| December 2009 Archives | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
milwaukeehockey.com |
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Holiday times are busy times for me. I'll try to get caught up on this New Years Eve weekend. |
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13 December |
Here are my photos from Friday's 4-2 victory over the San Antonio Rampage.
I did the best I could considering I missed much of the action, including two Milwaukee goals, from people leaving their seats or standing in the aisle.
The usher in my section does a great job from keeping people from entering the area when the game is ongoing, but there's not much that can be done to prevent inconsiderates from getting up from their seats a few dozen times throughout the game.
The Admirals won 3-1 last night in Grand Rapids to extend their winning streak to three games. A winning streak with each game decided by two goals. The team hasn't had that many consecutive wins decided by more than one goal since December 21-29, 2008, when the team rattled off four big wins in a row. They travel to Canada for games Monday and Tuesday against Toronto and Hamilton.
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12 December |
How often does a hockey player ask a fan to pose with him for a photograph?
Not very often... but it happened to me before Friday night's Admirals game.
As usual, I arrived at the Bradley Center just before the doors opened at 6pm. I made my way to my seat, took off my coat, and chatted with friends. On the rink below, Hugh Jessiman and Mark Santorelli were on the ice chilling out before heading to the locker room to strap on the pads and lace up the skates.
I wasn't paying attention to them, but eventually I realized Hugh was trying to get my attention and waved for me to come down by the glass. I had no idea what was up, but I headed down the steps to see what he wanted.
When I got to within earshot, Hugh commented on my jersey. I was wearing my black #11 Darius Kasparaitis Pittsburgh Penguins jersey, which I bought at the Igloo in 2001 or so. Hugh said he was friends with Darius, and he wanted to take a picture with me by the glass. Santorelli had a camera on him... why, I don't know... and he snapped a couple of photos for Hugh.
As I went up the steps, I realized that Hugh would've been a teammate of Kasparaitis in Hartford from November 2006 - October 2007. Earlier today, I went online to dig up any reason for the friendship and found a few references to Hugh and Darius spending a week in Switzerland in the offseason to work on his game.
Kasparaitis, for those who do not know, was one of the most disliked players in the NHL by opposing players. It would be hard to name a tougher, nastier player under 6 feet tall. He had a helluva hip check and would not shy away from making a ferocious hit on star players. He played 14 NHL seasons with the Islanders, Penguins, Avalanche, and Rangers before heading to play in Russia in 2007.
I'm really happy with my batch of photos from last night's game. I hope to have them online sometime Sunday, but it all depends on how long I subject myself to the Christmas shopping crowd if I'll have to time get around to it.
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8 December |
Here are my photos from Saturday's victory over the Manitoba Moose.
The 10th and 12th pics are of Triston Grant's two goals. His empty-netter for the hat trick came just after the final horn.
The 17th pic is nothing special except that I caught the in-house flash used by a professional photographer at the game.
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7 December |
Here are my photos from Friday night's stinkfest against Texas. Scroll down to the next post to see Paul's photos from the same game.
Check out the flying glove in the 17th pic below.
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7 December |
Here are Paul's photos from Friday night's game against the first place Texas Stars. He added captions to each photo to let you know what you're looking at.
I'll be working on my photo sets online from Friday and Saturday later this evening. God knows I'm not going to watch the Packers tonight.
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6 December |
I survived. Three home games in four nights. Three games in which the team did not perform at an acceptable level. It's only fitting that the Admirals half-assed effort earned half the available points by going 1-1-1.
They started off the homestand losing 4-3 in a shootout to Peoria. Two days later they were spanked 5-1 by the Texas Stars, and Saturday night, Milwaukee managed a 4-2 win over Manitoba.
After trying to write a descriptive sentence about it for the last ten minutes, I'm just going to give up and say the power play sucks. Really, really bad. The lamest I've ever had to sit through in any three game stretch. The players at this level have to know what to do with a man advantage. They've been playing competitive hockey their whole lives, but I keep seeing the guys think they're gonna get it done with wimpy passes and being incredibly picky about when to fire a shot.
Then again, I watch every Pittsburgh Penguins game, and I'm used to seeing crisp tic-tac-toe power play goals (Gonchar to Crosby to Malkin, goal)... and the Penguins have one of the worst PP units in the NHL right now (28th out of 30). Am I expecting too much from the Admirals?? Hell no! These guys are here to make it to the NHL, and if they can't remind me of how close they are to earning an NHL paycheck, then they certainly do not deserve any sympathy.
Now on to the goaltending, or lack thereof. I haven't seen that many pucks squirt through the goalie's pads in one week in my life. No, not every goal was Pickard's fault, but he's got to close the holes up when a shot is fired. If he can't see it, he can hear the shot, and must have an idea of where it might be headed.
With that said, I like Chet. I feel that he has potential. On average, goaltenders need an extra 1 1/2 years in the minors before making the jump to the big club. Hopefully, he'll continue to develop and become solid in the seasons to come.
Speaking of goaltenders... what was up with Manitoba Saturday night? When someone touches your goalie, you need to make a statement and let the other team you do not approve, or else they will keep taking liberties. After a few little instances (snow jobs and a few eager sticks in the crease) without much being done about it, Grant absolutely freight-trained Daren Machesney while scoring his second goal. The other five Moose on the ice wandered back to their bench instead of showing any emotion. Way to stick up for your guy, Manitoba.
And before I wrap this rant session up, I have one more issue dealing with something that does not involve the team. Friday night, veteran defenseman Brad Lukowich appeared to be knocked out cold during a scramble in front of the Admirals net. Play was stopped, and the trainers came to his side. I was on the other side of the rink, but it looked serious. Once I realized who it was, I remembered seeing him back in the 90's play for the Michigan K-Wings. He went on to play several years in the NHL with a handful of teams, so I wondered if I just witnessed the end of his career. (He did not play Saturday or Sunday, so it might be true.)
Instead of what should have been a somber moment, the DJ at the arena decided to blast a frickin Miley Cyrus song! Have some respect for cryin out loud. If you need to play a song to fill the silence, then play a calm or serious song. If I woke up from a blackout to a Miley Cyrus song (or just about any of the dance songs blasted at Admiral games), I'd probably try to knock my head against something hard to fall back asleep.
And it was nice to see Andrew Hutchinson again. He was a member of Milwaukee's Calder Cup winning team in 2004. My brother nicknamed him 'Brophy' after seeing how drunk he was when the fans greeted the team and the Cup at the airport. Nick Brophy was the thinning-hair drunk defenseman from the movie Slap Shot.
I've got photos to share, but I haven't started the process of cropping, making thumbnails, writing web page code, and uploading them. I'll start on it tonight, but I probably won't get done until tomorrow night.
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3 December |
Here are my photos of Wednesday's game against Peoria. See the next post for Paul's photos from the same game.
A few notes about the photos below...
I sat down by the glass for pregame warmups and the 2nd period and managed some interesting shots.
#5 - freaks me out, but I figured the ladies will enjoy it.
#13 - a puck flew by when I clicked the photo, nearly eclipsing Chet's face.
#14 and 15 - flying pucks can be seen above the crossbar.
#17 - shiny flying puck in front of the defenseman
#23 and 24 - silver platter opportunity for Grant, but he doesn't convert.
#31 - puck in the net for the 2nd Milwaukee goal.
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3 December |
A great defensive effort goes to waste in a 4-3 shootout loss Wednesday night to Peoria. Here are Paul's photos from the game. I hope to have my photos here before I hit the sack tonight... otherwise, I'll have three games worth to share on Sunday.
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