Happy New Year, Jed

Happy New Year, Jed Ortmeyer. You're the newest contestant on the Minnesota Wild wheel of recall.

Orts has been recalled to the Wild as Jarod Palmer is placed on the IR. Good for Orts, but damn it Wild, stop hurting your players already.

The Game Winner (Some Blurry Photos)

That was an exciting night here at Toyota Center as the Aeros get the 3-2 OT win to even the series at 2-2. As Andrew promised below, I'll be back later with some quotes from the game star, Carson McMillan, as well as Colton Gillies and Mike Yeo.

But I thought I would share these somewhat awful photos I got of the game-winner. The first photo shows Jarod Palmer moving into position with the puck. You see the just how little space he has to work with for the pass. The second shot is just as the puck's gone in the net, though you can't really tell. The third one's really out of focus, and while I know it won't meet with the approval of Mr. Fred, or myself really, I do think you can get a nice view of the expression on Palmer's face as he's falling down. Then you get McMillan's expression as Max Noreau comes running at him. Then we have the big celebration.

Press Link and Goal/No-Goal Photos

First things first...Here's the link to the story in the mothership. Give it a read and show them you actually give a damn about hockey and hockey coverage in Houston. Send it to your friends. Send it to their friends. And so on, and so on, and so on...

As I said last night, I was down in the other corner for the goal/no-goal/goal scenario. Here's what I got. You can't see the shot. But you see the player reactions. And if you look in the last several photos, the goal judge appears to be reacting to the ref waiving it off. I don't know if he ever set off the lights. Some people said he did. Some say he didn't. I don't have a photo of it going off, but something sure set off the Toyota Center folks, and I doubt it was just the player reaction.

Roughhousing At the Toy Box (In Photos)

Here's a few photos from Saturday's Aeros/Rampage game. There were two fights in the first period, won by the Aeros in my opinion, and then Dane Byers decided to pull a sneak attack on Drew Bagnall at the very end. Both Byers and Bagnall got 10 minute unsportsmanlike misconduct penalties though I don't recall seeing Bagnall throw any punches.

Before we get started, here's a photo of Jeff Penner, on the ice, during the game, to show that he really exists. And he had a good game tonight, in my opinion.

Here's the first fight of the game, with Cody Almond ending the the tussle with Bracken Kearns by throwing him to the ice.

Now here's Jarod Palmer, fist cocked, getting ready to unload yet again on Jeff May.

And here's the final altercation, towards the end of the game. Like I said, I didn't spot Bagnall going off on anybody during the melee, but then again, I might have missed it.

Photo Time From Aeros/Crunch

So how about a few photos from tonight's game versus the Crunch? Yeah, I thought you would agree, too. These photos are through glass, and I haven't done any editing tricks, yet, so...

Here's Josh Tordjman making a stop early in the first period.

Here's Pascal Morency going for a little spin on the ice.

Here's is Jarod Palmer's first goal.

Here are the guys celebrating Palmer's goal.

And here's Palmer moving in to stop Nate Prosser from getting into further trouble.

3/4/11 -- Aeros Crunch Syracuse

That was a nice 3-1 win by the Aeros over Syracuse tonight. The team didn't play there best hockey -- Mike Yeo had to call a timeout four minutes into the second period because of the team's play -- but needing a win over a last place team while playing the first of a three-in-three, the Aeros came through big time.

So, let's get on with it.

1. Injury news first. Matt Kassian is suffering from a lower body injury and will be out several weeks according to Yeo. They're still hoping to get Drew Bagnall back next week.

"He’s a warrior, though," Yeo said of Bagnall. "As soon as he’s ready, I know he’ll be in there."

2. One of the more impressive things about the win was that because of the annual Wild injury carousel, coupled with injuries here, the Aeros had a lot of guys playing tonight who haven't put in a lot of time with the big team this year. This is something to be expected, and they're having to come in and play without a lot of practice time. So though the ice time was really limited Joel Broda and Pascal Morency tonight -- probably because Morency couldn't stay out of the penalty box whenever he stepped on the ice -- guys like Jamie Fritsch did get some ice time.

Yeo attributes the play of these guys tonight, and that they were able to fit in without looking like sore thumbs, to the system the team's playing. The regulars on the team have bought in to what Yeo is selling, and they're making sure everybody else goes with it as well. And this, according to Yeo, is what successful teams do. They get a system and everybody works with everybody to make sure the plan is implemented.

3. That leads us to Jarod Palmer, the star of the night on the line of the night. Palmer finished with two goals -- and came "just this close" to the hat trick -- playing on a line with Robbie Earl and Chad Rau. And Palmer put all of the credit for everything he did on those two guys.

"What can I say?" he said. "Pucks just seemed to bounce my way for me tonight. Sometimes things go your way, sometimes they don’t, and when they go your way, you’ve got to take advantage of it and try to put one in the back of the net. I had some help by line mates. A couple of pucks ended up right on my tape right in front of the net. That wasn’t all my work. That was a lot of team effort there. It wasn’t too hard to put into the net."

4. Earl and Rau have really been clicking as a line this year, but it's always seemed to be just missing one piece. But they've been working their asses off and Palmer just seemed to make all of the difference. But Palmer said Earl and Rau did everything within their power to make his game tonight possible.

"Those guys, they help me out a lot by just talking to me," Palmer said. "Coming off the ice every shift, around the bench, they’re telling me where they wanted me, where I could have been to be in a better spot, where I could have passed the puck to get it to them in a better spot. Just small details that they mentioned to you that you’ve got to listen to and pay attention to. If your teammates are talking to, it makes everything a lot easier."

5. Yeo was excited by the play of Earl/Rau/Palmer. He thought they played an excellent defensive game to go along with what they did on the offensive end -- the other goal came from Chad Rau on the power play. He liked how Palmer was willing to get in position around the net and he thinks Earl and Rau did good work with creating open ice that made Palmer's work possible.

6. Palmer also gives a lot of credit to Yeo's system, and to the veteran leadership on the club.

"I think we have a lot of structure as far as where we’re supposed to be and what we’re supposed to do," he said. "It’s well known. It’s preached constantly by the leaders on the team. A lot of the guys walk the talk, and that helps a lot. A lot of leadership on this team. You’ve got Ortmeyer, DiSalvatore, O’Sullivan – just some guys, some of our leadership left – Peters up in the bigs right now – still, there’s enough here right now that we can take in some new guys and keep rolling. It’s a tough challenge."

7. Just a note of clarification: we didn't let Heather talk to Palmer because the last time she did, he went into a huge scoring funk. So being a superstitious lot, we just let her hold a tape recorder and listen.

8. Nice game by Josh Tordjman in goal tonight. He let in a first period power play goal that briefly gave Syracuse the lead, but that came off a deflection which kind of left him helpless. But I don't know if we can continue letting Heather sit with us in the press box when he plays because she's screaming and squirming and hitting and punching with worry that something's going to go wrong.

9. After tonight the Aeros record is 37-23-1-4 (79 points), and they're still in second place. Go down and look at Andrew's post for the latest on the standings and the things that still need to happen.

10. Nice stat of the night: the Aeros are now 18-1-1-0 when holding opponents to zero or one goal.

11. I noticed tonight that the Aeros are celebrating the "Roudiest" Fan Of The Game in their Hilton Hotel giveaway thing. Has this been the case all season and I've just missed the typo? My question: how did the video people at Toyota Center -- not Aeros employees -- miss a typo like this? That used to be one of my functions with the Astros and Texans, making sure no typos like that went up on the video boards. So was this a one-time only thing, or not? I know I just noticed it, but that doesn't mean it's new.

Aeros/Stars Action Photos

Here are some more photos from last night's game, as promised. Here's Gordie Howe with the ceremonial puck drop.

Here's Matt Hackett making a save in the first period.

And what would a Gordie Howe night be without a fight? Here's Jarod Palmer going at it with Raymond Sawada.

And here's the end of the fight as Sawada skates off toward the box. It kind of looks like Draw Bagnall wants to get in on the action.

And here's the end of the game and the guys showing their love for Matt Hackett.

The rest of the story...

I was hoping that if the Aeros lost, it would be because they got lit up, so I could make "Red Light District" jokes on behalf of John, who's in Amsterdam at the moment.

Alas, they did just enough to keep it close after coming out hard and fast, scoring, and then letting off the gas. Kinda getting used to that.

Yeo said after the game that their goal was to put up 40 shots. They put up 39, but it was in fits and starts of bad play and good play. I asked if he felt like guys were second guessing their decisions with the puck, and you can see his quote below, but you could almost see the gears turning: "Don't be cute, take the shot" when there's a linemate open with a clear shot. But then they were getting in the zone without anybody around the net, so shots were just hitting the goalie and corralled safely. I could have stopped a lot of those shots and I suck.

So then they get back to making some passes, even when there's a clear shooting lane. And there you have your turnover after turnover. And it's just a cycle of changing approaches until they get back to putting it on the net and have some really solid chances in the final minutes. Imagine if they'd been doing that all game...

It just felt to me like their instincts were on Pause and they were thinking too much. The game's too fast and fluid for that. You just have to read and react and hope the work done in practice shows in those reactions. Then again, maybe that's just how goalies work. :)

Anyway, here's some quotes from Yeo after the game.

On the good start and then let-up:

Even the latter part of the first period, I wasn’t real thrilled with, but the second period for sure was just, again, a lack of urgency. You have to expect the other team to come out and you have to be ready to kick it up a notch and I thought, one on one battles were not good. Two goals scored directly coming off a one-on-one, just getting beat one on one. So again it’s just continuing trying to build something here. It’s not quite who we are yet, and when it’s not there, it’s frustrating because you know what you’re capable of when it is there. At the same time, we do have to have a little bit of patience that this is not who we are, but [we know] who we will be. We just want it to happen now, so it’s frustrating.

On execution and scoring chances:

You play with fire enough times and that’s what happens. They’re gonna hang on, and they were fighting hard tonight. Give them a lot of credit. There was a lot of desperation in their game, they felt this was a must-win game and they got the 2 points. But at the same time, even in the third period, I thought there some chances, but execution-wise as far as playing our game, I thought there were still some turnovers and some poor decisions made with the puck, trying to force things that aren’t there instead of just sticking to the plan. The execution again wasn’t quite where I want it to be. We gave ourselves some chances and we fought hard but we put ourselves in a deep hole that we couldn’t get out of.

On offensive zone time:

I think the amount of zone time that we’ve had in the offensive zone in the last 2 games hasn’t been enough and that’s because we’re getting away from what we’re trying to do. We start to go east-west, and we start to make cute plays, and we’re turning pucks over and we’re back checking, instead of going in straight lines and putting pucks where we’ve got guys skating into it, being committed to playing in the offensive zone.  

And once you get there you gotta be a) strong on the puck, which we haven’t been. If you get the puck back and somebody comes in and just taps your stick and you lose the puck and you’re back checking again. You gotta be strong on the puck. But b) you’ve gotta be committed to getting that cycle game going, to have the movement, to making sure you’re making plays where guys are skating into position, where you can grind a team down, and as they get tired that’s when things are going to open up. That’s where you’re going to catch a guy out of position and attack a seam that maybe wasn’t there earlier.

On whether players were second guessing decisions with the puck:

We talked about this before the game and felt that we had to get over 40 shots tonight and we had 39. After the first period, I expected us to keep doing it because we were getting rewarded for it. There were rebounds there and we’ve got guys going to the net and we want to put pucks on the net to create those rebound opportunities. And then after that it was like our last resort was to shoot the puck. We were looking to make plays first, and when we did shoot it, then we didn’t have guys going to the net. And then it was easy for him to control his rebounds.

It’s a much different story like on the first goal if we’ve got a guy in the middle lane driving and the goalies got to try and deal with a puck that’s coming in soft into his pad. It’s a tough save for that goalie, but when there’s nobody around the net, it’s much easier for him.

As Andrew and I were walking through the concourse down to interview post-game, a guy walked by us and said, "Tonya Harding showed more heart." We had a good laugh at that, but felt like it wasn't a fair assessment at all.

I've seen lack of heart plenty and that's not the feeling I got. As I said, and Yeo confirmed, the team only has the slipperiest grip on the playing style that works best for them: Get in the zone. Get to the net. Put pucks on the net. Get the goalie moving. Get a stick on those rebounds.

This team has the talent in spots to create some pretty goals, but offensive skill doesn't run very deep. What the team is deep in is guys who are willing to sacrifice, go to the net, get dirty, battle.

One thing they didn't do well last night at important times was hold the zone. They'd get there, but sloppy passes to the point by the forwards killed momentum several times.

Anyway, enough grinding on the unfortunate stuff.

A few good things:

I loved Palmer sticking up for the hit on Wellman. Palmer isn't exactly a fighter, but when guys stand up like that, it says great things about the character of a team. You can sign "character guys" all day but until they do stuff like that, I don't even listen to it. That behavior is what you can hang your hat on.

Also, remember how Brent Burns used to be a forward and they turned him into a defenseman? I have to wonder if the organization has considered that for Gillies. I absolutely love that kid, but he's not doing it for me in his current role. He's big, he's mean, he's got a long reach, he's got some wheels, he plays hard every shift, but he's just got no offensive touch at all. Is the team really getting the most out of his gifts as a grinder?

Finally, props to the music folks for playing "Nah Nah Nah Hey Hey Goodbye" when an Aeros player (Kalus) was sent off on a penalty. That was rich.

Meet your 2010-11 Aeros: Jarod Palmer

Photo by Scott Slingsby

Jarod Palmer

Born: February 10, 1986 (age 24)
Fridley, MN

6' 0", 195
Forward
Shoots: Right

The "new" Wild are putting an emphasis on signing undrafted college players to supplement their drafting efforts. Left wing Jarod Palmer is one of those picked up a few months ago.

Palmer graduated from Miami University (Ohio) or "Cold Miami" as I call it. I have yet to hear a single bad thing about that program. In fact, all I ever hear is glowing, positive things about the culture of their athletic programs. They seem to recruit and turn out high character humans pretty consistently.

He's a moderate scorer, but from what I understand, his contributions don't always show in his stats. He's a fierce competitor, gritty, tough, and durable. He's apparently a high energy guy who is a rock solid penalty killer, strong on the puck, and he can find the net (or find someone around the net) as he had 18 goals and more than a point per game to his name his senior year at Miami.

Why wasn't he drafted? Seems he was a little bit of a late bloomer and really found his game in college and made a name for himself his senior year.

Here's a good wrap-up on him from the boys over at Hockey Wilderness from back when the Wild picked him up.

There's one thing I know about the kid because I've seen it with my own eyes: He's a creative guy in the shootout. Here's a couple:



And no, that was no whiff. That was on purpose.



Then again, when both of your slick shootout goals on YouTube have that kick-puck-off-skate move, goalies around the league will figure you out pretty quick. But hey, at least he'll be fun to watch.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch....

While we all wait on the edge of our seats to see what Anton decides, here's some info and video from the Aeros players at prospect camp.

First up is a guy the team signed yesterday, Joel Broda. I think there's some skepticism around him because he was not signed by the Caps, who drafted him two years ago. And then he didn't go at all in the most recent draft. But the Wild like him and apparently he can put some points on the board, so they're giving him a shot for a mere 3 years. Here's the Wild's feature on him, which I thought was pretty refreshing that they actually addressed the skepticism to some degree.

Forgive me now because I will forever be calling him Josh. I have no idea why. Josh Brolin maybe? Anyway, it's gonna happen, but I'll at least try to get his name right in the paper, should the opportunity arise.

Here's a quick interview with him from prospect camp:


A college guy from Cold Miami, Jarod Palmer, also came aboard this summer and could spend some time in Houston. Really didn't know much about him but loved this interview with him. Can't beat a guy who doesn't speak in athlete cliches. Also? Rawr. Just sayin'.



Outside of the new guys, our old buddies Justin Falk, who's getting married in a few weeks, and Colton Gillies put in some face time, too:





Awww, poor Colt. Least they could do is use real whipped cream.

Lastly, some video with Aeros new assistant coach Darryl Sydor, one of the two new assistants who will be behind the bench with Coach Yeo, talks about retiring as a player and the challenge of moving to the coaching ranks: