SAN 03/14 -- No Beaver Nuggets for you

I maybe spend an hour a day where I'm not thinking about hockey. Whether it's my own goaltending, the Aeros, the Wild, my fantasy teams, my hockey friends, etc. I know, I need to get a life, but until I'm tired of this one, I'll keep thinking about hockey all the time.

But tonight, after watching hockey since noon and watching both the Aeros and Wild lose to teams they have the skill to beat, I kinda had enough. I did something I almost never do if there's a hockey game on. I watched regular TV. I flipped through the channels until I found a movie that seemed interesting, and I watched it.

Tonight's feature was The Guardian, where Kevin Costner and Ashton Kutcher are Coast Guard rescue swimmers who wallow around in the water and shout BooYAH! (or something) a bunch, and then they have some personal crises and, most importantly, save people from certain drowning in tumultuous ocean waters.

And when I look at the standings after this 3-1 loss to San Antonio tonight, I carry that sense of drowning with me. There are only 5 points separating the Aeros from 6th place in the division. They are now tied with Chicago, who won in a shootout tonight against the untouchable, first place Milwaukee Admirals. Tomorrow's opponent, the Rockford IceHogs, are one point behind, Peoria a mere 2 behind them, Iowa a mere 2 behind Peoria.

The waters rise, yet the Aeros stay at the same level so far through the weekend. The dark abyss tugs at their kicking feet.

And tonight the dark abyss was played by the Aeros inexplicable inability to put the puck in the net. The only Aeros goal came from the stick of Corey Locke on a 5 minute power play after a boarding call on San Antonio's Goertzen (who also got a game misconduct for the hit), in spite of 24 shots, some of which were decent chances.

That Goertzen hit was on Tomas Mojzis at 4:55 in the first and set the tone for a rough and tumble game across the board. Mojzis was back for his first game in over a month from an upper body injury and was continuously targeted by San Antonio for abuse. Amazingly, after at least 3 hits that put him hard enough into the boards to send him crumpling to the ice, he played on.

Albers stood up for Mojzis on the boarding, and Irmen dropped the mitts with Kolarik, though it was behind the play and off screen so I don't know what precipitated it.

With the physical intimidation established, the Rampage rattled off three unanswered goals, one by defenseman Jeff May shortly after Locke's goal in the first. And then the game winner by Garth Murray at 14:06 in the third.

Constantine pulled Khudobin with about 3 minutes left in the game for the man advantage, during which the Aeros got a few chances, but spent a lot of energy just trying to retain possession. Rampage goalie Montoya even launched one down the ice, but missed scoring by a couple of feet. Ultimately, with a little over a minute left, Kevin Porter whacked it in the empty net from a face-off to seal the deal.

As usual, it's difficult to get a sense of the overall play from the little window, especially when the broadcast person keeps ads up on the video while the game is in play. In fact, we didn't even see the empty netter at the end as a result. Lame. Andrew will fill in on Sunday with a first-hand account.

My only request is a little flavor of what it's like to go to a hockey game with a bunch of dogs. What an odd thing to hear the barking behind Joe O'Donnell's broadcast. Suppose we could get a Pucks & Paws night at the Toyota Center? What do you say, Mr. Alexander?

Anyway, the Aeros are back in the drink tomorrow. Who will step up and be Kevin Costner, busting through the jammed cabin door to rescue the Aeros from their watery grave? Kolanos? Pouliot? Schultz? Locke? Rosa? We'll find out starting at 4:05 p.m. Sunday.

Catching up with Joel Ward

I love seeing the boys go on, either in the Wild system or elsewhere, and succeed at the next level. It's been especially fun watching the surprise of Nashville fans and writers at what a terrific contributor Joel Ward has been to that team this season.

Here's a post from Preds on the Glass with a little update on how Wardo's doing.

QCY 03/13 - A Stinker - Part 2

Many of the Aeros struggled all night and unfortunately Nolan Schaefer was one of those Aeros.

Even on a night when the posts were Nolan's friends, it just wasn't enough. Here you can see a shot on an early QC power play that just wouldn't go over the line.

It hit the post and came back out behind Schaefer.

Rogers was able to clear it away just before John Vigilante could poke it home.

Schaefer still made plenty of big stops
but it seemed like he had to struggle and everything looked difficult for him.

Here you can see the Farynuk goal in the second period going in over Schaefer's shoulder.

One of the bright spots of the game was this goal by Jesse Schultz from Maxim Noreau. This was the goal described by John Royal in his post below.

All Photos : Fred Trask

Trying To Understand The Clear Day Roster, Part The Second

As you might recall from my post the other day, I was a bit puzzled by some of the Clear Day Roster decisions made by the Aeros. Specifically the addition of Tony Hrkac to the team and the failure to add Jason Ryznar to that roster. So I took a little time after the loss to Quad City last night to ask Kevin Constantine about some of the thinking that went into the creation of the roster.

The primary thinking behind the roster involved which players were contracted to which team. Constantine said that looking “at the 22-man list, the first thing that you’ll recognize is that every single Minnesota Wild contract is on it. That’s probably the first basis.”

John Lammers, Mitch Love, Matt Beaudoin, Jason Ryznar, and Bryan Lundbohm are not under a contract with the Wild, so decisions had to be made on this basis. “A player that is under contract to the Wild is going, in general, to carry a slight priority over other guys. After that, there was room to put a couple of guys on.”

And anybody who has spoken to Constantine knows that, just as Mitch Love has become a favorite of the fans, he has also become a favorite of the coaching staff. The coaches like having Love on the ice because he doesn’t make mistakes, he hits, he doesn’t mind the dirty work, and he brings energy to the team and the fans. So in many ways, the decision for Constantine and the staff was an easy one.

“The number one guy that we felt deserved to go on there was Mitch Love because of the sacrifices that he makes,” Constantine said. “It’s not easy to be a guy who defends a team…Mitch has done that all year. He earned the right to be on the permanent list.”

Tony Hrkac is on the list because he has to be on the list. That was the only way the Aeros could sign him, “So,” according to Constantine, “that was a necessity.”

That left one spot, and the staff went Matt Beaudoin over Lammers and Ryznar because of the role he’s played on the team’s power play, and Constantine didn’t want to screw around with what has been one of the team’s high spots.

“At the end of the day,” he said. “You run out of numbers.”

But Constantine made it clear that Ryznar and Lammers will continue to see lots of ice time with the team, especially with Peter Olvecky and John Scott up in Minnesota. “The list means less in reality than it does on paper,” he said. And with the expectation of more players being called up to help Minnesota to help them as the season comes to an end. Lammers has been playing, and Ryznar has been out due to an illness, but Constantine felt that he should be healthy enough to return to play tonight against San Antonio.

As for Hrkac, Constantine isn’t sure about what they’re going to get.

“I don’t know,” he says. “I hope we get a bit of the player he was for twenty years when he played the game. Because he was a pretty talented guy….we hope that there’s still a little of that magic left.”

Constantine expects before the season that the Wild will call up Benoit Pouliot or Corey Locke or Krys Kolanos. When this happens, Constantine is hoping that Hrkac, “a very gifted guy,” can provide the team with depth at the skill position and on the power play.

And he was a risk worth taking because he’s not costing the team anything. They don’t lose a draft pick, nor did they have to trade a player.

Hrkac isn’t expected to join the team until Sunday, and he won’t play until next weekend against Peoria at the earliest.


File photo of Mitch Love courtesy of Fred Trask

QCY 03/13 - A stinker ...

Well this one was a bit of a stinker for the Bomber Boys. One good period and them some horendous play. This one is a bit tongue and cheek but here are my picks for the stars of the game.

I give the first star to this Aeros fan, Lucha Libre - no one can disagree with that.

I give the 2nd star to Leland Irving because he only played 2/3 of the game. Still, that's 1/3 more than most of the Aeros did.

I give the nod for the 3rd star to Mitch Love he played hard all game and had a most entertaining bout with J.D. Watt in the first period.

Here is a shot of an excited Morten Madsen as he celebrates his goal.

All Photos: Fred Trask

Meaningless Stat Alert

Here is a random stat that you will be hard pressed to duplicate. Bored, yet wide awake in my living room tonight, I decided to research the Aeros record at San Antonio (from both the IHL and AHL) the next game after a home loss. That is the case entering tonight's game with the Rampage.

The Aeros have played at San Antonio 11 times EVER after a home loss.

Their record is 5-4-1-1 in San Antonio after losing the game before at home. One of these games was a tie, which is reflected in the OTL column.

10/23/96, 2-4 L vs. Long Beach: 10/26, 2-1 W at San Antonio Dragons
03/28/97, 1-2 L vs. San Antonio: 10/29, 1-3 L at San Antonio Dragons
01/22/98, 3-4 L vs. Cincinnati (SO): 01/27, 2-5 L at San Antonio Dragons
11/22/03, 3-4 L vs. Chicago: 11/23, 4-5 L at San Antonio Rampage *OT
01/16/04, 3-6 L vs. San Antonio: 01/17, 1-1 T at San Antonio Rampage *OT
03/04/06, 1-5 L vs. Hartford: 03/05, 2-4 L at San Antonio Rampage
11/19/06, 3-4 L vs. Hartford: 11/21, 2-4 L at San Antonio Rampage
12/12/06, 1-4 L vs. Manitoba: 12/14, 3-1 W at San Antonio Rampage
04/13/07, 2-6 L vs. Iowa: 04/14, 4-2 W at San Antonio Rampage
10/17/07, 2-3 L vs. Rockford: 10/19, 6-5 W at San Antonio Rampage *SO
11/28/08, 1-2 L vs. Milwaukee(OT): 11/29, 3-1 W at San Antonio Rampage

So what does this all mean?
Nothing ... except now I am really tired, and it appears that an Aeros win tonight is possible, but not likely.

QCY 03/13 -- Well, at least they kept Chucko off the scoresheet

Sometimes it's the small blessings you have to seek out when you lose 6-3 to a lesser team, at least in terms of the standings. Let's count our blessings, shall we?

• Madsen got a goal. Boy did he need that, and the joy he wore, as well as the delight from his teammates, was pretty special. Stuff like that... it's why I love the game. And it was a sick goal, too, shooting the puck back behind him with his back to the goalie. But I don't like him on the 4th line with Kass and Love. There's gotta be a better choice there if Ryznar isn't playing.
  
• Pouliot had a good game IMO. I feel pretty comfortable saying that at least some of this transformation since he got sent down is sticking. This is the longest I've ever seen him play with such intensity and purpose and sack. He's battling HARD for the puck, not giving up on plays, going that extra step to try and retain possession or make something happen.
  
• Kolanos, on the other hand. Ugh. To me, nearly every move he makes looks nonchalant and lazy. Pouly used to be the one who had me in nearly a constant state of *head-desk* but the torch has passed to the K-Train. Now that it's pretty clear he's not heading back to the Wild, the intensity is just gone. He looks like he's playing shinny with his pals... and doesn't like his pals all that much.
  
• The joke when we started this blog was that Andrew and John would write about the game, Fred would post his brilliant photos, and I'd write about how hot Pouliot looks in a suit. But I've covered that to death, so lemme just throw out there that Brusty, in spite of his limp and his new mustache (why, boys? why?), is also a tasty dish in a suit. Whoever, a hundred years ago, decided that hockey players should change into suits after the game should have his own wing in the Hockey Hall of Fame. Effing genius! I love you, suit guy!
  
• The magic of the suit doesn't do a damn thing for Chucko. That's not so much a blessing as an observation.
• I like that Falk. Kid works his ass off every shift, takes a beating, and keeps going. And occasionally he uses that big body of his to lay a hit that would make highlight reels if anybody made highlight reels of AHL games.
  

I'm out of blessings. Other than, a night of bad hockey is better than a night of no hockey.

Crowley was bad and looked out of his league, which I suppose he is a bit. I'm not sure I wouldn't rather have John Adams out there at this point.

One fight in the game with Love and Watt dropping the mitts after QC's first goal. I felt like the edge went to Watt, but it was fairly even. Gotta hand it to Watt, though. He's a seriously scrappy, energetic fighter and pretty fun to watch.

I thought Stoner and Vandermeer might go as they were having a chat on their way to the bench at one point, but either the opportunity never presented itself or they were talking about the weather.

Anyway, pretty ugly game by the Aeros, and the Flames took full advantage of it. The boys tend to crawl out of the fog after the first night of a 3-in-3, so perhaps the team bus will be overflowing with celebratory Beaver Nuggets on the way home from San Antonio tomorrow. (I'm obsessed with Beaver Nuggets after my first-ever stop at Buc-ee's earlier this week... I mean, really! Beaver Nuggets! Dirty-sounding AND delicious! How grand!) Catch y'all on the flip side tomorrow night.

QCY 03/13 -- The Aeros Didn't Start The Fire, And Sure Didn't Quench It

With only 16 games remaining in the season, and Houston Aeros battling for playoff positioning, it’s more than a just a cliché to say that every game is important. Yet tonight, it appeared that it was the Quad City Flames who were playing for the playoffs and the Aeros who were just trying to play out the season.

It isn’t so much that the Aeros lost 6-3 before a Toyota Center crowd of 5083. It’s the way the way the Aeros looked as they were losing 6-3 before a Toyota Center crowd of 5083.

They looked, almost, as if they didn’t care.

“We gave them a lot of chances,” Corey Locke said after the game. “I don’t think we moved the puck as well as we wanted to. They capitalized on some of their chances.”

The Aeros had the 3-2 lead as the first period ended, scoring twice on the power play, but the team looked pretty awful while taking the lead, and while Nolan Schaefer didn’t look that great in the crease, he wasn’t getting much help from his teammates. And by the time Schaefer allowed two goals in the second period, one just sensed the game was over, especially after the Aeros were unable to capitalize on a five-on-three power play with over a minute left in the second period.

And come the third period, it was as if the Aeros just didn’t even bother to show up as the team gave up two more goals.

“We have to be honest about the fact that we just didn’t compete at a level necessary to win through sixty minutes. We have to be honest about that,” head coach Kevin Constantine said. “We certainly didn’t play it right tonight.”

The loss drops the team’s record to 32-24-1-8 (73 points) with 15 games left to play. They’re one point up on the Rockford IceHogs who are at 33-27-0-6 (72 points) and two points up on the Chicago Wolves who are 34-31-2-1 (71 points).

The Aeros play the Rampage in San Antonio on Saturday, then return to the Toyota Center for a late afternoon matchup with the Rockford IceHogs.

SOME MISCELLANEOUS GAME NOTES:

Kevin Constantine had lots to say about the team’s bad play after the game. Lots of stuff that can best be boiled down to the team just not being consistently able to bring every night and the players thinking they’re better than they actually are.

“For me,” Constantine said. “If you’ve been winning – and we’ve been winning – and you get a lead in the first, you just mentally get convinced that everything is going to work out no matter what you do. You stop working….We just quit working.”

But he wasn’t done.

“It’s a complacent by-product of winning, that’s where our heads were at during the game.”

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Corey Locke was disappointed in himself, and in his teammates, as well, after the game. “We need these two points more than [Quad City did],” he said. But he’s hoping Saturday’s game against San Antonio can help to erase the ill feelings left by this one. “That’s a good thing about this league. You just go back out at it.”

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The key to the game, for Quad City, was the removal of starting goalie Matt Keetley after his disastrous first period. While Nolan Schaefer wasn’t at the top of his game, Keetley didn’t even bring his. The Aeros first goal, at 1:12 of the first period, came when Benoit Pouliot bounced the puck off of Keetley. The second goal was on the power play 11:27 when an off-target Maxim Noreau slap shot from up top found a perfectly positioned Jesse Schultz just feet from Keetley, and Schultz deflected the shot past Keetley before Keetley could react. And the Aeros final goal of the game came out 19:59 when Morten Madsen got in front of a Brandon Rogers shot and back-handed it into the net.

Leland Irving came in for Quad City to start the second, and the Aeros, with the exception of the Love/Kassian duo, were rarely able to get off any good scoring chances. And as much as I like Mitch Love and Matt Kassian, if they’re giving the team the best chance to score, the team’s not getting the job on offense.

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There’s not really much more to say about this game. It just sucked. For no reason that I can think of, besides the fact that the word “Fire” is in the title, I thought that I would play us out with a little Billy Joel and “We Didn’t Start the Fire.”

QCY, 03/13 --- View from the Press Box

Before the game got started tonight, I looked over at John and Heather and told them that the final score tonight would be 5-2. I just had a feeling that one of the two teams tonight was going to win big.

Either Quad City would come out flat based on the bad news about their franchise leaving Moline after this year, or they would have given up pretty much knowing they needed to win both games in Houston this week just to make it to the playoffs.

The Aeros stood to take advantage of those two scenarios, but neither panned out. Instead it was the Aeros who looked like garbage and ended up choking away two big points on a night where both Chicago and Rockford picked up wins.

Corey Locke said the Aeros matched the Flames intensity in the first period and then failed to keep up the rest of the game. He was right, and on a night were Nolan Schaefer was clearly off his game, the Aeros had no chance after they failed to get anything in the net past Leland Irving.

After the game, I asked Kevin Constantine if he thought the Aeros not scoring on the long two-man advantage that spanned the second and third periods was the turning point in the game. He agreed that was a big part of the game, but said the team had already stopped working before that. I am quite sure John will have more on that point later, but the point I want to make is that this Aeros team, although good when it wants to be, does not bring "it" every night and I don't know why.

Saturday night in San Antonio is going to be VERY interesting. The Rampage keep losing games where they outshoot teams 4,022 to 6. They are definitely out of the playoffs now, so maybe they tank another game that the Aeros have to win.

My guess is that won't happen and the Aeros really need to be ready for an all-out assault.

Three Stars -

1) Bowers, QCY ... he scored the last three goals of the game, including a cheap empty netter that sent him to the bench for an ridiculous overly dramatic celebration. Now if I find out that he made promise to a dying relative or a sick kid before the game that he was going to do that, I am going to feel like horse doo doo.

2) Van der Gulik, QCY ... he deserved the second star because of three helpers tonight. He always brings it against the Aeros and tonight was no different.

3)Morten Madsen, HOU ... He did not deserve the third star, but I guess he got one since the Aeros always give one to the home team generally. He scored a nice backhander with one second left in the first period, but QCY's Leland Irving should have been the third star. Probably the only player on the ice who had a worse game than Nolan Schaefer (again, not all his fault) was the Flames' starting goalie, Matt Keetley. The Aeros picked him apart and he was giving up one big juicy rebound after another. When Irving stopped Pouliot on the Aeros last good scoring chance of the game early in the second period, a statement was made and the Aeros' fate was ultimately sealed.

Hrkac: From the horse's mouth

My hero Kevin Falness brings us a nice little interview with Hrkac, with some explanation of how this signing came about, a little history on his championship-laden career, and more.