Milwaukeehockey.com

Hot Juicy Burger

October 29, 2007

It's a wonderful time to be an Admirals fan! Five straight wins. Two straight shutouts. Unbeaten at home. Several players contributing. Yep. Life is good.

It's too early to predict a fantastic season, but it's certainly a great way to start.

While I'm in a good mood, I'd like to take the time to acknowledge the great work by the team on their web site. It's no longer something to be ashamed of. Speedy updates, great photos, expanded content, and video highlight clips.

When I first dabbled with creating a web site almost 10 years ago, I chose to make one on the Admirals, as there was very little on the net about the team, and the official site was a bit of a joke... even by 1998 standards. For several seasons, it was neglected and was obviously a low priority for the team.

Over the years, I've been told countless times, "your site is so much better than the official site". I'd usually just shrug and mention that I do what I do because I love the team.

Recently those comments have tapered off because the team has taken their site seriously, and I'm certainly OK with that. I'm looking forward to seeing how it will continue to grow.

And as happy as I am in this column today, I do have one thing bothering me (two things if I include the annoying cheer sticks on Saturday).

Like a fun day at the beach, it sucks to have sand in your shoes on the way home, and that's how I felt the day after the Admirals 8-1 win over Quad City last week.

The Admirals have a new promotion this season in which fans can bring their ticket stub to Wendy's to get a free Frosty the day after the team scores 5 or more goals.

Still buzzing from the previous night's awesome victory, I brought my appetite to my neighborhood Wendy's location (I-94 & Hwy 50 in Kenosha). I was set to buy a couple of Hot Juicy Burgers to preface my free treat. After a long wait in line, I asked if they were aware of the Admirals promotion. The manager had no idea what I was talking about.

Instead of enjoying a cold sweet treat, I left with a sour taste in my mouth.

Later that day, I went to wendys.com's feedback page to inform them of this broken promotion, but instead, I was greeted with "Our feedback system is currently under construction and we hope to get it up and running very soon."

Next time I have the urge to go to Wendy's, I'll head to Culver's instead.

posted by Todd # 1:35 AM 0 Comments

What's in a Name?

October 22, 2007

I had to do a double take when reading about a player on theahl.com yesterday. His name caught me off guard. It gave me an idea to go through the league and pick out some of the oddest names sewn on this year's jerseys. The guy I read about is ranked #1 in the following list.

17. Niko Dimitrakos (Binghamton). Just rolls off the tongue.
16. Kyle Greentree (Philly). Filthydelphia could use some more green trees.
15. Codey Burki (Lake Erie). Hockey players often add a 'y' to turn a players name into a nickname. His names come already equipped.
14. Jean-Luc Grand-Pierre (Lowell). Two hyphens! He could shorten it to J-L G-P.
13. Cam Cunning (Quad City). Like a Canadian fox.
12. Jay Beagle (Hershey). Just call him Snoopy.
11. Rosario Ruggeri (Lowell). Another one to give announcers a fit.
10. Johan Ryno (Grand Rapids). He could get piss-drunk without spending a dime at Wrigley Field.
9. Mitch Love (Lake Erie). I laughed when Matt Moore overemphasized his last name on the BC PA last year.
8. Rob Klinkhammer (Norfolk). Fun to say with a harsh German accent.
7. Kris Chucko (Quad City). "Chuck-o-puck".
6. Maxime Fortunus (Manitoba). That's Latin for "billionaire".
5. Ryan Dingle (Portland). Hope he fights Rick Berry.
4. Jon Insana (Grand Rapids). He's not quite right in the head.
3. Wacey Rabbit (Providence). Does he have a brother named Waskly?
2. John Vigilante (Milwaukee). Couldn't leave him off this list!
1. Cal Clutterbuck (Houston). An omen for the Aeros season?... a total Clusterfu... I mean Clutterbuck.

I have taken some time to change up the main page of the site this week. The old screen was getting a little stale, and it was hard to think up interesting poll questions. A benefit of the new layout is the news is easier to read.

Check out the photos page to see how I'll be presenting my pics this year. Instead of slide shows, I'm going with a big page of thumbnails. That may be cumbersome for dial-up users, but we're in a broadband world now.

I've also moved the Memorial page to the History section of the site. Thankfully, that page doesn't get updated too often, so I felt it didn't need to be spotlighted on the main menu.

Let me know what you think.

posted by Todd # 11:19 PM 0 Comments

Simon Says

October 17, 2007

A former Admiral is making a good impression in the NHL so far in this young season. After being sent to the AHL at the conclusion of training camp, Simon Gamache was called up to the Maple Leafs after one game with the Marlies.

After three games, he has two goals and two assists, with a point in every game. Monday night, he scored against Buffalo's Jocelyn TeaBag in a nationally televised game on Versus.

Those of you who watched that game, or saw him mentioned on a sports highlights show (yeah, right), you may notice the announcers pronouncing his first name "Sigh-mon" instead of "Sih-moan". At first, I thought it was a mistake by the announcers, but they are right. Gamache decided last month to change how his name is pronounced.

After a blistering season in the Swiss league last year (20 goals and 46 assists in 44 games), he decided to give it another shot at earning an NHL paycheck. After getting called up last week, he told the Canadian press that he did not come back to North America to play in the minors.

I wish the quirky little dude luck at sticking with the Leafs. It's always great to see former Admirals perform well in the NHL.

In other former Admirals updates... Sheldon Brookbank has yet to play for the Devils, as the team has eight defenseman on it's roster. Randy Robitaille was signed by Ottawa this week. Philadelphia's Scottie Upshall broke his wrist in preseason and is expected back in a few weeks.

posted by Todd # 8:47 PM 0 Comments

Home sweet home

October 13, 2007

It was great to get back to the BC last night, as the Admirals skated to a 4-2 victory in the home opener against Quad City.

This was the first ever game between Milwaukee and Quad City, but the Flames had a familiar lineup with 15 players returning from last season, when the team was in Omaha. Considering how well Omaha manhandled Milwaukee last season, last night's impressive performance carries even more weight.

The Admirals showed plenty of speed in the offensive zone, and effectively kept the Flames from having many quality scoring opportunities in the first two periods. Sure, there were some awkward passes and clumsy moments, but that happens in the beginning of every season. These guys have the potential to be friggin awesome as they get familiar with each other.

And off the ice, I have a list of things I liked...
- The roster handout at the turnstile has been expanded to include player stats. Very nice.
- The intro music. Saliva's "Ladies and Gentlemen". Great choice, can't believe I didn't think of that one myself. It was followed up by another hard rock song that I didn't file to memory. Hockey and rock music are a perfect marriage.
- Jumbotron sponsor ads featuring Roscoe (eating at Subway, seeing a movie at a Marcus theater). That shows that the Admirals marketing team isn't satisfied with just selling a place to display a corporate logo on the sideboards. Those ads give the sponsors more bang for their buck, while providing something different on the jumbotron for the fans to soak in.
- Change of colors for the numbers on the jersey sleeves. Last year, it was black on black and next to impossible to read. This season, the black sleeves feature white numbers that are easy on the eyes.
- Late in the second intermission, the lights in the arena were turned off to excite the crowd as the final period was about to get underway. That was unexpected, although the presentation could use a little work. The jumbotron and graphics ring showed a pulsating #3 for about two minutes. Nice idea, but it needs more than just a 3 graphic to be effective.
- And although I was initially disappointed by the small size of the opening night crowd (5,882), it was about a 1,000 more than what last year's home opener achieved. In fact, it took until mid-December (and a $2 ticket promo) to get a crowd over 5,000 last year, so this year appears to be off to a good start.

And two things I didn't like about last night...
- The new electronic parking meter on State Street wouldn't take my quarter. I felt like giving the new ATM-like machine the Hanson Brothers treatment, but instead I swiped my credit card for the 40 cent transaction and walked away muttering under my breath.
- I'm not a fan of the socks worn by the Admirals. Normally, I pay little attention to the design of a hockey sock, but these are so different than any I've ever seen. White socks with vertical black stripes along the sides. Admirals radio announcer Aaron Sims describes them as resembling a baseball player's stirrup sock. With the 'culture shock' of the new Edge jerseys for the fans to absorb this year, it's not the best time to roll out an experimental look like that, in my opinion.

Last night was the first real 'test drive' for my new camera. I used it in preseason, but the lighting is much better at the BC, so I was anxious to see how the first batch of pics would turn out. I experimented with the settings, and will continue to fine-tune them in future games, but I was happy with the outcome.

On the front page to this site, you'll see a thumbnail link to a Photo of the Day. Until today, it's been a Photo of the Week since August. And unless I find more free time, I'll be creating a slide show once a month, instead of for each game. I know that disappoints many of you, but it was a very time consuming task last season... pick out the decent photos, crop them, airbrush out the underwear dude ad, resize them, upload them, create the slide show, and update the index page. I simply do not have that much free time this year.

I will include as many photos in the monthly update as I can... ideally a dozen or so from each game, maybe more. I'll upload the Photo of the Day either before going to bed or first thing in the morning.

A quick side note about the Photo of the Day before I finish this entry up... Many browsers resize large photos to fit the size of the window. I'm displaying the photos at a size of 1024x768 pixels (larger than most browser windows). Internet Explorer has an option to turn off the resizing feature:
Tools > Internet Options > Advanced > Enable automatic image resizing (unchecked)
If the photos appear awkward, that may be the problem.

posted by Todd # 8:18 PM 4 Comments

Touch of grey

October 4, 2007

Oh well a touch of grey, kinda suits you anyway,
That's all I had to say, but it's all right.
I will get by, I will get by, I will get by, I will survive.
~ Grateful Dead

I've got to point out a correction to something I wrote in an earlier entry. After seeing the new Admirals RBK Edge jerseys in person for the first time, it appears as if the Admirals road colors feature the same shade of grey they used last season.

In an earlier entry, I displayed a screenshot of the new uniforms as seen in EA's NHL 08 video game, in which the grey appears to be a lighter shade. Well, that was either an optical illusion, or a mistake by EA. Honestly, I was hoping for a tweak of the road look.

My first impressions of the new jerseys are a little mixed. I'm not a fan of the vertical blue stripes. I like the idea of adding more blue to the color scheme, but those stripes appear awkward. The RBK design itself is growing on me. After seeing a handful of NHL games using them, I have accepted them. The fights seem to be 'cleaner'... less jersey pulling, which may lead to more punches thrown.

And although he hasn't suited up for a game yet, kudos have to go out to Brandon Segal. He made the opening night roster for Anaheim... the defending Cup champs. Mark Mowers is another former Admiral to play for the Ducks this season.

And Sheldon Brookbank was claimed off waivers by the New Jersey Devils, of all teams. As an offensive defenseman, I wonder how he'll adapt to the dull Devils defensive scheme. I wish him and Segal luck towards sticking with their new NHL teams.

The Admirals made what is probably their last roster move before the first game by assigning goaltender Dov Grumet-Morris to the team's affiliate in Cincinnati. That leaves Maxime Daigneault as the backup to Pekka Rinne.

Milwaukee's jersey numbers have also been released (see my players page). Alexander Sulzer will be possibly the first Admiral to ever wear #52. My historical records of the team are incomplete for uniform numbers, but I'm willing to bet he's the first.

And as promised, here's a brief opinion of some of the new players based on what I've seen in preseason play...
Mike Santorelli - a real play maker. Hard to say what line he'll be on as we have 5 great centers (along with Peverley, O'Reilly, Ellison, and Guerriero)
Richard Stehlik - scored twice from the blue line in the third preseason game with a heckuva slap shot. He didn't seem too physical for his size (6'4" 248 lbs.), but that's hard to judge as players sometimes take it easy in preseason.
Shane Willis - savvy veteran looked good. I expect a consistently solid game from him.
Cody Franson - reminds me of Shea Weber in his rookie year. But I won't be disappointed if it takes him a little while to get accustomed to this level of play.
Andreas Thuresson - hard worker with some speed and willing to throw his weight around a little bit.
Antti Pihlström - speedy blond kid will be easy to spot on the ice. He'll have to adapt to the North American style of game, as he seemed a little 'disconnected' in exhibition games. He could become a gem by midseason if he finds his game.
Maxime Daigneault - had a rocky game in Hartland, as he wasn't tested often, but allowed a few goals. He looked better in the next game against Chicago, so my opinion of him is undecided.
My thoughts on Alexander Sulzer and Oliver Setzinger are fuzzy. They played in the first game, but I didn't focus on their game enough to judge. Not to mention their names are a little too similar.
I also liked what I saw from relative newcomers Ryan Maki and Mark Matheson, both of whom joined the Admirals late last season.

But as enthusiastic as I am about this team, I have to remain cautious against high expectations, as Milwaukee is now in an 8 team division. Admiral fans are accustomed to being in 6 or 7 team divisions, and hoping for a division title is a lofty goal. You have to look all the way back to when the IHL was a 9 team league in 1984-85 when the Admirals played in a division this large.

And a reminder as we approach the first road game of the season. The Admirals are on a new radio station. SportsRadio 1250AM. But no worries... Aaron Sims returns as the voice of the team, and the new station has a stronger signal than previous Admirals radio outlets.

I'll leave you with a three part documentary on the 2006-07 season I found on YouTube. Made by two high school students. A job well done, worth saving to your hard drive. Total run time is about a half hour.
Part One
Part Two
Part Three

posted by Todd # 8:45 PM 2 Comments

Preseason recap

October 1, 2007

Work and computer issues have kept me busy this week, so this entry is overdue, I know.

I made it to every preseason game last week, and I am feeling very good about our team. Granted, these exhibition games use a bunch of UHL and ECHL guys hoping to impress the coaches for a future call up, but I liked what I saw from the guys who will begin the season in Milwaukee.

The trip to the game in Vernon Hills, IL, on Wednesday was a short one for me, as I live near the state line. I enjoyed an easy drive down Highway 41 (avoiding the toll road), but I ended up in a frustrating traffic jam on Kennedy/Townline Road. It took me 20 minutes to go two miles. I honestly don't know how people can live like that... sitting in traffic morning, noon, and night. No wonder why Chicagoans can be so testy.

Once there, I grabbed a seat in the top row, and later realized I was sitting next to Admirals goaltender Dov Grumet-Morris' family. Dov was born in the northern Chicago burbs, so this exhibition was a homecoming of sorts for him. His younger brother kept track of the shot/save totals on a pad of paper, and kept me entertained with his enthusiastic conversation with his friend about all things hockey.

The Admirals won that game 8-4, but the score didn't matter much for me. I went into the evening with three purposes.
1. Enjoy a hockey game.
2. Learn the tendencies of the new prospects.
3. Experiment with my new camera.

The pictures I took at the first game weren't the best, as I this camera has many more settings than my last one, and learned a lot of what not to do at a hockey game. Not to mention, the lighting in the building was poor. The picture quality improved greatly in the final two preseason games, and I cannot wait to see how well it performs at the BC.

And I gotta say, I feel for Pekka Rinne. I really thought his chance at the NHL had come. It must be a let down for him to lose the job in Nashville to Dan Ellis. Nothing against Ellis, mind you. I'm jazzed to have either one of those guys in Milwaukee, but I think I can speak for most Milwaukee fans who want to see Pekka succeed at the next level.

Unfortunately, I will not be at the season opener at Peoria. Saturday's are a long day for me at work, and I would have trouble making it to the Carver Arena in time, so I will have to wait until the home opener on October 12 to see the entire team in action.

If I can find the time, I'll give my first impressions of the new guys on the team in another entry later this week or after the weekend.

posted by Todd # 8:04 PM 0 Comments

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