Observations From The Morning Skate -- The Sultry Edition

Went over to the Aeros morning skate at Toyota Center again today and watched a bit and took some notes. I also talked to Kevin Constantine and J.P. Testwuide, but I'll get to that in a moment. First, some notes.

Your definite scratches for this game are Jesse Schultz -- who Constantine says isn't close to returning -- Barry Brust, Nolan Schaefer, Dane Crowley, and John Adams. Paul Albers was once again skating with the guys in practice, and once again he looked to be fine with me. Constantine said they were going to make a decision regarding his availability for tonight sometime after the skate was finished.

Towards the end of practice, Max Noreau lined up from the point and sent slap shot after slap shot toward Khudobin. It looked like they were working on getting Khudobin to make more glove saves on those shots as Noreau appeared to be aiming directly at Anton and less at the net. And early on, it looked like the skaters were trying some different approaches with shooting the puck, it especially looked like they were working on elevating the puck.

And for as much criticism as we give him, Benoit Pouliot appeared to really be working hard. He was the first one out on the ice. He spent about five minutes alone practicing his shooting -- and if he would just shoot the puck during the game like he does in practice he would be fine -- and he was one of the last ones off, along with Justin Falk and Marco Scandella.

And seeing as how Milwaukee was bitching about the officiating Tuesday night, I'm guessing they're going to be in a lousy mood tonight as Francois St. Laurent, who worked as the ref on Tuesday night, is back for tonight. It can be argued that this will work in Milwaukee's favor as maybe St. Laurent will turn around and put the Admirals on a five-on-three power play late in the game.

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Kevin Constantine got around to reviewing the game tape of Game Three, and despite the win, he wasn't entirely happy.

"For us,"he said. "We had an okay first, and a really bad second – for most of the second the bad was our shifts were too long and we didn’t play very simple and we played a lot of one-on-one hockey instead of a team game. Then a really good recovery and we played a simpler third and only gave up three chances."

The primary thing he didn't like about Tuesday night was the sloppiness of the play, to which he primarily attributed the ice conditions. "I think the game was maybe a little sloppy," he said. "I think that the heat in the building...[was] a little sweatier with hotter sultry feeling to the rink here [as opposed to Milwaukee], I think both teams created some fatigue. It created a little less swiftness of play. So the game was a little bit sloppier than maybe the games in Milwaukee were."

And as some of you are aware, Milwaukee was rather upset about the officiating in Game Three. And I asked Constantine about those complaints, and about whether the Aeros took it as a slight that the Admirals seem to feel that the Aeros wouldn't have won the game without the assistance of the referees.

"I think Milwaukee was upset mostly in the fact that we scored a five-on-three goal to win the game, the winning goal," he said. "Then teams want to question whether the referee should have put them down two guys. It’s not very relative to us. We always have a focus that’s way more on how we’re playing.

"All I know is Milwaukee won our division. They’re very good. They’ve outplayed us the last two games in a row, even though on the scoreboard each team’s earned a win. The territory and the scoring chances have slightly favored them. We’ve got a lot of respect for how good they are. And we have to play really well to beat them."

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I also took a little time after practice to chat briefly with J.P. Testwuide, a rookie who joined the Aeros in time to get in some playing time in the season-ending series with San Antonio. Testwuide was signed to the team as a defenseman, but since he played some forward in college, he was asked to work there, as well, and he's now getting significant playing time as a forward in the playoffs.

"I didn’t really know what to expect," he said. "The coaches just told me to come out here and work hard. They didn’t know if they were going to be playing me at forward or dee, so I’ve just had to make adjustments to get into the lineup."

But since he's played them both, the adjustments haven't been that difficult, and he finds that his experience as a defenseman is helping him to play forward in Constantine's system. "It’s definitely tough," he said about the switch. "You have to pay attention to your details. You have to be really defensive minded. That kind of plays into my game because playing dee so much, I like to come back to the net and make simple plays and get the puck out. So I hope I’m just contributing in a good way."

And it seems, like with so many other people, he's become attached to Houston, or at least the organization. "It’s a great group of guys," he says. "Everybody’s so nice. Everybody down here in Houston is unbelievable. I’ve got nothing but nice things to say about people in this organization."

So that it's for now. I'll be back with my look inside the numbers as game time draws closer.