Aeros Lose 2-1 (Again) In Shootout (Again)

We'll put some quotes up later, but...The Aeros lost to the Barons this afternoon by the score of 2-1. The Barons scored in the second period, and it looked like another home loss for the Aeros until Jarod Palmer got a wraparound with 2:00 left in the third to tie it.

Neither team scored in OT, which means the shootout. And the Aeros are awful in the shootout. The Aeros actually scored once in the shootout, and it was Warren Peters getting the puck in the net. But nobody else had any luck and the Aeros got the loss.

For a day game, it was kind of quiet. The kids seemed to be at a lower pitch -- I didn't even wear my ear plugs in the third period. And neither team, to me, seemed to have any energy. So can we please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please stop these damn kiddie games, especially after most of them had left the arena before the third period was over.

With the shootout loss, the Aeros move to 14-4-2-5 (35 points) for the season, and as of right now, they're tied with the Barons for first place.

The Aeros return to action tomorrow night when they take on the Rampage at Toyota Center at 7:35.

P.S.: Jeff Taffe was unavailable today because he's been called up to the Wild, and if Cal Clutterbuck can't go for the Wild tonight, then Taffe might end up getting some action. And David McIntyre and Jed Ortmeyer are still aways from returning to action.

Aeros add McKenzie and Nolan to depleted roster

Oh hey! First off, apologies (though not terribly sincere) for not posting anything about the Aeros 0-4 white washing by the Marlies on Saturday. That was gross and frankly, I couldn't bring myself to rehash it here.

What happens in Toronto stays in Toronto. That cool with you guys?

But tonight, the team gets to move on from that ugliness to battle the Rampage on their home turf. Andrew predicted a 3-1 loss, but I'm not sure what to think. I do think this game could easily be an"overlooked" one. I don't get the sense that there's been an opportunity to hit the reset button. But then again, SA isn't very good, so this could be one the Aeros sneak by in.

But who knows. At least they're getting some help in the form of a new forward and a backup goalie (Hackett is still with the Wild, who play in San Jose tonight).

McKenzie

The first is Mike McKenzie, who is the son of well-respected TSN hockey writer Bob McKenzie. I've followed Mike on Twitter for a long time now and he seems like a good kid. And he's been a good soldier for the Everblades and Charlotte.

Russo is reporting that McKenzie has signed a 2 way AHL contract with the Aeros, so it appears he might be with them for the long haul.

The other is Rob Nolan, who has been in the cage for ECHL Chicago Express this season. It sounds like Backstrom is on the mend, though, so I anticipate Hackett being ready to go by Thursday or Friday, and I doubt we'll see Nolan play.

Anyway, we'll see how Andrew's prediction goes tonight against the sub .500 Rampage, and then it's the always-zany kids day game on Thursday. As Brusty told me once, something crazy ALWAYS happens in those games. It's a can't-miss game for me. Hope some of you folks can sneak out of work to catch it, too.

Aeros win 4-3 over Amerks

The boys in the bomber sweaters pulled another one out tonight against the Rochester Amerks with a 4-3 win in regulation.

Down early 2-0, they climbed back in the game with goals from Broda and Foucault within the first 3 minutes of the second period.

But the Amerks took the lead again just seconds after Foucault's power play goal, and would keep it for nearly 10 minutes. But eventually Fontaine tied it up as the Aeros took over the shot count lead and found their game.

Broda scored his second of the night and the game winner on a shorthanded chance (making that the 5th shorty allowed by the Amerks already this season) around 5 minutes into the third. Took some doing to hold it out at the end, but Kuemper was up to the task in his first AHL game since April 2010, making 23 saves in the effort.

This is the Aeros' 7th straight road win, 8th straight game to earn points, and puts them back at the top of the conference again. And they're doing this while massively depleted: No Wellman, Almond, McIntyre, or Ortmeyer, who was injured in Lake Erie. And McMillan is still out, too, though he is traveling with the team.

The team called up forward Joey Martin from ECHL Toledo yesterday as well, so he was able to practice with the team this morning.

Now it's a few hours over to Toronto (depending on the border crossing, I suppose) for a 3 pm (ET) game tomorrow vs. the Marlies, which is a little strange, but hopefully the guys from around there will get to catch up with family and friends after the game and will head home Sunday.

Almond Called Up

Just a quick note...

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.

Charitable opportunities

(Update with a little Aeros news first: Joe O just tweeted that the Aeros have added right wing Harrison Reed to the roster. Not sure how long the call up is for but given the thin troops, I'd guess he's along at least for the next three games.

This season, he played 4 games with the Monsters and had stints with them each of the last 3 seaons and 11 with Toledo (ECHL) with 10 points in those 11 games.)

The holidays are always full of worthwhile charity pleas, but when they're hockey related, they get my attention. Here are a couple that I thought were worth sharing with you guys. Feel free to skip this post if this sort of thing annoys you (it's okay, I'm easily annoyed, too).

The first is a charity a friend of mine in Kansas City started after losing his wife, Becky, to pancreatic cancer. Of all the cancers, pancreatic is one of the nastiest. Hard to catch early and, as a result, has extremely poor survival rates.

But Bob Klem is using his hockey prowess (he's a goalie, naturally) to raise funds for research by holding a couple of "Have a Skate with Bob" events each year (and fundraising literally year round).

The first event this year is actually being supported by the Rockford Ice Hogs. They're doing "The Skate" as it's called, before Saturday's Ice Hogs game, and then sticking around for the Hogs game after.

The event includes an auction with great prizes and just generally a big ol' celebration of how we can use something as fun and awesome as hockey to help find a cure for cancer. I'm not sure it gets any better than that. Hockey is fun, but hockey for a cause is fun AND gratifying (especially when you suck like I do).

Bob is tireless in his efforts to spread the word and champion the cause, and if you want to support him and The Skate, you can make a donation HERE. And if you're a reader in the Chicago area and want to attend, Bob's contact information is on that page as well. (It's also teddy bear toss night at the Hogs game. Always fun.)

You can also follow the Skate on Facebook by going here. It's pretty great of the Ice Hogs to support him like this and his next goal is to do the same event but with an NHL team. Wouldn't it be nice of the Wild to help out? *wink nudge hint hint*

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Second, closer to home is a cool deal the Aeros are doing with rescue group Greyhound Pets of America. This combines two of my favorite things: Dogs and Hockey, so I'm all over it.

Bonus is that it means good prices on tickets for those of you who aren't STHs. Here's a PDF with all the details.

So if you're looking to make a difference for an animal-loving organization AND get a deal on some Aeros seats, it's worth looking into.

Weekly Miscellany

Greetings to you today from downtown Washington, D.C. I am working here today and tomorrow, and tonight I am lucky enough to see the Capitals take on the Blues at the Verizon Center.

Last year I saw two NHL games; Dallas vs. Chicago and Los Angeles vs. Calgary. Those games were great, but tonight I am excited because I have never seen a game in this arena.

It's Dale Hunter's first game as head coach, and I am sure the home team will be fired up.

As for the Aeros, they are traveling to Cleveland today in advance of their three-game trek through the Northeast. It's Lake Erie first, followed by Rochester and then Toronto. Tonight, on paper at least, is probably the teams best chance at a W, but I think Lake Erie gets the payback and the Aeros will split the two games later this weekend.

Cedric Desjardins has allowed more than three goals just once in his last six starts, and the Monsters have points in six straight (5-0-0-1) following a losing streak. Basically the Monsters are hot with good goaltending and the Aeros, though still getting points, are alternating good games with bad ones. We'll see how things turn out this week.

And in closing, I want to share this link with you. It's so bad and good at the same time. It is hockey related, and I have never seen anything like it, so I will let you judge for yourself.

Have a great week!

A bushel full of roster moves

So, 4 things we know are official:

Warren Peters and Nate Prosser are headed back to the Aeros. In exchange, Casey Wellman and Dave McIntyre are headed up to the Wild. In fact, McIntyre is making his NHL debut tonight in Minnesota, so that's pretty exciting. And it's on Versus if you want to tune in.

It's a little bit of a blow offensively to lose both those guys and only get Peters back (nothing against Peters, of course, but that's 2 forwards who score a lot gone and one who scores a lot (at least lately) back). But it's fantastic to get Prosser back on the blue line.

What's unofficial at the moment, but the clues all seem to be there, is that Dennis Endras, Aeros #2 goalie, may be headed over to play in Finland, while Adorable Darcy Kuemper is headed to the Aeros. Allegedly.

You can click the links above and draw your own conclusions. The Wild/Aeros are expected to release something tomorrow.

That said, Kuemper's been tearing it up in the ECHL with a league-leading 1.74 GAA and 0.941 save percentage in 8 games. And he was just seconds away from his first pro shutout last night, but his team gave up a couple of penalties and the Condors put one past him.

So if this turns out to be true, the Aeros are getting a very good goalie in Kuemper. Even better than when he was here late in the season two years ago. And the organization appears committed to his development, so the legitimate competition between Kuemper and Hackett should drive them both pretty hard.

I'm just glad I never had to do a "Free Kuemps" stick figure drawing to actually get him to Houston. 

On the road again ... and loving it.

I asked Aeros head coach John Torchetti why he thought the Aeros were so much better on the road than at home. I asked him that question after the Aeros stole a point from the Stars in Friday's 2-1 overtime loss.

As you read right here after that game, he said if we knew to let him know because he basically had no idea.

Well, the numbers don't lie, the Aeros are a much better team on the road than they are at home. Some may point to a softer away schedule, but it does look like there is no friendly ice advantage for the Aeros this season.

So what do they do one night after the OT loss at home? The Aeros go to Texas and win 4-2. They are 3-0 in Central Texas (4-0 if you count the win at San Antonio, too) and have outscored the Stars 17-5 on their own ice.

Now the Aeros have games on the road at Lake Erie, Rochester, Toronto and then back at San Antonio. While it would be nice to get three wins on this trip, they'll be lucky to get one of the next three and split the trip. Lake Erie is much better since the last time these two played, and Rochester is red-hot, having won seven of 10 entering play today. The Aeros never play good in Toronto, so we'll have to see how they'll handle playing improved competition.

Matt Hackett has been really good recently and the team does have points in six straight games. Even when they don't win, they still don't lose. They have the fewest regulation losses in the AHL, and something has to be said for that never-say-die mentality ... even when they play poorly and steal points (or, conversely, when they play good and don't get much at all...)

So the Aeros are 1-0 on the road trip so far. How many wins/points do you think they'll get?

It's a Dud! It's a Turkey! It's a Post-Holiday Aeros Game!

Photo by Chris Jerina/AHLinphotos.com

Maybe they should change the name of the Toyota Center to the Entenmann's Arena for all the turnovers we saw out there tonight.

The Stars first goal was clearly an issue of the Aeros defenseman needing to cut Jordie Benn's pass to Scott Glennie, who was waiting in the weeds and essentially had an open net as Hackett was having to respect Benn's threat.

I mean really, what are defensemen for if not to prevent cross ice passes 4 feet from the front of the crease? Young Cuma will get an earful on that in film review next week, I'm sure.

Meanwhile, the game winner was a turnover right next to the net, and again it was the Cuma/Penner defensive pairing. I didn't see who turned it over there in the corner, but it wasn't a good game for those guys. It wasn't a good game for lots of guys.

That's, frankly, my biggest concern about this team right now. Three quarters of the forwards seem to make smarter defensive plays than the actual defensemen. Prosser can't get back here fast enough.

Torchetti was pretty pointed in his comments to us after the game. He didn't specifically throw anyone under the bus, but he said he didn't have four lines tonight who were committed to playing the game right.

"It was almost the same game as last week. The bottom line is you can't play with three lines, we only played with three lines tonight. We had one line take the whole night off. We've got to get better effort from all 20, not just 15 skaters," Torchetti said.

He was happy with the comeback and the tenacity by the guys who were on board, however, but it came back to the need for every line to battle consistently, which would have allowed the Aeros to at least lose the game in the shootout (kidding, kidding... sorta).

"It's a good comeback! That's the best part. I loved our comeback. I loved our work ethic in the third. Maybe the second half of the second, saw changes in momentum with puck possession and shots on the net and changing our lines," Torchetti said. "Then to give up a goal on just a simple... we've got to be willing to sacrifice more ourselves in those areas and just hold on to the puck and let them battle for it instead of just giving it. It's just frustrating, giving up points."

Torch was in fine form tonight, so I'm just going to serve you the rest of his quotes neat:

"It's a situation where you've got to understand with certain people not in the lineup any more, your ice time improves incredibly. So your amount of touches improve by probably 10 more times. So, you've got to learn how to play tired in certain situations and just hold on to the puck, instead of just throwing the puck away because you're tired.

You have to think tired; that's the name of the game. So we've got a lot of guys still in positions that they're not used to playing as much. Where they were 5s and 6s here last year, now they're in the top 4. They have to understand, if they want to make the next jump, if they want to be an NHL player, you've got to be on the spot with your handles."

Do you feel like the points are coming?

"Yeah, I'm not going to argue with you about that, but I expect four lines after three days off. A little harder. I expect more from certain players because that's what's expected from our organization. We've got guys who want to go play in the NHL and you can't show up and play like that and expect to go play in the NHL tomorrow if they call you up. That's the bottom line for me."

Any chance of a line change-up?

"We pretty much had a wholesale change-up (in the third). Hack played great, and their goalie played great, but again we've gotta get traffic in there. He made a couple of nice toe saves there with, like, two minutes left to tie it up. We got a point. We're learning lessons as we get points.  When you're not getting points and not learning lessons, then you gotta start to worry."

Why is the home record so much worse than the road record?

"It's kinda like a shootout, if you guys know, let me know. We're certainly trying. We're trying everything. We're already ready. I mean, maybe we're thinking, alright, we practiced the shootout yesterday and we relax. But it's not a good play to give that play that low when we had the puck. When you have the puck, it's YOUR puck.

And we talked about this behind closed doors, we've had the puck on probably 80% of the goals we've given up. I don't mind if a guy comes in and has an incredible forecheck and runs you over and beats you to the puck, and.... makes a great play. Other teams are going to make great plays, but we can't make the plays for them. That's what I'm disappointed in."

Now the boys hit the road, only returning to Toyota Center ice on Dec. 8 for the ear-splitting, always crazy kids day game.

It was largely a pretty boring game with not a lot of great chances on net, other than a few bursts of nearly playoff-like hockey that were pretty great. Props to Hackett for that sick glove save late in the third that he put a little something extra on. That woke me up a little, for sure, but I'm a ridiculous sucker for a flashy glove. More, please.

I'll try to keep you up somewhat on what's happening on these road games, maybe even in a timely manner!

More With Jon DiSalvatore

As promised on Tuesday, I have some more stuff from my interview with Jon DiSalvatore which I didn't use. So, for Thanksgiving, I'm sharing here.

The hockey season is a long one. Games start at the first of October, and if you're in the playoffs, you can go into June. Then there are camps and practices starting in August and September. You're constantly having to train and workout, and at some point, you've got to find a way to mentally unwind from the season just past. Especially if that season ended in a Game Six loss of the Calder Cup Finals on your home ice.

And according to DiSalvatore, he's still feeling the bumps and bruises of last season, both physical and mental: "Even now though, we’re still feeling some of the aches and pains from playoffs. We’re trying to overcome some of that as we get going here. You never actually forget it because you’re body’s telling you that you were there just a few months ago. It’s definitely a feeling that I would love to repeat with this group of guys. It’s all here, but we have a ways to go yet."

As much as last year meant, DiSalvatore knows that it's not a thing that can be repeated because there's just no way to repeat the chemistry that team had. It was special. Not that this team doesn't have chemistry, or won't get the chemistry.

"Obviously we have a large core group of guys who have come back," he says. "There’s a tremendous amount of buy-in from a large number of guys we have back here already. The coaching staff is bringing the same feel, with some new energy. They’ve been great. They’re winners as well. They’ve been very successful as coaches before. They’re bringing the same kind of emotion and attitude towards what we’re trying to achieve. Now it’s just a matter of us all jelling. Again, it’s got to be a new foundation. We try to keep those same principles, we’re a hard-working, character team. We want to have teams in their own zone.

"We need to build that identity. Even though we have a lot of guys that still want to do it, when you have a few guys who have never played that way before, it takes some time for that all to jell. Yeah, we’re off to a good start, but there’s still a lot that our team needs to do to become that team that can go the distance in the playoffs."

There's also the matter of DiSalvatore being on his third coach in three years as an Aero. I specifically asked about the adjustment from Mike Yeo to John Torchetti, because being around the team last year, it was obvious how much Yeo fought for his guys and how much those guys for fought him.

"Of course they’re different," he told me. "They’re two different human beings. But they’re both great. There’s a really good feeling. Torch brings a really good attitude, really positive – not that Yeosie was ever negative, Yeosie was tremendously positive. They both have a really good – we call them player’s coaches. They both have a really good pulse on the team, they know how to relate to their players. They care about their players. And that’s what this coaching staff is bringing to this team, and that’s what the guys last year brought to the group we had last year. It’s the same, but it’s different in the sense that it’s good because they’re bringing the right kind of approach to the team that we need to be a winning team."

And here's the point that surprised me the most. The AHL made a big deal about reducing the season to 74 76 games from 80 games. It would cut travel costs. It would mean no more four games in five nights. It would be better for the players and mean much fewer midweek games. But so far, early in the season, DiSalvatore doesn't exactly like the new scheduling format. He thinks it might work, but right now, not so much.

"You can look at that schedule and see where it’s a little bit different," he says. "You get rid of the four-in-fives, but you have a lot of three-in-threes. You end up having to get on planes a little bit more actually because you can’t go up and bang out four teams up in the Chicago-area like maybe we did in the past. Maybe it’s a little more rest and practice – there’s going to be pros-and-cons to it, but we’ll just see how it plays out at the end.

"Houston always seems to start out with a lot of games early, and we’ve gone three-in-three, three-in-three, and that’s fine, so right now I can’t really tell you that there’s all that much difference."

That's it. Happy Thanksgiving everybody, and I hope to see you all the game versus the Texas Stars tomorrow night.