Here are some photos taken by Paul Oetlinger at Saturday night's home opener.

I love that last pic. Manitoba goaltender Daren Machesney laid on his back for a long time as the Admirals gathered nearby to celebrate the overtime winner.

As promised, here are my thoughts from the weekend's games. But first... I've given it some thought, and due to having less free time this season, I will not be providing detailed recaps of each game. Almost all of you read the recaps on the Admirals Short Shifts blog, and they do a fine job with postgame quotes and pretty spot-on analysis. Most of what I would write would be redundant. I will still continue to post photos, an occasional opinion piece, and assorted video clips or stories.

On Friday, I made my first trip to Rockford since watching the UHL's IceHogs win the Colonial Cup in May 2007. Since then, a $23 million renovation was completed on the building. Among the improvements were a video scoreboard above the rink, luxury suites, and more food stands. However, they did not replace the hard uncomfortable seats and the lighting was not noticeably improved.

Another change was the addition of the "Fire & Ice Girls". They served as cheerleaders, dancers, and the ice cleanup crew. They wore red frilly mini-skirts and some wore pig-tails. If I was led to the game in a blindfold, I might have thought I was at some sort of strip club/ice rink. I've got to believe the idea of strippers and hockey would succeed in a Canadian city (Windsor, perhaps).

The game itself was a letdown. Despite outshooting Rockford, they did not get the breaks in the offensive end, and a few mistakes and bad breaks in their own end led to a lopsided result on the scoreboard. Games like that happen, but it stinks to see it in person on a road trip.

The one thing I took from this game was a reminder of the crude environment in Rockford... much of it encouraged by the IceHogs.

On countless occasions during the game, the song "Mony, Mony" was played, during which the crowd chimed in with a chant about our goalie sucking. And that song was usually followed up by some trash talking by the "fans" sitting around me. I ignored them, but it got me to thinking about how we have it in Milwaukee.

The Milwaukee gameday presentation is classy. Other than an occasional good-natured jab at the Wolves, the crowd is never encouraged to boo or heckle the other team or their fans. We get straightforward announcing by Matt Moore. Rockford's public address announcer injects unnecessary emotion into reading details of penalties and goal scoring.

Sure, fans at Milwaukee games may choose to heckle the other team, but it's never egged on by whatever song is playing or video is being shown by the Admirals. And I guess seeing the crude behavior in Rockford hurt worse because I cheered for the IceHogs when they were Milwaukee's UHL affiliate. I guess their "fans" choose to forget those times.

After the game, a Night Ranger concert was held. Easily one of the worst performances I have ever seen... and I listen to that type of music (among others). I've seen great concerts by REO, Cheap Trick, and Styx in recent years. Night Ranger was terrible. I left long before they got around to playing their greatest hits.

I'll throw together some thoughts on Saturday's game in another post. In the meantime, enjoy some of my photos from last night (scroll down) if you haven't seen them already.

Against one of the league's best teams, the Admirals fought back from deficits of 1-0 and 2-1 to earn a 3-2 win in overtime in the team's home opener.

I'm short on time to give my thoughts about the game this morning, but I will add a post tonight about this game and my trip to Rockford on Friday night.

While most of you reading this were at the Admirals season ticket holder party last night, I was at home watching the Edmonton Oilers humiliate the Nashville Predators 6-1.

The highlight of the night was a first period fight between former Admiral Zack Stortini and Triston Grant. Stortini had a career game by following up this first period fight with a pair of goals before the first intermission.

Here are some photos taken by Paul Oetlinger at Saturday night's game in Chicago.

You can check out his photos from last season at this link.

If you have cable TV (with a cable box) or satellite TV, you can enjoy a free preview of the NHL Center Ice package. On Time Warner, the games can be viewed on channels 876-889. DirecTV uses channels 769-784. (Note - Time Warner's channel lineup changes on Oct. 13)

Tonight, you can tune to Time Warner 887 or 888 to watch the Predators host the Colorado Avalanche. This free peek at dozens of NHL broadcasts runs through October 24. You can buy the entire season for about $160.

In recent news, Triston Grant is making his Predator debut tonight. He was called up after J.P. Dumont was sidelined in Saturday night's game. Grant has 8 previous games of NHL experience with Philadelphia.

With Grant getting the call up to the NHL, Milwaukee fills the void with newly signed veteran forward Dave Scatchard. He played 8 games with Milwaukee in 2007-08. The 33 year old has 635 NHL games under his belt with Vancouver, NY Islanders, Boston, and Phoenix.

Milwaukee will likely see the debut of center Ben Eaves this weekend. He's been out since training camp with a groin injury.

Photos from Saturday's Admirals game in Rosemont.


Watch video highlights from AHL Live

Yes, I made it to last night's season opening Admirals game in Chicago. It proved to be an exercise in holding my breath.

For the first two-thirds of the game, it was to avoid breathing in all the pregame-generated smoke which lingered in the building until deep into the second period. For the last third of the game, it was to see if Milwaukee could hold onto their lead. I wasn't able to exhale until about five seconds left in the game.

The Admirals held on to win 3-2 off of second period goals by Triston Grant, Mark Santorelli, and Ian McKenzie. Mark Dekanich stopped 28 shots for the victory.

The Wolves struck first with a goal just over a minute into the game. Rookie Admiral defenseman Jonathon Blum whiffed on breaking up a crossing pass just above the crease, and Tim Stapleton one timed it by Dex.

Milwaukee tied it a few minutes into the second period, when a Ryan Maki shot rebounded to Triston Grant, who knocked it past former Admiral goaltender Drew MacIntyre. MacIntyre was still wearing his mask from last year, complete with the Admiral skelton dude on the top of the mask.

Mark Santorelli put the Admirals up 2-1 at the 12:02 mark. He had the puck on the doorstep, and when MacIntyre went down on all fours, he lifted a wrist shot top shelf for a real beauty of a goal.

McKenzie's goal less than two minutes later was from a sharp angle near the right wing corner. He threw a shot at the goal, and it found a path just inside of the far post.

Chicago made it a one goal game after Cody Franson could not control the puck at the blue line on a power play. And, of course, he made a half-assed effort to retreat to break up the Wolves breakaway. Different year, same Cody. His value in having a great shot on the power play is negated by a lack of puck handling skills and speed.

Adding to the high nail-biting factor of the third period was that two Admiral shots clanged off the pipes. Fortunately, Milwaukee held on for the win.

And before I forget, a word of advice if you plan on attending a game in Chicago... if you think you might get thirsty, smuggle in a drink.

I've been suffering from a flu bug all week, and I found myself really thirsty before the game started. So, I found a food stand and made my way through the line. I grabbed a regular 20 ounce plastic bottle of Pepsi from a small cooler on the counter. Nowhere on the menu or the cooler did it list a price of bottled soda. When I eventually made it to the cashier, I was told to pay $5.75! Ridiculous. I don't even like Pepsi... I'm a Coke guy, but I bought it and tried to savor every 25 cent sip I took throughout the game.

Chet Pickard dressed as the backup goaltender for Milwaukee. The Admirals dressed all seven defensemen and scratched forwards Ben Eaves and Chris Mueller.

Overall, I was pleased with the gameplay of the team. On paper, the Wolves are a stacked team, and going into the night, I was worried of witnessing a blowout, but Milwaukee seemed to dominate the neutral zone and kept the Wolves from getting many odd-man rushes.

I wore an Admirals jersey and hat, and surprisingly, I didn't catch grief from Wolves fans while walking around the building, but I did have the pleasure of sitting in front of a real douche bag. The type of guy who thought his not-really-that-loud yelling from the upper deck could be heard by anyone down on the ice. He started by yelling generic "Admirals Suck" early in the game. I ignored him.

However, after the Admirals tied it up, he spent the rest of the game yelling at Chicago coach Don Granato for not showing any emotion. After eleven years of the colorful Furnace Face John Anderson as their coach, they now have a normal guy behind the bench. Oh, the horror.

I'll get a batch of photos up tonight or tomorrow night.

Assuming the Journal Sentinel didn't screw it up, here is the season opening roster for YOUR Milwaukee Admirals...

#	Goaltenders	#	Forwards
30	Jeremy Smith	7	Ryan Maki
31	Mark Dekanich	11	Mark Santorelli
37	Chet Pickard	12	Andreas Thuresson
		13	Nick Spaling
#	Defensemen	16	Cal O'Reilly
3	Jonathon Blum	17	Hugh Jessiman
4	Scott Ford	18	Chris Mueller
6	Cody Franson	21	Triston Grant
20	Mark Matheson	22	Ben Eaves
25	Robert Dietrich	23	Ian McKenzie
43	Nolan Yonkman	29	Mark Van Guilder
52	Alexander Sulzer	38	Peter Olvecky
		40	Wacey Rabbit
		41	Mike McLean - was not included on the official release of the season opening roster

As of tonight, the JS is the only source I've found listing it. Neither the official team site nor the league site have updated it yet.

The team will carry all three goaltenders for now. I'm assuming one will be sent to Cincinnati before their season begins on October 16. Also notice the number change by Hugh Jessiman from 47 to 17, the number worn last year by Kelsey Wilson.

Seven players listed have never played for Milwaukee - Smith, Pickard, Mueller, Eaves, Olvecky, Rabbit, and McLean. Blum, McKenzie, and Van Guilder have limited past experience with the Admirals.