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A rope, a tree, hang the referee

April 22, 2008

Yep, if you were at game 3 of the opening round playoff series against Chicago, you witnessed a very poorly officiated game by Brian Pochmara. In these tightly contested and obviously important set of games, you would hope the league would assign their finest referees. When the teams shake hands after the series is over, the last thing that should be bitched about is how a referee decided the outcome. Unfortunately, that will probably happen in the coming days.

After the first two games in Chicago, Wolves coach John Anderson was in the newspapers complaining about the officiating - game one by Shaun Davis and game two by Pochmara. Was the slanted officiating in game 3 an attempt to appease Anderson? If I were a ref, I wouldn't want Anderson's tobacco-laden spittle in my face, so I'd probably do what I could to keep that from happening. I doubt that conspiracy theory has any merit, but you never know.

Since the Admirals joined the AHL in 2001, I have been pleased by the performance of the refs. Sure, over the last seven seasons there have been some poor games here and there (mostly by Justin St. Pierre), but when I hear fans at the BC scream about a call/non-call... the ref usually made a correct (or close judgement) call.

Prior to 2001, the referees in the IHL made my blood boil on several occasions. There were games where fans littered the ice in protest (Derek Martin), and many in which the refs were screamed at along the tunnel coming off the ice. Pochmara called game 3 like an IHL ref.

Sigh... I'm not surprised this series against Chicago has been so tight and chippy. All three have been one goal games - two in overtime. Several group shoving matches and curse words thrown about. No matter who is on the roster, these two teams have always hated each other over the years.

I'm still wishing we could have finished 5th in the division to cross over to the North Division playoffs. Not only have I believed the Admirals would have an easier time against Toronto in the first round (Milwaukee won both games in the regular season), but even if the Marlies would prevail, it would not be as bad as a loss to the Wolves. Not many Toronto fans come to Milwaukee to talk trash.

In fact, I think San Antonio tanked it in the final regular season game to face Toronto instead of Chicago. After all of the other games in the league were wrapped up (and San Antonio's chances at a 3rd place finish were erased), they allowed Quad City to come from behind to win in the 3rd period. Smart move. Do not be surprised if San Antonio advances to the Conference Final.

posted by Todd # 4:39 PM 1 Comments

The end is near

April 7, 2008

I know... it's been awhile since my last entry. Partly because I've been busy. Partly because I really haven't had much of an urge to write about anything in particular. However, today I have some time, and I want throw out my thoughts on the upcoming playoffs as the Admirals are currently in a tight race amongst the 2nd through 5th place teams in the division going into the final week of the regular season.

As I write this...
2. Rockford - 94 points, 4 games remaining
3. Houston - 92 points, 4 games
4. Milwaukee - 92 points, 3 games
5. San Antonio - 90 points, 4 games

Because the North Division is a wasteland this season, the fifth place team in the West Division will cross over to play as the #4 seed in the North. In fact, it's possible the entire 8 team West Division will finish with a better record than the four non-playoff teams in the North (Hamilton, Grand Rapids, Lake Erie, and Rochester).

As a logical fan, I'd LOVE to see the Admirals finish 5th and play in that weaker division. Of course, it wouldn't be bad to see Milwaukee fight on and finish 2nd, but I prefer our possibilities against Toronto than anyone in our division.

The one team in the North that scares me is Syracuse. They are on a 16-0-0-3 run, with former Admiral midget goalie Karl Goehring earning recent league hardware for Player of the Week and Goalie of the Month. Then again, they have several doormats in their division, making a run like that easier to accomplish.

But worrying about Syracuse is forward thinking... the Admirals would not face them until at least the 2nd round. As of today, Milwaukee could possibly face Toronto or any of the other four West teams in the first round. Bring on the Marlies!

I did some math to illustrate how dominate Milwaukee's division is...
Average points per team
88.75 - West
86.43 - Atlantic
84.71 - East
79.43 - North

Average wins per team
40.5 - West
38.7 - East
38.4 - Atlantic
35.1 - North

If Milwaukee doesn't finish fifth, I hope they climb to 2nd or 3rd in order to avoid Chicago in the first round. Houston, San Antonio, and Rockford are fairly equal in my mind. I really have no preference among those three teams.

Regardless of who they face, to go far in the playoffs, the Admirals need to put more pucks on the net, get more output from their anemic power play, win more key faceoffs, and get consistent goal scoring from guys like Ellison, Langfeld, and Pihlström.

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Last night, I began a project to change the layout of my web site. I've always kept my site friendly to people using a screen resolution of 800x600, aligning everything to the left with a text area at a width of 750 pixels.

That size was acceptable to me on my 1024x768 monitor. I had a small amount of blank space on the right side, but that didn't bother me much. It did limit some of what I could and could not do with my site, as I had to squeeze everything into that 750px wide space.

I now have a widescreen monitor (1440x900), and I found it painful to see all of that wasted space on my screen. So, last night, I changed the layout on the main page to feature a wider text area that is centered on the screen. In time, I will change all of the pages to a wider size - a task that involves not only widening the layout, but also creating different graphics and tweaking the presentation to make it look right.

Anyone using a screen sized at 800x600 will have to horizontally scroll to see the whole page. To those who are bothered by this, I recommend changing your screen settings, or better yet, upgrading to a high resolution monitor.

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I found it refreshing to see Claude the Happy Trumpeter at the games this past weekend... not that I'm a huge fan of his schtick... but rather it meant I didn't have to listen to as many annoying songs (Jump on It, Put Your Hands Up, YMCA, Everybody Clap Your Hands, ETC!)

The best hockey arenas mix in classic rinkside organ music, which is sorely lacking at the BC.

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Why do the BC cameramen search out shirtless boys in the crowd? In the times we live in, glorifying that is in poor taste... especially after the team was mentioned several times in the local newspaper for having an employee who really, really likes young boys. Chances are, there are a few gay pedophiles at every game who get their "inner drool" going when they see half naked kids up on the Jumbotron.

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Before I go, I want to warn everyone... if the web site stops getting updated, I probably died. No, I'm not suicidal... I've been getting signs that my time is approaching.

Recently I experienced a string of eight straight days of coming across a funeral procession in eight different parts of my hometown. The streak ended when I stayed home one day... but since then I've been seeing one every few days.

When the time comes, please don't send flowers... after all, I'm a hockey fan, not a nancy boy.

posted by Todd # 7:09 PM 0 Comments

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