Aeros Training Camp starts TODAY

I'm not sure whether to say, "Can you believe it's here finally?" or "Can you believe it's back already?" Dunno about you guys but I'm still getting over last season, though every day I get a little more ready to tackle a new season.

But today I'm ready, especially now that I'm done moving into a new (to us, old otherwise) house, which has drained me dry the last couple of months. The serendipitousness of all that settling down the day training camp starts isn't lost on me. Thank you hockey gods and house gods....

We haven't gotten a training camp roster yet to see who's been invited in, but camp will be kicking off with the majority of the big players already in Houston, which is the first time I've seen that since I started covering the team.

But Yeo wants "his team" and only his team up in Minnesota to get them firing as a unit before the season starts. It's kind of a bummer for the guys who miss out on another week of NHLer perks, but the benefit of having most of the "glue" guys here from the start of Aeros camp can't be understated.

(Update: I added Kyle Medvec, who I left off below, and Russo reports that the Wild/Aeros are signing Aaron Boogaard to a two-way AHL deal. Aaron, if you aren't familiar with him, is beloved former Aero/Wild Derek Boogaard's younger brother, and has spent a good chunk of his career in the Penguins system.)

Here's a little on the guys coming down from Minny, some of whom you know, some you don't:

Kris Foucault (foo-coh): Left Wing, sizeable guy fresh out of Juniors (Calgary Hitmen). Here's some video of him:


David McIntyre: Center, second year pro, 30 points with the Albany Devils last season and a Colgate graduate. Solid follow on Twitter if you're into it: http://twitter.com/DaveJMcIntyre

Carson McMillan: Center, third year pro, bad ass. You know him, but maybe you didn't know he played with Foucault for the Hitmen back in 08-09.

Jarod Palmer: Center, second year pro. 9 goals last year, most during a hot streak at the beginning of the season that I completely jinxed. Scout's honor, no more asking players about their scoring streaks. Maybe I'll start asking about scoreless streaks and see if the jinx works in reverse.

Chad Rau: Center (think the Wild have a Center fetish?), third year pro, 40 points last season and just keeps getting better. Lady Byng-worthy discipline with only 14 PIM in 84 games (through regular and post season play).

Tyler Cuma: Defense, when his knees are healthy. If you're the praying type, pray for the kid's knees. Love to see him get through a whole season healthy. Should be an asset having him back on the blue line again.

Chay Genoway: Defense, small (5'8") offensive minded. First year pro. I think the hope is that he fills the rather large void left by Max Noreau's departure. Genoway was the fourth highest scoring defenseman in the history of North Dakota Fighting Sioux hockey. Was also captain of the Sioux hockey team.

Kyle Medvec: Defense, tall at 6'5", so imposing presence with hopefully a long reach, which I find delightful in defensemen. Just finished his college career at the University of Vermont. Believe he's a stay at home guy. 

Darcy Kuemper: Goalie. Adorable. Won every award possible for his final season with the Red Deer Rebels (WHL). But he's got an uphill battle for a spot in Houston, as Dennis Endras and Matt Hackett are also headed for Houston and Darcy has the least experience of the three. He may get to enjoy the porous defenses of the ECHL for some or all of this season.

Matt Hackett: Goalie. Showed tremendous growth last season and plays a consistent game for such a young guy. Took on a huge load after Khudobin was traded last season and went (almost) all the way with it. His spot in Houston is secure barring a major setback. Will be interesting to see how he handles not being the clear #1 here (because I don't think he will be if Endras is here).



On waivers for the purposes of sending them to Houston are:

Jon DiSalvatore: Right wing, Aeros Captain past two seasons, career year thanks to teaming up with Patrick O'Sullivan on the top line half of last season. He's on the second season of a 2 year deal.

Warren Peters: Center, versatile and gritty with enough scoring touch and hockey sense to make the third line a threat every shift. Also on the second season of a 2 year deal.

Jed Ortmeyer: Right wing, Mr. Clutch. Anything seems possible when Orts is in your locker room. Just when you think you're over-romanticizing his effect on the team, he does something awesome to remind you why you feel that way.

Jeff Taffe: Center. Jim Mill's answer to "How can we do this again without Patrick O'Sullivan?" Dude can straight up score goals, has deep AHL experience, and has gotten NHL call-ups pretty much every year he's played in the A.

Jeff Penner: Defense. Small guy with similar PP quarterbacking abilities to Noreau, so the Aeros should be set on the offensive defenseman front between Penner and Genoway. We got a brief look at him at the end of the season, but I'm looking forward to seeing what he can do when he's not just thrown into the mix mid-season like last year.

Dennis Endras: Goalie, with 3 years of pro experience in the DEL with the Augsburg Panthers. I think the Wild is nervous about having two very young goalies in Hackett and Kuemper as their only insurance against a major injury to Backstrom or Harding. Endras is a solid, sharp goalie and if he's on board with being in Houston (he paid a visit late last season to check it all out), he should be a real asset to the Aeros and push Hackett to stay hungry.

Signed to an AHL deal is:

Kris Fredheim: Defense, and one of my favorite defenseman last season because I almost never had to think about him. And if you're thinking about stay at home defensemen too much, they're probably not doing their jobs. It's a thankless role, so lemme just say, "Thanks, Kris! I really think they should have thrown you a two-way deal."

Potentially signed to a two-way deal is:

Jordan Hendry: Defense. He was trying out with the Wild and the expectation is that, if he's game, he'll sign a two-way deal to provide depth for the Wild and be a very good stay at home d-man for Houston. Young guy still, but with a good deal of NHL and AHL experience under his belt. We'll let you know as soon we hear anything further on that.

So, these guys and a several more should be on the ice starting at 3 p.m. today down at the practice rink in Sugar Land. Hitting the 100 degree mark today, so skip out of work early and check the boys out while you cool off.

Hockey is BACK!

The Buc-ees preseason spectacular!

Man, has it really been three weeks since anyone posted a damn thing on this blog? Ms. Conduct moved, I have a new baby boy and John ... well, he's working really hard right now. The summer is flying by and hockey season is less than a month away. The Wild start training camp soon, so there will be cuts and news that affects the Aeros in the not-so-distant future. Things will pick up, I promise.

There are a few things that are worth mentioning before camp(s) start, so I will give you those and my reaction here.

First, one notable name on the Wild's camp roster is Jordan Hendry. He was on the 'Hawks Stanley cup team a couple of years ago, and Aeros fans might recognize him from the Rockford IceHogs. He is just on a tryout, so it remains to be seen what he will do if he does not make the Wild. My guess is that he'll sign a two-way deal. Russo had this to say on his blog about two weeks ago.

I think he'd be an OK stay-at-home veteran guy for the Aeros. The battle for the blueline jobs in St. Paul will really be fun to watch this year ... talking about the fringe guys, too. Could be some tough decisions for Yeo & Co. in the early goings.

Secondly, the Aeros will not have a home preseason game for the second year in a row. (Last year, they had one scheduled, but something that makes the ice work and stay safe failed ... ) The Aeros will play one game at OKC on 9/30 and then wrap things up at Texas on 10/2. Home preseason games are far less exciting for us media types because there never seems to be ANY communication between the front office and SLICE folks about where to put the media. Three years ago, I sat in a closet (it had a window) to watch the game with Brent Hughes, who, at the time, was the coach for the Corpus Christi Rays. Sometimes we sit in the stands, and one time I was the announcer for the green vs. white scrimmage game. I think that was the year the Aeros played their preseason games in San Antonio in Beaumont and Laredo.

I think having a home preseason game is far more important for the hard core fans, and I hate to see them go without. It's also nice to have a warm-up game for the game ops people that will surely give us much to talk about on this blog.

I know this is pie in the sky, but I really wish they would do a round-robin preseason "tournament." You get all four teams to play each other in two locations and you rotate the locations every year. You get to hype up what otherwise would be a meaningless set of games and you could get the fans competitive juices flowing a bit early.

Let's say Cedar Park and San Antonio are the "host cities" ... you could do all the games in three days. No team would have to pay more than two nights at a hotel and that is the key, I think, to making this work.

2011  Buc-ees Preseason Spectacular Schedule of Events





Friday, Sept. 30
Game - 1: Houston at San Antonio, 7 p.m. - Ice Center at Northwoods
Game - 2: Oklahoma City at Texas - 7:30 p.m. - Cedar Park Center

Saturday, Oct. 1
Game - 3: Oklahoma City at San Antonio - 7 p.m. - Ice Center at Northwoods
Game - 4: Houston at Texas - 7:30 p.m. - Cedar Park Center

Sunday, Oct. 2

Game 5: Houston vs. Oklahoma City - 3 p.m. - Ice Center at Northwoods

Game 6: San Antonio vs. Texas - 7 p.m. - Ice Center at Northwoods

Everyone gets three games and you could actually have a mini competition with standings. You get media out and a chance to hype up what would otherwise be a forgotten weekend in the news cycle.

Some might call this a bit too much work for the preseason. Maybe it's too costly and maybe you risk injury with a third game. To me, I think it is well worth the risk and think the preseason games would benefit the on-ice product for the early part of the regular season, too.

Apologies

I apologize for not getting anything posted from media day/meet-in-greet on Thursday. I've been really busy at the temp job and just haven't had time to transcribe the interviews.

A few quick thoughts.

John Torchetti seemed just as eager to get started with this season as Mike Yeo did last year. I liked what I heard from him, and I really loved his attitude. I also enjoyed meeting David Burke, the new team president. I liked some of the things he said, and he said the right things about dealing with the fans. Of course, we won't know how that works until the season gets underway.

I really, really, really, really liked the third jersey the team has. Primarily because it doesn't have that stupid bomber logo plastered on it. It just looked classy. Sorry, I didn't take my camera, so I don't have any photos.

Hopefully, if I get the time soon, I can get the interviews transcribed and get a post up.

Unfinished Business: 2011-2012

The Aeros are calling this season "Unfinished Business." So I guess that tells you what they're aiming for. There are a lot of changes to the team, new coach, new coaching staff, new players, and we'll get into all of that later on, but the big news is that we finally have a schedule.

The season opens at home on Sunday, October 9, when the Aeros host the Chicago Wolves at 5:05. That's one thing you'll notice, lots of Sunday games, which might cause some problems for those of you happen to be football fans as the Aeros are playing nine games at home on Sunday during the NFL regular season. Plus some Sunday games during the playoffs, and they're also playing a home game on Super Bowl Sunday. The good news is that we don't have to worry about any team from Texas making the playoffs, much less the Super Bowl, and the Super Bowl Sunday game is at noon, so you'll only miss about five hours of the pregame show and not the game itself.

There's some really good news about the schedule. Most of the home games are on a Friday, Saturday, or Sunday. There are seven games on a non-Friday weekday, including the annual kiddie game in early December and a Monday game on the day after Christmas. And as always, they'll have a game at home on the Friday after Thanksgiving as well as a game on New Year's Day, so don't party too hard on New Year's Eve.

And the Aeros only have nine10 three-in-threes this season.

The one troubling aspect of the schedule, to me at least, is that the Aeros have an 11-game road trip in February/March that will see them away from Toyota Center for a month. They have three home games at the first of February, then they're gone from February 7 until March 10. Four of those games will be up at Abbottsford, which they'll visit for two games midway through the road trip and then again for the final two games of the road trip. They'll play Grand Rapids twice on the trip, the Stars twice, and the Ads, Wolves, and Rampage once each.

But of the Aeros last 10 games, seven will be at home. So if the team can survive that road trip in good shape, then they're in a good position to cement a playoff spot. So there you go.

Look the schedule over and give us your thoughts.

Aeros Round-Up

It's kind of unusual for August to have much news, but there's been a trickle of things coming down the wire in the last few days that, if you don't have Twitter, you might have missed.

John already covered the dates and David Burke's hiring as the Aeros new President. A little more on Burke (who I desperately want to call Burkie, a la Brian Burke) is that he's on Twitter! Which I think is pretty cool.

You can follow him at @DBurkeAeros if you so choose.

Between his and Kassian's twitter feed, which is really funny stuff, consider making the leap to the dark side. I put together a quick and dirty Aeros-centric list of follows that shouldn't overwhelm anybody to keep up with, if you just want to dip a toe in: http://twitter.com/#!/list/3rdIntermission/aeros-essentials

You do have to create an account to view it, it looks like, but I promise, it won't turn you into a hipster doofus.

Anyway, on to other news:

It looks like the Aeros will be announcing the assistant coaches pretty soon. On the defensive end, they're hiring recently-retired defenseman Mike Van Ryn, who played for Torchetti in Florida. Knee injuries pretty much spelled the end of his career a bit early, but he should still have plenty of fire in the belly to bestow upon the Aeros' youngsters.

Also, Sebastien LaPlante is the other assistant coach that is reportedly coming into the fold. He played on Torchetti's team in San Antonio and has most recently been assistant coaching the team at Northeastern University, where he played his college career.

So, lots of new blood in the mix this season and I'm excited to get things going... in September. Still not quite recovered from playoffs.

Townhall and Game Info

We've been away for awhile, so I thought I should apologize. Andrew's busy doing that real job with the airline thing. I've been so busy on the current, probably soon to end temp job, that I even missed the tryouts for the Dynamics on Saturday, and you know how I am with the Dynamics. As for Ms. Conduct, who knows what all she's been up to, and I'm not sure I even want to know.

There's not much new on the team front. The assistant coaches still haven't been named, and there is still no schedule, though that should be coming in a few weeks. However, the team did announce last week the dates of five home games for the 2011-12 season.

Saturday, October 15:
Saturday, October 29;
Friday, November 18;
Friday, December 16;
Friday, January 20.

The Aeros also announced today that the team has hired a new team president, David Burke, who from 2007-11 was the Vice President of Ticket Sales for the Phoenix Coyotes. He's previously worked for the Dallas Stars, the Texas Motor Speedway, the New Orleans Hornets, and the Charlotte Bobcats. And he's going to oversee the day-to-day business operations of the franchise.

You should find this interesting because the press release from the team says that sometime in late August Burke and the team will be holding a townhall meeting with season tickets holders and other fans. So all of the complaints and gripes you've had, well instead of telling them to us, who can't do anything about them, now you'll have the chance to let someone with the team know about your problems. In person. He won't be able to hang up the phone. He won't be able to delete the email, he'll have to listen.

We'll send along the date when we get it. Until then, happy off-season.

Dog days of summer

This is the time of year when hockey news just kind of stops.
The major free agent push is over, and we are still at least three weeks away from seeing the AHL schedule.

The prospect camp went really well, and it was nice of the wide to include some video from those games and shootouts.

Aeros head coach John Torchetti got to work with some of the guys that he will be coaching down in Houston next year, and speaking of which, he and the Wild have yet to announce Torchetti's assistants.

The Wild M.O. has been to have two assistants working with the head coach down in Houston, so expect some news on that later this week.

I really wish I could take a guess as to who might be coming here to join him, but it really could be anybody.
The last time he had a head coaching gig, with Moncton of the QMJHL, he took Tony Martino with him. Scott Allen worked with him in San Antonio back in 2002-03, but he is now an assistant with the New York Islanders.

Martino last coached in 2008-09 when he took over for a very poor Tulsa Oilers team that featured former Aeros center Jeff Christian.

That is all for now ... I do think we'll finally hear from the Aeros this week as to when their home opener may be. Based on all the other reports from other teams, and how many of them are opening on Oct. 7 and 8, expect the Aeros to open up on the road.

I think the Aeros won't be at home until that second week.

Aeros will play 14 teams in 2011-12

New head coach Mike Torchetti will have his hands full with the San Antonio Rampage and the Texas Stars in 2011-12. The AHL schedule matrix was released Thursday, and the Aeros won't even get another crack at the Binghamton Senators unless the two teams meet in the Calder Cup Finals.

There are no Eastern Conference teams on the slate.

The Aeros will play 76 games next season, and 40 of them will be against teams in the newly-aligned West Division. The Aeros will play the Texas Stars and San Antonio Rampage 12 times each, and they will see the Oklahoma City Barons and Abbotsford Heat eight times during the season.

The only new team on the schedule in 2011-12 is the Charlotte Checkers, who have moved to the Western Conference and are a part of the new Midwest Division.

The Aeros will play the Checkers, Chicago Wolves, Milwaukee Admirals, Rockford IceHogs, Peoria Rivermen and Lake Erie Monsters and four times.

Also on the Aeros' schedule next season are the Grand Rapids Griffins, Rochester Americans, Hamilton Bulldogs and Toronto Marlies.

The Griffins will play the Aeros six times, and the Americans, Bulldogs and Marlies twice each.

The complete AHL schedule will be announced early next month, and the Aeros are expected to release the date of their home opener and up to four other guaranteed dates next week.

The bottom line is this is a good schedule as far as cost, travel and developing rivalries are concerned. The bad news? Well ... less variety and fewer games against Chicago and Milwaukee. To me, the only real surprise on the list is the six games against Grand Rapids. Never saw that coming ... I really expected 10 games against OKC and just two against the Griffins, but I will take it.

Here is a breakdown:

Aeros vs. (# of Games)

San Antonio Rampage (12)
Texas Stars (12)
Oklahoma City Barons (8)
Abbotsford Head (8)
Grand Rapids Griffins (6)
Milwaukee Admirals (4)
Chicago Wolves (4)
Rockford IceHogs (4)
Peoria Rivermen (4)
Charlotte Checkers (4)
Lake Erie Monsters (4)
Rochester Americans (2)
Toronto Marlies (2)
Hamilton Bulldogs (2)

What are you thoughts? When do you think the Aeros home opener will be ... who would you like to see on the other side of the ice come mid-October?

Becoming Wild: Part 1 - "Mike Yeo is a badass"

What words of wisdom did Mike Yeo have for the Aeros when they were down 3-0 to Milwaukee in game 6 of the division championship series?

Well, now you can find out. Check out the first episode of the "Becoming Wild" series that is documenting the Wild's offseason and starts with the Aeros playoff run.

It's basically "Mike Yeo 101: For Wild Fans" but for Aeros fans, it's just neat to relive a little of that amazing playoff run.

You can go here: http://wild.com/becomingwild to see all the episodes and see when the next ones are showing.

Harding vs. Taffe, circa 2004

vs.

I did not really have time to dive/delve into it over the weekend, but the first thing that popped into my head when I got the news about Taffe joining the Wild was THE INCIDENT back in 2004.

It was the lockout year, the second season removed from the Calder Cup title, and I think it was Todd McLellan's last season in Houston. The Utah Grizzlies thrashed the Aeros in the first of a back-to-back, and the Aeros returned the favor and were five seconds away from a 5-2 win.

Josh Harding, just moments away from his first home pro win, went behind the net to play the puck. (Again, Aeros up 5-2 with five seconds left.) Taffe checked Harding into the boards, Harding fell face-first into the ice, and did not move.

He was taken to Memorial Hermann hospital on a stretcher, missed about two months with a Grade 3 concussion (his first and only from what I can tell) and allowed two goals on the first two shots he saw against the Chicago Wolves in his return to the ice.

Erik Reitz pummeled Taffe, the league later reviewed the incident, and Taffe got a four-game suspension for his actions. In charge of disciplinary issues at that time? You guessed it ... Current Aeros GM Jim Mill.

Here are some quotes that I posted after that game, one that featured 43 penalties, 212 penalty minutes and seven game misconducts.

First, from McLellan: "I just don't understand it. It's such a great league and there are so many great prospects. But with (five) seconds left in a 5-2 game, sure there was some emotion, but you have to have some respect for your opponent. I will be interested to hear about how (the incident) is handled by the league."

Here was a good one from Kyle Wanvig, one of the best quotes I ever worked with: "I have no problem with starting stuff after games and if you have to run somebody, you do what you've got to do ... But you do not run goalies. What happened tonight was bush league ... and there will be consequences."

And another from Reitz: "There is no place for that in this game ... That was just (expletive deleted) ridiculous.

On the Tuesday following the game, the league/Mill announced Taffe's suspension and added a one-gamer to Aeros defenseman John Erskine, who jumped Utah defender Rick Berry.

The Aeros GM at the time, Tom Lynn, told me he thought Taffe deserved more, but wasn't overly surprised by the AHL's decision.

"The league felt it was being consistent with prior disciplinary actions this season and the particular circumstances of this case," said Lynn. "We are hopeful that the message is received and that the AHL will continue to be a safe place for NHL teams to place their top prospects."

I think this story needs to be told because it remains quite vivid in the minds of many Aeros fans that were around back then. But, this was a very isolated incident. and it's not like Taffe just goes around running people for no reason.

Is it something that comes up in training camp this year? I am sure someone will bring it up. Mikko Koivu and Pierre-Marc Bouchard were on that team, even thought PMB was not in the lineup that night. There were eight legitmate NHLers on the ice for the Aeros in that game: Brent Burns, Zbynek Michalek, Koivu, Stephane Veilleux, Derek Boogaard (RIP), Harding, Mike Smith and Erskine.

Even thought it was a scary-looking moment that COULD have ended Harding's career, Aeros fans should not hold this against Taffe, whose name you will likely hear many times next season at Toyota Center.

In Harding's first game back after the injury, he said he was nervous, but more so because the building was filled with 10,000 fans (Boy Scout night). Harding said he had no recollection of the hit, but called it an accident

"It was an unfortunate accident, but I was able to get through it. It's just great to get back out there and be a part of the team."

Taffe is not a goon, he just did something really stupid very early in his career. Since then, in 25 games against the Aeros, he's scored four goals and added 16 assists. He's dead even and 15 of his 21 PIMs against the Aeros are from that single game.

As a member of the Grizzlies, San Antonio Rampage, Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins and Rockford IceHogs, Taffe is 13-9-1-2 against the Aeros. He is one of the most sought-after (NHL/AHL) free agents ever summer, and Aeros fans should be happy to have him in the green and white for 2011-12.

After the incident, the Aeros played Utah eight more times. They won six of them, losing twice in a shootout and outscored the Grizzlies 29-15. The Aeros continue to thrive as one of the top franchises in the AHL, and Utah is now a member of the ECHL.

Harding, despite many injury challenges over the years, is still in the NHL as a backup in Minnesota, one of the best places to play pro hockey in the world.

While part of Aeros history, the Taffe/Harding incident is exactly that -- history.

(Late addition from an observer from afar!) And it's not like Harding didn't get the last laugh that year. In his next game against Utah, Harding fought Jamie Storr and wasn't the goalie that ended up with a broken nose. Harding and Smith combined on a 31-save shutout at the E-Center.