October 2008 - Posts

• Ads beat Griffs....and now I know "why"

  Posted Oct 31 2008, 11:30 PM by Eric W. Kent

  My last comment on Ryan Miller's last post was this:

  "I really want to like Dietrich - but I'm not sure why."

  Well, now I know why. Robert Dietrich scored his first goal as an Admiral 2:59 into overtime Friday night, to give the Admirals a 3-2 victory over the Grand Rapids Griffins. You can read the nuts and bolts here.

  Let's go behind the boxscore.

  The Admirals' first goal was scored by Stephen Werner (His first goal as an Admiral, too).  The assist went to Teemu Laakso and Alexander Sulzer. But one should go to Mike Santorelli, as well. He did a great job of winning the face off, and drawing the puck back to Sulzer.

  The Admirals' second goal was scored by Cody Franson. The "wow" moment of this play came when Mike Santorelli shook off two defenders behind the Griffins' net, spun around and delivered a perfect blind pass to the slot...all at the end of a shift.

  Mike Santorelli: 0 Goals, 1 Assist. 1 impressed coach.

  "He's moving his legs, he's moving his feet. He's a hard guy to handle, because he has some dynamic speed. He's tough to handle when he's moving like that," said Coach Lane Lambert.

  ************************************************************************************************************************************** 

  If you've ever wondered what post-game interviews are like.....here's one dramatization.

  (Highlighted passages may have been completely made up. Coach passages are real.) 

  ERIC: Drew MacIntyre played arguably his best game of the year.

  COACH: "He played really well his first game in San Antonio as well."

  ERIC: Listen, Coach, I said "arguably". Geez.

  COACH: "You can take your pick as to which was a better game for him."

  ERIC: I will take my pick, thank you very much. I pick this game. You wanna argue some more?

  COACH: "He kept us in it, and gave us a chance to win the game. And that's what you ask your goalie to do."

  ERIC: That's more like it. Don't interrupt me anymore.

  MacIntyre made some spectacular plays tonight.

  • He made a GREAT paddle save on Darren Haydar, who had a gaping net early in the third. MacIntyre was down on his butt.
  • One minute later, Grand Rapids' Cory Emmerton raised his hands in celebration...without realizing that MacIntyre had stopped his shot somehow, too.
  • And MacIntyre made another stellar paddle save on Evan McGrath with just over a minute left.

  ************************************************************************************************************************************* 

  The line combinations were all over the map tonight. We even saw Ryan Maki play a little bit of center, somehting that Coach Lambert thinks could happen with a bit more frequency in the weeks to come.

  *************************************************************************************************************************************

  Grand Rapids still does not have a loss in regulation...but this is a quality win for the Admirals.  

  *************************************************************************************************************************************

  A few lineup notes that were worth...well...noting, I suppose.

  Geoff Peters did not dress tonight. Peters had been centering the Admirals' fourth line. So his absence led to most of the shuffling, and Maki's opportunity to play the middle.

  Scott Ford also did not dress tonight. In fact - he won't be dressing for quite a while. He injured himself in practice this week, and a source close to the team indicates that the injury is considered long-term. You can't help but wonder: If Scott Ford was healthy, would he have been playing tonight instead of Dietrich? Probably.

  With no comments

  Filed under: Drew MacIntyre, Cody Franson, Mike Santorelli, Ryan Maki, Teemu Laakso, Stephen Werner, Geoff Peters, Scott Ford, robert dietrich, Alexander Sulzer

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• Thoughts On Yesterday's Trades

  Posted Oct 31 2008, 11:10 AM by Ryan Miller

  An interesting pair of moves the Admirals made yesterday.

  Again, they aquired forward Hugh Jessiman from the Rangers for future considerations, and defenseman Tim Ramholt from the Flyers for Josh Gratton.

  I'm sure they didn't aquire Ramholt to play part time, so who is the odd man out now?  When Captain Yonkman comes back (and assuming that Sulzer hasn't been called up yet at that point), that leaves four guys fighting for one spot.

  Safe:  Sulzer, Franson, Yonkman, Ramholt, and Laakso.

  Odd men:  Scott Ford, TJ McElroy, Robert Dietrich, and Mark Matheson.

  I'm inclined to say Matheson has the edge, although not necesarily based on merit.  He has familiarity and experience, although I would argue that his play has been VERY inconsistent so far this year.  I've been uttering "Ugh, Matheson" under my breath in press row wayyyy too much.  The jury is still out on Ford for me.  But I've seen enough of McElroy...and Dietrich's -5 defensive rating is troublesome.

  As reported yesterday, Jessiman comes with the baggage of being the only first round pick from the 2003 draft to not play an NHL game yet.   And I don't see that changing at all this year.  Rich Peverley made the Nashville roster out of camp, and has been spending more games lately in a suit instead of a sweater...and not because he's hurt.  If he's not getting playing time, I don't see any callups anytime soon.  And when there ARE callups, I expect to see Pihlstrom and O'Reilly go before Jessiman.

  Unless he scores 10 goals over the next 3 games...which isn't very likely, and we don't expect it. 

  I'm hoping that Jessiman will jump right in to Gratton's old spot on a line with Nick Spaling and Andreas Thurreson, but we'll see what coach has in mind in a few hours.

  And congrats to Pekka Rinne!  Got his first win of the season last night against the Oilers!  Woo-hoo!

  With 1 comment(s)

  Filed under: Pekka Rinne, Rich Peverley, Nick Spaling, Arlo Guthrie references, Cody Franson, Andreas Thuresson, Teemu Laakso, Josh Gratton, Alexander Sulzer, Nolan Yonkman, Hugh Jessiman, Tim Ramholt, Scott Ford, TJ Mcelroy, new guys, robert dietrich, mark matheson

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• Gratton Traded to Philly

  Posted Oct 30 2008, 04:06 PM by Eric W. Kent

  This is big news.

  The Nashville Predators have traded Left Winger Josh Gratton to Philadelphia for defenseman Tim Ramholt.

  The move comes less than one week after Gratton "played his best game as an Admiral", according to coach Lane Lambert.

  He registered 2 goals and three assists in 7 games for the Admirals, while bouncing across various line combinations.

  In return, the Predators receive Tim Ramholt, a 6'1", 195 pound defenseman from Switzerland. Ramholt was thought of highly enough in 2003 to be Calgary's second round draft choice. But he has been traded twice now in the past 6 months. (He originally went from Calgary to Philly in June)

  He is a gifted player, and has the raw abaility to be a great two-way defenseman. He is extremely fast, and will join the rush, given the opportunity. But he's also worked hard to develop himself as a physical player, and is not afraid to work hard in the corners.

  The biggest knock on Ramholt is that he doesn't always make the best decisions with the puck. That's a common trait amongst players whose physical abilities advance far ahead of their age.  

  Ryan Miller also astutely points out that the Admirals now have considerably more teeth than they did before the trade.

  Worthless Piece of Info: Tim is the second Ramholt to play for an Admirals team in the AHL. His older brother Arne played for the Norfolk Admirals back in 2001.

  Filling Gratton's winger position will be Power Forward Hugh Jessiman, whom the Preds acquired today from the New York Ranagers for some guy name Future Considerations. (I don't remember ever seeing that guy play)

  Jessiman was picked #12 overall by the Rangers in the 2003 draft. They were ecstatic, because they had Jessiman ranked as the 4th best player in that draft. (Which says more about the Rangers' scouting depaertment than Jessiman's ability, since that draft included Marc Andre-Fleury, Dion Phaneuf, Ryan Suter, Thomas Vanek, and Eric Staal...to name a few).

  Jessiman is currently the only first-round pick from the 2003 draft NOT to appear in an NHL game (yet).

  His calling card is his size...which is not exactly a hockey "skill", and the biggest knock on Jessiman is that he doesn't always make the best decisions with the puck. (Sound famillar? Look 6 paragaphs earlier)

  Basically......he's Josh Gratton, plus a few goals.

  Worthless Piece of Info: Hugh went to Dartmouth, which now gives the Admirals three (3) players on their roster who went to Ivy League schools....and one who came close. Ryan Maki went to Harvard and Scott Ford is a Brown man. Mark Dekanich went to Colgate...so you know he pretends to be Ivy League on the weekends.

  We'll blog more about expected fallout later. For now....let this rattle around a little bit.

  With no comments

  Filed under: Ryan Maki, Josh Gratton, Hugh Jessiman, teeth, Ivy League, trade, Tim Ramholt, Scott Ford

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• Is it still Hockey Season?

  Posted Oct 30 2008, 10:18 AM by Eric W. Kent

  Man - you get all jacked up for the start of the hockey season.....you start to get a feel for the team and get into the swing of things and BAM! You get a one week lay-off.

  We haven't seen the Admirals since their disappointing loss to the Wolves last Saturday. That's a long time to sit around,

  Coach Lambert agrees. I talked with the coach a couple days ago about the layoff. He says that much time off can be good or bad...since it could lead to the dreaded "rust."

  In this instance, though, he thinks it's a good thing. It will give the guys a chance to get the bad loss out of their minds, and focus on improving a few key areas.

  I hope he's right - because it's a situation the Ads will find themselves in quite a bit over the next month. They play only 4 games in the next 20 days.

  Two of those games are against the Grand Rapids Griffins (including Friday's home tilt). The Griffins are flying this year, earning 10 of a possible 12 points and not suffering a regulation loss yet.

  Part of the reason? Darren Haydar.

  The former Admiral has 7 points (3G, 4 A) through 6 games for the Griffs. And if past history is any indication, he will probably increase that against Milwaukee.

  Since leaving Brewtown following the 2006 playoffs, Haydar has played 14 games in Milwaukee as a visitor, including the playoffs. His production?

  9 Goals, 13 Assists. Over 1.5 points per game. He registered a point in 13 of those 14 games. That's pretty good.

  Haydar is still beloved by many in Milwaukee....and should be even more so now that he's left the hated (but certainly not feared) Chicago Wolves.

  With 1 comment(s)

  Filed under: Darren Haydar

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• NHL GM's Meet, Talk About Crazy Ideas

  Posted Oct 28 2008, 01:15 PM by Ryan Miller

  NHL GM's met in Chicago last week to share their favorite holiday recipies.  Oh, and to talk about the future of the game.

  They didn't decide on any rule changes, but brought up some ideas that will likely be touched on again the next time the GM's meet in March.

  Here are two ideas that they're throwing around, both in the interest of creating more offense (ahhhh, that elusive offense...defensive skill be damned)

  - DELAYED PENALTIES.  Currently the whistle is blown when the guilty team touches the puck.  The new proposal would require the guilty team to clear the puck from their defensive zone for the whistle to be blown.

  - BAN BLOCKED SHOTS.  If a player leaves their skates to block a shot, they would be assessed at two minute minor penalty for delay of game.  No more sprawling out on the ice.

  Short Shifts readers!  What do you think?  Do you have strong feelings either way about either of these possible rule changes?

  And in the spirit of the GM meetings, here's a recipe for a great reuben dip....great for appetizers at your next family gathering:

  1 8 oz package of cream cheese
  1 cup sour cream
  1 pound swiss cheese cubed
  32 oz sauerkraut (drained)
  6 2.5 oz packages corned beef slices chopped (can use buddig!)
  1/2 cup thousand island dressing (or a little more)

  combine all ingredients in crockpot, heat until all cheeses are melted, serve on party rye or crackers or whatever you want.

  (credit:  C$ and NQ for the recipe)

  With 4 comment(s)

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