Aeros Round-Up

It's kind of unusual for August to have much news, but there's been a trickle of things coming down the wire in the last few days that, if you don't have Twitter, you might have missed.

John already covered the dates and David Burke's hiring as the Aeros new President. A little more on Burke (who I desperately want to call Burkie, a la Brian Burke) is that he's on Twitter! Which I think is pretty cool.

You can follow him at @DBurkeAeros if you so choose.

Between his and Kassian's twitter feed, which is really funny stuff, consider making the leap to the dark side. I put together a quick and dirty Aeros-centric list of follows that shouldn't overwhelm anybody to keep up with, if you just want to dip a toe in: http://twitter.com/#!/list/3rdIntermission/aeros-essentials

You do have to create an account to view it, it looks like, but I promise, it won't turn you into a hipster doofus.

Anyway, on to other news:

It looks like the Aeros will be announcing the assistant coaches pretty soon. On the defensive end, they're hiring recently-retired defenseman Mike Van Ryn, who played for Torchetti in Florida. Knee injuries pretty much spelled the end of his career a bit early, but he should still have plenty of fire in the belly to bestow upon the Aeros' youngsters.

Also, Sebastien LaPlante is the other assistant coach that is reportedly coming into the fold. He played on Torchetti's team in San Antonio and has most recently been assistant coaching the team at Northeastern University, where he played his college career.

So, lots of new blood in the mix this season and I'm excited to get things going... in September. Still not quite recovered from playoffs.

Yeo to be named Minnesota Wild head coach

Russo is reporting that Mike Yeo will be announced as the new head coach of the Wild tomorrow. So, the Aeros are on the hunt yet again for a new coach.

Personally, I'm delighted for Mike. I really can't say enough nice things about him as a person and as a coach and he absolutely has earned the opportunity to be a head coach in the NHL.

And as a Wild fan myself, the last two years have been a dreadful experience, so I'm looking forward to watching the sort of team Mike puts on the ice. I will be rooting for him AND for the boys.

I think a good number of them will be guys he's coached down here, if they go for a youth movement up there, so it's a good transition for them, too.

But of course, it's always a bit pins-and-needles time when you get a new coach down here. So here's to the team making another good choice when they fill his big shoes.

All the best of luck to Mike. I hope Wild fans enjoy him as much as we have.

I'm sure we'll (and by we, I mean someone with actual quotes) be back with more before long, but I wanted to get it out there.

Wiseman accepts Assistant Coach gig at Michigan

Aeros assistant coach Brian Wiseman had homecoming of sorts this season, returning not only to hockey after a 5-year break, but to the Aeros, where he played in his pro days.

After one season with the Aeros, he's now returning to Ann Arbor and his alma mater, the University of Michigan, as an assistant coach.

Here's the story from the Michigan web site.

Best of luck to Coach Wiseman!

And The New Coach of The Admirals Will Be...

While we're all still wondering if we'll have Mike Yeo around next year, or whether he'll be rewarded with the top job with some NHL team somewhere, comes the word that Milwaukee head coach, and former Aero, Lane Lambert is being promoted by the Nashville Predators organization. The word is a press conference has been scheduled for tomorrow in which it will be announced that Lambert's been hired on as assistant coach to the Preds, which means the Ads will be in search of a new coach.

Just a reminder that, while the actual hockey is finished for the year, hockey itself is not finished. There'll be more coaching moves to come. AHL/NHL affiliations will be shifting around. The Moose are moving to St. John's, Newfoundland and we're waiting for the AHL to figure out which conference/division in which to place them -- my guess is that the AHL finds a way to keep them in the so-called Western Conference, North Division because the teams in the Eastern Conference don't want to be bothered with all of that far-flung traveling the teams in the Western Conference have to deal with.

There'll be roster changes throughout the league, more coaching changes, and don't forget, the league's moving to a 76-game schedule next year.

The Texas Coaching Connection

There's an Aeros post over at the mothership about the coaching staff and their connections to Houston and Texas, which I just found to be rather interesting since Houston and Texas aren't really considered to be hockey hot beds.

It's not as good as I was hoping it would be. I was just kind of rushed this weekend, and didn't have as much time to work on it as I wanted, and it just really doesn't work at least for me, but I hope you'll go read it anyway.

(And good news is, at least this time, I'm not pissing off the Aeros business office or any fans. I think.)

Remember, let them know you like this stuff as I'm going into heavy college football mode for the next several months and I will be lucky to get out a hockey story a week.

Wiseman Returns To Aeros

The Aeros have completed their coaching staff. It was announced earlier today that Mike Yeo's assistants will be former Aeros player and Yeo teammate Brian Wiseman and the recently retired player Darryl Sydor.

A Few Words From Mike Yeo

Hey folks, how's it going? I bet that y'all have forgotten that I even exist, so long has it been that I've contributed anything to T3I. Apologies for that, but the mothership has been keeping me busy covering college sports, especially all of the Houston Cougar sports and Rice baseball, and I've actually been busy working and earning some cash at some temp jobs.

But enough about me. I talked to the Aeros new coach today, Mike Yeo. This will be for the mothership on Friday, so I'm not going to post a lot here, at the moment, but I thought I would write up a few things I got from our short talk.

There's a promise of a new style of play tailored after how the Pittsburgh Penguins, and to a lesser extent the Wild, play. But I heard a lot of Kevin Constantine in some of his answers, especially about the importance of defense and wearing the other team down and taking advantage of tired teams in the third, but I do think the offense will be much more aggressive, at least in theory.

But here's the thing.

As some of you remember, most of Yeo's professional playing career was spent in Houston, and he was the captain of the team that won the Turner Cup. He likes it here, and this is a job that he wanted.

"That’s a big part of why I’m here. It’s not like I was sitting in Pittsburgh, trying to pay attention to the internet and looking to see what job offerings and openings were out there. I was in a very good spot in Pittsburgh, and loved what I was doing there."

Houston's a special place to Yeo, and he can't wait to get know all of the fans all over again.

A quick explanation: Aeros 2, Rampage 3

I didn't watch much of the game, so I'm not going to write it up properly (like I would anyway). I'd get on Khudobin for allowing that tying goal as he mishandled the puck as he was covering it with his glove... but he stopped a whopping 53 (!!!) shots in this game. He's allowed two goals against, I guess. ;)

And the game winner was an empty netter with :20 left in the tied game.

Folks freaked out in the chat on AHLLive at Constantine pulling Khudobin with less than a minute left in the game. Why would a coach pull the goalie in a tied game?

The reason is because the Aeros had 80 points, the Rampage had 82, which means the Aeros HAD to win in regulation to jump ahead of San Antonio in the standings. (Aeros get the tie breaker due to winning the season series between the two teams.)

So, don't flip out. He did the right thing. Alas, the boys couldn't hold 'em in and the Rampage nabbed the empty netter for the win, but the Aeros do finish at .500 for the season. Hey, that's better than all the other teams at the bottom of their divisions have done! Haha... Well, it's something.

The offseason has officially begun.

Ray Edwards: “It's embarrassing to lose at home in front of 8,000 people."

There are two ways coaches tend to handle what happens when their team plays like the Rampage did against the Aeros Thursday night.

Ray Edwards took the literal approach. Tell it like it is. Here is a sample of his quotes after the game last night courtesy of the S.A. Express News:
“I'm not happy at all. I don't like not being in the playoffs; I don't like losing, and it's embarrassing right now. It's embarrassing to lose at home in front of 8,000 people. It's embarrassing the way we lost. There's a lot of guys in that room that should be embarrassed by the way we played tonight."

Wow.

In my time covering the Aeros over the years, I have dealt with Dave Tippet (as an intern), Dave Barr, Todd McLellan, Rob Daum and Kevin Constantine. They all have different personalities, and the only one of them that would tell it like it is "on the record) is Daum.

I don't have a problem either way, as I understand that most coaches like to chastise internally and talk in more general terms to reporters.

The Rampage were pretty lousy after the first period. I think when they were only able to get one shot by Anton in the first period, they got the attitude of "here we go again" and they were not willing to put in the work, especially against an Aeros team that has score one or fewer goals in 25 (25!!!!!) of their games this year.

Not to go too far off the path here, but if you told me at the beginning of the year that the Aeros would score one or fewer goals in more than 30 percent of their games, I would have told you you're crazy.

The Aeros how have two games left in their season, and I am REAL curious to see what Texas brings to the table Saturday. I am even MORE curious to see what San Antonio does in response to their game Thursday night.

Mark LeRose hired as Aeros Assistant Coach

T3I has learned and confirmed with Kevin Constantine that Mark LeRose is being brought in as the second assistant coach for the Aeros, filling Luke Strand's vacant position.

LeRose comes from the Everett Silvertips where he was hired as an assistant coach the year after Constantine left for the Aeros, but was the coaching staff assistant to KC during his last season as the coach of the Pittsburgh Penguins in 99-00.

Former Aero Makes Good, Really Good

I can't believe we missed this, as we do try and make an effort to follow Houston Aeros alumni, but miss this we did. Former Aeros player Mike Yeo has been on the coaching staff of the Pittsburgh Penguins for the past three seasons, which means he was part of the the recent Penguins Stanley Cup coaching staff.

And that means he got to have the Cup for a day. And here's what he did with it. Congrats, Mike.

A Discussion With Joe O'Donnell

I spent some time yesterday with Aeros play-by-play guy Joe O'Donnell -- you can read a profile of Joe over at the mothership if you want to give it a look. (Remember, the more that you click and read over there the more willing the editors are to allow more hockey coverage.) But besides my Houston Press duties, I spent some time with Joe discussing the off-season, some of the changes, and the upcoming season. There's a lot of off-the-record stuff I can't share, but I thought you might enjoy reading some of Joe's thoughts.

You might not like or agree with everything he says, but unlike myself -- and most of us -- he spends a lot of time talking to Kevin Constantine and Troy Ward during the off-season.

JOE O'DONNELL ON THIS UPCOMING SEASON AND THE CHANGES TO THE TEAM:

"If I may, I would like to give a disclaimer to the fan base: everything will be fine in Houston this season in my opinion. Now if it’s December and the team’s not playing well, email me and remind me about this. But in my estimation, this team will be fine.

"The Minnesota Wild put a lot of stock in what the Aeros mean as far as being a piece of the organization. On the roster right now…I think defensively, there have already been upgrades. There’s going to be some guys on the Aeros who are borderline Wild guys -- Clayton Stoner, Jamie Sifers, etc. There’s a good chance there will be eight defenseman in Houston who are going to be legit. That are going to be fighting for ice time. Max Noreau and Justin Falk could be your five/six. That’s pretty darn good. And I talked to Troy Ward about this in the last week, and he’s really excited about the defense as well.

"Goalteanding. You know what you’ve got. If [Wade] Dublielewicz is here, awesome. If not, Brust and Khudobin are certainly capable of winning you games. They’ve proven that.

"Offensively. Are you losing some pieces of the puzzle from last year, sure. But there’s a lot more that goes into it than just putting up points. There’s certain roles that guys didn’t play last year that maybe new guys will fall into this year. You’re still going to have your hard working guys, your Danny Irmen’s, etc that’ll most likely be here. If a [Benoit] Pouliot or a [Colton] Gillies ends up down here, then this team’s going to be good, they’re going to be real good again, and the division’s going to be better."

*********************
"If there’s a fan that’s upset about losing players like Locke, Kolanos, etc. I get that. I’m sad to see those guys go. And I know the coaching staff would love to have a Matt Beaudoin back again, or Marco Rosa. Those are big pieces to lose. But there will be guys to come and fill those shoes or take on a different role and this team will take on a different style and have a different identity."

JOE O'DONNELL ON THE NEW DIVISIONAL ALIGNMENT:

"I expect Austin to be good. And we’re going to see Matt Climie a lot, and we all know about him. Austin’s going to be no slouch. San Antonio’s going to have a better year. They essentially have to….The Aeros are built defensively right now. They’re built from their blue line out, which is a good start to the summer. Plus the Wild have cap room. And they’ve got some trade bait.

"I think the Aeros will certainly benefit this year from having an easier travel schedule. A better schedule as a whole. There’s no way they’ll have 15 three-in-three’s again….I think the schedule and Austin coming in is great. I know as an organization we really want to play off the Austin/San Antonio rivalry for years to come. And hopefully the fans will buy into that…I think it will make for a great West Division this year."

JOE O'DONNELL ON THE COACHING STAFF:
"[Kevin Constantine last season] was interesting to work with. Just such an unique hockey brain, such an unique person. The stuff he looks at, I’ve never heard any other coaches look at. The stuff he talks about, the way he tries to see what players are thinking and feeling, that stuff is very unique to him. I also learned with KC to pick my spots. He’s very driven hockey wise so there are times when I just know it’s not a good time to go B.S. with the coach or go ask for an interview. But there are also other times when Kevin Constantine is your normal guy, he’s an awesome guy, and he has fun….his brain is just always hockey oriented.

"Troy Ward is a consummate professional who really knows the game and works tirelessly. And Luke Strand is awesome as well….I know the coaching staff will miss him a lot."

JOE O'DONNELL ON HIS BROADCASTS AND HIS INTERNET PEEPS:

"Hockey was my passion and that was what I wanted to do from the time I was a freshman.

"It’s hard to call a baseball game because there’s so much down time and dead air, [but hockey] comes naturally…with my style, it flows...if I see something I just try to describe it…I’ve just learned that you can’t get everything [happening on the ice] out and you’ve just got to stay with your thought….

"I’ve always been objective. I don’t know where that came from, but I pretty much told myself from game one when I got into this business that I wasn’t going to be a homer. I’m passionate about the team I work for. Sure I want them to win. Sure somewhere deep down inside I’m pulling for them, but to me, there’s nothing worse than a guy who doesn’t tell you what’s going on and just tells you one side of the story. With my style, with my call. I’m going to be passionate, and you’re going to know I’m working for the Aeros, but you’re also going to know when the Aeros aren’t playing well, or when it’s time to give credit to the other team.

"It was tough [coming in at the last minute and having to learn the team, the league, and the players]….It was difficult. It felt for me like the first ten games I was trying to find my game. And I kind new that the start of the year took a handful of games to get back into it, it’s like everything else. But when I hit the 10th game, when that 10th game ended, I kind of proclaimed to myself that I was ready. That I was finally caught up to the speed of the game, that I knew the Aeros well enough to talk about them confidently, and now all I had to do was focus on the other team."

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"What I’ve been trying to do…is I try to talk to both coaches before every game and get a thought or two or a key to the game from both sides, whether it’s a player or whoever. And I try to mix that stuff in more than I try to mix in stuff about a guy’s family or whether he has a sense of humor….I try to get what is the objective for this team for this game.

"I was trained from the best. I say that because my board operator in Boise would talk to me non-stop during the game. He would sing in the studio. He was a fan. So if we were down 4-1 in the third period, I would be listening to him gripe about the team while I’m calling the game, so I learned to block it out. You’re in a broadcast booth by yourself sometimes for five hours between preparing and breaking down the post game show and the broadcast. If it’s not going to be fun, then why are you doing it. So that’s why you’ll hear me talking to my internet peeps…I hope that they find the broadcasts enjoyable. Shoot me an email during the game, I’ll respond to it.

"It’s a blast. I love what I do."

JOE O'DONNELL REGARDING THE AEROS ON THE RADIO:

[The Aeros are currently without a radio broadcaster.]

"Our deal with KNTH was a one-year deal. We’re currently in the process of exploring some options. We’re going to talk KNTH again. We’re going to talk to some sports stations in the area. We’re going to do our homework, and we’re going to try and find a radio partner that fits best for us and essentially our fan base. Someone that wants to be partnered with us. That’s going to promote us, and somebody we can get some exposure for."

Matt Shaw joins McLellan in San Jose

For Aeros assistant coach and Wild Video Coach Matt Shaw will join the San Jose Sharks as Assistant coach.

This is wonderful news for truly one of the classiest coaches I have ever dealt with. Granted that list isn't all that long, but the timing couldn't be better for Shaw, who is leaving the Wild to take the place of the guy who left to coach the Wild.

For new Aeros fans, Shaw was McLellan's assistant in Houston.

Consider this quote from McLellan from the Sharks' Web site:

"Our policy is to talk to several different people throughout a hiring process but I kept coming back to Matt," explained McLellan during a conference call on Friday. "Next year is a big year for all of us as players and as coaches and he and I have worked together in the past so there is a comfort level. He has tremendous character and a strong ability to interact with the players and coaches."

Luke Strand departs for USHL

Sioux City's USHL team has a new coach, former Aeros assistant Luke Strand.
Here is the article ... and here is a nice quote from Luke about his new gig:

“I can’t tell you how happy I am to be back in the USHL and especially with the Sioux City Musketeers. I appreciate the opportunity afforded to me by the Musketeers management and look forward to leading them to success both on and off the ice. The USHL is undoubtedly the best junior hockey league in the country and I am thrilled to be a part of it; but even more excited about the chance to lead the ‘tradition rich’ Musketeers organization."

Best of luck up there, Luke!

I know I can speak on behalf of everyone at T3I.info when I say it certainly has been a pleasure working with you the last two years.

Again, all the best.

Gulutzan hired to coach Texas Stars

The Dallas Stars have hired Glen Gulutzan, who was previously the coach of the ECHL Las Vegas Wranglers and saw a great deal of success as the only coach of that team since its inception.

Here's Dallas Stars beat reporter Mike Heika's blog post on the matter with links to various places and some background.

Here's the Wranglers' press release.

Also, Paul Jerrard will join him as the Stars' assistant coach, having been with the Stars in Iowa and sticking around as an assistant to the Iowa Chops. Lucky him to escape that fiasco with Anaheim dumping their affiliate.

It's Official in Dallas: Tippett Out, Crawford In

The Dallas Stars made it official today. Dave Tippett has been fired, and his replacement is Marc Crawford, former coach of the Colorado Avalanche, Vancouver Canucks, and Los Angeles Kings.

New Stars GM Joe Nieuwendyk said he was brought in to making some sweeping changes and move the team in a new direction. Keeping Tippet would have made for an incremental change, at best. And as for why the team refused to confirm the firing yesterday, when it was first reported by TSN, you can blame Tippett. He asked the team to hold off the announcement for a day, and the team honored his request.

Tippett Gone

It is being reported that former Houston Aeros head coach Dave Tippett has been fired by the Dallas Stars. Tippett has coached the Stars for the past six seasons, and he came to the Stars from the Los Angeles Kings, where he was an assistant coach. The Stars missed the playoffs this season for the first time since the team moved to Dallas. Tippett coached the Aeros to the 1999 IHL Turner Cup.