It is still the month of February, yes, but the Milwaukee Admirals schedule for the month ended with last night’s 2-1 loss on the road against the Chicago Wolves. Sort of a downer of a game to end the month on knowing how strong the previous effort was against the exact same team -but- that sort of sums of the month of February for the Admirals.
This past month has been a bit topsy-turvy. It hasn’t been awful. It hasn’t been great. The Admirals held a record of 6-5-0-0 in the month of February. Much of that span has been spent in a sluggish manner where the offense isn’t performing as well as it is capable of. Despite that, the Admirals still move on with more wins than losses on the month. Could it have been better? Sure. Could it have been worse? Far more so – but it wasn’t thanks to some timely performances from the group.
It’s a month such as February that makes it tricky to pluck out an individual performer who I identify as better than the rest. As I weight the options I keep coming back to one individual who seemed to not only do a tremendous job in his own right but elevate those around him in the process. That man would be none other than the captain, Colton Sissons.
In February the Admirals captain produced 7 points (3 goals, 4 assists) in 11 games. It was Sissons biggest month of offensive output in the AHL this season and he did it all while doing his prototypical all-around work rate. Sissons operates on both sides of the puck and that lends itself to his work on both the Admirals power-play and penalty kill. As you’ll notice in the Admiral Mentions portion – the top two considerations for this monthly award were predominantly wingers with Sissons throughout the month. That isn’t a coincidence that their games were also elevated thanks to the abilities of Sissons in February.
Admirable Mentions: Max Reinhart, 6 points (4 goals, 2 assist) in 9 games with an average of 2.9 shots on goal per game… Frédérick Gaudreau, 6 points (4 goals, 2 assists) in 11 games while operating on an Admirals penalty kill that went 91.9% (34/37) in February… Kevin Fiala, 6 points (3 goals, 3 assists) in 11 games… Cody Hodgson, 6 points (2 goals, 4 assists) in 8 games with an average of 3.6 shots on goal per game… Max Görtz, 6 points (2 goals, 4 assists) in 11 games… Trevor Murphy, 8 points (3 goals, 5 assists) in 10 games… Taylor Aronson, 6 points (1 goal, 5 assists) in 11 games… Juuse Saros, 2 wins from 4 starts including a shutout, 2.13 goals against average, and 0.910 save percentage.91.9% (34/37)
~Admiral of the Month Award~
October: Félix Girard November: Viktor Arvidsson December: Frédérick Gaudreau January: Marek Mazanec February: Colton Sissons
Who do you feel was the Milwaukee Admirals top performer during the month of February? Was it Colton Sissons, Max Reinhart, Frédérick Gaudreau, or someone else? Answer in the comment section below.
The Milwaukee Admirals lost 2-1 against the Chicago Wolves Saturday night at the Allstate Arena.
It wasn’t the dominate performance like the Admirals were able to lay down yesterday but much credit can be given to both defenses and especially both goaltenders. Jordan Binnington stopped 26/27 shots on goal for the Wolves while Marek Mazanec stopped 30/32. The difference in this game came down to a firestorm put up by the Wolves in the top of the third period which ended in a first career AHL goal for Justin Crandall.
This game was always going to unfold differently in the opening period than what was seen on the ice last night. The game was tighter defensively from both sides and the Wolves managed to force the better of the scoring chances in the first period by outshooting the Admirals 12-4.
Another thing that was evident this game would have happen is a carry-over from last night’s third period fisticuffs. Jamie Devane paired up with Nick Petrecki and uncorked the Wolves defenseman with several unanswered punches. In fact, I’m not even sure Petrecki ever threw or landed a punch in the exchange. He did skate away bloodied up. So that gives Devane a 10-8 decision in my fight card.
The Admirals would find the game’s first goal just fourteen seconds into the second period. Almost directly off of the draw to start the sandwich stanza the Admirals were in a sprint through the neutral zone and into Jordan Binnington’s goal mouth to score. The Max-to-Max connection ended with Max Reinhart dishing off to Colton Sissons in front of the net to score his eighth goal of the season. At just fourteen seconds, that goal was the fastest scored by the Admirals to start any period this season.
If the Admirals captain could do it – so to could the Wolves skipper. Pat Cannone hit a slap shot that clipped the stick of Garrett Noonan upon the release of the shot which changed the angle the puck took en route to the net. As Marek Mazanec was getting his glove up the puck ever so slightly dipped down to throw off the Admirals goaltender and give Cannone his first career 20 goal season as a professional hockey player.
At the end of the second period Emerson Clark took exception to a no-call for high sticking and took matters into his own hands by fighting Jimmy Oligny in neutral ice. Clark landed far more of the strikes thrown and gets the 10-9 decision from me on my fight card.
The Wolves took their first lead of the weekend after Justin Crandall scored his first career AHL goal in only his second career AHL game. The Wolves were really forcing the issue in the third period and, following a power-play off a Kevin Fiala high sticking minor, forced the Admirals to burn a timeout after relentless attacking shifts forced an icing. That spilled into the goal for Crandall where he scored short-side glove-side of Mazanec with a backhanded shot down the left wing to give the Wolves a 2-1 lead.
With 1:30 remaining in regulation Mazanec made his way to the bench to bring on the extra attacker for the Admirals. There was a solid push with firm control in attack for the Admirals with the extra attacker on but some big stops from Binnington helped close off the 2-1 win for the Wolves in regulation.
Ramblings: Since the Milwaukee Admirals played last night there was no roster moves within the organization. This was the last game for the Admirals before the NHL Trade Deadline which takes place on Monday. Tonight’s line combinations were: Reinhart-Sissons-Görtz, Fiala-Gaudreau-Bass, White-Kamenev-Åberg, Devane-Girard-Payerl, Oligny-Elliott, Noonan-Aronson, Näkyvä –Murphy. Tonight’s scratches were: Cody Hodgson (undisclosed injury), Patrick Mullen (right-hand laceration), and Johan Alm (lower-body injury).
What are you reactions to this follow-up performance from the Milwaukee Admirals? Is it simply a credit to the Wolves doing enough early and late or were the Wolves able to get the better of a tired all-around effort on the ice? Do you think anyone on the Admirals suited up for their last game with the organization tonight with the NHL Trade Deadline coming on Monday?
As always, I like to sit back and digest a game before really making serious judgement on it. When reflecting on the Milwaukee Admirals 4-1 win over the Chicago Wolves last night I can’t help but coming back to the term “a complete game” because it really a complete sixty-minutes of hockey for the Admirals. It’s been a long time coming, too.
If you were to look at the scoreboard through two period you might be left with the impression that the game was tight. The Admirals had a 2-0 lead cut in half after an amazing goal scored by Zach O’Brien and it was just a one-goal lead entering the last period of regulation.
What probably stands out to me, more than anything last night, was the Admirals third period performance. They had the 2-1 lead but wanted to secure a result and succeeded. The Admirals came out of the second intermission with a serious purpose to finish that game off. Their speed and pressure in attack forced an ugly turnover in front of their own net to make it a 3-1 Admirals lead. The Admirals then took advantage on the power-play, an area that was struggling not too long ago, and polished off the game.
All around, that was a terrific performance for the Admirals who really needed a wire-to-wire effort such as that to get Wednesday night’s loss to the Rockford IceHogs out of their system. Instead of dragging around whimpering over recent games the Admirals find themselves back in a first place tie for the Central Division lead because the IceHogs lost 5-4 on the road against the Lake Erie Monsters last night. Funny how as bad as the last few games have felt or been for the Admirals things just have a way of balancing themselves out accordingly.
What has made this Admirals season a rather special one has been this team’s ability to limit the woeful stretches and get results on a consistent basis regardless of who is in or out of the lineup. The Wolves are a team currently being mauled by injuries up top and on their own roster. They haven’t been able to find firm ground to propel from all season long. To think that there are still six Amtrak Rivalry games left from the remaining twenty-three games of the Admirals 2015-16 season should be a huge area of importance for the team moving forward. They have a wounded team ripe for the picking and a maximum of 12 points at stake from those contests alone. For all we know, now, these clashes between the Admirals and Wolves could be the difference between the Admirals winning or losing the Central Division – perhaps even seeing them clear the Ontario Reign and having the best record in the Western Conference come season’s end.
These last few games of the Amtrak Rivalry are not all going to feature as squeaky clean of a performance like last night showed. It would be silly to even expect tonight’s game in Chicago to run as smoothly. But, the Admirals are already 5-1-0-0 against the Wolves this season. The Admirals have won five-straight games over the Wolves and could claim the Amtrak Trophy for the first time since the 2012-13 season with wins over the Amtrak Rivals tonight and next Saturday. There is this sort of “feel good” well that the Admirals can go back to time and time again at the end of this season. That well lends its water source from the tears of disappointment coming out of the Chicago Wolves camp right now.
Fun Fact. The Milwaukee Admirals current record through 53 games played is 33-17-3-0. Last night’s win matched the amount of wins the Admirals had all of last season: 33-28-8-7.
~Chatterbox~
For those that missed it, prior to yesterday’s game I spoke with Milwaukee Admirals head coach Dean Evason to hear his reaction to the Nashville Predators signing Anthony Bitetto to a new two-year contract. You can listen to that right here.
After the game I spoke with Evason again but I did have company – lots of it. Dave Boehler, Mario Tirabassi, and myself were joined by several UW-Milwaukee students via Jessie Garcia of TMJ4. Plenty hopped in for a question so you’ll be hearing some different voices chirping along. The players that were interviewed include Max Reinhart, Frédérick Gaudreau, and Colton Sissons. This is what everyone had to say following last night’s victory:
Comments on the comments? Do you get the impression that the Admirals getting to face the Wolves so often at the end of the season sets the stage nicely for a solid finish the way the Amtrak Rivals are struggling this year? Will tonight’s game be even more ill-tempered than how the third period played out last night?
Can we call Max Reinhart “Mr. Hat Trick” now? (Photo Credit: Jeff Hanisch)
The Milwaukee Admirals won 4-1 against the Chicago Wolves Friday night at the BMO Harris Bradley Center.
This was a return to form sort of night for the Admirals. Max Reinhart scored his second hat trick of the season for the Admirals to put the cherry on top of what was a great all-around performance that saw the team skate circles around the Amtrak Rivals.
“We thought we started real strong,” said Milwaukee Admirals head coach Dean Evason after the game. “We were a little worried about not getting rewarded early with our play. Then certainly when they made it 2-1 there was some dicey times and some tense times. We talked to the group afterwards that when it was 2-1 we didn’t panic, we didn’t lose our composure, we stayed calm, we played the game the right way, and allowed the game to unfold.”
The Admirals were able to take a first period lead thanks to the thirteenth goal of the season for Max Reinhart. The goal all started with a crafty bit of defensive work by Colton Sissons in neutral ice to start a rush into the attacking zone. Sissons left a puck behind him for a trailer to take a stab at and he would find that in the form of Reinhart. The Wolves lost sight of the puck after Sissons skated away and Reinhart took a slap shot first-time that ripped through Jared Nightingale, Scooter Vaughan, and the glove of Jordan Binnington.
In the second period Reinhart added his second goal of the night to make it a 2-0 Admirals lead. The Admirals managed to catch the Wolves in the midst of a sloppy change and a quick outlet pass through the neutral zone hit Reinhart down the right wing for a breakaway. Binnington sprawled low to take away the bottom of the net but he left room by his left toe – which is precisely where Reinhart would polished off the breakaway for his fourteenth goal of the season.
“I think I was cherry-picking a bit on that one,” smiled Max Reinhart. “But [Max Görtz] made an unbelievable pass. It was about a, I would say, about a 50 ft. pass and it landed about an inch behind the guy’s stick right on my tape. Pass like that you got to finish for him.”
The Wolves were finally able to solve Marek Mazanec late in the second period but it required a highlight reel effort from Zach O’Brien to get the job done. Vaughan chipped a backhanded pass from just in front of the Wolves bench to hit O’Brien in stride and the Wolves forward stickhandled Jimmy Oligny into a shot blocking squat, burned past him, forced Mazanec way up and out of the net to challenge him, and O’Brien stickhandled around Mazanec before reaching back towards the net to deposit the puck in for an amazing goal. The tally goes down as O’Brien’s seventh goal of the season.
In the opening five minutes of the third period the Admirals were in full-on attack mode. The Wolves were struggling to match the pace and the pace forced a turnover right in front of their own net that allowed Frédérick Gaudreau to score a gift of a goal for his thirteenth of the season.
The hats, and free shirts, would go flying after a power-play goal to complete the hat trick for Reinhart. The Admirals power-play setup ended with a one-timer by Cody Hodgson that trickled off Binnington. Reinhart was in the right place to quickly hop on the rebound where he would bank a shot off the back of Binnington and in for his third goal of the night and fifteenth of the season.
“[Max Reinhart] has been good,” commented Evason. “We think he’s been good since we flipped him to the wing – better than he’s been – and he’s been real real good all year. We’ve had different people called up at different times and he’s had to play a big role on our hockey club – certainly the first half of the season. He’s on the power-play, he kills penalties, he plays a hard game, an offensive game, and he’s sound. It’s not surprising that he’s had success.”
The hat trick for Reinhart was his second of the season. The last Admirals player to score two hat tricks in one season came last year when Viktor Stålberg accomplished the feat. It is the Admirals fourth hat trick of the season: Reinhart, 12/21/16 @ Rockford… Åberg, 1/16/16 @ San Antonio… Murphy, 2/5/16 @ Bakersfield… Gaudreau, 2/12/16 vs. Rockford… Reinhart, 2/26/16 vs. Chicago.
They talked about it a few times in the game but finally decided to uncork the rage and do the damage. Cody Bass and Jacob Doty let loose on what was a very fast but very high energy scrap that ended with Doty getting the better of the final exchanges. This would seemingly spill into more emotionally charged play as Trevor Murphy delivered a high hit on Jordan Caron as the two were about to battle on the forecheck. Caron went after Murphy with some sucker shots that drew the attention of Gaudreau who then proceeded to get some more Caron swats. Somehow, the end result of the second altercation was matching minors for Murphy (interference) and Caron (roughing).
With 39.6 seconds remaining in regulation Adam Payerl and Jared Nightingale decided to provide a teaser for tomorrow night’s game in Chicago – in theory. The fight they displayed ended quickly after a slip and a fall from Payerl with Nightingale landing on top of him. That would be the first and last time all evening the Wolves were on top of the Admirals.
Perhaps lost in Reinhart’s hat trick performance was a terrific and calm night in net for Mazanec. The Czech goaltender stopped 29/30 shots on goal en route to his sixteenth win of the season. Mazanec is now two-wins shy from matching his previous career high for wins in an AHL season. He had eighteen-wins in the 2013-14 season from thirty-one appearances and eighteen wins in the 2014-15 season from forty-eight appearances. Tonight was Mazanec’s thirtieth appearance and twenty-ninth start of the 2015-16 season.
“I think we played well,” said Frédérick Gaudreau. “Sixty-minutes from everybody. For sure, it is fun to play against those guys. It’s a good rivalry. It was a great game tonight.”
Ramblings: Since the Milwaukee Admirals last played on Wednesday the team recalled defenseman Garrett Noonan from their ECHL affiliate the Cincinnati Cyclones. The Nashville Predators also announced that they re-signed defenseman Anthony Bitetto to a new two-year contract this afternoon. Tonight’s line combinations were: Reinhart-Sissons-Görtz, Fiala-Hodgson-Åberg, White-Kamenev-Gaudreau, Payerl-Girard-Bass, Oligny-Elliott, Noonan-Aronson, Näkyvä –Murphy. Tonight’s scratches were: Patrick Mullen (right-hand laceration), Johan Alm (lower-body), and Jamie Devane (healthy). Tonight’s attendance was 9,852.
Thoughts and reactions on tonight’s game? Have you missed the Amtrak Rivalry or what? Was this a return to form for the Admirals?
Defenseman Anthony Bitetto, who played in six games for Milwaukee this season, re-upped with Nashville for another two years today. (Photo Credit: Scott Paulus)
Just three-days prior to the NHL Trade Deadline the Nashville Predators have agreed to terms with defenseman Anthony Bitetto on a new two-year contact. The new deal will keep the 2010 sixth-round draft choice in the organization until the summer of 2018.
With 17 games in the NHL this season Bitetto now has 24 career games of NHL experience on his resume to date. This season the 25-year-old Island Park, New York native dressed for 6 games with Milwaukee while on a conditioning assignment while scoring one goal and four points while picking up 27 minutes in penalties.
Since joining the Predators organization on a full-time basis in 2012-2013, Bitetto played in 183 regular season games in the American Hockey League with the Admirals and four postseason contests. He also has 23 games of ECHL experience with the Cincinnati Cyclones.
Nashville, Tenn. (February 26, 2016) – Nashville Predators President of Hockey Operations/General Manager David Poile announced Friday that the club has signed defenseman Anthony Bitetto to a two-year, $1.225 million contract that will see him receive $575,000 in 2016-17 and $650,000 in 2017-18.
Bitetto, 25 (7/15/90), has appeared in the Predators last 11 games and has one assist in 17 games for the club in 2015-16. Paired with seven games during three recalls a season ago, the Island Park, New York, native has one point (1a) in 24 career NHL games, all with Nashville. Bitetto spent the majority of his first three professional seasons with the Milwaukee Admirals from 2012-15; the 6-foot-1, 210-pounder ranked among the Top 20 AHL blueliners in assists in 2014-15, while tying for sixth among AHL defensemen in goals (11), and for ninth in power-play goals (6) during his first full season with Milwaukee in 2013-14.
Nashville’s fourth choice, 168th overall (sixth round), in the 2010 Entry Draft, Bitetto did not miss a game during his two-year collegiate career at Northeastern University (Hockey East) from 2010-12, compiling 35 points (7g-28a) in 72 games and being named to the 2011 Hockey East All-Rookie Team. He was a 2009-10 All-USHL Second Team selection in his first full season with the Indiana Ice and helped Indiana win the 2009 Clark Cup. He is on Twitter @ABitetto7.
So Roundtable . . . What are your favorite Anthony Bitetto memories with Milwaukee? Can he stay in Nashville or another place in the NHL over the course of this contract, or will he be back again in Milwaukee?
The Chicago Wolves 2015-16 season in one photo. (Photo Credit: Scott Paulus)
Tonight and tomorrow the Amtrak Rivalry resumes after what has left like an ice age. When the Milwaukee Admirals and Chicago Wolves last played it was the end of December. That’s right. They’ve yet to buddy up and rival it out in 2016. That almost feels crazy to say -but- the Admirals will be seeing more than their share of the Wolves from here on out. Including tonight, the Admirals see the Wolves a total of seven-times from their last twenty-four games of the season.
In short, we’re all about to get to know one-another a lot better and remember that one-and-only reason to hate “Kickstart My Heart” by Mötley Crüe. [/joke made for the not casual Admirals fan]
~The Amtrak Rivals~
The Chicago Wolves enter tonight’s game with a record of 24-24-3-2 (53 points) Their 0.500 points percentage has them sitting in sixth place of the Central Division and twelfth place in the Western Conference standings.
To say that the Wolves season has been a disaster would be an understatement. The team has so much quality on it and features many players that were part of a playoff team a season ago or the year prior. This comes down to two simple realities: (1) the injuries that the St. Louis Blues have suffered throughout the season making for an inconsistent hodge podge of a lineup for their AHL affiliate and (2) players who are clearly under-performing.
When I think of the Wolves my mind shifts to Admiral Killers in net such as Jake Allen or his Admiral Killer successor Jordan Binnington. Allen? He’s doing his thing in the NHL now. Binnington? He is playing nowhere close to the high level he displayed a season ago and the goaltending battle between himself and Pheonix Copley has Binnington’s battery-mate up in the NHL while Brian Elliott sits out with injury. The goaltending has been a hot mess for the Wolves all season. Pair that with an erratic offense and you get the goal differential that the team has on the season: -19 (143 GF, 162 GA).
Let’s focus on Binnington for a moment though because I really think he drives home the struggles of the 2015-16 Wolves season. In his career against the Admirals, from when he turned pro to his first start made in the Amtrak Rivalry this season, he made 8 appearances (all starts) for a perfect 8-0-0-0 record while stopping 202/217 of the Admirals shots on goal for a 0.931 save percentage to go along with a 1.82 goals against average. Perhaps it’s surprising in that stretch he actually never recorded a shutout but, hey, he did rather well outside of that didn’t he? Since, Binnington has gone 0-2-0-1 against the Admirals stopping 78/88 for a 0.886 save percentage and a 3.31 goals against average.
Last season’s AHL stats for Binnington: 45 games played, 25-15-4-1 record, 0.916 save percentage, 2.35 goals against average, and 3 shutouts.
This season’s AHL stats for Binnington through 53 games played for the Wolves: 26 games played, 11-11-3-2 record, 0.900 save percentage, 2.95 goals against average, and a single shutout.
Call it a sophomore slump if you must but the regression in Binnington has been rough and it’s not helped the Wolves this season. When you compare the stability and reliability out of the Admirals tandem of Marek Mazanec and Juuse Saros this season you understand why the Admirals are where they are in the standings. They have a foundation from which to build every game upon because there is a confidence that the men in net can hold the fort. The Wolves this season? No confidence.
As this game approaches Binnington’s month of February reads 7 starts, 2-4-1-0 record, 0.891 save percentage, and a 3.49 goals against average. He has allowed 5 goals in both of his last two-starts in net. This team is ripe for the picking.
~The 2015-16 Amtrak Rivalry So Far~
So, what of the Amtrak Rivalry this season? It’s been so long that I nearly forgotten who did what at the start of the season – to be completely honest. Fret yet not, the Admirals have done very well this season against the Wolves:
10/10/15: Admirals lose 5-1 @ Chicago
11/18/15: Admirals win 5-3 vs. Chicago
12/5/15: Admirals win 3-2 (SO) @ Chicago
12/15/15: Admirals win 2-1 vs. Chicago
12/28/15: Admirals win 4-1 vs. Chicago
That’s correct. The Admirals have won four-straight in the Amtrak Rivalry. Should this trend last the weekend the Admirals would have six of the twelve wins in the fight for the Amtrak Trophy against the Wolves this season. That trophy could get handed to the Admirals as early as March 5th in Milwaukee on Colton Sissons bobblehead night (bobble bobble).
~Who What Now?~
The Wolves leading scorer this season is veteran and team captain Pat Cannone who leads in all major offensive categories on the team with 43 points (19 goals, 24 assists). He’s followed by Danny Kristo with 36 points (18 goals, 18 assists).
As far as the top scorer in this head-to-head goes this season it falls to defenseman André Benoît who has 7 points (0 goals, 7 assists) in 5 games against the Admirals. Benoît is among the AHL’s Top 20 Scoring Defensemen this season with 27 points (5 goals, 22 assists) in 49 games.
There will be at least one bruiser out of action for the Wolves tonight and he has only himself to blame for that. Cody Beach was suspended for both games this weekend against the Admirals after being assessed a match penalty against the Grand Rapids Griffins. The specific ruling was Match 21.1. What is that you ask? This:
21.1 Match Penalty – A match penalty involves the suspension of a player for the balance of the game and the offender shall be ordered to the dressing room immediately.
A player incurring a match penalty shall incur an automatic fine of two-hundred dollars ($200) and the case shall be investigated promptly by the President who shall have full power to impose such further penalty by way of suspension or fine on the penalized player or any other player involved in the altercation.
A match penalty shall be imposed on any player who deliberately attempts to injure an opponent in any manner.
In addition to the match penalty, the player shall be automatically suspended from further competition until the President has ruled on the issue. See also Rule 28 – Supplementary Discipline.
Well, golly. That sounds fun. There isn’t any video of the incident in question that I can find but I simply take this as the Wolves taking Kevin Fiala‘s school day game antics up to the AM start time – eleven. For everything else scrappy just keep your eyes glued to #28 Jacob Doty who has amassed 127 penalty minutes in 38 games this season.
What are your expectations for the Milwaukee Admirals after coming off of that disappointing loss to the Rockford IceHogs on Wednesday? Do you think that the Admirals seeing the Wolves twice, the way the Wolves are working a three-in-three weekend, might set themselves up nicely for a return to form?
With Patrick Mullen expected to miss the next few weeks, following his scary incident in which a skate lacerated his right hand, the Milwaukee Admirals defense is looking for a bit of a boost. The man they’ll be turning to for an extra spark will be Garrett Noonan who has just been recalled from the Cincinnati Cyclones of the ECHL.
Noonan was named the ECHL Player of the Week a week ago and has been doing a fantastic job for the Cyclones this season. Upon his recall, Noonan is the Cyclones top scoring defenseman this season with 31 points (7 goals, 24 assists) in 40 games. In February, Noonan has scored 14 points (4 goals, 10 assists) in 11 games. To be blunt about it – Noonan has really forced the Admirals hand, no pun intended Mullen, with how well his has played.
The way the Admirals defense has stuck together recently I anticipate this move will boil down to a choice between Noonan, Kristian Näkyvä, and Trevor Murphy will be battling for the third defensive line pairing.
Kristian Näkyvä scored his first pro goal in North America as a member of the Milwaukee Admirals on 12/19/15 against the Manitoba Moose at the BMO Harris Bradley Center. (Photo Credit: Scott Paulus)
Someone who has possibly flown under the radar for consistency sake this season has been Milwaukee Admirals defenseman Kristian Näkyvä. The 25-year old from Helsinki, Finland has yet to miss a game due to injury this season. The only five-games he has missed this season have come down to being a healthy scratch to see the likes other other defensemen get rotated into the lineup.
Näkyvä was touted as a puck moving and offensive minded defenseman when he arrived from Luleå HF of the Swedish Hockey League (SHL) in the off-season. Last season in the SHL he played 55 games and scored 29 points (10 goals, 19 assists). That hasn’t necessarily translated into the smaller North American ice. He has only produced 8 points (1 goal, 7 assists) in 46 games for the Admirals this season.
While that might seem like a major blow-back the reality of the transition from Europe to North America is a hard one to take for many players crossing the pond. The heart of the defenseman position is written in the job title: defense. Näkyvä started his debut season of North American hockey in quite shaky fashion. The speed of the smaller ice surface seemed to get the best of his previous instincts. As time has gone on the Finn has looked more and more comfortable in defense while starting to let his ability to move the puck be seen in a different avenue than a score sheet might shout out. Because of a player like Näkyvä the transition game of defense to offense can really roll at a high energy pace. It’s on him to protect his own zone and float the puck up for the forwards to do the damage. Thus far, that’s been the Näkyvä experience of 2015-16. Not as flashy as expected. Not as bad as people might make out purely looking at the numbers.
~Fifteen~
Cheers to Kristian Näkyvä for taking the time to do this interview. He had ten-minutes and we hit that ballpark number perfectly! Reminder, my check list of players that you’ve suggested to hear from next on Fifteen is pretty bare. Please comment down below with more suggestions!
What’s that old expression? When the going gets tough, the tough get going? Well I suppose some of that manifested itself for the Milwaukee Admirals in last night’s 6-4 loss to the Rockford IceHogs but they were casualties to another expression: too little, too late.
From the opening puck drop to the end of the first period the IceHogs had the Admirals number. They were tearing the Admirals apart in transitional play and the first two goals scored were perfect examples of the speed in which they counter attacked. The Admirals were left scrambling and, by the time Mark McNeill added a third, the damage was done.
Last night was the first game all season that the Admirals pulled a starting goaltender from net. That’s 51 games of hockey played where the starter was a rock and saw the game through. When looking back to last season when Marek Mazanec and Magnus Hellberg split the work load they had been pulled from a start four times through the Admirals opening 51 games. It’s been amazing what the two goaltenders have been able to accomplish this season and, with that, makes last night all the more rough to see.
Juuse Saros allowed three-goals on nine-shots in 13:09 of work. The first two IceHogs goals that were scored I would say Saros was given little to no chance to make a save. The initial goal for Ryan Haggerty was a brilliant individual effort. He beat Stefan Elliott with pace down the left wing, slashed through the goal mouth, and patiently out-waited Saros to get an opening on the net to score. Saros did all that he could do – Haggerty just delivered in spectacular fashion. The second goal was a defensive breakdown that effectively forced a two-on-one to occur with Saros needing to protect both posts. Saros guarded against the near post for Ville Pokka – who then passed across to the back post for Tanner Kero who had a trailing Pontus Åberg in defensive recovery mode chasing after him.
Was last night’s bad start to blame on Saros? No. Was Saros to blame for becoming the first Admirals goaltender to be pulled from a start this season? No. His defense was.
The way the Admirals defended to start last night’s game was a scramble. The IceHogs were able to play a confident opening twenty-minutes because the Admirals were getting burnt trying to do too much on both ends of the ice. The over-commitment by the Admirals exposed Saros badly and left head coach Dean Evason with the only two choices a coach has in a scenario when the team needs a wake up call: take a timeout or pull the goaltender. As far as eye-openers go, I’d say pulling a starting goaltender for the first time all season long would be enough to wake up the team – especially when they know the fault for that rests on their shoulders.
The response for the Admirals from the second period to the finish line wasn’t too bad. If you go from just that they won the last two periods 4-3. The problem all comes down to that start though and having that sort of a barrier laid down early for the IceHogs allows them to comfortably sit back and do what they were already doing well: counter attacking hockey, speed in transition, defense to offense.
It was a bad game for the Admirals but with bad games comes plenty of examples of things that need to be corrected or addressed moving forward. Perhaps the best news of all of this is that the Admirals aren’t going to get a chance to stew over last night’s outing for too long. They practice today before logging a two-in-two // home-and-home against the Chicago Wolves. The opportunity to immediately right the ship is there for the Admirals. The less time spent wondering “how are we going to do that” by instead actually getting on the ice to deliver quality play – the better.
~Chatterbox~
During the second intermission in last night’s game I had the opportunity to speak with Nashville Predators General Manager David Poile about the Predators season, his thoughts on the Admirals, and the looming NHL Trade Deadline that is on Monday. After the game I chatted with Milwaukee Admirals head coach Dean Evason as well as Cody Hodgson, Cody Bass, and Juuse Saros.
Comments on the comments? Are there any concerns, knowing how last year crumbled around this point in the season, that history might be repeating itself? What’s the cure to the Milwaukee Admirals current woes? Would two wins in two days over the Chicago Wolves suddenly make all these recent games something of a distant memory?
The Milwaukee Admirals lost 6-4 against the Rockford IceHogs Wednesday night at the BMO Harris Bradley Center.
In a battle of the top two teams of the Central Division the Admirals were overpowered by the IceHogs early and never recovered. Juuse Saros became the first Admirals starting goaltender to be pulled from net all season after allowing three-goals on nine-shots. The IceHogs kept the hammer down and now have sole possession of first place in the Central Division standings.
“We were getting soundly beat with speed,” said Milwaukee Admirals head coach Dean Evason after the game. “Lost coverages. Turnovers. It wasn’t our group in the first period.”
It didn’t take long for the IceHogs to stack the deck against the Admirals. Inside four-minutes the IceHogs picked up the opening goal through Ryan Haggerty’s seventh of the season. Haggerty beat Stefan Elliott with speed to win the left wing edge, he carried across the goal mouth to stretch Juuse Saros, and then deposited smoothly to Saros’ glove-side.
The next IceHogs goal came four-minutes later and was another scenario where they beat the Admirals on the rush. Ville Pokka leapt up from defense and was able to catch the Admirals defensemen out of position with Elliott as last man back, Jimmy Oligny out of the play, and Pontus Åberg was racing to guard Tanner Kero who cheated behind everyone down the left wing. Pokka’s past went wing-to-wing over Elliott to pick out Kero for a tap in and his fourteenth goal of the season.
The first period damage didn’t end there. Mark McNeill tagged Saros for his fourteenth goal of the season and the IceHogs third goal from nine shots on goal. That would mark the end of Saros night in net as well as the first time in the 2015-16 season that the Admirals pulled a starting goaltender. Marek Mazanec officially entered the game with 6:51 remaining in the first period.
“It had nothing to do with Juuse,” said Evason of his decision to pull his starting goaltender tonight. “And we told him that after the first period that Juuse Saros did not get pulled because of anything that he did – it was because of what we did in front of him as a group.”
In the second period, former-Admiral Mike Liambas was called for goaltender interference and put the Admirals on the power-play. The Admirals had gone six consecutive games without scoring a power-play goal and were naught for their previous nineteen chances on the power-play. That finally ended as a Taylor Aronson and Vladislav Kamenev hooked up during a lapse of concentration for Cameron Schilling and Kirill Gotovets. Aronson’s long home run pass caught Kamenev all alone down the center of the neutral zone and the Russian was free for a snapshot delivery high glove on Michael Leighton to score his ninth goal of the season. Once again, Leighton’s bid at setting the career AHL shutouts record will have to wait another day.
That small glimmer of a comeback was smacked down to reality with two goals for Vinny Hinostroza in the span of twenty-three seconds. His first goal came after receiving a backhanded feed from Kero on the left wing that had him all alone in the slot for a first-time shot. That was instantly followed up by a home run pass from NAME in the IceHogs defensive end of the ice that caught Hinostroza in stride for a breakaway where he’d finish clean.
It was only going to be a matter of time before some sort of a scrap started and it did so with the two players who flipped sides from last season to this season. Liambas went toe-to-toe with the returning Cody Bass and the two exchanged plenty of jabs before Liambas got the takedown. If I had to score it in my fight card that would be a 10-9 round for Liambas.
After a long stretch of misery on the power-play it might be just a tad ironic for it to suddenly come to life in a game when the team is being beaten up at even strength. Following a stick to the face of Trevor Murphy the Admirals again scored a power-play goal to make it two-for-two on the night thanks to a rocket of a slap shot by Cody Hodgson that beat Leighton high-glove.
In the third period the Admirals power-play unit did it once again to make it three-for-three on the night. A great bit of tic-tac-toe passing from Stefan Elliott to Kevin Fiala ended with a wing-to-wing pass across the mouth of goal for Hodgson to blast in his second power-play goal of the night. The tally was his fourth of the season as a member of the Admirals.
The two-goal rally for the Admirals would get buzz-sawed when two Admirals ended up in the box to give the IceHogs a minute and a half long five-on-three power-play. That wouldn’t take long as a Bryan Bickell one-timed cannon blazed past Marek Mazanec to the blocker side for his eleventh goal of the season.
In the closing minutes the Admirals were finally able to find some goal scoring at even strength. A hard play to the front of the net by Max Görtz left a puck out in front of Leighton where captain Colton Sissons smacked in a rebound for his seventh goal of the season to make it a 6-4 game – which is precisely where it would end.
“We’ve been up and down,” said Evason. “We certainly haven’t had our best stuff for a bit now. We’ve given ourselves opportunities to be in hockey games. Tonight we took ourselves out of the hockey game so early that it was difficult. Although we like our effort in the second and in the third – it’s just not enough. It’s tough to rebound when you’re down three-goals right away.”
Ramblings: Prior to today’s game, Cody Bass officially cleared waivers and was assigned by the Nashville Predators to the Milwaukee Admirals. Tonight’s line combinations were: Reinhart-Sissons-Görtz, White-Kamenev-Gaudreau, Fiala-Hodgson-Åberg, Payerl-Girard-Bass, Alm-Aronson, Oligny-Elliott, Näkyvä-Murphy. Tonight’s scratches were: Patrick Mullen (right hand laceration) and Jamie Devane (healthy). Tonight marked the return of Bass to the Admirals lineup. The Admirals alternate captain last played with the Admirals on 1/9/16 vs. Iowa.
What is your take after tonight’s game? Is this current run for the Milwaukee Admirals more than just a lull? Was Juuse Saros to blame for getting pulled from the gameor would you say it was more on the play taking place in front of him?
Admirals Roundtable 