This story is all over the place, so please forgive the ADD.
The Aeros are several men down because of a rash of injuries to defenseman, but that did not keep them from picking up three points and moving up from 10th to 9th in the overall standings.
Hackett with a great stop - Morris Molina, Houston Aeros
Three great comebacks in all three games, but they only win one of them as John alluded to last night. But, to look on the bright side is better. The win on Saturday at OKC was most satisfying, and Sunday was an even matchup overall that just ended up going the other way because the Aeros did not get the breaks in the first eight minutes and in the shootout.
Early on (already) health is going to dictate their fate far more than any other factor in the short-term. The team is loaded and they really look like they love playing and going to battle together. I'd love to see this group play for two straight months at 95 percent healthy.
There is some definite leadership and a fighter's mentality. That will go a long way down the stretch when they are playing all those road games in late winter.
Get ready for a lot of close games and a weaker power play until Granlund returns.
Big-picture wise, the Aeros have 10 more games this month, and six of those games are against San Antonio, Rockford and Oklahoma City. Only one of those teams (Lake Erie) has scored more goals than the Aeros, but four of those teams have allowed fewer goals.
Lake Erie and Abbotsford are ahead of the Aeros in the standings, but every other team on the schedule is within a game of .500 - translation? Get ready for a lot of close games.
Right now the Aeros are on pace for 91 points. Last year, that is good enough for a three or four seed in the Western Conference. What I want to see - to call the Aeos an elite AHL team like I believe their coaches think they are - is for the Aeros to start playing better at home.
They have already lost three of five at home this year, and last year, they were 17-21. I realize they get points for getting to the fourth period, but OT and SO losses are losses.
All three games are at home this week, and the Aeros need to win two of them to stay in the upper half of the league standings. I think they can do just that if Hackett plays like he did the last two games, and the Aeros keep plugging away with their no-quit style of hockey.
After today's 2-1 shootout loss to the Oklahoma City Barons, the Aeros have now played 1/3rd of the season. While they're tied with the Barons with 35 points for first place (record with 14-4-2-5), it's probably safe to safe that nobody's entirely happy with the team's play, especially at home.
So after today's game, we asked John Torchetti about the team at the 25-game point, the play of Darcy Kuemper, having a roster full of new guys, etc.
On the play of the defensemen;
"You know what," he said. "Bottom-line is, our defensemen need to get the puck to the net. Our defenseman have got to do a better job breaking out. It doesn’t matter who’s in the lineup now. You’re in the American Hockey League. You want to get to the National Hockey League. You’ve got to be disciplined. You’ve got to come and be consistent every night, and that’s the difference in winning and losing. It cost us a point tonight."
[SNIP]
"All of it. Their D were just trying to shoot to get rebounds. Our D was trying to score. We don’t need to score from the point. Your job is to get the puck to the net. When you’re trying to score that means you’re going high, and that’s not going to work."
As for the state of the team as of game 25.
"I don’t know what it is, yet. I’d probably get a little better idea, but I don’t know if we’ve had the same lineup, twice. I know our team cares. I know it competes. I know it’s got good character. I know it wants to get better every day. And it’s our job to make sure we push them to that so that they’re ready to go to the NHL. And I hope they understand that that’s the main purpose behind our coaching staff.
"We don’t like to give up points to anybody. These are points that might decide home ice to whatever round it is because you know you’re going to be playing top teams you’re going to be playing them, and they’ll [OKC] be one of the top teams."
On the play of Darcy Kuemper, who joined the team on the last road trip.
"He’s going to be a lot of fun to watch. We’re very spoiled here with our goaltending, I can tell you that. Very, very happy. He works hard, though. He comes to work in practice. He wants to start in every game, and that’s what you want. He doesn’t like to be scored on. He’s got all of the characteristics of [Matt Hackett]. He’s a bigger goalie. He takes up a lot of the net, but he’s really detailed. His movement’s good, and he’s in position for the second shot. I thought he was the difference in the game for us, to get a point tonight."
It's easy to be disappointed with the team. But I tend to agree with something else Torchetti said. The team is getting points. They might not get two points every night, but one point is better than no points, and of 25 games, there are only four games in which the Aeros have failed to get a point.
There are improvements that need to be made. Some of the play probably needs to be tightened up. Then again, the Wild, as seemingly happens every year, are full of injuries which have necessitated call-up after call-up after call-up from Houston. And the Aeros themselves are suffering injuries to key players. Jed Ortmeyer's suffering from a lower body injury, but his return appears to be more imminent than the return of David McIntyre who is suffering from an upper body injury.
The Wild suffered some more injuries to their forwards in last night's shootout win over Edmonton. So you know what that means...
Cody Almond has been recalled from the Aeros and will be joining the Wild. I've seen nothing about the Aeros making any corresponding roster moves, but seeing as they've been playing virtually every available player on the roster, bringing in a healthy forward is hopefully high on some to-do lists, even if it is to just be a healthy scratch. Oops, my bad, I didn't see the news from yesterday about Harrison Reed being signed.
BTW: The Aeros defeated Lake Erie in Cleveland last night by a 2-1 score with the first goal from, that's right, Cody Almond. Chad Rau got the game-winner early in the third.
That was quick...Casey Wellman re-recalled to the Minnesota Wild where he joins Warren Peters, Nate Prosser, and Kris Fredheim. And with the way the Wild players are getting injured, I think we should send some bubble wrap to Minnesota on the plane with Wellman to give the players more protection.
Okay, I'm not listening to the game at the moment -- yeah, I know, I'm a bad person. But checking the linescore -- Aeros up 1-0 early in the first on a Jon DiSalvatore goal by the way -- I did notice that Carson McMillan was not able to play tonight, and that J.M. Daoust took his spot. I'm not sure if this caused a big line shake-up. But I really doubt it, so I expect that fourth line is Palmer/Kassian/Daoust. However, if you've heard Joe O'Donnell say something different, please be sure to leave a note in the comments.
The Aeros played an overall better game tonight in defeating Hamilton 3-2 this afternoon. Matt Hackett played another good game, and the Aeros were able to find more ways to get the puck past Drew MacIntyre, which was supposed to be impossible.
The Aeros aren't out of the woods yet. They now have three games to play in Hamilton, and they're looking a bit beat up. All that's known on Brett Bulmer was a cryptic "he's out" that I got from the team before the game. But whether that was just for the game or the series is a question mark, though after seeing him on crutches after the game, I'm not expecting him back on Tuesday.
As for Carson McMillan, your guess right now is as good as mine. Mike Yeo didn't know and said that they were awaiting the results from the medical tests.
I'll try to get back later tonight with quotes from Yeo, Jon DiSalvatore, Colton Gillies, and Matt Kassian, but since I want you to read my Press story in the morning, don't expect too much ;-) But since we had to fight through a gaggle of TV cameras to get our stuff after the game, you better bet I'll get something posted.
If you're curious, the Press story tomorrow will have a quote from Matt Kassian on Derek Boogaard, but I was also able to get this from Colton Gillies, who was Boogaard's teammate for a season in Minnesota.
"He was a really good guy," Gillies said. "It’s not a good thing."
And I didn't press it further since Gillies seemed to get choked up over the matter.
A brief injury update. Brett Bulmer is out today, and Matt Kassian is in. We couldn't confirm the seriousness of Bulmer's injury -- the Aeros wouldn't give out that info -- but I'm guessing that it's more than just one of those day-to-day things.
My story in the mothership today is a brief primer on the Aeros being in the playoffs while taking a quick shot at the mediocrity of the rest of the city's professional teams. But my space there is limited, and there's a lot of important stuff that I didn't get to go with, and which, quite frankly, works a lot better over here.
So while the team was having it's media event yesterday -- hey, look, TV cameras -- I spoke to Jon DiSalvatore and Mike Yeo about the team's play the past couple of week and Yeo falling on the grenade and blaming himself because he stressed the wins instead of the process. We also spoke a bit about prepping for the playoffs and about how you can prep for the playoffs when what seems to be 3/4ths of the team is in Minnesota.
DiSalvatore thinks the big problem during the Oklahoma City series and the games that followed were that the guys got too caught up in all of the different playoff scenarios and started paying too much attention to the numbers and not enough to what they were doing on the ice. But he thinks it's something they've corrected.
"I think that what was happening is that we were just getting focused on some of the numbers games – there’s been a lot of number crunching that goes along with such a tight division – we kind of looked at some of those and maybe made some of those a little bit of a focus as opposed to the process and the fundamentals of our game that we needed to get to," he said. "But I think the last two games of the weekend we did that.
"The game in Milwaukee, we had a really solid start, and I think we were really happy with the start, and it just kind of fell apart for us a little bit. But then we really pulled it together in Chicago, and we got to a place we were really happy with going into this week and moving forward."
And I got Yeo to talk a little bit more on what he meant last week when he took the blame for stressing wins and points instead of stressing the system and the process. Essentially, with the quote to follow, he wants the guy's focusing on their shift. He wants them to win their shift, win their play. He wants them controlling the things they can control and not worrying about the bigger things.
"I think mentally, when you go into a game, it’s all good and well if things are going to according to plan," he said. "Maybe you score that first goal and you have a lead and things are going well. When you have that type of approach. But where I think that successful teams and good teams really separate themselves is the ability to get it done when things aren’t going well and you have to do a better job of focusing on your game and the little things that make you successful.
"When we went into those games, we were thinking about winning and getting points. If the other team scored first, or if we got a bad call in the second period, it really took us off our game and we lost our focus from there. But if we just concentrate on the focus, and the process as we like to say, and the next shift, and the next guy just going out and doing it the right way, we found it a lot easier to get back to our game."
The team was running through a full practice yesterday, which was kind of strange to watch seeing as how a lot of the guys who will be playing playoff games last week aren't actually with the team. Yeo said he was focusing yesterday, and he wants the focus on Sunday, to be on sharpening skills and getting the execution back after no games this week. Of course, that can be a problem with players missing, and Yeo addressed that issue.
"Certainly, chemistry-wise, our line combinations and power play units, everything is different because those guys are up there. So even on a day like today, when we’re working things, there’s different guys on the ice than they’re going to be playing with in game one of the playoffs. I think that one thing that we do have is a lot of consistency in the way we play the game. Line one is going to go over the boards and they’re going to play the same way as line two, line three, and line four. Because of that, I think guys can fill in different positions and read off of each other better than if we didn’t play quite as structured a game or as much of a team concept that we have."
I've spoken with DiSalvatore in the past, and one of the things he's talked about is that making the playoffs is great, but he's never made it past the first round and he would really like to advance. So I asked what he was telling the young kids, and about what he's seeing from the team.
"There’s a lot to that [to not just being happy to get there]. I know from my [experience] I get to share with the guys, it’s not every year. Just because you make it here the first time, and you’re on a team that’s special, it’s not every year that you get on a team like this. With the turnover in this league, it’s a special group, and it’s something that you want to take advantage of, and not take for granted thinking that every year you’re going to be on a group that has the potential to do what we have to do.
"Obviously it’s one game at a time, one series at time, and we don’t want to look too far ahead. But that’s kind of the thing you want to put to the young guys. But the young guys are just going to do what they do. They almost don’t care, which is kind of a good thing going into the playoffs. They’re just free."
It's going to be interesting to see what the team does on Sunday. Despite all of the call-ups, the two primary scoring lines are intact -- knocking on wood -- and Matt Kassian is back, which will hopefully offer up some protection for Patrick O'Sullivan and Robbie Earl. But some of the team's key defenders are in Minnesota, and the Barons really got to Matt Hackett. It's entirely possible that Sunday's game will mean absolutely nothing to the Aeros. Yeo has said he wants to go full out on Sunday because he doesn't want the guys thinking they can just flip a switch when the playoffs roll around, but if the seeding and home ice and opponent issues have been settled by game time, it's worth wondering, isn't it, whether it's really worth risking the health of some of these guys against a team that went hunting heads for last time out.
With all of the call ups to Minnesota, and with Bakersfield in the playoffs, the Aeros are a bit shy of players, so yesterday, the team held an open tryout in hopes of getting some bodies for Sunday's game. So Heather decided to give it a shot...
Actually, the team had a media day event out at SLICE, and our T3I assignment editor Andrew, asked that I take some photos of Heather taking some shots from the players and coaches. I'll have a serious story re the playoffs up in just a minute, but here's Heather suiting up and taking shots from Andrew, some of the players, and Mike Yeo.
Marco Scandella broke a finger in the Wild game this afternoon. And some other Wild D are suffering from lingering injuries. So Michael Russo is reporting that the Wild are calling up a defenseman from the Aeros this afternoon. Which is kind of surprising in that I don't think the Aeros have that many extra defensemen lying around.
But that's the news. No word on who the call-up will be. But I'm pretty sure that the Aeros are going to desperately miss anyone called up. And some advice, if you're a player called up to the Wild, make sure that all of your insurance policies are updated.
Okay, that was a tough loss. Very tough. Any game lost in a shootout is, in my opinion, a tough loss, but losing 2-1 like that, when you gain the early lead in the shootout...well, ouch. The Aeros had a rough first period, and if not for the play of Matt Hackett in the first, the Aeros would not have been close to getting this game to a shootout. Unfortunately for the Aeros, Manitoba's rookie goal, Eddie Lack was just as on his game as Houston's rookie goalie.
1. Mike Yeo wasn't happy with the play of his team in the first period, but he that on himself and his assistant coaches for failing to get the team ready for the drop of the puck. And while the bad luck of Robbie Earl and Patrick O'Sullivan in the second period -- hitting the posts on several occasions -- could have sapped the team of any momentum, Yeo had no problems with the second and didn't see it as proof that this was not going to be the Aeros' night.
"I wasn’t thinking it that time [second period]," Yeo said after the game. "I was thinking it wasn’t our time in the first period because I thought we were just not good. And I’ll take the blame for that. It was our week as coaches to make sure we were ready to go at the drop of the puck, but I liked the way we responded in the second period. I thought we were – as you said – starting to get the momentum and starting to tilt the ice. But having said that, obviously you would like to put in the net. But I felt like if we kept going like that we would give ourselves enough chances to get back in the game."
2. This was a tough game for Hackett to lose because Hackett played his ass off. I was down in that corner during the first period, and he was barraged with shot after shot (Manitoba got off 18 shots) and if he hadn't of been on his game then the score would have been way worse than 1-0 Manitoba after one period.
"It’s a tough way for Hack not to get the win because I thought he deserved it," Yeo said. "I thought he was great. Their guy was very good, too. I thought Hack was great. We had no business even being in that game after the first period. We were awful the first period, and Hack really gave us a chance."
3. Andrew asked about Hackett's perceived problems in the shoot out. Yeo said that wasn't the problem tonight. The problem rested with the Aeros not being able to get the puck back into the net after Patrick O'Sullivan started off the shoot out with a beauty of a shot.
4. Still, despite it all, the Aeros, as Yeo noted, did battle back to get a point tonight. And while it wasn't two points, the Aeros still came out better than Milwaukee, who lost to Rockford, Texas, who lost to Syracuse, and Chicago, who lost to Peoria.
5. And while the Aeros getting a point is a comfort, damn, it's getting hot in here. Milwaukee leads the division with 81 points. The Aeros are in second with 80. But Peoria's now in third with 79 points, Texas is in fourth with 78, Chicago's in fifth with 77, San Antonio in sixth with 75. Oklahoma City seems to be falling off, finally, and they sit in seventh with 73 points.
6. The Aeros and Wolves only have 12 games left while Peoria has just 13 and Texas just 14. While I'm more optimistic about the playoff scenarios than Andrew, who Heather has nicknamed Fun Killington, this is whole thing is just too damn close and I would really like to see some other teams start to fall by the wayside.
7. The Aeros welcomed back Casey Wellman, Cody Almond, and Drew Bagnall to the lineup tonight. As for the rest of the walking wounded, Yeo says not to expect to see any of them on Sunday. The bad news is that it appears that the MASH unit that is the Minnesota Wild suffered another shot on Friday night, so it's quite possible that somebody could be on plane Saturday morning.
8. Speaking of Drew Bagnall, for all of the great play by Hackett tonight, it might have been Bagnall who guaranteed that one point for the shootout. At one point in the third Hackett made a block but was out of the net. The puck bounced around and around in front of the net, just begging for one of the Moose to tap it in, but Bagnall flew into the scene and shot the puck out of the way of danger.
9. We spoke with Jed Ortmeyer for a bit after the game. Being the old man vet of the team -- and what a pick-up he has turned out to be, huh (thank you San Antonio for screwing the pooch there) -- who has handled these type of tight scenarios before, I asked him about what he's trying to tell the youngsters for handling the pressure, and I think he gave a great answer.
"There’s a bigger picture," he said. "The goal is to make the playoffs and to have a big run, and I think that at this point in the season you get banged up, start to mentally get a little bit fatigued, and you have to have the idea of having fun, making sure that coming to the rink everyday is fun."
He also said the team just has to stay with the process and not deviate from that. And when Ortmeyer speaks to the team, guys listen.
"But more than that, he’s a guy that has a very good pulse for what the team needs to hear at that time, whether it’s between periods, whether it’s on the bench," Yeo said. "He’s a guy when things get a little bit hectic and he needs to calm them down, he’s quick to do that, or if things are a little big sleepy, he’s quick to pick them up. I think a big part of that is experience, but it’s also making sure that first and foremost you go out and do the right thing to give yourself that credibility. So when you speak, guys listen."
10. A final thing. I really like these uniforms the team's won the past several games. I've always hated that stupid, cartoonish bomber logo -- yeah, I know, most of you love it -- because it just doesn't scream hockey to me. The unis they had on tonight, those screamed hockey. But since the team has yet to wear a game wearing them, I'm not counting on seeing them again.
And the Minnesota Wild injury-mill continues as Cal Clutterbuck isn't feeling good after a hit last night. As a result, Casey Wellman has been called up to the Wild where he joins Warren Peters and Jed Ortmeyer. The Aeros are also dealing with some injuries to Drew Bagnall and Jamie Fraser on the defensive end of things.
John checked in with Joe O'Donnell for an update on Abbotsford's Josh Meyers, who collided with a teammate and had to leave the ice on a stretcher last night.
According to Abbotsford and Meyers' family he is OK and responsive. We don't know if he's still in hospital, but best guess is yes.
Hopefully he can get home soon.
Thanks to our Anonymous commenter for notifying us that, per the Abby Facebook page, Meyers is with the team in Cedar Park and doing well.
Still, helluva way to spend his all star break...
A NOTE FROM JOHN: My apologies for not following a damn Facebook page instead of going through channels and trying to do things properly.
This is interesting, and probably something to watch because, per Russo, the only healthy Wild goalie at the moment is Anton Khudobin. Neither Backstrom or Theodore are practicing, and it's just Khudobin and the strength coach.
The Wild don't play again until tomorrow night, so it's possible that Theodore will be healthy enough to play, but this is the Wild, so it's just as possible that the Aeros are currently turning over every rock in the Chicago area so they'll have a backup goalie for Hackett tomorrow night should Tordjman be called to backup Khudobin, or vice versa.
PER HEATHER: Tordjman's on an AHL-only deal. So if anybody goes up, it's Hackett. But hey, I said vise versa, right?
So, it appears we've seen the last of Barry Brust with the Aeros this season. That stubborn foot pretended to be fixed, and it got him through 31 games this season between Houston and Florida, but it wasn't all better and started bugging him again recently.
And now, says Brusty, it's surgery time. They've told him he'll be out 6 weeks, which means he could possibly catch some playoff action in Florida if everyone's game for it. And who wouldn't be game for Brusty?
Anyway, so it sounds like they'll be doing the surgery in the next week or so here in Houston, so hopefully we'll still see* him around the halls before the final horn on this season blows. <---spot the subliminal message
Of course, we wish him a successful and speedy recovery, some good drugs, and may that foot never utter a peep of discontent for the rest of his playing days.
*And by "see" of course, I mean "stare lustily at"
I'm short on time, so straight to the talking points from tonight's 3-2 loss to Manitoba.
Barry Brust took the loss on himself.
"I think the onus is on me. I’ve got to come up with a save. The second goal, they got a big break and hit our d-man’s stick and went right down the ice. The third goal, I thought I had it, but obviously I didn’t. That’s up to me. I’ve got to buckle down and be better."
But buckle down and be better is something that can be said of the entire team. It wasn't just Brust who lost focus after the tying goals. Those goals didn't just happen in isolation. It's been a season long problem that the team has to find a way to address.
*******************************
And speaking of season long problems, the injury bug hit again. Max Noreau took a shot off of his right ankle. He came back out to play, but I saw it after the game, and it was swollen. They're going to x-ray it tomorrow, and he's hoping that it's not broken -- if it is, you can probably kiss what playoff chances the team has left has nil.
As for why he came back out -- he scored the team's final goal -- he said that it was because they checked the ankle, and said that it couldn't get any worse if he played on it. The hockey boot keeps everything kind of tight. But we should know more tomorrow.
Constantine is hoping that Brandon Rogers can return this weekend, but he's suffering from a concussion, so the team isn't going to rush anything.
********************************
And for those of you who weren't following on Twitter -- shame on you -- the rumor is that the Aeros might be getting some help next week. The guys up in Milwaukee who handle the Admirals Short Shifts blog tweeted during the game that Tony Hrkac has signed a contract and is returning to the team next week. That will definitely increase the team speed from slow to even slower. Hrkac was a great presence on the team last season -- especially during the playoffs when the team was battling through tough playoff series after tough playoff series, and he showed that he still had some gas left in the tank. Hopefully, he can help the guys keep their focus on their games after they score a goal.
We checked with the Aeros, and all that we could get was a no comment.
The Aeros play in Texas on Friday, then host the Stars on Saturday night. With a record of 28-25-6-1 (63 points), they definitely need to get two wins this weekend.
And though I know I've played this song already this season, I thought it was apropos of the night. So here's The Beatles with "Help."
Sorry, I've got no comforting words after this one. The final score might have been 7-2, but trust me, it wasn't that close. Barry Brust didn't appear to have his best game tonight, but then again, his defense didn't appear to have its best game either as both he and Wade Dubielewicz, who played the last part of the third period, were both hit repeatedly by odd-man rushes and breakaways.
Kevin Constantine wasn't in the best of moods afterwards. He was disappointed by his team's non-thinking on the ice. He was very displeased about how the team played a chance at a potential 5-3 power play into being on the penalty kill. The defense wasn't good. The offense didn't take advantage of their chances. There's just nothing good to say.
Peter Zingoni left the game in the first with a lower body injury. Constantine played only three centers in the second period, then he moved Brandon Rogers up front in the third.
The Aeros needed this win tonight -- they just about need a win every time they play. And they looked awful. Not sure of what else there is to say. So I'm out going to wrap it up. Let's hope tomorrow night leaves us with a better result.
Apologies, again, for the short post. I've got to get up at 5:00 a.m. for the temp job -- I'm should get about 65 hours this week and I have decided that sleep is overrated. Hopefully Heather or Andrew can add some more words of wisdom than I'm capable of at the moment.
Here’s the deal. I’ve got a bad cold. Bad. Heather and Andrew will attest to the large amount of medication that I had sitting in front of me tonight -- as will one of my lucky readers who saw me at the Walgreens buying said medication. So let’s just say I was rather doped up for this game. And that doping up probably, more than anything, explains what I saw tonight.
Not only did the Aeros, at times, resemble a competent offensive team during tonight’s 5-2 Aeros win over the Toronto Marlies, but there were major offensive contributions from Matt Kassian and J.P. Testwuide. I had to imagine Kassian faking out a goalie and getting a goal on a good shot after a pass from Testwuide, right? That was all just part of my drug-induced imagination, right?
I guess not.
Talking to the players after the game, it was clear that they were not happy with what happened in Rockford. They thought the effort was there, but not the result. And tonight they were out to make sure the result matched their effort.
The first period was rather normal for the Aeros. They scratched a goal when Jean-Michel Daoust does what he does best. Be in the right place. This time in front of the goalie as he was able to get his stick on the puck and direct past Toronto’s starting goalie Joey MacDonald at 17:21 with assists from Nathan Smith and Max Noreau.
Then came the second period when the cold medication took hold of me. Matt Kassian got out on a breakaway, and with a pass from Testwuide he faked out MacDonald and got off a nice shot to put Houston up 2-0 at 2:12. Then Nathan Smith stuffed it in at 5:01 to make it 3-0, which brought about MacDonald’s removal in favor of Andrew Engelage. But just over two minutes later, Smith scored off of a rebound to make it 4-0.
At 17:19 of the third, with the Aeros on the penalty kill, Danny Irmen went flying down the ice with the puck. Testwuide followed, Irmen made a nice pass, and Testwuide got the goal to make the score 5-2.
The Aeros are now off for the All-Star break, and they will return to play on Friday when they play the first of two games in Abbotsford against the Heat.
SOME MISCELLANEOUS NOTES:
Thanks to the losses in Rockford, the Aeros had a bit of a free-fall in the standings. Milwaukee, at 24-13-1-4 (54 points) is in first. Texas, 23-13-2-4 (52 points) is in second. Rockford, thanks to Houston, is in third at 23-18-2-3 (51 points). Chicago at 23-16-0-2 and Peoria at 22-15-1-3 are tied for fourth with 48 points. Then comes Houston with a record of 20-17-6-1 (47 points).
The Aeros aren’t out of the playoff chase. But they know that the Rockford games hurt them, and they knew the importance of getting a win tonight.
“Obviously a big win for us,” Nathan Smith said. “We thought our effort deserved better than what it got on the road trip…take a look at our division and we need the points. Obviously a big win for us heading into the All-Star break.”
J.P. Testwuide agreed: “We went into Rockford, and we were doing a lot of things right. We realized that, but it was frustrating. We couldn’t get the goals. Their goalie stood on his head. There were all of these excuses that we had to kind of battle through. Tonight, it kind of paid off. It was a good win.”
But the win tonight is useless if the team doesn’t find a way to carry it over after the break.
“You always talk about points in November are important,” Kevin Constantine said. “But the reality is, as the season wears on you have less and less games to play, you’ve got less and less of a chance to catch up. We have to play catch up. That’s just the way it’s going to be here.”
**************** One thing this team needs, what with all of the injuries and call-ups, is for every player on the team to be making a contribution. Nathan Smith had two goals and an assist tonight, Jean-Michel Daoust had a power play goal, and Max Noreau threw in two assists. But it’s guys like Matt Kassian, with a goal, and J.P. Testwuide, with a goal and two assists, that the Aeros are going to need continuing contributions from if the team is to succeed.
“[Matt Kassian] has had his best month by far of his pro career in the last month,” Constantine said. “Two goals [this season]…he’s played the best hockey I’ve seen him play over the last month of his entire pro career….We’ve got so many banged up bodies and bodies gone to the Wild, that everybody has to contribute. Because we’re a not a team that’s going to depend on one or two guys to carry us.”
Constantine is hopeful of having Peter Zingoni, Andy Hilbert, and Jaime Sifers back from injuries when the team returns to play in Abbotsford on Friday, though it sounds as if Zingoni is the closest to returning. It will be big for the Aeros if they can start getting some of these guys back from injury. I can't remember when Zingoni last played, but I do remember that at the start of the season he was really meshing with rookies Cody Almond and Carson McMillan. He wasn't, however, sure of the extent of Jon DiSalvatore's injury.
**************** The Aeros just missed out on several hat tricks tonight. Nathan Smith was a goal short of the regular hat trick. And with his assist, he was a fight short of the Gordie Howe hat trick. Matt Kassian had a fight early in the first to go with his goal in the second, leaving him an assist short of the Gordie Howe. And Testwuide, with a goal and two assists was just a fight short of the Gordie Howe.
And it was the near Smith hat trick that got a joke out of Constantine which came about after Smith got 10 minutes on a misconduct call in the third.
“I don’t know what Smitty was doing, removing himself from that game for ten minutes at the end,” Constantine said. “I thought he was going to go for the hat trick, but I think he wanted the Gordie Howe hat trick instead.”
**************** Chad Rau got hit with a five minute major for boarding when he delivered a hit on Toronto’s Joe Ryan in the second period. Ryan was down on the ice for a long time, but the hit didn’t look to be intentional on Rau’s part.
“Take a look at Chad Rau’s stats,” Nathan Smith said. “And he’s not a guy who’s going to try and injure anybody.”
But after Carson McMillan’s four-game suspension earlier this month, it’s probably wise to wonder about what might become of Rau.
And this hit leads to my Douche Of The Game, which is the Toyota Center sound crew.
Seriously, when there’s a player down on the ice, and the medical staff is out on the ice working on said player, and his teammates are surrounding him and everybody is wondering about just how serious the injury is, you really SHOULDN’T be playing “The Chicken Dance.” You shouldn’t be playing any music, but especially not “The Chicken Dance.”
Try having some class for once.
And now that think about it, I'm kind of shocked that some of the people who roam the Toyota Center shouting into microphones during games didn't decide to start making some of their own contributions during that time.
**************** Since the Aeros were talking about everyone having to pitch in and help out, I thought it was only appropriate that I play The Beatles "With A Little Help From My Friends."
Here’s the deal. I’m tired. I’m temporarily working, and it’s a schedule that involves me waking up at five everyday. I’ve got a cold. I’m cranky. So I’m not much up for writing one of my long rambling fill in every single blank that happened during the game post.
So you’ll get this.
The Aeros lost to the Rockford IceHogs 2-1 in overtime. Yes, the Aeros losing in overtime. Shocking. I know. The Aeros one goal came at 4:28 when Jean-Michel Daoust knocked in the rebound of a Chad Rau shot to make it 1-0.
“All I remember was that it was a shot on net,” Daoust said. “And then there was a rebound on my blade and I just put it in.”
The Aeros kept that lead until 3:57 of the second when Rockford’s Kyle Greentree took the cross-ice pass from Akim Aliu and buried the puck past Wade Dubielewicz. And the score stayed tie at one until 2:12 of the overtime when Mike Brennan fired a shot that was going wide of the net, but was deflected in for the goal when it hit Dubielewicz’s stick to give Rockford the win.
“It’s unbelievable,” Dubielewicz said. ‘I thought I was going to be able to break the overtime bug. I don’t think I’ve lost one yet to now, but that’s unbelievable.”
Following the loss, the Aeros record dropped to 19-15-6-1 (45 points). The good news is that they’re now in fourth place in the West Division. The shocking news is that Milwaukee is now in first at 22-12-1-5 (50 points). Texas has dropped into second with a record of 21-13-2-4 (48 points), and Rockford is now in third place at 21-18-2-2 (46 points).
The Aeros return to action on Wednesday night when they play the first of two in Rockford. They’ll play in Rockford on Friday night, then host Toronto on Saturday night.
A MISCELLANEOUS NOTE:
The Aeros are a really banged up squad right now. Kevin Constantine says it the low point for the team this year. They’re not yet sure of how badly injured Jaime Sifers is. Ryan Lannon is also out from an injury in Friday’s game. Brandon Rogers suffered back spasms after Friday’s game. Constantine believes that Rogers might be able to return on Wednesday. It’s slightly possible that Andy Hilbert will be able to return, but Constantine didn’t seem confident regarding that prognosis. There’s no timetable on Peter Zingoni’s return. Carson McMillan has two games remaining on his suspension.
But today’s roster listed Barry Brust with the defensemen and forwards, and not the goalies. So maybe Constantine can use him to help out. Of course, Brust is in Florida with the Everblades at the moment, so that might be kind of hard to pull off.
To help handle the injuries, the Aeros brought up left win Trent Campbell from South Carolina of the ECHL. He earlier played for the AHL Worcester Sharks this season. And they also brought up defenseman Ross Rouleau from Texas of the CHL.
The Houston Aeros defeated the Rockford IceHogs 5-3 tonight before 4504 people inside of Toyota Center. This wasn’t just a normal hockey game. It wasn’t even a normal hockey game for the Houston Aeros. Any game that sees Matt Kassian score a goal can’t be called a normal game. But perhaps the most surreal thing about this game was just how dominating Rockford was through the first two periods.
The Aeros got the early lead at 10:57 of the first when Jamie Fraser scored a goal (his first of the season) on a shot that appeared to bounce off of two Rockford players before getting past IceHog goalie Corey Crawford. Rockford’s Jack Skille tied the game at 9:20 of the second when he got his stick on Brian Connelly’s shot at deflected the puck past Wade Dubielewicz for the score.
Rockford dominated the second period. They got off 21 shots, but were only able to get one goal. Yet it appeared that the Aeros were going to be lucky to leave the ice for the second intermission with the score tied 1-1. But at 17:34, Jean-Michel Daoust fired the puck toward the Rockford goal. The puck hit off of somebody -- there was a dispute as to who it hit - and was deflected past Crawford once again to make it 2-1 as the period ended.
And surviving that second period seemed to power the Aeros the rest of the way as they took control in the third.
“I think, as a group, it was a big step for us, that third period,” Dubielewicz said. “We came out and really took it to the next level.”
That next level included out-shooting Rockford and seeing Jon DiSalvatore knock in the rebound of a Cody Almond shot at 9:58 to make it 3-2, then saw Petr Kalus on a breakaway that brought back memories of Krys Kolanos to make it 4-2 at 12:00, then the moment that Aeros fans had been waiting for all year with Matt Kassian getting a goal on one of those strange shots that bounced over the back of Crawford then rolled into the net at 15:16 to make it 5-2.
Rockford got a goal with 37 seconds left to make it 5-3, but by then, there was just nothing they could do as the Aeros were just solidly in command.
The win moved the Aeros into a three-team tie for third place in the West Division. Texas (21-11-2-4) is on top with 48 points. Milwaukee (20-12-1-5) is in second with 46 points. Peoria (20-13-1-3), Houston (19-15-5-1) and Rockford (20-17-2-2) are all tied with 44 points. And when the Aeros next play, on Sunday afternoon, they will be facing the IceHogs again.
SOME MISCELLANEOUS NOTES:
This was a night of firsts. Jamie Fraser got his first goal of the season with his first period goal. But the talk of the night, in the stands, the bench, and the locker room, was Matt Kassian getting his first goal of the season -- and his first since February 8, 2008 when he scored the final goal in a 6-3 win at Chicago.
“Guys were pretty jacked on the bench about that goal,” Kevin Constantine told us after the game. And Kassian was still jacked after the game.
“It was probably the prettiest goal of my life…or not,” Kassian said. “It helps the team out, and anytime you can chip in it’s good, and it’s a great feeling to kind of get that in there. And finally to have one go in when you have so many chances and so many bounces that just haven’t gone your way to kind of get a lucky one to get the first one -- it’s a pretty good feeling. I’m definitely happy about that.”
Constantine told us that this goal has been coming because he thinks that Kassian is on the best stretch of offensive-oriented hockey since he’s been with the team.
“I think over the last 10 games, if you looked at maybe eight games, he’s actually had a quite a few scoring chances over the last eight games,” Constantine said. “If you looked at any segment of eight games since he’s been here, I’d bet the last eight, he’s had the most, been part of the offense more than he ever has since he’s been here.”
******************* The second period was a tough one for the Aeros, and it was surviving the second that helped power the Aeros through the third. Wade Dubielewicz had his problems through the night -- he wasn’t exactly what one would call steady -- but he was able to hold Rockford to just one goal during that second period barrage.
“I had 20 shots, but I don’t know…at least eight or 10 of them were because I was kicking them straight back out,” he said. “As a goalie, it was just one of those nights where everything that hit me hit me really solid, and nothing stuck to me. But as a group, we were doing a good job of winning those battles 15 feet in front of the net. I made the first save and they were doing a good job of clearing that second puck out.”
One thing that Dubielewicz had to face in the second was a penalty kill shot by Jack Skille after a penalty by Nathan Smith.
“That guy made a good move, and he made a good play. I forced him to put it up high, and he put it up too high…” Dubielewicz said. “I didn’t get a piece of it. I forced him to go high at least, and he missed the spot. I got a little lucky there. I got a few breaks tonight, and you need some breaks to be good sometimes.”
Kassian said it was a matter of the Aeros holding together and not breaking during the barrage.
“They obviously came out in the second period with a lot more fire than we did. They definitely outplayed us in the second period. So really for us it was about a bend and don’t break….“ he said. “But we didn’t break. We did bend a little bit, but that’s okay, and we were able to kind of reset and refocus, and we know our second period wasn’t the best, and we knew that in the second intermission and we just all kind of came together and pulled it out like we needed to in the third.”
**************** Robbie Earl and Clayton Stoner are in Minnesota. The team brought Brandon Buck back up from Florida. Still, the one thing couldn’t afford was injuries. Which is probably why the team got hit by injuries to Jaime Sifers and Ryan Lannon during the game -- injuries which kept them from returning. Constantine had moved Brandon Rogers up to forward for the game, so he was luckily able to shift him back to the defenseman position.
We talked to Constantine about the injuries afterward, but he said he still didn’t know what their injuries were other than upper body injuries. He thought that Sifers had injured his shoulder -- ala Colt McCoy -- but he was told after that the game that it wasn’t the shoulder.
J.P. Testwuide was a healthy scratch, and Rogers can be moved back to defense, so the team can play with a full compliment of defensemen. But with the injuries to Andy Hilbert and Peter Zingoni and the suspension of Carson McMillan, the Aeros are not only short on forwards -- something they have been all season it seems -- but they’re actually short of a full squad of healthy players. So it should be interesting to see what happens on Saturday.
**************** I don’t know if it was discussed on the radio, but Barry Brust was not on tonight’s roster, so I can only assume that means that he’s on his way back to Florida. I’m sure that that’s something Heather and/or Andrew can discuss with a little more authority later.
**************** I thought tonight’s game was kind of surreal, what with a penalty shot and first goals by Fraser and Kassian. So continuing with my Beatles theme, I went looking for a kind of surreal song. Thus I give you “Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds.”
Posts
