A Brief Playoff Update

The Stars and Rivermen won their games tonight. With those wins, both teams clinched playoff spots. Texas defeated Milwaukee, which means that Milwaukee has yet to clinch the one seed in the playoffs, which means that it's still possible for the Aeros get to spot.

The Aeros have yet to clinch home ice for the first round because it's still possible that the Stars can tie them when it comes to total points. And there's still one final playoff spot to be decided as Oklahoma City, San Antonio, and Chicago are still battling with Abbotsford for the crossover spot into the North Division.

A Barons win over the Stars tomorrow night cements the number two seed, and home ice for the first round, for the Aeros. The Oklahoma City win would also guarantee that they get the cross-over spot. Milwaukee goes to Peoria tomorrow night, and if the Rivermen can defeat the Admirals, then the Aeros, amazingly, would still be in the fight for home ice throughout the Western Conference playoffs. The win would also guarantee that Peoria would be at least the four seed and not crossing over to the North. And the Rampage and the Wolves will be playing each other and hoping that OKC and Abbotsford lose.

Confused? I am. Kind of. But know this. If the Aeros can find a way to win on Sunday, then no matter what happens the rest of the weekend they will be the number two seed and have home ice for the first round.

Corey Locke, AHL MVP

Congrats to former Aeros Corey Locke who, today, was named the AHL's Most Valuable Player. He had a tremendous season with the Aeros several seasons ago, and he was a good guy for us to deal with in the locker room while he was here.

Congrats, Corey.

The Aeros Prepping For The Playoffs

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.

They Shoot, They Score

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.

Enjoy.

Drew Bagnall called up; Falk returned

I sure hope the decimated Aeros' don't have to play for home ice on Sunday; they need Texas and Peoria to lose at least one of their remaining games this weekend.

The Minnesota Infirmary continues to lose players to injury and need the services of the Aeros just to get through two more games in their pitiful regular season. Carson McMillan, Max Noreau, Jed Ortmeyer and Colton Gillies (Am I missing anybody?) continue to be on recall and will not play Sunday. Now the Aeros will be without Bagnall, who was recalled today as the team chose to send Justin Falk back to the Aeros.

All reports tend to indicate that Falk had a lousy game in Vancouver Thursday ... and he is taking a lot of heat today for not sticking up for PM Bouchard, who was cold-cocked by one of the Canuck's players. Max Noreau did not play well either, and I really hope he redeems himself this weekend. He is truly deserving of this opportunity, and until Thursday, I thought he had been holding his own.

This comment from Russo's blog really highlights what it is like to play for the Wild right now. The Aeros are the lone bright spot for the organization right now, and you can count on seeing a lot of Jim Mill in Houston over (what Aeros fans hope) the next month or so.

"The Wild's locker room is a lifeless, demoralizing place to be right now. After this one, players were blank-faced, frustrated, etc. Kyle Brodziak was just staring at the ground for five minutes. This isn't fun and the offseason can't get here quick enough."

There are many NHL experts that are absolutely certain that Todd Richards will be fired shortly after the Wild's regular season ends on Sunday. The prevailing thought is that a veteran coach will get the gig, but I just don't see how that is going to help a team that is devoid of any real offensive talent.

Even still, the Wild were THIS close to making the playoffs even with what they had. They absolutely fell apart right after Koivu went down with his injury. Are they one player away from getting it done? Or do they just need luck on their side to stay healthier when it counts?

I hate to spend so much time talking about the Wild this morning, but I think The Wild's late-season injury and performance woes will affect the first few Aeros playoff games. Mike Yeo and Co. always talk about playing the right way and getting into a groove so you don't to have to just "turn it on" come playoff time. Well, guess what -- with how little time they have all had together in the last two weeks -- they are going to have to do come next week.

Fun weekend o hockey ahead ...

I sure to do hope the Aeros get to enjoy this weekend, because there are a lot of nervous hockey fans out there right now.

Texas, Peoria, OKC, Chicago, San Antonio and Abbotsford are all still alive for the last three playoff spots in the West division. I still cannot fathom Peoria and San Antonio not making it after the starts they had - but one of them very likely will not make it. It is still hard for me to believe that the Aeros are going as the No. 2 seed in the Western Conference ... I just did not see that coming.

Texas can clinch with a win in Peoria tonight, but they are no lock. San Antonio, currently in 7th, can still get in by winning their last three games in regulation. There are an endless number of scenarios right now, but the most likely outcome for the Aeros is playing Texas in round 1.

The Aeros have stated publicly that Games 1 and 2, if they have home ice, will likely be on April 13 and 15 at Toyota Center. They will be well rested and ready for whoever they play, barring the extreme unforeseen.

Now to another topic. Congrats to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton (WBS) head coach John Hynes for winning the AHL head coach of the year award. He deserves the award; his team will finish with the No. 1 record in the AHL. My opinion, however, is that other coaches were more deserving. Others did more with less and several others did it against better competition.

To date, WBS played 31 of its games against abysmal competition, including Syracuse, Albany, Adirondack, Providence, Springfield, Bridgeport and Rochester. They are 25-6 in those games, and it is only that good because all of those losses (three apiece) are to Adirondack and Syracuse. Those teams have turned it on as of late, but they are still below .500.

My top three, in no particular order, are Kurt Kleinendorst of Binghamton, Mike Yeo of the Houston Aeros and David Quinn of Lake Erie. I think there are many media types and fans out there that had these three teams out of the mix even before the first puck was dropped back in October. These guys did more with less and did so despite many, many injuries with their NHL parent teams.

I will use Yeo as an example, because we work with him. Consider the Aeros record against the best division in the AHL. Against the West, the Aeros are 35-20-1-1. No other team in the West currently has more than 30 wins against the West (and there is only one of those - Milwaukee). Guess how many teams in the West division are below .500. Zero. Guess how many teams the Aeros have played this year that currently have a below .500 record? Only one; the only team they played that is NOT in the Western Conference (Syracuse).

For me, the biggest knock against Yeo is that he failed to get the Aeros to rack up big win numbers against the North Division. At 8-8-0-4. the Aeros are the only team in the West not to get a plus .500 record against that division. Think about this: SEVEN times this season, the Aeros blew two goal leads or a lead going into the third period against teams from the North division. If they do that just three times instead of seven, the Aeros are the No. 1 seed in the West, not Milwaukee.

We could not vote for Yeo, but I was real curious to see if anyone other than Hynes would win this award. It is easy to fill in the name of the coach with the best record in the league. But I seriously think you have to consider how a coach, how a team arrives at their mark. I think the Penguins, with a far easier travel schedule and many, many more games against doormats, racked up 7-8 more wins than they would have in the Western Conference.

Now for the return of the playoff picture ... I finally updated this after the game last night. It's amazing how close this thing is, and I know I will be scoreboard watching all weekend. Will you?

Please click on the image for a better view of it.

Pictures from the Chicago Beatdown

Props to Chris "Hoss" Jerina not only for the first-hand account from last night but also these fabulous pictures. My favorite of which is Kassian's goal:

Poppin' the bottle from one knee... badass.

Hackett, ready to redeem himself.

You talkin' to me?

Robbie making 'em work

All photos by Chris Jerina. Thank you, Chris!! You can check the rest here.

Aeros trounce Wolves 6-1

After a couple of days of feeling a great disturbance in the force, life in Aerosville feels good again after a 6-1 drubbing of the dastardly Chicago Wolves tonight.

Our Midwestern Correspondent, Chris Jerina, was there for last night's game in Milwaukee and tonight in Chicago and he said the officiating was just as big a factor, but for a change, it killed the other team instead of the Aeros.

Chicago had 5 power play opportunities and, granted their lone goal was during one of those chances, the Aeros did kill off one 5 on 3 pretty handily. Other than some shenanigans here and there, it was a much more confident game for the good guys.

Moreover, the power play was so damn good, converting 4 of 10 chances, you almost can't lose with that kind of production.

I happened to be in the car during the pre-game show Joe does and heard Yeo's comments on the last two games, and I thought they were worth sharing.

He essentially fell on the sword and said he was pushing the wrong mentality: We need these wins. Get the win.

And what's been successful all season is not "get the win" but "play the system, stick to the process."

So when the team faced some adversity and the win was slipping away... what's left to hang your hat on when "get the win" is the message? Things just unraveled.

But when "stick to the process" was the message... it doesn't matter what happens. Process, baby, and the results will come.

Something that flummoxed a lot of people was Matt Hackett getting the start again, after getting the hook two games in a row. I was surprised, too, but Yeo's reasoning was sound: Hackett is their starting goalie and he can't prove to them that he deserves the job, and he can't work through the adversity, if they don't give him the chance to.

I think it showed a couple of things: One is that in the end, they have faith that Matt has the maturity to gather himself and fix his mistakes. It also shows Yeo's sensitivity to what his goalie needs, and as y'all know, extra goalie TLC warms my dark heart.

I thought that was a really thoughtful decision and as Matt has done several times this season, he pulled himself up by his leg pad straps and earned yet a little more trust from the coaches, his teammates, and I'd guess in himself as well.

Here's the score sheet if you want to see the goals and rap sheet, er, monumental list of penalties. The highlight is that Matt Kassian returned AND got a goal (pictured above by Chris Jerina). Good gravy, are we ever glad to have you back, Matt!

Also, the Stars were shut out by OKC. This is a very good thing. 6 point difference, 4 games in hand for Texas. Keep on losing, Stars.

Now the Aeros go on an 8 day break and will hopefully get a few guys back from Minnesota between now and then. Noreau, Falk, McMillan, and Gillies have all been called up in the last 2 days. Is the Wild season EVER going to end? Jesus. (But great and deserving call-ups for all those guys, so it's hard to complain. It doesn't stop me from complaining, but I'm an overachiever like that.)

That's all for now. Everybody breathe! Phew......

Aeros lose 5-2 to MKE

A few years ago, we went to Bennigan's or some place and I had "Death by Chocolate" for dessert. I assumed the actual death part was exaggerated, but I was wrong. I ended up getting really sick after I ate it and stayed that way for several days after.

Similarly, the "Penalty Kill" isn't actually meant to kill anyone, but it sure does seem to be killing the Aeros, one goal at a time.

Tonight's 5-2 loss to Milwaukee looked nearly identical to Thursday's loss to Chicago, with the exception of a strong first period that saw the Aeros up 2-1 into the second.

However, the Aeros were down to 5 defensemen tonight as Falk and Noreau were called up to replace a couple of those fragile Wild d-men for their game tomorrow. So while some of the shenanigans can be forgiven, I'm not sure the wheels needed to fall off quite like they did.

Another parade to the box (including multiple 5 on 3 chances and a completely unnecessary double minor by Hackett) and penalty kill failures left and right led to 4 unanswered goals in the second.

Moreover, it forced Yeo to yank Hackett for the second game in a row, he lost his cool again (this time to the tune of 14 PIM for roughing and misconduct... insert your own joke), and shows us that regardless of how much he thought he wanted the #1 spot, he wasn't ready for the ups and downs it would bring his way.

Look, sometimes the team in front of you stinks and there's a point where you have to remind yourself that it's a team sport and get some perspective on the goals against. Blowing up, losing focus, losing confidence in your ability to play the game... it doesn't do anybody any good.

Energy flows between the goalie and his team. When the team sucks, the goalie starts to overthink, second guess, and play tentatively. Which makes the goalie suck. The team sees the goalie sucking and starts to panic and over-complicate their game. Which just makes them suck even worse.

Somewhere in there, the cycle has to get short-circuited. And the logical place is in goal. This happens either when the goalie gets the hook and Tordjman, who is pretty unflappable and probably just happy to be playing, comes in. OR the #1 goalie gets up after a couple of goals, has a drink, pushes out the negative thoughts, and gathers himself for the next shot.

I tell ya, the absolute worst thing ever is when a goalie gets angry with his own team. It's the ugliest feeling in hockey and it will sink the ship faster than you can say, "Is that a chunk of ice we just ran into?"

So... someone needs to get in Hackett's head and release the pressure valve because he is wound tighter than an 8 day clock. He was clearly having fun and relishing his enhanced role after Khudobin was traded, but now that things are "heavy"... boy does it show in his body language and reactions and discipline.

Some of you boys please take him out and get him drunk when you get back to town.

Andrew will have more on the playoff implications tomorrow, but the Aeros are now 4 points out of first and the Stars are 6 points behind the Aeros after beating Chicago tonight with 5 games in hand. 

Thoughts from Last Night and Daoust Audio

Gosh, last night was just a miserable affair. Not only did we have to suffer through the rousing success of Andre "The Giant Dbag" Deveaux, but also the utter failure of the team I lauded just a few days earlier for playing exactly the opposite of how they played last night.

It was to be expected, though. Well, maybe not expected, but it didn't come as a total shock. The level of intensity required for this team to put up decisive wins is pretty high, especially against a team fighting for their playoff lives. You can want it really badly but still not find the will to suffer for it when push comes to shove.

And to tell you the truth, I don't think home ice matters all that much. I don't have numbers to back it up, but it seems to me that the big key has just been to get in the door. And what you do from there is what really matters... not so much where you do it. But like Yeo said last night, it's more about the mentality going into the playoffs. How hard is it going to be to flip that switch back into playoff mode if they're phoning it in the rest of this weekend?
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Anyway, one bright spot was talking to JM Daoust after the game. He was a scratch but was nice enough to take a couple of minutes to talk to us about his Man of the Year selection by the Aeros. Honestly, he could read the newspaper to me in that French-Canadian accent and I'd be smiling and cooing, plus he's just a funny guy.

It's kind of hard to hear, but the gist of the convo is he's talking about some of the things he and the guys do to help out around the community. First thing he talks about is going to the outdoor rink at Discovery Green and skating with the kids. He said the rink is small and the kids don't know how to skate, so they just go from board to board and BOOM into the boards. And their parents can't skate either so they can't help.

Then he was trying to say something but could only think of it in French. He managed to get out what he wanted to say in English and Andrew asked for it in French anyway (which I was grateful for because I just wanted him to keep talking). No dice but he was still hopelessly charming.

Here's a link to the audio in case this embedding thing on Blogger doesn't work.