It is becoming increasingly obvious that the Aeros are more likely going to finish fourth than they are second based on how well Peoria has been playing lately and how poorly the Aeros have been in the last week and a half.
I think tonight's game at Carver Arena will go a long way, especially if the Aeros can a) (obviously) win the game and then b) parlay that into a road sweep against the Lake Erie Monsters. The Aeros do have, technically, the weakest schedule as far as opponents are concerned from here on out. After tonight, the Aeros will play four straight teams who will not make the postseason. I think Peoria and Quad City have the roughest go of it from here on out, even though (as Fred implied several times Thursday) San Antonio may literally try to hurt the Aeros next weekend from start to finish. Their objective might be to collect more deadhead stickers than goals and victories, so who knows.
The chart (click on it for a clearer view) now shows that Iowa has moved ahead of Chicago, thanks to their win over the Aeros last night, and I have not moved Peoria ahead of Houston, but I will after tonight's loss. The Rivermen have the same amount of points, but three more wins, which gives them the tie breaker, even if the Aeros win the season series.
Please don't come to Houston and bring all your brass friends when we're in a critical stretch. The boys lose their ever loving minds when they know you're in the barn and now's just not the time. Or be a little more ninja-stealth next time.
Also, your big club is done. D.O.N.E. Stop taking our players. They weren't good enough for you when we could afford to be without them. Don't make like they're good enough to save you now, or that you haven't gotten a sufficient look at them. Malarkey. Let one team in this organization have a fighting chance.
Sincerely, Ms.C
Dear KC & staff,
What was up with those line combinations? The boys looked half the time like they'd never met each other; they didn't have a clue what their linemates were doing; there was no chemistry whatsoever. I imagine you were trying to spark something there, but yeesh. No mas.
To wit, Madsen on the fourth line with Jay and Mitch is just ... it's just... just awful. Please stop it.
Respectfully, Ms.C
Dear Brusty,
Oh sweet mercy, how nice it was to have your puck playing, poke checking, player whacking self back on the ice. I've missed you so much.
Now look, we're both goalies here so we can be honest with each other, right? Dude, you were Mr. Delayed Reaction last night. Gotta chug those Red Bulls or whatever and get moving out there. We'll chalk it up to rust. But please don't think that was good enough.
The glove hand got going, though (show off). And the insane poke check attempt... ahhh... I know it didn't work exactly like you planned, but it's one of my favorite guilty pleasures when you pull crazy ass moves like that. It's like eating one of those Monte Cristo sandwiches. It's messy and you shouldn't do it and it may cause a heart attack but it's just slap-yer-mama delicious.
The brass is in the house and that's what you give 'em? Ya just gotta protect that puck better. And where was the hitting and toughness and ferocity you've shown over the last couple of months?
Lookit -- I know it sucks that KK got called up and you didn't, but this team needs you to hunker down and focus and bring the noise. Be a pro, Ben. Play like the NHLer you think you should be. Use your teammates. Don't be a cowboy. You're better than this.
Cheering you on but ready to throw you under the bus if you keep playing like last night, Ms.C
Dear Equipment Fellas,
Thanks for putting the boys in the darks. That was really nice.
Take care, Ms.C
Dear Tony,
Sorry I doubted you. That goal last night was sick sick sick. I can only imagine the cred you have with your team back home as they watch you take this challenge on and succeed.
Keep it up, Ms.C
Dear Brennan Evans,
Spearing (attempt)? Ha ha! Next time you cost your team 4 minutes in the box, you might actually want to connect with your victim, tough guy.
FU, Ms.C
Dear Nolan,
Yours in puck stoppage, Ms.C
Oh damn, I just remembered I was given license to drop all the f-bombs I wanted in my post-game and I dropped nary a one.
But if last night's "level of compete," as KC says, continues through the weekend, I'll make up for it. Hockey scouts and sailors will blush. Chuck Norris will cry. Don Cherry will wear a t-shirt and jeans. You don't want that on your doorstep, boys.
The Aeros have played some bad hockey this year. Way more than a team with their record and position in the standings should have played. And unfortunately, some of the really bad hockey is coming at the very end of the season, when they can least afford to play bad hockey.
Like tonight.
The Aeros easily handled Iowa on Tuesday night, getting the 6-2 win despite losing goalie Nolan Schaefer to injury early in the game. But tonight, while it’s easy to pin most of the blame on goalie Barry Brust, playing his first game in more than a month, the truth is that the entire team just stunk up Toyota Center, which is saying a lot considering that dogs were running about the place. And in the end, the 4407 people who attended the game left disappointed as the Aeros lost 5-3.
“We felt tonight was a critical game,” coach Kevin Constantine said after the game. But while they might have felt it, they sure didn’t show this on the ice.
Iowa took the early 1-0 lead when T.J. Trevelyan beat Barry Brust at 3:46 of the first. And the Aeros were lucky to get out of the first down just 1-0 as Iowa appeared to dominate that first period. The only time the Aeros showed any life was when Mitch Love went after Iowa’s Charlie Kronschnabel, but even the fight was a disappointment.
Then Iowa went up 2-0 at 8:41 of the second when Brennan Evans skipped the puck over Brust’s glove for the one goal that Brust said afterwards he wished he could really take back because he saw it all of the way, but got hit with the short-hop just before it got to him.
At 12:59 of the second, Corey Locke led a rush down the ice. He stopped just past the blue line and passed the puck to an onrushing Tomas Mojzis who buried the slap shot to make the score 2-1. Then at 17:37, Tony Hrkac scored his second goal since coming out of retirement to make it 2-2. And it looked like the Aeros might actually stand a chance.
Until the stupid took over.
Benoit Pouliot was hit with a high-sticking penalty at 18:36, and just 10 seconds later, Marco Rosa knocked the puck into the stands and got the delay of game penalty. Twenty seconds into the resulting 5x3 power play, Brian Salcido took advantage of Barry Brust being screened to put Iowa up 3-2.
Then things got really weird as, with time expired in the second period, and the team’s exiting the ice, Barry Brust decided to go at it with Iowa’s Brennan Evans, the result being that Brust got a two minute roughing penalty and Evans was nailed for four minutes for attempting to spear Danny Irmen.
The stupid continued as, at about the 5:00 mark of the third, Brust came way, way out to try and field the puck and nearly got burned for a goal. Still, Marco Rosa knotted the score at 6:25, and the Aeros appeared to be on their way to at least one point. Until the 13:28 mark when Ryan Dingle beat Brust to put Iowa up 4-3. And at 19:45, Iowa got the empty netter to make the final score 5-3.
“I didn’t feel too bad. I got some terrible bounces,” Brust said. “Too bad we couldn’t come out with the win, but we were close.”
But at this point of the season, with the playoffs still hanging in the balance, close isn’t good enough. Though truth be told, the Aeros didn’t deserve to win this game.
They play in Peoria tomorrow night, then play Lake Erie in Cleveland on Saturday night, before taking almost all of next week off before a final three game weekend series against the San Antonio Rampage.
More importantly, the loss dropped the Aeros from second place to third as, though the Aeros and Peoria both have 84 points, Peoria has a better win percentage. Rockford sits in fourth with 82 points, waiting for either the Aeros or Peoria to falter, and with the win, Iowa moved into fifth place with 79 points.
SOME MISCELLANEOUS GAME NOTES:
The Aeros are hurting for goalies. Nolan Schaefer is probably out for the rest of the regular season. Anton Khudobin is up with Minnesota for who knows how long. Barry Brust is recovering from an injury that has kept him out since the end of February, and today, the Aeros brought in an ECHL goalie, Rejean Beauchemin, who Constantine appears to be reluctant to play.
Playing Brust tonight wasn’t something Constantine would have done under normal circumstances, but tonight wasn’t normal. Brust “only got cleared to start practicing with the team on Sunday,” Constantine said. “In a perfect situation we probably would have liked to have gotten three or four or five good practices in. Khudobin’s gone, and Schaefer’s hurt. It was either play the kid we brought up or play Barry. He definitely looked a little bit rusty at the first, but that was to be expected based on being out for a month.”
As for the rest of this weekend’s games, Constantine’s not yet quite sure of what he’s going to do, though Brust will play at least once: “I’m not sure yet. We’ve got a guy up here. My guess is we wouldn’t play Barry all three games, but I don’t know yet. But I think it would be hard to come back and then all of sudden have to play three in three nights.”
Part of Constantine’s problem is that he doesn’t know what the Wild are planning to do with Anton Khudobin. Khudobin isn’t suiting up with the Wild. He’s just there in case Niklas Backstrom can’t suit up. But it was noted after the game that the Wild don’t play on Saturday night, so it’s possible they could loan Khudobin back to the Aeros for the game with Lake Erie.
It shouldn't be too hard for Constantine to get some answers to the question regarding Khudobin, however. Especially seeing as how the entire Minnesota Wild braintrust were in Houston tonight, including Wild/Aeros owner Craig Leipold, Wild general manager Doug Risebrough, and Wild assisistant GM/Aeros GM Tom Lynn.
As for Nolan Schaefer, he just aggravated his already existing injury on Tuesday night. “I would say there’s no way he can play this weekend,” Constantine said. “There’s an outside shot he can play next weekend. There’s a really, really good chance that he’ll be available for the playoffs. It’s kind of a seven to 10 day injury.”
Of course, if the Aeros keep playing this weekend like they did tonight, there might not be a playoffs for Schaefer to be available for.
********************* There were some strange line combinations in the game. Matt Kassian was scratched tonight, and the Love/Ryznar line was joined by Morten Madsen for most of the game, but in the third period, desperate for some kind of offense, Love and Ryznar were broken up, resulting in a line of Love, Jesse Schultz, and Madsen and a line consisting of Ryznar, Robbie Earl, and Danny Irmen.
But nothing seemed to work.
********************* The Aeros are still four points short of guaranteeing a playoff spot. Eighty-eight points is the magic number because the most points that Chicago, Iowa, and Quad City can amass are 87. But as I said above, if the Aeros keep playing like they did tonight, 88 points might be a difficult quest.
********************* The three stars of the game were 3) Iowa’s Francis Wathier, 2) Marco Rosa, and 1) Iowa’s Ryan Dingle.
And this lead’s to our video of the night. Andrew was muttering words about losing his mind, so I originally thought of going with a video to reflect that. Then the Lady Dynamics danced to Britney Spears’s “Toxic,” so I thought I might try that. But then Ryan Dingle got the number one star, and the name Dingle just makes me think of Lieutenant Jim Dangle of the Reno Sheriff’s Department, so I thought I would go with some video of him instead.
Barry Brust was just cleared to practice last Sunday, and was basically forced to start playing Thursday night against the Chops. He was rusty, and it showed in a 5-3 loss to the Chops. With as porous as the Iowa defense is, I thought the Aeros were going to out-gun the Chops, but the Aeros did not get a big save when they needed one.
I think the most disappointing part of the game tonight is how much the Aeros worked for their goals and how little the Chops had to for their five scores. Barry is healthy, he says he feels good, so I have no problem with what appears to be the team's decision to start him tonight against Peoria.
Even though Barry was not great tonight, he is not the reason the team lost the game. I think Thursday's game came down to the five-on-three goal the Chops scored at the end of the second period. The Aeros have used the delay of game horseshit rule to their advantage many times, but it bit them tonight and Brian Salcido made them pay when he beat a screened Brust with 54 seconds left in the middle stanza. Barry was screened, and he never saw the puck on that play.
The Aeros tied it, sure, as Rosa made amends early in the third, but instead of taking a lead there, it was just the tying score because Rosa accidentally threw the puck in the stands leading to the Chops third goal.
There are a lot of maybes and what ifs when it comes to the Aeros goaltending situation this weekend, but I don't like the way this one is shaping up. The Aeros needed the win tonight because facing them now is a trip to Peoria and then a long bus right through the night to get to Cleveland for the Lake Erie game Saturday. We'll see how it all pans out
The three stars of the game were Dingle, Rosa and Francis Wathier ... Salcido actually gets my vote for the No. 3 star, because his goal was, what I felt, the difference in the game.
John will post more later tonight and I will try to update the Down the Stretch chart before lights out. If not, I will get to that in the morning.
Aeros fan and pee-wee goalie for the Houston Hitmen, Ryan O'Toole, is in the final 4 of the Sick Helmet contest on Sabre's goalie, Ryan Miller's site, www.millertime30.com.
It's neck and neck (or cage and cage) and voting for this round ends tomorrow. You have to register, but it's quick and I've done it and not gotten any junk. It's just to keep people from racking up votes unfairly.
Here's his awesome Gerry Cheevers tribute mask. It's easily the best of the four finalists IMO.
How sick is that? Help a hockey kid out and go throw a vote his way.
Just to update Ms. Conduct's post from below, Anton Khodobin has officially been recalled to Minnesota on an emergency basis because of NiklasBackstrom's lower body injury. However, as Russo says over at his rants, both Backstrom and Josh Harding skated for the Wild in practice today, so he's expecting Backstrom to play tonight. Khudobin will not suit up, but he won't be returning any time soon. Russo expects Khudobin to stick around with the Wild until after this weekend.
To replace Khudobin on the roster, the Aeros signed someone with some actual experience, RejeanBeauchamp from ECHL Idaho, who the team signed to a PTO. Beauchamp's record for the season is 16-11-3 in 31 games with a 2.66 GAA and .895 save percentage.
What is up in the air is who will be going for the Aeros tonight. Schaefer, who played hurt on Sunday, tried to play hurt on Tuesday but had to leave the game early due to that injury. Barry Brust has been out due to injury, but the last time I talked to him and Kevin Constantine, they were hoping to have him back on Monday, but seeing as how Khudobin played on Tuesday, either Brust didn't get medical clearance or Constantine didn't see the need to rush things. But nothing against Beauchamp, I'm hoping Brust is healthy tonight.
So I guess we'll find out that answer to this riddle tonight. But I'm telling you, this game tonight has a good chance of really going to the dogs.
Last night, the Aeros did not get much help, but thanks to Peoria's win over Chicago, the Aeros magic number is down to four. Last month, I said it would be the Aeros, IceHogs and Wolves joining the Admirals in the playoffs. Now, it is almost certain that Peoria will be in with the defending champs (Wolves) on the outside looking in.
If the Aeros win two of three this weekend, I think that sets them up nicely for home ice in the first round against Peoria. Raise your hand, though, if you want to see the Aeros open up on the road against that monster Rivermen team right now. To be honest, I would rather see the Aeros slip to fourth than have to try to beat Manny Legace ... but we'll leave that to worry about next week. Those games against the Rampage will be huge.
Here is the updated down the stretch chart. Click on the pic for a clearer view.
So, I'm scouring AHL goalie news for my other gig and start piecing some bits of news together. I've seen no confirmation from the teams or leagues, so I'll just tell you what I've read and you can draw your own conclusions.
First, it seems Idaho Steelheads goalie Rejean Beauchemin has been summoned to Houston (last paragraph on the page). (Update: And we have lift off on this part of the story.)
And over on the Florida Everblades side, Angela Busch of the Naples Daily News is reporting that Khudobin has yet again been recalled to Minnesota due to Nik Backstrom's aching back.
Anton Khudobin was recalled again on emergency conditions because of the tweak in Nik Backstrom’s lower body. But he flew in last night, and Backstrom and Josh Harding both practiced today, meaning everything seems OK with Backstrom.
However, I’d suspect Khudobin will stay here through the weekend now just in case Backstrom aggravates anything.
Busch's article only mentions Brust being injured in Houston, but unless Schaefer has made a miracle recovery, we know he is dinged up as well. Does this mean Beauchemin is the starter tonight? He's got about 22 AHL games in his 4 years of playing professional hockey, the rest are ECHL.
The good news is that he's very good looking. Well done, Assistant GM Troy Ward! Thanks to the Idaho Steelheads for the photo.
So... I guess I'm not getting the call to bring my gear tonight, huh? Damn.
With the Wild's post-season chances seemingly ended after last night's 2-1 OT loss to the Canucks, management up there decided to do a bit of something to help the Aeros and their post-season chances. So early this morning*, according to the tip I received, the Wild loaned goalie Josh Harding to the Aeros for the remainder of the regular season.
Nolan Schaefer reinjured himself (or hurt himself even worse) in last night's win over Iowa. Barry Brust must not have yet passed medical muster. This leaves Anton Khudobin as the team's only healthy goalie, and as we learned on Sunday, he's not always available. But the Wild, wanting Harding to get some playing time, have sent him to Houston so that Schaefer and Brust can rest up and get healthy for the playoffs. Harding, of course, won't be eligible to play in the playoffs because he wasn't on the Clear Day Roster, but the thinking is that Brust and Schaefer will be healthy and ready to go by that point.
The transaction has yet to make the wires because of waiver matters, etc.**, but I've been assured that the move is happening, and that you can fully expect to see Harding in an Aeros sweater skating out to the net to start tomorrow night's game against Iowa here in Houston.
Phew! It's good to get a couple of points, isn't it, winning the game-in-hand over the teams breathing down the Aeros' necks.
A few points from the 6-2 win over Iowa:
The boys looked slow out of the gate. It seemed to take a while to get the legs going.
Schaefer looked shaky before he left the game. Just not himself. It was valiant of him to try to play, but Dimples probably should have started and let Nolan rest that injury. In case you haven't noticed, the Aeros have ONE healthy goalie. I'm not even sure Schaefer is back-up worthy at the moment. I guess we'll see on Thursday.
Atta boy to Ryznar for a rare goal on a beautiful shorthanded breakaway fed by Madsen. It was just bing-bang-boom and LeNeveu was helpless to stop it. Man, shorties are a bitch. Know how I know? Because the one Iowa scored on Dimples midway through the second period was also a bitch.
Pouliot's short handed breakaway goal was breathtaking. It was Pou doing that voodoo that Pou does so well. Wait, I feel a song coming on:
Ahem... anyway...
Noreau's power play goal was a blistering slapshot from out near the blue line. Just a "laser." It's funny, you can almost see the kind of traffic develop in front of the net that he shoots so well through. Kid's either very lucky or has a knack for seeing a hole to shoot in through the chaos. Locke and Lammers helped out on that one.
And then Hrkac showed off that sniper's touch with his first goal since his return to professional hockey. He's looking better and better out there. Irmen and Earl set him up with some terrific passing.
The first half of the game, your favorite ref, Nygel Pelletier, was mostly calling the Aeros for infractions. In the second half, it was the Chops turn, and again the Aeros took advantage with a goal from Locke that also earned points for Beaudoin and Mojzis.
And finally, as the Aeros were fighting off a too-many-men penalty late in the third, the Chops risked an empty net in exchange for a two-man advantage, but Irmen put the Aeros third short-handed marker on the board with an assist from Pouliot.
Again, in a runaway game like this, why is anybody on the other team getting a star? And the second star at that. Ridiculous homerosity.
HOU - B. Pouliot
IOW - P. Wirtanen
HOU - M. Noreau
I think, and the AHL agrees with me, that Locke deserved a star from his two points and for breaking his career high for points.
The boys are back home tomorrow, hopefully resting up, and will get a rematch with the Chops Thursday night before hitting the road for two more days. Then it's 5 days off, 3 days of San Antonio, and then...
Posts
