According to Dan Ellis' twitter page (which is really truly him), the Preds are recalling Colin Wilson and Nolan Yonkman.

That's right, Nolan Yonkman.

Wilson and Yonkman did participate in Admirals' practice this morning, and were ticketed to be on the bus for Cleveland (the team's flight got cancelled due to the weather). .

Yonkman would ordinarily be subject to re-entry waivers, but if this is due to emergency conditions - caused by say, the trading of a defenseman - then tht MIGHT not apply.

Not sure why Wilson would be recalled, unless eather A) a forward got dealt or 2) An injury popped up.

Another, less conspiratorial theory, is that the Preds just wanted some depth. With their next three games in NY/NJ, and travel posing a problem, perhaps they wanted to make sure they would have people available in case something went bad.

UPDATE: This has now been confirmed. Still efforting the "why". Maybe John Glennon will actually use his contacts over at the Predators to find out what's up. John? Hello?

Granted two power play opportunities in the game's final 5:30, the Wisconsin Badgers Mens Hockey Team rallied to beat Michigan 3-2 in the Camp Randall Classic Saturday evening.

If you're interested in the recap, you can read a UW take here, and a UM take here. (The Michigan link has a much more in-depth recap. There isn't a whole lot of Madison-area coverage available to link to. Lame.)

Nashville Predators draft pick and likely future Admiral Blake Geoffrion assisted on the Badger's first goal of the night.

Chris "College Boy" Jerina was there for Short Shifts, and took these pictures. Enjoy!

An interesting night at the good old hockey game.

After two periods, the Admirals had 10 shots and the Aeros had 12 shots.  There was six goals in the game at that point.

Huh?

Former Admiral bench-door opener Ryan Nie was signed to a PTO contract by the Aeros today.  And then actually saw ice time.  58 minutes of it.

Huh?

The Admirals were called for three goaltender interference penalties, only maybe one of which was deserved.  Aeros called for too many men on the ice twice.

Huh?

Mark Santorelli has a new nickname.

HUH??!?!?!?!?!??!

The Admirals got a pair of goals from Mike Santorelli, and markers from Colin Wilson, Mark Santorelli, and Reid Cashman, ultimately defeating the Aeros 5-3 on Friday night.  Chet Pickard turned aside 17 of 20 shots for his 14th win of the year.

There was a logical reason for Nie's addition to the lineup -- they needed him.  Anton Khudobin and Wade Dubielewicz are both in Nashville the NHL.  And Barry Brust was injured in the Aeros last game in Peoria.  I'll defer to thethirdintermission for the details, but man, any time you hear the word "laceration", it's very scary.  So Nie was the man tonight.


"There's many many goaltenders that are playing in the East Coast Hockey League, and a lot of them could be playing in the American Hockey League," Coach Lambert said after the game. "But because of numbers they can't.  It didn't change any preparation for us."

Milwaukee greeted Nie with the first three goals of the game.  Mike Santorelli was the first after taking a quick feed from Peter Olvecky in the near corner.  Mike darted toward the net with the puck, and was able to beat Nie from a sharp angle.

Colin Wilson extended his point scoring streak to seven games by finishing a beautiful 2-on-1 rush with Nick Spaling.  Nick feathered a perfect cross-slot pass, and Wilson beat Nie short side.

It's worth noting that Reid Cashman played one of his best games of the season, and not just because he scored the third goal.  He made some nice plays on both ends of the ice.  But his goal was a good combination of excellent awareness, a nice feed from Wacey Rabbit, and a good screen in front of the goalie.  After an Aero forward missed a check in their offensive zone, and took a long time to skate off the ice, the Admirals were able to turn the play back into the Aero end of the ice, and Cashman's shot from the top of the near face-off circle went through the below screen.

Jason Jozsa was inserted into the lineup in light of Alex Sulzer's callup to Nashville, and the only noticeable thing he did tonight was a turnover in the defensive zone that turned into the Aeros first goal.  The puck was fluttering in the air, and he gloved it....right to an Aeros forward.  After a quick cycle of the puck, Nathan Smith converted from the slot.

Jean-Michel Daoust had a beautiful feed from the far boards that hit Cody Almond, who was charging the net from the near point.  Almond unleashed a rocket from the slot that made it a 3-2 game with 6:11 left in the 2nd period.

Thirty seconds later Mark Santorelli answered.  Santorelli was low in the slot, and took a great feed..... from Cory Almond.  Nie was caught with his proverbial pants down, and Santorelli scored his tenth of the year.

Mike Santorelli put the game away with his 18th goal of the season 2:06 into the 3rd period.  Mike picked up the puck at the red line in front of the penalty box, brought the puck in the offensive zone, and from the corner of the face-off circle beat Nie just inside the post.

Peter Zingoni scored for the Aeros with 4:15 remaining in the 3rd.  It was a goal.

NOTES:

Here are your lines:

Spaling - Wilson - Jessiman
Olvecky - Santorelli - Thuresson
Grant - Guite - Santorelli
Mueller - Rabbit - McKenzie

- Great quote from the coach after the game about Chet Pickard's progress: "I think he's confident, I think he's pretty tidy with his rebound control.  He's a very structural goaltender, he's in good position, he's not all over the place and he doesn't panic.  He's definitely making great strides as the season goes along here, and we need that."

Does that sound like the exact opposite of another goaltender we know?

- Special teams, not a factor.  Houston 0-6, Milwaukee 0-5.  Multiple power plays were ended  prematurely by other penalties.

- Remember when goaltender interference was a real penalty?  It's not anymore.  I'm really sick of seeing guys pushed into opposing goaltenders BY OPPOSING DEFENDERS, and then our guy goes to the box for interference.  Mike Santorelli was the victim of that tonight.  Nie tripped Jessiman in the 3rd period, and Jessiman fell on him.  Jessiman was called for goaltender interference.  It's silly.  But fortunately, the PK was up to it.  Man, it's great to have Spaling back on the PK, isn't it?

- Triston Grant's horseshoe stache is history.

- The Ads have the rest of the weekend off to rest up, and then it's back to practice on Monday.

And that's all that happened in the game. We had photographic evidence from Chris "The Friendly Ghost" Jerina. However, technical difficulties are preventing us from posting them tonight. Stupid technicalityisms.  

Finally - Mark Santorelli scored his tenth goal of the season.  And friends, that's a nickname upgrade.

Or is it?

Eric Kent was not at the game on Friday night, but released the following statement regarding the situation:

"I have been advised that the threshold has been breached. It seems rather convenient that Pudding would chose the ONE game I was not at to score the goal. In light of these suspicious circumstances, we will require independent third-party verification before any official action will be taken. I will launch a full investigation Monday morning. Preliminary results should be available prior to Milwaukee's next game, February 10th versus Milwaukee Lake Erie. This is a serious claim, and the investigation shall be given all due diligence."

Eric then paused before running down the hallway yelling "Pudding Pudding Pudding Pudding!"


To be continued......

So it looks like they'll be giving the hook to the entity that is known as "Sportsbubbler" on Monday or Tuesday....so we wanted to take a moment to reflect on the past, talk about the future, and make fun of some people.

Admirals Short Shifts started when my friend Dan Walsh (who essentially ran the Bubbler) called me and asked if I would be interested in writing a blog about the Admirals.  I was a bit hesitant at first....where was I going to find the time, how much unpaid work did I really want to do, yadda yadda yadda.  Dan said he'd pay me in six packs of beer, and I'm not sure we've received any to date... but anyway, I agreed and started looking for someone to do all the REAL work.

Enter Eric Kent.  While I had the Milwaukee media background, Eric had the sports journalism background, as he was a sports anchor at some TV stations elsewhere in Wisconsin and Michigan.  I don't think I remember how I got him to agree to do this blog thing, but I'm sure there was blackmail of some kind involved.

So here we are today, a season and a half into our existence, and about to make the move over to JSOnline. 

The question had been brought up whether people will need to establish an account at JSOnline to be able to leave comments on our posts.  The answer is:  I don't know yet.  I've made it very clear to them that our readers have been very responsible with the anonymous posting priviledges, and that we'd like them to be able to continue in that fashion.  So we're fighting that fight right now.  If we lose that fight, we encourage you all to take a few minutes and sign up and get a login name.  The signing in will be a minor inconvenience, and will take a little bit of creativity out of some of the names we've seen in our comments sections, but we hope that you'll play the game and still be a part of our conversations at Admirals Short Shifts.  We can have all the page hits in the world, but the conversations are what we look forward to the most.

If you've bookmarked this URL, you don't need to change anything right away, as you'll be automatically transported to the new site if you try to come back here.  Once over there, you can update your bookmarks and all will be right with your browser.

As far as our future at JSOnline?  We're okay going there for now.  If they piss us off, we'll find another home somewhere else, be it SBNation or Wordpress or whatever.  And we'll keep you posted.

And if they shut us down in some NBC/Conan-style madness, keep an eye on our Twitter page for details of what's happening.

To close out this State Of The Shifts address, here are the top ten things we've learned so far this season.

10.  Chris Jerina takes amazing photos, and we're lucky to have his permission to use them.  Thanks Chris!
9.  We need some new goals, since our goals of being cited on Puck Daddy and Wikipedia have been achieved.
8.  We enjoy giving out nicknames more than people enjoy reading about them, but it doesn't deter us from dishing them out.  I wonder if Mark Santorelli knows about his situation, and if he does, we wonder if he is amused at all... FiC?  Can you advise?
7.  Nashville has some great bloggers, and we're thrilled to be part of their network.
6.  Barry Trotz is actually a really great interview.  You just need to ask the right questions.
5.  We still aren't on speaking terms with the CBA....the waiver process section in particular.
4.  John Glennon of the Tennessean knows who we are....and probably won't be sending us any Christmas cards anytime soon.
3.  Twitter is actually a really great way to spread news to a niche audience.  It's not just for 14 year olds to tell their friends what color their nails are, or what level of Final Fantasy XXXVIII they got to.  Many thanks to Sutty for getting us in gear on Twitter, and for being a rockstar behind the scenes.
2.  It's pretty fun to be a goal judge.
1.  Of course we didn't just learn it this season, but it's worth mentioning again....it's our readers make this worthwhile for us.  Thank you for your continued support, and we'll see you at the game tonight, and on the "other side" early next week.

Here's to you, Claude Noel.

Mazel tovs are in order for Claude, as today he was named interim head coach of the Columbus Blue Jackets (at the expense of Ken Hitchcock).

I'm pretty sure that everybody who ever came into contact with Claude knew that this day was going to come eventually.  Good things happen to good people, and we can't be happier for him.

Do you have a favorite Claude moment from his time with the Admirals?  Leave a comment below!

(photo credit:  Scott Paulus)