More Notes From The Morning Skate and a Quick Look Inside the Numbers

“If you can’t get yourself ready for a game like this,” Clayton Stoner said, “then you don’t deserve to be here.”

Here is Milwaukee. The game is Game Seven of a best of seven series with the Milwaukee Admirals.

“I’m excited,” Stoner said. “This is the kind of thing you dream about when you’re younger. Playing these big games. Hopefully the best team wins. It’s just exciting to be part of it.”

The Aeros looked a bit different out on the ice this morning. There wasn’t all of the laughing and joking of Saturday’s Game Five skate. The guys are all smiles and they rib each other a bit. But the focus is a little different. And after the disasters were games five and six, perhaps the focus should be a little different, especially after Monday night’s 7-0 disaster.

“Right after the game, we said it’s over with,” Stoner said. “We weren’t real proud of the way we played. But some games go like that. It’s hockey. We got over it quickly. We went to dinner afterwards and we talked about Game Seven and not Game Six.”

The Aeros have been a maddening team to watch this season. Offensively, this has been one of the most talented teams the Aeros have sent out on the ice in years. And Krys Kolanos, Corey Locke, and Jesse Schultz have brought a scoring mentality to the team. But there have been stretches when the offense has backfired and accomplished nothing. Then the offense has been on fire but the defense has let down. For the first half of the season, the team couldn’t keep a lead, but the team would never quit and could score in the third to steal the game.

So I don’t really know what to tell you to expect tonight. I’ve got no clue.

Anton Khudobin is starting at goal with Nolan Schaefer prepared to come off of the bench to back him up. Barry Brust is also now skating with the team, but he won’t suit up tonight. Khudobin has shown in these playoffs that he can play some really fantastic hockey. He’s also been awful at times, and in six games against Milwaukee, he’s completed only three. And if he starts out poorly again, Schaefer will probably come out to relieve him.

“It’s tough not having played for five weeks,” Schaefer said about his play on Monday night. “My first full practice was the morning skate with the team, but it’s the playoffs, and we have to rise to the occasion. And I didn’t really do that….Anton’s got the start tonight. I know he’ll do well.”

“The bottom line is it’s just down to a winner-take-all situation,” head coach Kevin Constantine said. “We just want to stick with our plan and stick with what’s worked for us all year.”

What do the stats indicate for tonight?

The Aeros are 5-1 all-time in playoff game sevens, including 3-0 in Calder Cup games. So the Aeros have that in their favor. The Aeros are 6-2 in the playoffs when they score first, and they are 5-0 when they lead after the first and 2-1 if they are tied after one period. But if the Aeros are losing after two periods, they’re 1-5.

So it’s pretty much the standard things that I’ve been writing this series: the Aeros need to get the first goal, and they need to have the lead after one period. If they can do that, they should win.

Krys Kolanos will be a game-time decision. He didn’t skate this morning, but it’s my understanding that he doesn’t always make the morning skate. Tomas Mojzis didn’t travel with the team, and he’s in Houston.

So what happens tonight? Hell if I know. The Aeros have been consistent at one thing this year. And that’s being inconsistent. With their play the past two games, it looks like they should lose, but then again, the Aeros have sometimes played their best hockey when it’s thought they’ll be awful.

All that I know is I predicted the Aeros to win in six games. That didn’t happen. But I’ll stick with my prediction that the Aeros win. I’ll probably be wrong. But I don’t back off my predictions.

SOME MISCELLANEOUS NOTES:

I'm listening to the radio up here in Milwaukee, and apparently, according to Milwaukee management who were just on the radio here, Krys Kolanos was a healthy scratch on Monday. So it's nice to see that they don't know what the hell they're talking about. I confirmed during the game on Monday that he was injured, and I reconfirmed at the skate this morning.

Also, according to Milwaukee sports radio, if the Admirals win tonight, they're going to the Calder Cup finals.

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The definitive Aeros scratches for tonight are Tomas Mojzis, Jesse Schultz, John Adams, Barry Brust, and Matt Climie. The Milwaukee exec who was on the radio getting the facts wrong about Kolanos also thought that it was funny the Aeros had to have four goalies on the roster. Yeah, it's a real laugh riot that the team's two top goalies got hurt at the end of the season.

And the new guy might be in town with the team, but he didn't skate with them this morning.

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And one further thing. I watched Game Six on AHL Live Monday night, and I was a bit disgusted by some of the chatter on the chat room. So I'd like to make a plea for a little civility during the game. There's no need to be making fun of the way people look or calling them fat and getting into flame wars.

I think we're all adults and we should act like adults. Of course, I won't be watching the game on AHL Live so I've got no clue as to what will happen on there anyway. But I just wanted to make the suggestion.