Bulldogs Bite Aeros, Win 3-2 in OT

John Torchetti was rather calm and collected when he came out to address the media long, long after tonight's 3-2 OT loss to Hamilton. He wasn't so calm in the locker room, however, as shouting and things being tossed could be heard in the corridor outside the locker room.

He's probably right to be angry. The Aeros are now 0-3-2-1 for their last six games, and with this loss, though the Aeros got a point, they dropped to seventh in the standings, and the reason for those losses, according to Torchetti is rather simple: the team's not playing very good hockey.

"It’s tough," Torchettis said. "You know what, our last six games have been that way every night. I would love to give you an explanation, but it comes down to how simple we want to play. We’ve got to simplify our game."

They took the 1-0 lead less than two minutes into the game when Nick Palmieri got the puck back to Chad Rau who stuck the puck into the goal. But Hamilton scored three minutes later tying the game. And like so many of the goals the Aeros have surrendered lately, it came as a result of a defensive breakdown.

"First mistake, first goal – it was two-on-two, stay in our lanes," he said. "Where were you about getting the puck to go on offense when we were not even going to get any offense from it, so we give them the middle of the ice. Just a rookie mistake."


The second Hamilton goal came late, late in the third period, after the Aeros, had again, taken a lead early in the period, this time with Palmieri getting the goal. But then there was another defensive breakdown hanging Hackett out to dry, and the game was tied.


Then the game goes into overtime, there's a turnover, and the game's over.


"The third goal, we turned the puck over," Torchetti said. "Instead of just passing it to the boards, we tried to pass it through the guy, and then we’re not focused because we made the turnover and we didn’t gap up. And now we’re so far back the guy just shoots it, our guy puts a stick in the way, Hack’s playing the shot, it gets deflected, there’s nothing you can do about it. It was over."


The game was about more than just the Aeros own mistakes. The game started nearly hour late because the ice compressor broke down and the ice started melting. But while Torchetti was very upset about the officiating during the late stages of the game, he did compliment the crew when it came to delaying the game and making sure it was safe to skate on the ice.


"Everyone did a good job," Torchetti said. "It is what is. Compressor goes down, you just have to make adjustments. The referees did a good job. [Official] Zac [Weibe] and Carl, Carl Sasyn [linesman] was pretty much like an ice man, so kudos to him. He did a hell of a job. He should have been double-paid tonight."

But late in the game, Cody Almond was sent flying into the boards when he was sent flying by a stick to his skates and no penalty was called. And there seemed to be some officiating confusion, as they were looking at a possible icing call on the play.

"It wasn’t icing," Torchetti said. "It hit his skate. 12,000 people seen it, except there were 12,003 people and only 12,000 seen it."

But the Aeros didn't lose this game because of the AHL's standard sub-par officiating. The Aeros lost this game because of bad hockey on their part. Sloppy defense. Sloppy puck-handling. Lack of discipline. And with the team not playing a game until Friday, they're going to be getting lots and lots and lots of practice time at SLICE.

"This is going to be the hardest week we’ve ever worked," Torchetti said. "Guarantee it. There’s no days off now. I don’t care if you’re tired. This team has to understand what discipline is because we’re not doing it right now."

But it's beginning to look like that, even if the team does begin to understand what discipline is, it's going to be too late to save a playoff spot.

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES:

The Aeros are now 32-23-5-10 on the season with 79 points. Abbotsford is in fourth place with 80 points. Charlotte and San Antonio both won tonight with both also reaching 79 points on the season. The Checkers are in fifth place, and the Rampage move into sixth place with the Aeros now in seventh place.

Rochester, Peoria, and Lake Erie are all poised three points behind the Aeros. There are six games left in the season, but for the Aeros, time might be close to being over.

Rise of the Wolves continues

If the Vancouver Canucks can stay mostly healthy down the stretch, the Chicago Wolves are a final four AHL team in my opinion. Since the new year, they have done nothing but win, and right now, I'd take them in a best of 7 against just about any team save for maybe the OKC Barons.

Wolves move into Top 4 after an
impressive week on the ice. 

With Climie and Lack in net, the pressure is off to score four goals a game to get a win. The continuity is there to build chemistry and confidence. (In the dictionary, that is a synonym for "Houston Aeros"). Since most of our readers are Aeros fans, be very glad that the Wolves are in a different division this year. Playing the Wolves just two more times this year may be a blessing in disguise.

Other big winners this week were Abbotsford, Hamiltion and Texas .... All three had great weeekend, and the Bulldogs have won four straight. Toronto won two of three last week to keep a hold on the No. 2 spot. They are probably the best home team in the AHL and will be a very tough first round opponent for someone.

Big losers last week were the Rochester Amerks, Grand Rapids and Rockford. King Loser title for the week goes to the Houston Aeros for playing with just 16 skaters on Friday, 17 on Saturday and losing both games to the Abbotsford Heat. Houston lost all three in the stretch, but did play a very good game against Milwaukee on Valentine's Day. The Aeros probably deserved at least a point in that game, but the posts were very kind to the Milwaukee netminder.

The Aeros exist to help the Minnesota Wild, and they have to field what they think is a competitive team in the NHL. Aeros fans will continue to suffer until the ship is righted in St. Paul. When they get their act together, things should stabilize in Houston. That does not mean they'll get better, but that will likely put an end to playing with too few players in big division games.

Minnesota has been a joke for about two months, and the Aeros are only in the top 8 of this poll because they continue to have the fewest regulation losses in the conference.

Right now the Aeros are a team without confidence, and the guys in the locker room, while not publicly, are questioning their stance with the organization. Jim Mill keeps saying that he is trying to do everything he can to make the Aeros better. But his No. 1 priority right now is helping his GM make the Wild better. Things have to change for the better up there, or those guys are only going to have one more year to show they've made some progress.

Don't expect sweeping changes for the better in advance of the trading deadline. The best moves for the Aeros right now is just hoping the Wild get healthier before too long.

2011-12 Western Conference Power Rankings
Edition 4, February 20, 2012

PR	Team	Record	Streak	Last	+/-	For the record …
1	OKC	33-14-2-3	0-1	1-2-0-0	-	Lost 2 of 3 to MKE and SAT
2	TOR	29-18-4-2	0-1	2-1-0-0	-	16-5-3-1 at home
3	CHI	30-18-1-3	4-0	3-0-0-0	+2	Hottest team in the West
4	CLT	30-19-2-3	0-2	1-1-0-1	-	Jumped TOR in standings
5	SAT	28-22-2-1	1-0	1-1-0-1	+1	Lost two straight to Texas
6	PEO	28-22-2-1	1-0	2-1-0-0	+1	Won four of six to stay hot
7	HOU	25-16-3-9	0-3	0-3-0-0	-4	Expect more disappointment
8	ABB	28-20-3-0	2-0	2-0-0-0	+2	Powered past weak HOU
9	MKE	26-22-2-1	0-1	1-2-0-0	-	Split huge series at OKC
10	LEM	26-23-2-2	1-0	2-1-0-0	+1	Keep moving up with wins
11	RCH	23-21-6-3	0-2	1-2-0-0	-3	Have lost 4 of 6 to fall back
12	HAM	24-23-1-4	4-0	3-0-0-0	+2	4 straight wins, but 5-5 in L 10
13	TEX	23-25-2-2	2-0	2-1-0-0	+2	Huge weekend sweep of SAT
14	GRR	20-21-5-4	0-2	0-1-1-0	-2	Played fewest games in West
15	RFD	21-26-2-4	0-3	0-2-1-0	-2	Lost 3 straight in a bad week

Notes, Quotes, Observations, And End Game Controversies -- A Fun Night In Houston

Sorry folks, this is going to be quick. They're doing electrical work at my apartment complex tomorrow and shutting off the power at 9:00 a.m., so I've got to get some sleep. But I wanted to throw out a few things, and answer some questions.

1. Some of you have wondered why Hamilton got so upset over the DiSalvatore game-winner, besides it being the game-winner. Hamilton was arguing that Drew MacIntyre was in control of the puck, so the whistle should have been called. This is an issue we've seen all series with the officials taking forever to blow the whistle, allowing players to play whack the goalie.

I was down at the other corner, but I checked my photos of the sequence. In most of them, I can't tell anything because there are too many players blocking my view of MacIntyre, but I do have this one photo below. And if you look closely under MacIntyre's pads -- click on the photo to enlarge it -- you'll see that the puck is free. This is just a split second before the goal is called.


Here's what Jon DiSalvatore had to say about the play: "The puck was thrown at the net. It was laying there between his pads. I think he may have thought he had it covered, so throw everything at him and see what happens. Sometimes that’s the way you’ve got to get it through that guy."

2. This next sequence of photos involves the very end of the game where we had the scrum in front of Matt Hackett and where it looked like some of the Hamilton players were going to kill the officials. The issue here, as I understand it, was that the Hamilton players felt one of the Aeros, and I heard Justin Falk's name, covered the puck with his hand while in the crease, thus there should have been a penalty shot called.

This happened just in front of me, so I checked my photos. If you look closely, you'll see the puck right below the "4" of Falk's sweater. You can't see the puck in the final photo as it appears that he's rolled over on it.

Three things. If you look at the photos, it appears that Terry Koharski is looking right at the puck and at Falk. Second, from these angles, I don't see how Falk could have grabbed hold of the puck. Third, in the final photo it looks as if Warren Peters was making a grab for the puck, but that's the best shot I have as chaos ensues in the photos I have after that.






3. We get lots of access to these guys during the season, so we get to know them. And as much as advancing to the Calder Cup means to all of these guys, I think it means more to Jon DiSalvatore than it does anybody. He's spoken in the past about never winning a playoff series, and about how special this group of players is, and how much he wanted this. And now he's got it.

"You can go around the league and find maybe more talented teams than our team, just on paper," he said after the game. "But character-wise, top to bottom, the depth that’s on our team, the coaching staff. Everything has just come together so nicely and we’ve grown so much. Guys have brought into the process of maturing as people and as athletes. You see that all come together in 20 minutes of a hockey game. Everything that we battle through to persevere and come out. That’s what makes it so special. We put in all that extra time throughout the year just for a moment like that. And that’s why this team’s so special."

4. This couldn't have been an easy night for Casey Wellman. Wellman's struggled throughout out the playoffs, and tonight he was on the fourth line after having started the playoffs against Peoria on the top line. So playing on that fourth line, Wellman went out and had his best game of the playoffs, scoring the second and third goals of the game.

"This series has been a struggle," Wellman told us. "Obviously we went up three games, and lost three in a row. And personally, it’s been kind of a struggle for me. But these are the games you dream about, game sevens, and I’m glad I was able to step up for our team."

5. And we asked Mike Yeo about the move, and Yeo responded: "It’s a response by him. It’s a tremendous response, and that’s what you’re looking for, and that’s how we got to this point, really. I give Casey huge credit for the way he responded tonight…."

6. And let's hear it for you fans who were attendance. That was the loudest I've heard Toyota Center in years. There were 6,000-plus in attendance, and your presence was felt every moment. You have no idea how much it meant to the players, and how they fed off of it. That's what home ice advantage is all about.

"We haven’t been a team to go to center ice and salute the crowd before. I think it’s a great tradition, and it’s something that I would like to see," Yeo said. "But the guys thought it was appropriate tonight because that crowd was unbelievable. I thought that just the game, the excitement value of it, just the energy that the crowd brought to the game and the life that they brought to our players was phenomenal."

That's it. I'm out of here. I'll try to post a link to the mothership story whenever it goes up, providing I can find some power and a wireless connection somewhere. Also, some bad news. I'm not going to be at games one and two because of previous vacation plans, so there won't be any photos. Maybe Heather will nice enough to bring out the pen and paper and do us some stick figure drawings, though I'm sure all of her attention will be focused on Mr. Barry Brust. But the good news is that I will be in Binghamton for games four and five.

Goodnight everybody. It's been an incredible evening.

View From The Press Box -- Aeros Take Down Hamilton

Wow. Just wow. Right? What else is there to say, but Wow.

The Aeros did it. They defeated Hamilton 4-3 in a tough game that saw both teams playing some of their best hockey of the series. They were both playing desperate, neither wanting to go home, and in the end, it was the Aeros who were most desperate as Jon DiSalvatore fought like a mad man to shove a puck past Drew MacIntyre with 1:13 left in the game.

I'll try to post some quotes later. And Andrew said he would try to throw some stuff up, and I encourage you to read our bits in the Chronicle and the Press and Pro Hockey News.

But I just wanted to get some stuff up so you'll have a place to leave comments. And I thought you would want to see some photos. But I didn't think you'd care about action photos, I thought you would be interested in these photos from the game ending, and the handshake, and the players coming out to salute the 6,000-plus who made the Toyota Center a really loud place, and finally, this photo of JM Daoust and Matt Hackett, skating off the ice.

The Aeros now play Binghamton and former Aeros Barry Brust and Corey Locke for the Calder Cup, and the action starts this weekend in Houston. Game one is Friday and game two is Saturday. Game three is in Binghamton next Wednesday, as are games four and five, which will be played on Friday, June 3 and Saturday, June 4. If they're needed, games six and seven will be in Houston on Tuesday, June 7 and Thursday, June 9.

And once again, wow. Just wow.

Notes, Quotes & Observations from Game Six and The Brink of History

Before you do anything else, or after, go read my story in the mothership. Please.

Heather handled the doom and gloom below. But I wanted to throw out some quotes from Yeo and DiSalvatore, and maybe offer up a little analysis. So...

I've had the pleasure, the past couple of years, of getting to know Tom Franklin. Tom's the radio voice of the Houston Cougars, and he's a mainstay of the Houston media -- he also did some PA work for the Aeros when they first started back up in the 1990s. But if Tom's best known for one thing, it's for being the radio voice of the Houston Oilers during their final stretch of glory in the early-90s.

Those Oilers, despite the gaudy stats, the good records, and the numerous playoff appearance, aren't necessarily viewed through of prism of fondness. And the reason for that is, despite an ability to run up the score and win big in the regular season, they just could not find a way to win games in the playoffs. And they didn't just lose games in the playoffs, they LOST games in the playoffs.

They would storm out to big leads over the likes of the Broncos or the Chiefs or the Bills, but despite the size of the lead, they would find a way to lose, a way that inevitably meant a last-minute drive led by a John Elway or a Joe Montana that the mighty Oilers defense suddenly couldn't stop.

I did a story in the mothership on Tom, and I asked him about the infamous Buffalo Bills playoff game of January 3, 1993. You know the one. The one they show over and over and over and over on the NFL Network. The one where the Oilers jumped off to the 28-3 halftime lead before increasing it to 35-3 early in the third. Yeah, that game, where the Bills were led not by Jim Kelly, but by his back-up, Frank Reich. Yeah, that one, the one the Oilers lost 41-38 in OT. The biggest come from behind victory in NFL playoff history.

And one of the things we discussed was when he knew the Oilers were going to lose that game. Read the answer here.

All of that's a long way around to getting to this point: the Aeros are on the verge of history, and it's not a good kind of history. Before yesterday, there had only been two occasions when a team, losing 3-0 in an AHL playoff series, had forced a game seven. Now there are three occasions. And on both previous occasions, that team coming from the 0-3 deficit won game seven.

So yeah, the Aeros jumping out to a 3-0 series lead and becoming only the third AHL team to find themselves having to then play in a game seven after having squandered the series lead are, roughly so to say, on the verge of joining the Houston Oilers in the epic annals of Houston sports misery.

1. You know, both Andrew and I predicted this would be a seven game series. And that the Aeros would win it in seven. But neither of us predicted it would get to game seven because the Aeros were choking away a 3-0 series lead.

2. I was in Milwaukee after game six, and I spoke to several of the Aeros, and to coach Yeo. I spoke to them again after yesterday's game. And though they're putting on the brave face and saying the right things, the tone in the voice was different. Game six in Milwaukee was also a loss in OT, but the team just seemed to feel that things would be fine and that of course, a series with Milwaukee was going to go seven.

But yesterday, there was just this despondent sound in the voices I didn't hear in Milwaukee. Perhaps it's just the nature of that game, and the crappy officiating, and finding a way to score two goals to send it to OT that just really deflated the team more than normal.

3. For instance, maybe I'm reading too much in this statement from Jon DiSalvatore, but I haven't heard him say something like this before. And while the players are unnamed, he just never goes about throwing guys under the bus. Until last night.

"Obviously this loss kind of stings," he said. "But there’s a lot of great things that happened in that game for our team tonight. We showed how resilient we are, being down two goals and bouncing back. Obviously out-shooting them, I think that we controlled and dictated most of the game. But obviously it just goes to show you, one play’s the difference. I’m not blaming anyone, but one play is the difference in situations like this." Emphasis mine.

4. But these one plays have been making the difference, yet game after game it seems that, at least two or three times, Hamilton has an odd-man rush on Matt Hackett because somebody's turned the puck over and there's no defense around to help out. And while it would be nice if Hackett were able to pull a Drew MacIntyre and stop 57 of 61 shots in one game, it's hard to put all of the blame on the goalie when he's dealing with breakaways and odd-man rushes time and time again because of poor puck handling.

5. The Aeros can win on Tuesday. But to do so, they have to come out and play a complete game. They played a good first period. They played a good second half of the third period. And it was during those stretches that they pressured MacIntyre with shot after shot after shot.

6. "Just keep doing it. That’s all you can do," Mike Yeo said about dealing with MacIntyre. "Obviously you look at video and you look for weaknesses. And certainly the more traffic you can get around him the more you’re going to make it difficult for him to see the puck and control his rebounds. Having said that, you can’t try to get too precise with your shots. When you do that, that’s when you start missing the net. That’s when you don’t get them off because you take that extra second, and that’s when – that opportunity when the puck gets to the net and we’re banging in the rebound, that opportunity’s lost. We have to make sure to just continue to shoot pucks and go to the net. Certainly, when you’re in tight you want to go in upstairs. We have to put pucks in places where he’s kicking out the rebounds. But otherwise, just keep shooting."

7. Dear Aeros, yes, the officiating sucks. It's beyond suck, if that's even possible. And putting both of the guys named Hebert on the same crew and having them work a playoff game was just beyond stupid. But damn it, you've got to forget about those bastards. I know they're missing obvious penalties that are happening right in front of them while inventing phantom calls to nail you with. But don't let that affect your play on the ice.

The game was lost for the Aeros during a five minute stretch at the end of the second period and the start of the third period. It began when Colton Gillies got called for doing something to the goaltender that nobody in the entire building not named Hebert could see. Then Jed Ortmeyer is somehow about to start up on a rush and he's interfered with, which is great because it would be 4x4 hockey. Instead, the Heberts don't see the interference, play goes on, and Hamilton gets a goal on the power play to tie it at 2-2.

And things just went downhill from there with Hamilton scoring shorties right before, and right after, the second intermission. Yes the Aeros got back into the game and sent it to OT, but it was the loss of composure at that time in the second that cost the Aeros this game.

8. Game seven can be won. DiSalvatore said afterwards that the team needs to wipe away the negatives, focus on the good things, and come out and play.

"We have to try to forget about the pain that we’re feeling right now, the sting of the loss right now," he said. "But we have to recognize and see what we did so well this game. I think, it’s just when we get away from the details of our game that we give them opportunities. And I don’t think that we made a tremendous amount of mistakes tonight, but they were just opportunistic. You give them credit, but I think we can feel really good about a lot of things that we did tonight, and we can build a lot of confidence off of what we did tonight heading into game seven for sure."

9. There's the word from DiSalvatore. Details. Focus on the details. When the Aeros execute, they score. When they execute for a complete game, they win. But when they get sloppy, when they make bad passes or lose composure or miss on a hit, they fall apart.

10. Yes this is only the AHL. There's no AHL Network to replay historic losses over and over again. The Aeros losing this series could never, to the populace of Houston, hurt the way the Oilers losing to the Bills did. But damn it, going in the history books for the wrong reason hurts, no matter how large or small the impact. The impact on the city will be small, but the impact on the team should they lose, well that's going to be huge.

Watching The Dream slip.... and being okay

So, for all the people who were going, "WTF is her problem" when I was going crackerbananas about that craptacular game 4.... I rest my case. It's a slippery slope, babe.

But the Aeros have gotten a smidge better every game since then, so, you know. Maybe they win, maybe they don't.

As frustrating as all the turnovers were tonight (and the turnovers WERE the reason they lost... not the officiating, even though it, too, was a joke), most guys on the team really left it all out on the ice.

Now, I didn't see who tipped that pass right into Dawes' loving embrace for the game winner, so if one of these following guys I'm about to praise did that, don't rip me up. I'm sad enough already.

Here goes: I think Jarod Palmer deserves some unsung hero love. He was all over the place, protecting the puck, going to the dirty areas, and just in general being a huge honey badger. He's one of those guys doing the little things right who doesn't get much recognition for it.

Prosser is another one, though he got some sweet, sweet scoreboard luvin' tonight and that makes it even nicer and easier to point out another guy whose steady game goes so unsung.

I know some folks might want to get after Hackett, but I thought he played a good game tonight. I could quibble, goalie nitpick-style, with a few things he did but none of those things bit him. It was turnovers turnovers turnovers.

And frankly, kudos to him for keeping his composure. Then again, when chances against are so good and your team is being sievy like this, sometimes it's easier to let go of goals. It's crap goals that are all on your head that are hard to shake.


The usual suspects were also out of the world. Ortmeyer was off the chain, and Gillies and Peters followed suit. DiSalvatore has really grown on me in the playoffs. I was never all that sold on his willingness to battle and pay the price, but he really does.

That said, I don't understand what his BFF Sully is doing out there a lot of the time. I guess he's trying to draw guys to him to open up space for a linemate and then pass it, but.... it's not really working IMO.

Maybe he's still dinged up from that hit a couple of games ago, but I don't understand the unwillingness to take the shot, get to the net, and the excessive dicking around with the puck, etc. I dunno.

On the other side, Hamilton is absolutely ferocious in the way they clamp their jaws down on these turnover chances. I worry about that for Binghamton, if The Dream Dies, because they can be KUH-RAZY porous defensively sometimes. But anyway....

And finally, dumb ol' Drew MacIntyre... I can't even make fun of his ugly gear any more. He's really good AND his gear is sharp. That's super annoying. He's making it look ridiculously easy out there, and his composure is unreal as much as the Aeros are up in his kitchen, working him over physically. No retaliation. Just puck stopping. That takes a lot of discipline.

-----------------------------

I still think the Aeros can win this and we've established what they have to do to get there. But this whole Binghamton vs. Houston for the cup thing added a level of OHMYF**KINGGOD to this playoff run, and this series in particular, for me.

Even just a couple of months ago, I figured Bingo would get MAYBE through one round of playoffs and then their defense would be exposed and they'd go home.

So, the fact that it's even gotten this close to a Brusty Homecoming absolutely blows my mind. The prospect of it has brought me a huge amount of joy, and no matter what happens Tuesday, it's the Aeros who made that happen on this end. They, too, have been better than I realized they were.

My goal for Tuesday is just to appreciate the amazing ride these guys have taken us on. Win or lose (PLEASEWINPLEASEPLEASEPLEASE), it's been an honor and a pleasure.

Having Binghamton here, whom I've watched from afar all season, really does feel like a dream, so if it stays a dream, I guess that's okay, too. Really proud of what those guys have managed to do, too.

Anyway, enough of my rambling. See you Tuesday.

View From The Brink: Aeros Poised To Make Very Bad History

The game winning goal from Nigel Dawes.

Only twice in AHL history has a team come back from a 3-0 deficit to force a game seven. Before tonight. Tonight the Hamilton Bulldogs became the third team in AHL playoff history to force a game seven after being down 3-0 when they defeated the Aeros 5-4 in double OT. And here's the bad news, in each instance, the team that forced the game seven went on to win the game seven.

It would be easy to blame this loss on the officiating. The Heberts were so bad I was longing for Terry Koharski -- and no, the Heberts are not related though they suck so damn bad that it's easy to imagine they're brothers. And there's some truth to that as the Aeros fell completely apart after a fanthom call on Colton Gillies and a missed call on Jed Ortmeyer and quickly surrendered three goals within four-and-a-half minutes, including two short-handed goals.

It would be easy, but it would be wrong. The Aeros found a way to get back in this game. And they had multiple, excellent opportunities to win the game in OT, only Drew MacIntyre came through big and stopped the Aeros.

No, the Aeros can blame this loss on one thing, and one thing only. Crappy puck handling. It's been their problem throughout this playoff series, and it doomed them tonight. The shorties came off turnovers. And the game-winner came off of a turnover at center ice.

They dominated the Bulldogs for the most part tonight, 61 SOG compared to 38. But when you're sloppy with the puck, bad things happen. And tonight, bad things happened.

I'll be back with some quotes later night, and I think Andrew will throw up some other thoughts as well. We'll see you on Tuesday. Let's just hope we're not writing about the Aeros being on the wrong side of history.

Aeros lose 4-2, series heads back to Houston for G6

This one's for Icevet:

Lost again. One more chance, then do-or die.

Go Aeros!!!

(For a proper game write-up, see my story on PHN.)

As go my hormones, so go the Aeros

So, one of the really shitty things about being a gal is having PMS. For some, it's cramps or bloating or headaches.

For me, it's one day a month of a venom charging through my veins that's potent enough to take down a grizzly before he can even say, "Someone's been eating my porridge."

Well, today was that day. The day where, in spite of my blooming irritability, I nervously envisioned both Binghamton and Houston winning and then my happy ass writing the series preview: Aeros v. BSens. Oh, it was going to be rainbows and unicorns and sunshine and chocolate ice cream! Brusty's coming! Brusty's coming!!!

The Aeros did WHAT NOW???? Hang on while I sharpen my claws.

So to say that the Aeros 8-1 implosion in Hamilton tonight didn't sit well with me is a gross understatement (nor did the repeated "Hey, it's just 3-1" or "It's just a game" or other attempts at logic that made me want to start throwing knives).

My logical brain is still there. It says the same things everyone else is saying. Hey, it's 3-1. Still plenty of hockey. Resilient team. And hey, Binghamton advanced with a 4-3 OT win to sweep the Checkers. So, you're happy for Brusty and Locker and beautiful, beautiful Cody Bass, right?

And the hockey player side of me is saying, Hey, they're human. We all have bad games. Pressure gets to you. You get it back next time. That's the beauty of playoffs. Another chance is just around the corner. And maybe Ryan White will break his leg.

But logic, when I'm in this venomous state, is irrelevant and makes me want to punch in the face anybody who thinks a little, "You should be happy they're up 3-1!" should insta-fix my bitter demeanor.

So, before I attempt to shed some light on this thing, can I get a, Hell yeah, Ms.C, that game effing sucked! And while I still believe in this team, I'm really pretty annoyed, too! *fist bump*?

That's all I want. 

Deep breath.

Now, what to take away from this that would help us be less annoyed without being condescending and minimizing my massively out of line feelings of disappointment....

Well, the Aeros ARE, in fact, up 3-1. Teams in all sports of all talent levels occasionally shit the bed and it doesn't mean anything in the long run.

We have seen Hackett's resiliency (resilience?.. help me out, grammar police) over and over and over this season. He's been very good and, honest to god, nobody's as good as he's been every single day. Particularly not when you're facing back-to-backs, tired legs, tired minds, and that inner pressure that says, "FINISH THEM" rather than saying, "STICK TO THE PROCESS."

I thought the Aeros looked tired. The want was there, but the legs and bodies and minds were just sloppy in the execution. A good rest tomorrow should do wonders.

Good things that happened:

• Tordjman wasn't any worse than Hackett, sooooo... okay, maybe that's not a good thing as much as a push. But maybe there's an eventual upside to finally getting him in a game for the first time since April 1.
• The 5 minute major penalty on Gillies was beautifully killed. 
• The boys played hard to the end, at least the parts I could still stand to glimpse at near the end.
• Falker punched Ryan White in the face. If one of you guys is reading this, can you please give him a hug for me for that? Seriously. Nobody deserves a punch in the face more. White's the worst.

That's about it. The boys sound really resolute and ready to step up Friday in their post-game audio clips. They're obviously not angryPMSbitches, which means you can trust them.

Also, just because I'm in pity party mode, I got peed on at the dog park today and I have jury duty tomorrow. So... there. Pity party complete. I promise I'll make up for this Debbie Downer shit when they advance. I mean, BRUSTY, y'all. BRUSTY!!!! Ohhh, my lovely goalie...

So, anyway, we'll get after this on Friday when I will hopefully have found my sense of reason, probably covered in dust and dog hair and popcorn kernels under the couch.

In the meantime, keep the faith, sacrifice a donut to the hockey gods, and avoid PMSing red-heads carrying big sticks.

(P.S., If you've been resisting Twitter, it might interest you to know that our very own Matt Kassian is on and lovely as always. Follow him at @kassassination right after you follow us: @3rdintermission)

Aeros Take 3-0 Series Lead

The Aeros just defeated Hamilton by a 3-2 score and lead the series 3-0. Jon DiSalvatore and Max Noreau scored in the first period, and DiSalvatore scored on a power play in the second period for the game winner. Matt Hackett stopped 25 of 27 shots.

Notes, Quotes & Observations from Game Two, Houston v. Hamilton

Do photos of the guys celebrating after a win ever get old?

QUICK: Before reading further, click on the link and check out my game story in the Press. There's some quotes from Colton Gillies on his game-winner, Mike Yeo on the team's play this weekend, and I include a nice quote from Matt Kassian on Derek Boogaard. And remember, I was there in the locker room long before the guys with the TV cameras started hanging around.

Here's the thing, Heather picked the Aeros in six. Andrew and myself picked them to win in seven. I don't remember seeing Heather's winning sequence, but mine had the Aeros winning games one, four, six, and seven while Andrew's, I believe, had the Aeros winning games two, four, six, and seven. So seeing them come out and win these first two games is just not what I was expecting. This wasn't because of the Aeros, it was because of Drew MacIntyre in goal for Hamilton and the fact that the Bulldogs are a very good team. So I just figured they find a way to get a split. But the Aeros, despite not playing their best hockey, figured out a way to get it done. And that's how it's done in the playoffs, right? You find a way to get it done.

1. Now I'm not expecting that the Bulldogs are going to roll over. The Aeros are on their way to Hamilton as this is posted, and I can guarantee that there's not one person associated with this Aeros team that thinks this series is over.

"I think the feeling, and you can ask any of the players, is we haven’t won anything yet," Gillies said yesterday. "Still a lot more games to be played and we’re just going to stick to the game plan that got us here."

2. Speaking of Gillies, who out there isn't enjoying his game in the playoffs? I asked Mike Yeo about Gillies yesterday, and about how it seems he's elevated his game. And as Yeo was quick to point out, this is how Gillies has been playing all season, the only difference is that he's now finding the net.

"He’s elevated his game, obviously, by putting the puck in the net," Yeo said. "But really, what he’s doing is going out and doing what he’s done for us all year long. He brings momentum for us when he’s out on the ice.

"I think the most important part is that line’s going out there against top lines. And they’re shutting them down. Quite often when you do that, then the other lines are going to get frustrated and you’re going to generate some opportunities off of the rush, or in the offensive zone because they’re a little bit more focused on the offense, especially when they’ve had to try to battle through all game. And they’re not getting much.

"Now he’s in a position where he’s doing all the things he’s supposed to do as Colton Gillies, but he’s capitalizing on his chances and he’s elevated his game."

3. But what does Gillies have to say about this? He's just doing what needs to be done. But he's not the hero. The entire team is responsible for where the Aeros are at at this moment.

"For me with playoffs, I’ve been going to the net a lot harder," he said. "I’ve been going to the net and trying to make sure my presence around the net is known. You can ask anyone of the players in the dressing room, including myself. It’s not about the goals, we’re here to win the game. If you score, good job, you get to be the hero for the night. But there’s a lot of guys in that room that do little things that don’t get noticed that deserve to wear the cape."

4. Now we talked to Matt Kassian after the game. I had him brought out because I wanted to ask him about Derek Boogaard. But then Andrew decided to ask some non-Boogaard questions, and the way he answered these questions goes to just what a classy, team-oriented guy Kassian is.

He wants to be playing. And it hurt to know that he was the guy who was going to have sit once the Milwaukee series started. But there were more important things than his feelings because he couldn't let his feelings impact the team.

"It’s not an easy thing," he said. "I don’t think people understand how difficult it can be on you mentally and emotionally, as well. When you’re here the whole season, you want to play and you want to be a part of it, but at the same time, you’re here to be a good teammate. You can’t bring any kind of that negative emotions that you feel about it into the dressing room. You really just have to have a good attitude and work through it.

"That’s difficult. It’s tough. You want to play, you want to be part of it. I’m the type of player who, if you play me four minutes I’m going to want to play five. If you play me five I’m going to want to play six. You play me 19 I’m going to want to play 20.

[SNIP]

"You never like to see an injury, especially to a young guy. It’s never good. And he’ll [Bulmer] be back, and it’s not too serious….At the same time, it’s an opportunity for myself to get back in there and be consistent and try to do what I in the first series. Just be consistent in the room and be consistent on the bench and the ice, too. Just play hard and make their [defense] hear footsteps and chip pucks out and that kind of thing."

5. Then comes Matt Hackett's play these first two games. Hackett said after game seven in Milwaukee that one of the problems he'd had was that he wasn't seeing enough shots, but that he thought he had adjusted to that problem. Well that hasn't been a problem in this series so far. We were talking to Kassian when Hackett came out and talked to the TV guys, so I don't know what he said. But if he keeps playing like he's been playing, the Aeros aren't going to have to worry about his play.

6. Jon DiSalvatore said an interesting thing about Hackett after the game, and how he'd been challenged after game six in Milwaukee to elevate his game, and how he's begun to understand the importance of goalie play in the playoffs. It's not clear from DiSalvatore's statements if this challenge came from Hackett's teammates, or if Hackett challenged himself. But this follows on what guys like Jed Ortmeyer said on Friday night about Hackett elevating his game after that sixth game in Milwaukee.

Here's what DiSalvatore said: "I think after game six in Milwaukee – in that Milwaukee series, a lot of guys were challenged, and that game six, Matt Hackett was challenged. And the kid has responded tremendously for us. He has really – I think he won us the first game of this series. And just the way that he’s kind of matured and accepted the true responsibility of how significant goaltending is in playoffs has been tremendous. We’re very proud of him, and we hope that he continues to strive to be better. He’s been excellent so far since that game six. Absolutely."

7. And since I've been following around the team a lot the past month or so -- I'm really sorry I can't make it to Hamilton -- I've seen a lot of Colton Gillies dealing with Hackett. After game four in Peoria, I was asking Hackett about some tough stops, and Gillies popped out from nowhere and went on about how Hackett saw everything.

And when asked about Hackett yesterday, Gillies was just as effusive in his statements: "Hackett, he’s a great goalie. That’s pretty much it. He’s definitely had a good series for us. He’s had a good season. With Milwaukee, he didn’t see a lot of shots for long periods of time, which could have been hard on him. But he’s playing well right now, and he’ll keep up. I know he will."

8. The defense had another good game. And after being really down on Justin Falk during the Milwaukee series, I think, like with Hackett, we're seeing a guy who has elevated his game. And the defense as a whole, has been good -- man, you've got to wonder just how good this team would have been with Jared Spurgeon and Marco Scandella around all year, and man, are we going to miss them next year.

"[Falk] in particular, but I thought the entire group was again very good," Yeo said. "[Hamilton] is a team, if your defense is not sharp, then they’re going to make them look bad. They’re committed to getting every puck in behind your defense and making them turn and go back. And they put them under heavy pressure.

"The way that we executed, not only were we able to relieve that pressure, we were able to get to our game a little bit more effectively. We were able to generate some speed off the rush and off the attack because of the way those guys went back and executed."

9. The officiating, as it's been throughout the playoffs, was atrocious. I'm still trying to figure out how Max Noreau was the one who got the four minute minor for roughing in the third period. Whether it's a blind Terry Koharski waiving off pucks that are goals, or Jean Hebert and Francis Charron yesterday who just seemed to have their heads stuck up their asses, there's just no way to explain it. I also don't know why the linesmen thought they were required to hold onto the puck for 20 minutes in the face off circle before dropping the puck to start action.

I'm working on a separate post/rant about the officiating, but the AHL should just really be ashamed by how bad things have been. And not just how bad they calls have been or not been against the Aeros. The officials have been equal opportunity offenders -- see Koharski blowing a goal call against Milwaukee in game seven -- and it's just a pity to see great series being dragged down by their awfulness.

10. And I just want to add that the crowds at Toyota Center have been fantastic and only getting better since the playoffs began. The crowds in Milwaukee were almost non-existent in Milwaukee last week -- there were just under 3000 for game six and, I think, about 3500 for game seven. But the Aeros have been getting some big crowds, and those crowds have been loud. And I'm not the only one who thinks so.

"The crowd’s been awesome, especially the last couple of games," Yeo said. "I think it’s been building as this playoff run has gone along. It seems like with the intensity that increases in the games, it’s increasing the atmosphere and the playoff vibe that we’re feeling right now.

"Right from the start of the game you can tell that the crowds are jacked up, they’re excited, and they’re feeling it. And because of that, it brings a little bit more life, and little bit more emotion to our guys."

So job well done. Now it's white-knuckle time as the guys head off for three games at Hamilton.