Koivu vs. Koivu

My pal, Antti, over on the Wild message boards posted some great shots of Mikko facing off against Saku. This one was my favorite and is totally NOM-worthy (clicky make biggy):

Rawr. Thanks, Pat!

Read more...

Kolanos Recalled again

Maybe he can take Cal some fresh changes of clothes when he meets up with the team in San Jose.

It's a bummer for Houston in a way, but as I mentioned in my game write-up last night, I think the team was leaning on him too much. This is a good time to learn to get it done with out Kolanos The Great stalking the opposing blue line.

I'll update with any new info from Russo. ETA: Seems that Olden Nolen is on IR as his injury isn't getting better as quick as the team thought it might.

Read more...

And.... what goes around, comes around

This from the Rangers Report blog:

The worse news is on Dane Byers, the rugged winger who figured to be one of the Rangers’ top call-ups this season: he blew out his knee, and is expected to miss a significiant [sic] chunk of time, if not the season.

I'm not one to root for injuries to these guys who play this game I love so dearly. But you know, if anybody deserved a jacked up knee...

Read more...

Sleepy Post-Hockey Monday Smatterings

Not so much a cornucopia as I'm dead woman walking today. Always tired on Monday after hockey as it takes me a few hours to wind down after the game and our games start at 10 p.m. now. I think I slogged up to bed around 2 this morning.

Hockey was good last night. It's weird how much more at ease I am now that I'm going over the boards like a real hockey player (well, not LIKE a real hockey player, but in the spirit of a real hockey player, maybe). It's always those little things in life where you know you're being a coward, and you know everyone else knows you're being a coward, and yet you do nothing about it, that eat away at you, right?

Also, it turns out that my team's goalie is taking a break from the Sunday night league for a while, and we're in need of a goalie. I'm getting encouragement from several directions to take this as a sign that it's time to give goaltending a shot. Apparently the rink has all the goalie gear, except skates, for coaches to pull out for their teams to use. And I have skates. Hmm. So, I'll be shooting a note to our coach to see what he thinks about me gearing up this week. It's supposed to be a practice rather than a game, so that might be a good opportunity to get a feel for it. Maybe work with the other goalie a bit. I dunno. I'm more excited by the prospect than afraid of it, for now, but I suspect that will change if it becomes a reality. :)

---------------

I called our eye doc for an appointment this morning and apparently there was a fire in the building they're in and the power is out, so he can't set up an appt. It will happen though. I wasn't kidding.

----------------

The writer in me just loved the headline of this post on Puck Daddy today. It's also a good post, regardless of the headline, on the Stars dramatic meltdown. Where the hell was that meltdown when we drove 4 hours each way to see them play the Wild?? Coulda used some melting down that night, boys!

-----------------

More on Cal from the Pio Press. You have to appreciate the pickle he's in. They could send him down at any time. He has no real residence in either St. Paul OR Houston since he never moved into an apartment here. That's gotta be a weird existence, right?

Contributing call-up: Cal Clutterbuck finally has made plans to move his car out of long-term parking at the airport, overnighting his keys to the Houston Aeros on Friday.

Called up on Oct. 15, he had to catch a 4:30 a.m. flight out of Houston to meet with the Wild for a game in Florida. Because he didn't know if and when he'd be sent back down, he left his car there. And because he was moving into an apartment the day he was called up, the car is full of his stuff.

"I started thinking, maybe I should move it," he said. "It's got all my stuff in there. I didn't move in anywhere, I had to pack up and get out of the hotel in Houston before I came, because I was moving in that day."

Because the flight was so early, "I couldn't get a ride from any of the guys to the airport, so I had to drive myself."

Clutterbuck has played in all eight games since being recalled and was particularly productive in Saturday's victory, with three shots, four hits, two takeaways and two blocked shots in 10 minutes, 32 seconds. In terms of sticking with the Wild, he said he is trying to not get ahead of himself.

"I feel good, but I'm trying not to think about it, really. It's in the back of my mind, but it's not," he said. "I think about it a lot more when I'm home, because I'm at the hotel, am I going to get out of the hotel? Do I buy more clothes? Because I really didn't bring many. So that's more when I think about it."

Read more...

Aeros v. W-B/Scranton Pengins - Game 10

Unfortunately, the Aeros surrendered their fantastic home win streak today, but it wasn't for lack of trying. Aside from a couple of minutes where momentum shifted against them, the Aeros played hard, shot like crazy (esp. in the final frame), but they just couldn't get the puck in the net enough.

It wasn't even a hot goalie situation. Pen's goalie Curry was fine but wasn't forced to stand on his head by any means. The Pens just brought a hugely physical style of play to the game and the Aeros were forced to spend a lot of energy matching it. I'm honestly not sure they ever really did. Seems like a lot of the really hard checking was against the Aeros rather than by them. This was a game that made you miss Clutterbuck even more than usual.

Each period was pretty distinct:

The first period saw 8 shots for the Aeros and 10 for the Pens, but no goals. The energy was fairly even between the teams, though the Aeros came out guns a'blazing and then seemed to back off a step about 8 minutes in. Sensing blood in the water, about halfway through the first, the Pens turned into heat seeking missiles and were just banging around the ice like wrecking balls. This definitely seemed to get under the Aeros skin, as the Pens had the Aeros pinned in their end for a lot longer than they should have, until Schaefer made a HUGE save to stop the puck and get fresh legs on the ice.

Then, presumably sensing that the game might be due for a little cleaning up by the tough guys, Kassian and Boogaard (that feels weird to say) went toe to toe for a little while. It was pretty much a draw, but did seem to settle things down a bit for the remainder of the period. The momentum in the Pens favor continued after the fight, until the ROL line had a really nice chance on the Pens end. Dietsch also impressed me with his willingness to march right into the dirty areas around the net and get some shots, plus he has a really wicked quick shot. I like that guy.

Second period, the floodgates opened. A little over one minute into the second frame, the Pens' Chris Minard, who was just released from the Pittsburgh earlier in the day, got his first goal. Ironically, it happened just as I was about to put in my notes, "Aeros lacking intensity to start the period." Gold star for me.

From there, the race was on. Kolanos got one of his pretty "makin' it look easy" goals on a long, up-ice pass from Schultz. Krys had a tough game tonight, BTW. Seems like the boys are passing him the puck a little too readily, rather than moving it in themselves... it's understandable because he is so good, but he's also usually got two guys on him because he's such a threat and it doesn't always make sense to pass to him. I think he got manhandled a little more than he's used to tonight.

He's got fantastic hockey sense though... there was one play in the Aeros offensive zone where he skated across the blue line with the puck and 3 Pens hanging off him. He uses his big frame to turn with the puck, getting the other players behind him, thereby protecting the puck while the open man sets up behind him, and then passes the puck to the open man through traffic right to his stick for a shot on goal. It didn't go in but it was a real demonstration of what a strong player Kolanos is. He may be a cherry picker, but he gets the other stuff done. I even saw him lay a pretty hard check on a guy at one point.

And did I mention how good he is at face-offs? Very.

Anyway, with that goal, the Aeros got the momentum back and had a long stint of pinning the Pens in their defensive zone, but it was unproductive. And then the Pens got two goals from Wallace and Minard (his second of the night), but the energy stayed pretty even between the teams for the remainder of the period. The period ended with 13 shots for the Aeros and 6 for the Pens.

Third period, the even energy continued, and so did the scoring on both sides. Insana got one in after some really nice, patient play around the Pens net. Then Rosa immediately got an exciting game tying goal that earned him the third star of the night.* But before you could say, "He shoots, he scores, hey Curry, you suck" for those two goals, Minard busted out with his third goal for the night and a hat trick putting the score at 3-4 Pens. Needless to say, nobody sacrificed a hat for the occasion, in spite of a few boosters from W-B and/or Scranton in attendance. At least they got their money's worth out of the trip, I guess.

Then we were treated to another fight between Clayton Stoner and Ryan Stone. No, I'm not kidding. Stoner and Stone dropped the mitts and, again, it was pretty even, but I'm not sure it did much to ease the chippiness resurfacing in the game.

Constantine pulled Nolan Schaefer from the net with 3 minutes to go, but the Pens killed the extra man advantage very well and the Aeros spent as much time scrambling to keep the 5th goal from going in their own net as they did shooting on the Pens. Never the less, the period ended with the Aeros getting a whopping 16 shots on goal to the Pens 4 shots. So, I think that sort of quantifies the sentiment that the loss wasn't for lack of trying to put the puck in the net.

*I took a nap before the game since I had my own hockey game at 10 tonight and knew I'd be a zombie otherwise. During that nap, I had a dream that my hockey team was playing at some rink somewhere and I saw a few of the Aeros players there, but the one I talked to was Rosa. I don't remember much else but I woke up thinking, "Rosa's gonna have a big game." Well, it wasn't that big, as the Pens were all over his line tonight, but there ya go. I'm only mildly prophetic.

Okay, I'm getting tired and my hockey high from my game tonight is fading, so let's wrap this up with some housekeeping:

Scratches: Crowley, Adams, Falk (all healthy), Hamilton (upper body injury)
(BTW, I saw John Scott wandering around outside the locker room after the game, too, which was a sight for sore eyes. I'm hearing he will be on at least part of the upcoming road trip.)
Starting line-up: Lundbohm, Ryznar, Irmen, Albers, Stoner, Schaefer
Caption: Lundbohm

Attendance: Actually VERY good for a Sunday. Looked like 3x what they've been drawing lately.

Houston Press report
Chronicle report
Royal's blog (who doesn't share my sentiments below for different reasons)

Also, I'd like to send big internet hugs and kisses to the Aeros in-game entertainment people. It is SO much better this season. I haven't heard God Bless America even once! Bless YOU!

Now, Fred, tell me what I got wrong. ;)

Read more...

Sunday Hockey Cornucopia

Buncha random stuff:
-------------------------------------
From Ryan Stanzel's Wild.com blog regarding last night's Wild win over Phoenix: "Unsung hero award to Cal Clutterbuck. Lemaire told the youngster to shoot more. He had three shots, two missed shots and four hits in 10:32. Oh and he blocked two shots. With a takeaway. And killed 1:17 of penalty time." Oh hell yeah. Cal pwns. (ETA: Here's more on him from the PioPress. I wonder if Cal needs a publicist.)

Jovo gets Clutterbucked.

Pouliot got the second goal of the night and his third goal of the season. I hear it was really pretty but we'll never know because the game wasn't televised and it wasn't included in the game highlights, which were clearly assembled by Phoenix. *grrr*

In Pouly's honor:



And Reitz got nice props from Russo: "I was really impressed with the play of defenseman Erik Reitz, who filled in well in 11-plus minutes. He was physical and safe."

-------------------------------------

Aeros host the W-B/Scranton Penguinos today at 4. Because I need this home win streak to continue for the article I want to write for PHN, they are guaranteed to lose. Someone be a hero and give me another lead for my article that isn't dependent on the outcome of today's game!

Appears they had a pretty fight-happy game against San Antonio on Friday. Maybe that helps the Aeros a bit after their relatively sedate game Friday. The Pens are 4-3-0-1 so far this season.

Boogaard, the younger, comes to town with the team. He's a former Wild draft pick from that less-than-stellar 2004 draft year and was never signed by the team.

-------------------------------------

Blessedly, the Texans are out of town today so I get to enjoy the day without the miserable schlep to Reliant Stadium. Just the Aeros game and then my own hockey game late (LATE) tonight. In the winter, the high school kids get the primo ice time and us novice leaguers are shoved waaay back to 10:05 p.m. Oh well. Kinda feels like we're getting away with something... all the "normal" people are getting ready for the work week, going to bed, etc. and we're playing hockey. That's pretty satisfying to my contrarian heart.

Read more...

Another good Dimples article

Great stuff other than calling Rob Daum the Aeros coach. *shudder*

Read more...