The Admirals begin their Thanksgiving Texas Trip tomorrow night in Houston, with their first rematch against the Houston Aeros after the disappointing playoff loss last May.

Now, I could scour the Interwebs and offer up some thoughts on how their season is going so far....but we elected to delegate to someone who has actually watched them play this year.

So please welcome guest columnist, aspiring goaltender, and Golden Globe Award nominee, Ms. Conduct.  She writes for The Third Intermission blog, and has been nice enough to provide us with the following scouting report.

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You want the good news about the Aeros first, or the bad news? Let's get the bad news, at least for us (good for you) out of the way.

These are the problems:

• Call ups of Danny Irmen and Robbie Earl, who had both been on hot streaks, to the Minnesota Wild.
• Injuries to rookies JP Testwuide and Cody Almond, both of whom were impact players until their injuries, and to Andy Hilbert who brought NHL experience to the team.
• As a result, two natural defensemen, Jamie Fraser and Brandon Rogers, have been playing forward and there are no healthy bodies in the stands.
• Apart from a recent 3-game scorefest, the team just can't get the puck in the net. And it's not for lack of trying. The "quality chance"-to-"shots on goal" ratio is pretty darn good. But they whiff, they hit posts, they go just wide, they hit a hot goalie, there's a skate in the way, yada yada yada.

But there are good things:

• Overall, the Aeros are deeper than they used to be so the absence of these top players isn't AS devastating. It's not like, other than that 3-game scoring blitz, they were running up the score before they lost those guys.
• For the longest time, the Aeros couldn't score on the power play, and went something like 45 opportunities without a PP marker. Now, that seems almost like the ONLY way they can score.
• The penalty kill is #1 in the league. It's a sight to behold and they make it look damn near effortless.
• They're a mature team that doesn't rattle or fluster easily, and as such, have shown the ability to come back from a deficit AND hold a lead.
• They've got plenty of grit and character and are tough to play against when they're on their game (and even when they're not quite on it, they'll still do a pretty good job thwarting whatever you're trying to do to them).