game makes him every bit the power-forward that the Predators hoped for. All that is left to start manifesting even more is his track record of goal scoring that he displayed so well in Milwaukee where he produced three consecutive 20-goal seasons.
Cheers to the Nashville Predators and Austin Watson for providing me the time to hear from our ol’ Milwaukee Admirals player all grown up! Expect plenty of these this week.
Admirals Roundtable 