May 2009 - Posts

• Thank You -- And We Will Return

  Posted May 27 2009, 04:29 PM by Ryan Miller

  So it's about time to shift into summer-gear.  It's been quite an adventure this year, and we thank you all for your readership, support, critiques, captions, and conversations.  There was a time in November that we thought that this was getting to be a waste of our time....as it was pretty much only Eric, and I, and our mothers who were reading this site.  But things changed over the 2nd half of the season.  And there are some people that we definitely need to thank before we hibernate for the summer.

  - Todd at Milwaukeehockey.com.  The first real spike in our web-hits came after Todd endorsed our site, and put a link up on his page.  We were (and continue to be) extremely flattered, because Todd set the standard for Admirals coverage on the Interweb.  Thank you Todd.

  - The folks over at the Admirals-Crew....who welcomed our coverage.

  - Charlie Larson -- for putting up with our constant emails asking for more information about roster moves and injuries....

  - Sebas - our first commenter, who had a buddy in training camp that didn't end up making the roster.

  - Creedfeed - our first regular reader.

  - Bradley Center catering....for the cookies.

  - Scott Paulus, Chris Jerina, and Paul Oetlinger - for their most excellent photography.

  - Our editor, Dan Walsh -- thanks for the T-shirts, and for being a good sport when we make fun of you. 

  And probably our biggest thanks goes out to this guy:

  

  

  *

  (thanks to season ticket holder and blog-reader Jay for the hockey card!)

  The Sixsmith web-phenomenon was unreal.  Nothing brought the Sports Bubbler Admirals community together quite like Sixsmith (and nothing nearly ripped it apart like our April Fools story regarding Mr. Sixsmith....)  He's an anomoly, wrapped in a mystery, wrapped in shoulder pads.  We hope "Bubba" will be around next year, for sure.

  So that's pretty much it.  We'll update when there's news...but we probably won't be breaking any of it.  On a programming note -- the Sports Bubbler site is going to be redesigned over the next few weeks.  Things may look a lot different the next time you check in with us, but make no mistake -- we'll be back next season, and will continue to attempt to provide some half-way-decent coverage for our Milwaukee Admirals.  And we hope you'll be along with us next season too.

  Seacrest out.

  With 25 comment(s)

  Filed under: James Sixsmith

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• If There's Anything I Learned From Watching Law & Order...

  Posted May 27 2009, 04:27 PM by Ryan Miller

  ...it's that people under arrest will throw anybody and everybody under the bus to create a diversion of some kind...to make it a bigger circus than it already is.

  I'm late posting about this today....and Puck Daddy has done a pretty good job summing up the festivities here.  Basically, some dude and his wife in Florida were arrested in a steroid bust, and police in their press conference said that the criminal said he supplied the Washington Capitals and Washington Nationals with steroids. 

  Zero other specifics.  Names.  Dates.  Locations.  Nothing.

  Some follow-up from the Capitals beat writer for the Washington Post is here, including interviews with some players.

  I'll first go for the easy joke:  If the Nationals are juicing, that's not exactly a ringing endorsement of the product....(how bad would they be if they WEREN'T juicing?)

  I see this going one of three ways.

  1)  The guy is proven to be a fraud.  And gets sued for slander or libel or whatever would be appropriate.

  2)  If there is some little bit of truth to what he is saying, it was some Capital from a long time ago.  Your Al Iafrate's...your Kevin Hatcher's.....your Brendan Witt's....

  3)  Hockey's version of the Barry Bonds witch-hunt, (which feels like it is now in its 15th year).  Finally, the NHL will be getting some media coverage....just not the kinds that they'd like.

  As a Caps fan...I'm confident that this is not as a big a deal as the Polk County Police have made it out to be so far (check out Brooks Laich's quotes from the Washington Post).....but for the love of Lord Stanley.....I hope I'm right.  Because if I'm not..... we're in for a long ride.

  With 2 comment(s)

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• The Finals Are Set

  Posted May 27 2009, 09:00 AM by Ryan Miller

  So the Calder Cup Finals will begin this Saturday night north of the border, as the Manitoba Moose will play host to the Hershey Bears.  Hardly a surprise, as they were both the #1 team in their respective conferences.  But the two teams took two very different routes to the final series.

  Manitoba fell behind two-games-to-one in their first round series against the Toronto Marlies, but proceeded to win the next three games to advance.  They then swept the Grand Rapids Griffins in four super-close games (2-1, 2-1, 3-1, 3-2).  And then they punched their last ticket with a 4-games-to-2 victory over the Houston Aeros.  After being up 3-0 in the series, Houston battled back to send the series back to Manitoba after a couple of solid home wins, including a double overtime match that concluded with Tony Hrkac scoring the game winning goal.

  The Hershey Bears didn't stumble out of the gate, as they swept the Philadelphia Phantoms in their first round series.  But they ran into trouble in the second round.  They were playing the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins the same time both teams parent clubs (Washington and Pittsburgh) were dueling in the NHL playoffs.  The home team won each game in the series, with Hershey twice staving off elimination, shutting out the Penguins in successive games.  And then last round, after losing the first game to the Providence Bruins, the Bears took the next four games.

  So it's the Moose and the Bears.  Moose allowed the fewest amount of goals in the league, Bears scored the most. 

  I haven't asked any of the other Short Shifts writers about their thougths on the series, so I'll just make up some thoughts on their behalf.

  Eric Kent is cheering for the Moose, so that he can make a whole lot more Jason-Krog-Squirrel-Face jokes.

  Steph is indifferent -- she's too busy swooning over Sidney Crosby.

  I'm cheering for Hershey, mostly because I grew up a Caps fan.  And because they don't have Jason Krog on their team.  Plus, I went to Hershey Park on a 7th grade choir trip and have fond memories of the Sidewinder.  So go Hershey Bars!...er, Bears.

  With 4 comment(s)

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• Off-Season Roster Status

  Posted May 22 2009, 01:57 PM by Eric W. Kent

  The Predators and Admirals have some decisions to make over the coming weeks. According to our records, 14 players have expriing contracts this season. That number is by no means official.  Players that sign AHL-level contracts rarely have their terms disclosed, so it's difficult to know if they received a multi-year deal.

  That said - here are the players we know are under contract for next season:

  FORWARDS

  Mark Santorelli

  Andreas Thuresson

  Nick Spaling

  Mike Santorelli

  Patric Hornqvist

  Hugh Jessiman

  Colin Wilson

  DEFENSE

  Teemu Laakso

  Cody Franson

  Robert Dietrich

  Alexander Sulzer

  Jonathan Blum

  GOAL

  Mark Dekanich

  Chet Pickard

  Of course, a few of those players are expected to be in Nashville next year (Sulzer especially). The players that are left fit into three basic categories. You have your Unrestricted Free Agents, your Restricted Free Agents, and you have your AHL-level guys that I'm not sure about. Let's look at the UNrestricted free agents. There are two ways you can qualify for unrestricted free agency, according to the CBA. GROUP 3 players have either 7 seasons of professional experience or are 27 years old. GROUP 6 players are at least 25 years old and have 3 years of proessional experience and played fewer than 80 NHL games (298 NHL games for goaltenders).

  The qualifies Jed Ortmeyer, Nolan Yonkman, and Drew MacIntyre.

  MacIntyre won't play in Milwaukee next year. He prefers to sign one-year deals at this point in his career...and Milwaukee is not a good fit anymore. Unless he has a shot in Nashville, he's gone. I believe Jed is gone, too. Yonkman will be a tuff call.

  Now - the RESTRICTED Free agents.  These are GROUP 2 players - bascially everyone with an expired contract that doesn't qualify for unrestricted free agency. Nashville must tender these players a contract by no later than June 25th in order to receive compensation should they sign elsewhere.

  FORWARDS

  Ryan Maki

  Ryan Jones

  Cal O'Reilly

  Kelsey Wilson

  Triston Grant

  Ian McKenzie

  Antti Pihlstrom

  DEFENSE

  Tim Ramholt

   

  This is an interesting group. We've already been told by Predators' GM David Poile that Cal is in their plans...so we expect a signing on him soon-ish. I think the entire group of forwards will be back...with the possible exception of McKenzie. We've heard rumblings all season that Ramholt will be leaving to play overseas next season. He's a replacement-level player - so I would be surprised to see him return.

  Finally, we have the OTHERS. These are guys that signed AHL or ECHL deals...I'm not certain that these guys have expired contracts - but I think they do.

  FORWARDS

  Stephen Werner

  Geoff Peters

  DEFENSE

  TJ McElroy

  Scott Ford

  Mark Matheson

  I think Peters is done...I think Werner will be back, as long as he gets the mdical clearance to continue playing. I also happen to think we'll see Ford and Matheson return - but not McElroy.  

  We'll be on the lookout for developments regarding these players.

  With 8 comment(s)

  Filed under: Roster

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• Fenton Staying Put

  Posted May 21 2009, 11:02 PM by Eric W. Kent

  Bad news for Paul Fenton=Good news for the Admirals.

  Admirals G.M. Paul Fenton will not be the next General Manager of the Minnesota Wild.

  According to the Star Tribune, the Wild will introduce Check Fletcher as their next GM later today. Fletcher is currently the Assistant GM for the Pittsburgh Penguins. It's interesting that they would hire him in the midst of the Penguins playoff run...but so be it.

  With 1 comment(s)

  Filed under: Paul Fenton

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