10/16/23 - Admirals Center Ice

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Hello and welcome. It's Milwaukee AdmiralsCenter ice with Michael Jahowski. I'm Aaron
Simms and the Admirals. It's likea college football schedule. You just got
to go one and oh each weekand the Admirals. The Admirals did that.
They went one and oh last week, and now they got to go
one and o this week. Andas they take on the Texas Stars and
the home opener Saturday at six pm, that's only for one more week before
week. Yeah, then you gottago three and oh in the next week.

(00:22):
Exactly. A really solid effort inthe admirals two to one overtime win
over Chicago. The ice was certainlytilted for the first two periods in towards
Chicago at sometimes almost like at aneighty five degree angle. But yeah,
the Admirals showed well, some youngplayers stepping up. Yaroslava scar Off was

(00:45):
solid. It was a good nightall around. To talk about that and
much more is Admiral's assistant coach GregRoalo. Greg, would you agree with
my assessment that everything seemed to gopretty swimmingly here for your team the other
night? I would say you're prettyspot on there. Simmer. We were
very happy with the way our teamplayed, especially being a younger team this
season. It was great to seethem kind of implement the things that we've

(01:07):
been going over throughout training camp rightoff the bat, so lots of promise.
I asked Carl if with the teamcoming in and guys, certainly you
have players who are back, butwith players playing their first AHL game,
is Chicago kind of a good placeto do it in the simple fact that
it's a short trip, it's fairlyfamiliar because you played them twice in the
preseason, but also you get thefireworks and you get the extended pre game

(01:32):
and all of that stuff out ofthe way, so like, okay,
now you kind of then you gethit and you're kind of in the league
right now. Yeah, it wasgreat. It was a good atmosphere in
Chicago. They had a good crowdy, like they always do a good job
with their intros and the fire upand it's really cool for our young guys
to have that kind of experience.Like you said, it's an easy trip

(01:53):
down to Chicago, and our guysdid a great job and kind of getting
implemented into the league and for whateverisn't playing in that rink I know from
experience I could feels smaller than aregular rink, And it's good to let
our guys get out there and feelit and be against the HL quality competition
that they're going to see throughout theyear. Yeah, all right, now
think about it. Do you getmore worked up and more nervous as Greg

(02:16):
Ralo the coach or Greg when youplayed, I mean open it's opening night,
It's opening night, you're you know, how how worked up do you
get inside? I'll shift the questionto I, Like I told a couple
of guys, I'm like, I'mso jealous of you opening night with so

(02:36):
great as a player like you workhard all summer long and all that,
you know, anxiousness and excited tobe back on the ice and playing and
competing with your teammates. That's thepart of the game that I missed the
most for sure. So it wasmore jealousy than than nervous. In the
game, I wanted to be backon the bench, but understanding the role
of moving forward in life that thosethings kind of get taken away from you.

(02:58):
But really happy for our guys,and like I said, it was
more jealousy than anything. So withthat, is it because you have more
responsibility and more things to look Imean, certainly playing is number one for
everybody, but is it? Imean, you just have so many responsibilities.
I'm just curious if you have theopportunity to get worked up or get

(03:19):
the anxiety or all of that stuff, if you can enjoy it as much
as you Well, I guess youkind of answered that that maybe you don't
enjoy it as much or it's ina different way. Perhaps one hundred percent.
There's a lot of enjoyment. Idon't want to not use that word
because I love my job and Ilove what I get to do every day.
And for me, it's just thepreparation and stuff going into it is

(03:40):
just getting the guys ready and thenjust feeding off their energy scene how excited
some of these young kids were onthe bench and the intros and the national
anthem, and it just you getthose little flashbacks, and then moving into
the game. Once the game start, you just kind of go right back
into coaching and helping these guys,you know, teaching here and there throughout
the game and kind of implementing oursystems and making sure that you know the

(04:02):
little details are there, but atthe same time letting the kids get their
feet wet. What you just saidabout teaching is interesting because I was going
to bring up both you and ScottFord had the chance to grab the board
and draw plays for specific situations.But I'm curious how explain to the fans
because I have an idea, Buthow much is going on? How much
teaching is going on, especially ina game one behind the bench while play

(04:27):
is going on in front of you. I find there's there's a balance,
especially early on in the season,just you don't you don't want to grab
the same guy over and over andover again every time he comes back to
the bench, even though there mightbe some teaching points for them. It's
it's kind of pick and choosing whichones are really important to hit now or
versus this week in between games,grabbing them and showing them on video.

(04:47):
So it's more team structured stuff.I would stay on the bench for individual
stuff. If we see a certainthing that the Wolves are doing or a
certain thing that we need to getbetter at, we kind of coach those
aspects and personally I try to savethat individual stuff for this week. Leading
in go back and watch some clipsor watch shifts with guys and do teaching
that way. As Aaron pointed out, when we in the open, you

(05:10):
know, we have one game thislast week, one game this week,
and then we you know, getin the three next week. Do you
prefer starting out slower? Would yourather just jump in with both feet and
say let's just play? I wouldrather be playing games. I think any
any culture player would tell you earlyon. You get more substance, You
get more things to talk about toteach, to see your deficiencies or see

(05:31):
your strengths as a team. Onceyou hit the games, you can only
do so much in practice and seekind of practices your tool to use to
improve in games. So, youknow, being so light on our games
right now, we have one gameto break down for this whole week,
so these guys will be getting agood gist of what we did against the
Wolves, and then moving into Texasand then as our season progresses, it

(05:53):
it gets. It's not easier,but I'd say it's almost easier to coach
the more games you play, becauseyou have more substance and you see the
thing you need to work on.Admiral's assistant coach Greg Raalo joining us on
Milwaukee Admiral Center Ice. It's thetough thing about this league, maybe the
toughest thing about this league is youeither have way too much time to practice
or you have not near enough timeto practice. There's there's no in between.

(06:15):
It doesn't seem there isn't the dayor two in between games. It's
either all or nothing, right,Yeah, and it's it changes depending on
where your team's located and all.We were playing Texas this weekend and we
see that they played two games thisweekend, and they have a school day
game this week, and then weplayed them month satur So they're going to
be going into their fourth game whenwe're going into our second game. There's

(06:38):
just that kind of slow thing ofdevelop in the development league kind of based
on those things. So we'd liketo find that happy medium. Would be
perfect if you could. You keeptalking about about the youngsters, you know,
mostly on the offensive side, ButI mean, how do you like
the makeup of the team is.I know that we don't have a whole
lot to say about it, andwe're a Nashville product, but at the

(07:00):
end of the day, you've gotyou know, you've you've got some youth
up front, You've got a strongveteran defensive corps and and and you know
some a couple of pretty good goaltenders. What are you think of the makeup?
I'm really excited. I know there'sa lot of expectations on these young
players, and that's the thing ascoaches and then as fan base to remember
is that they are young players.They're very very skilled, they're very very

(07:24):
talented, but there's going to besome growing pains throughout the year, getting
them accustomed to the pro game,playing a lot of game, playing against
heavier competition, and it's just goingto be a learning curve. The upside
to this team is through the roof, we have tons of skill, tons
of things that we need, Wehave great leadership. It's just going to
be continuing to work with these guysthat get the consistency that we're going to

(07:46):
be looking for moving throughout the season, and you know, hopefully we're in
a position where we can be aplayoff team and then go from there.
What you mentioned about leaders again,talking with Carl and he had said that
the three players chosen as captains,Kevin Gravell wearing the C and the A
is going to Cala, Riley andROLLINGD mcew, and he said it was
unanimous, like those three guys wereon every single person's ballot and that he

(08:09):
had never experienced something like that.That's amazing, first off, and you
do have three fantastic players and peopleright there, But that doesn't mean that
the leadership starts it ends with onlythem, no, for sure. And
that's the great thing about our teamand kind of how our team has been
built even over the last couple ofyears, is we have our captains that

(08:31):
wear the letters in games and thatpeople get to see that there are captains.
But in the room, you haveguys like Angelo, who is tremendous
with young players and kind of takesthem under their wing. And you have
other guys like Grocer who's coming intoa leadership role himself, and del Gazzo
and Igor. They're kind of growingwith their voice in their room. So
the support cast that supports our mainthree is excellent. And it's great when

(08:54):
you have that backing in the roomfor those guys, because you know they're
not always the ones that have tobark at guys. They have a good
support cast. Greg Ralow joining usIt's Milwaukee Admirals Center Ice two assists on
Saturday night for Feedersvetchkov for his firstNorth American game, and again he's played
pro in Russia, but for hisfirst North American game, he was really

(09:16):
good. And you get to see, like, I don't you tell me,
it doesn't seem like he's maybe heflies under the radar a little bit.
I don't know, but it justseems like you look up and there
he was, Like you didn't thinkabout him, You didn't think about him,
and oh my goodness, there heis and he's making the play.
He's one of those guys that youcan that I kind of talked about earlier,

(09:39):
is just like he's so young,but there is so much potential and
his skill set that he has andthe way he skates and the way his
hockey sense is probably his greatest asset is you can see as a young
player, his decision making is veryvery good, and those types of things.
It's it's not to put too muchheat on him early and put too
much expectations on him, but Iexpect big things for him this season and

(10:03):
his growth this year and then movingforward in his pro career. You know,
he's one of five Russians on thisteam. How does he communicate?
I've had limited interactions with him.He seems okay, but again it was
very limited. It's how are youand things like that. I'm just curious
when it comes to hockey, howchallenging is it for a player who doesn't

(10:24):
speak English as his first language topick things up or his hockey Pretty universal
and it's pretty easy, I wouldsay from experience. I played a year
in Germany where I did not speakthe language at all. It's very difficult
moving to a foreign country. Iwas older when I did it. I
was in my thirties when I wentover to Germany and played, and I

(10:45):
never felt more uncomfortable in my wholelife. Just the simplest thing of going
to McDonald's was stressful because you didn'tspeak the language. So I can feel
for these kids. But he doesa great job, and if he doesn't
understand something, he'll come grab me. Like this is like the talking about
how he's a pro already and youknow he's beyond his years. Is he's
not afraid to come ask me questionsand have me explain things further to him,

(11:09):
and then to take one step further. Egor has been really good at
exactly say. If he doesn't understandit, we can grab Egor and he'll
translate what we're trying to say.So good on Spetch to understand those things,
and he wants to learn. He'sa hockey player, you know.
Enjoy working with him. And whatyou just said about Egor, I think
knnot because you had talked about Igorcoming into a leadership role. It's his

(11:31):
third year in Milwaukee, so it'sit's assumed that that would be the case,
right, because he's been around fora little bit and he's had success.
He played seventeen games in the NationalHockey League. But that's again part
of his evolution. I think wesaw it last year with how valuable he
was on the penalty kill and whata great playoffs he had last season for
your team, And now we're seeingit here with how helpful he is being

(11:56):
a conduit for players who need helpcommunicate. He was that for Yarrow last
year and it's great to see itcontinue this season with Sketch for sure.
And he's a good person too.That's I really liked that about Egor.
He's been easy to coach and he'sbeen receptive to us. You know,
in his entire time here, andto see him continue to grow and to

(12:18):
implement the things that are going tomake him successful. It's great to see
him get his opportunity last year anddo pretty well when he was in Nashville,
and I know that's his goal thisyear is to get back there.
And he's had a great training camp, great start to the season, so
he's definitely on the right path.You know, special teams have always been
a trademark of this team since sinceCarl and Scott and yourself have been here.

(12:41):
The special teams have always been inthe upperational end of the league.
And the penalty kill was outstanding theother night. And how much do you
guys work on that early this season? Is that is that something that you
wait till you pretty much cut downdate and then you get it heavily into
in the power play and penalty kill, there's a good mix, for sure.
It's always tough to mimic, butshe'll team the pace and the execution

(13:01):
and the kind of intensity as agame like. But Fido did a great
job in Carl like going over thedetails of what we're looking for on the
power playing penalty killed throughout video andthen walk throughs in practice, and I
know Fordo had a meeting before onthe ice to kind of just, you
know, Honker in the details ofwhat our PK needs to do for different

(13:24):
situations in different reads. So theydo a really good job at teaching it
so the guys that understand it,and then you know going forward, there'll
be tweaks here and there, andthose things will be handled through meetings throughout
the week. We saw the othernight the team's combined to go zero for
fifteen. I don't think that's evergoing to happen again as far as well
any the admirals are considered for therest of the season. But I used

(13:46):
to think that one or the other, the power play had the big advantage,
right because years ago in baseball theysaid in spring training the picture early
in the season, pitchers have ahuge advantage on the hitters because the hitters
haven't swung it live act and allof this stuff. And I kind of
had that attitude with powerplay penalty kill. Power play people want to play offense
and penalty kill is going to betougher and all of that stuff. Am

(14:07):
I wrong in thinking it thinking thatway? Or does it depend on the
season. Does depend on the teams. Where am I at here? Yeah,
I think a little bit is wehad a little bit of turnover this
year, so we do have newpower play units for sure. I think
penalty kill is pretty standard across theboard. Kind of guys that have penalty
killed in the past, they penaltykill and you kind of work off each

(14:30):
other. But powerplay it could takea little bit of time to kind of
get in sync with each other andmake the reads of each other. On
your power play units, you cansee we had some good looks and good
chances, but the amount of skilland talent that we have in our two
units this year, it's a matterof time before they start clicking and we
start seeing their true skill come out. And this part of that skill is

(14:52):
also just that you need to gruntand get to the front of the net,
right, There's a little bit ofthat always Sometimes early on power plays
you need more of a shooting mentalitythan the couple past mentality. So I
know Carl do makes that a bigemphasis is the three attacks per minute.
He wants He wants us attacking thenet constantly on the power play. You
have the man advantage obviously, you'reon the power play, so you don't

(15:16):
want to sit and pass it aroundon the outside the whole time. You
want to attack inside and get alot of it looks on the net early.
Yeah, just I just know bythe way that if you forget to
shoot, the crowd will remind youto shoot. Just so you know.
I mean, because because usually we'reabout fifteen or twenty seconds into a power
player working it around and the chorusof shoot comes flying out of the road.

(15:37):
That's true, That's true. That'sgreat. Is uh tell me about
Dennis Gurryanov. I think we're surprisedto see him here. He had a
rocket of a shot for the firstgoal of the season on Saturday night.
Is he the Forgive me for notknowing this off the top of my head,
but I'm trying to think. Ishe the first guy you played with
who you are coaching? Uh,well, for sure, I played with

(16:00):
him. Yeah, I'm trying tothink back Brinkley I played with for a
short stint in San Antonio, sohe might have been. And then Rocco
we kind of I've known Rocco fora long time kind of playing against I'm
sure if our past ever cross butfor sure, Gary was the first one
that I had full seasons with andhe was a rookie when I was with

(16:22):
him, so he's very similar toSvetch. Coffee is English and all those
things. When I first had him, he was very raw and very new,
So me and Travis Moren, who'snow an assistant coach in Texas,
definitely had him under our wing andhelped guide him through the American League his
first year. Well, he certainlylooked the part here the other night.
My goodness, what a shot totie the game up on Saturday night.

(16:47):
I mean, you look at thisteam on paper, and I know a
lot of things can happen and youcan't get too caught up into that,
but boy, the way the wayit went on Saturday and all of that,
and there's seventy one games to goyet, but it felt good.
And maybe that's just the anticipation ofthe season coming on too, But I
just think the overall of the balanceof our team. We had meeting coaches

(17:10):
meetings a little bit today and justyou can see the video from the weekend,
we have a smart hockey team andthat's good. Like there's a lot
of hockey sense throughout our room rightnow, and that's the stuff that sometimes
is difficult to teach, and ourguys haven't and they're making the correct reads
early in the year, and theyare implementing systems correctly, and those are
the positives of our team. Andthen the balance of our four lines that

(17:33):
we had. Every line just keptcoming and coming and coming. So those
things are key for us, especiallyearly on in the year. It's good
to see in Texas coming up.As you mentioned, they got a couple
of games this week, and you'llsee them Saturday night at six pm in
the home opener, So we'll Joeask you about opening night. But how
about the home opener? How specialis that? I think it'll be great
coming off last season our fans inthe playoffs, it'll be great to get

(17:56):
a game back at home and getthe support and have them see our new
guys, see the new pace.I think our team is very young,
but we're very fast and energetic andshould be entertaining games for sure. Looking
forward to it. Greg, thankyou as always for the time. We
appreciate it, and we'll see youlater this week. Guys. Admiral's assistant
coach Greg Raalo joining us and whathe said, and listen he said the

(18:19):
pace and all of that stuff.You notice it. And I'll tell you
what. Chicago did a nice jobputting together a team. And think about
this. This was they don't haveten scouts like NHL. They're not affiliated,
right, as long as they gotexactly that's just it. They have
Wendelly Young, and they have GeneUbriaco and and they did a nice job

(18:41):
putting together a team. This isme speaking. These are my sentiments.
I don't know that Chicago will havethe overall team speed. They were a
slow team. And it's not aknock against the players who are there,
but they just don't. They don'thave the number one draft pick who's twenty
one years old or twenty years oldthat's coming in, who's got all the

(19:03):
speed in the world, the secondwhatever. They don't have those guys.
They had to raid some of thetop players in the ECCHL. They had
to get guys who are twenty six, twenty seven years old, who look
at themselves as maybe not having afuture in the National Hockey League, but
they still want to play in thisleague. So those are the guys they
had to get. And again theyput together a nice team and they're gonna

(19:26):
win some games, but they're goingto have to control the puck and awful
lot, I think, because ifthey get if they try to get into
a foot race with anybody, they'regonna they have Roco Grimaldi. And that's
kind of it from what we sawhere the other night. And again,
no, this is completely not I'mnot saying this to be disrespectful. I'm
just saying that's the challenge. Wetalked so much about what we are.

(19:47):
We're curious to see how they handle, at least after one game. That's
what I saw. They're gonna bewell coached, They're gonna they have smart
players. The Hockey IQ down thereis off the charts with Schneider and Roco
and Donovan and Chris Ta and Imean all Corey Connicker. But I just
I just don't know that they aregoing to be able to go fifteen rounds

(20:08):
and rope adope somebody. I mean, well, that's how they're gonna have
to do it. They're gonna haveto rop adope somebody to hang in And
you know what, they darn neardid it here the other night. Yes,
actually, no question. So youknow you know one question he was
gonna I thought about asking us,how do you feel? I mean,
you basically got him outshot two toone at some point three to one.
Yeah, then we're down one nothing. Yeah yeah, I mean it's like

(20:29):
wow, yeah, you know,it's it's it's impressive. But that's that.
That's that even Q we saw lastyear right from this team. So
that's that's a nice thing to hopefullythat lasts one hundred games this year.
So we'll see. Okay, i'dget back into June. We're gonna take
a break when we come back.New Admirals defenseman Jake Livingstone will join us.
You're listening to Milwaukee Admiral Center Ice. Welcome back to Milwaukee Admiral Center

(20:52):
Ice with Michael Jahowski. I'm AaronSimms and joined now by a guy who
played his first AHL game on aSaturday night and and did really well well
and uh but will Joe it's nothis first professional game. I know,
you know, he signed one rightVille, right to Nashville out of man
Cato, uh and uh and playedfive games for the Press, had a
point and they have high hopes forhim. We have high hopes for him

(21:12):
here in Milwaukee. Obviously he's defensemanJake Livingstone. Jake, thank you so
much for the time. How's everythinggoing for you? It's it's a it's
a new situation. You've been inman Cato, maybe you were in dorms.
I don't know where at all,what your living situation is. But
now you've got to figure things outhere and uh, how's it going learning
a new city and all of thatstuff. After a couple of weeks,

(21:36):
it's good. Yeah, it's been. It's been a lot of fun.
I had to have my, uhmy girlfriend come out and help me live
for a place, because otherwise I'dhave probably just found some some crappy apartment
that I had to have with abed and uh, you know, in
a fridge. But she had tocome help me out and make sure that
I'm happy when I when we gohome and stuff like that. But it

(21:56):
was pretty much it was It's alittle different. In college. College we
had a house with roommates, butit's all it's a gated community with all
college students, so you kind ofknow where you're gonna live and you just
gotta you just got to sign alease. But here is like you have
to find where you're gonna live,what the price is going to be.
But like other than that, collegeis a little different just because of the
same price, same houses, everything. How is the opening day experience in

(22:22):
Chicago for you? What did youdid you enjoy that that first American Hockey
League game? Yeah, I meanit's always fun, Like, uh,
I'll never I'll never say I don'thave fun when I get to play the
game I love for a living.It's pretty it's pretty special, especially everybody
has a dream and aspirations right toto get to that next level, and

(22:42):
that's just kind of a this thisleague and everything is a stepping stone to
that, and it's it's still it'sgreat hockey, and it's it's a lot
of fun and the guys are alwaysgreat, so it's pretty cool. After
the anthem, there fireworks kind ofscared, scared the hell out of me.
But other than that, you nobody, it's that nobody expects the Spanish
inquisition line from the Monty Python movie, nobody expects. Nobody expects this in

(23:07):
Chicago. After that, But nowyou know, now you're savvy, Now
you now you get all of that. Where did where did all of this
start? How did hockey start foryou growing up, I started playing probably,
oh, I don't even know whenI was maybe three or something.
My brother he started when he wasfive, So I always wanted to fall
heavy as my older brother, andkind of once he started playing, I

(23:30):
had the itch. So I gotto play a little a little earlier than
he did. But yeah, it'sprobably around five. I was in Salmon
arm at that time, and thenI played minor hockey all the way through
Creston and Creston, British Columbia andthis, you know, small house hockey.
It was never everybody wants to playin the NHL, but it wasn't
really realistic until probably around college andgoing into juniors and stuff like that.

(23:53):
That's such an interesting thing, right, Like you and I were talking here
a couple of weeks ago, itman Cato has churned out a lot of
players, specifically the last let's sayeight to ten years, to the National
Hockey League that I don't know that, like you said, I don't know
that they were on anybody's draft boardswhen they were fifteen, but they certainly

(24:14):
have proven to be quality, qualityNHL players since then. Is that one
of the reasons that Man Cato appealedto you. Yeah, I mean I
think that that was probably the biggestreason. And obviously the coaching staff that
was there. They are now atWisconsin and are pretty close by here in
Madison. Right at the time,they were really good like Todd cannot Darren

(24:37):
Blue, Mike Caseeings, Darren Blue, and Todd Connott. They're kind of
the recruiters and they do a reallygood job of finding late bloomers. And
we've had I could lift off fifteenguys that are late bloomers that ended up
being all Americans in man Cato andyou know, going to play pro hockey
somewhere, So that aspect of arecruiting and finding the right guys, and

(25:00):
then I think after once you getthere, Uh, Coach Hastings does a
phenomenal job, and so does Nodder. He runs the d and they do
like he will forever be the hardestcoach that I ever played for. But
I wouldn't be anywhere where I amwithout him. And then his knowledge for
the game and helping me develop andnot forcing me to play one way,

(25:22):
but allowing me to play the wayI want to play and the way and
he just kind of guides you.He doesn't tell you what he wants to
do. He tells you what hewants to do, but he doesn't force
you to do it. He justhelps you, guide you and prepare you
for the next level. And likethat, I will. I give the
world to that coaching staff. Imean they were They were awesome for me,
and to this day I still talkto them. I tried to get
out a couple of Sundays ago totheir their opening weekend there in Wisconsin,

(25:45):
so I could go catch up witha couple of my old teammates and the
coaching staff, but I never didget the chance. You know what you
said though about about churning out theseguys. One of those guys his dad
played here. His dad was anabsolute legend, Dave Mackie. Mackie is
one of those guys that turned intothis all world defenseman at Mankato and found
himself in the National Hockey League.Yeah, exactly. He was one of

(26:07):
those guys that you know, hewas getting healthy, scratched his nineteen year
old yeer in the USHL and hada really good twenty year old year in
the USHL, and then came onto man Cato and just kind of blossomed
from there. And like I said, like, they don't force you to
play a certain way, but theyguide you. And that's kind of the
biggest things, allowing players and guyslike him and myself and HEROSI like guys

(26:29):
like that. They just allowed usto be ourselves but helped us progress that
got us ready for the next level. So after three years at Mancato,
you decided to turn pro and youyou you're You're a free agent. That
is that? Is that what happened? Yeah, I mean it was probably
not getting drafted, like I said, and not getting drafted at the time
when I was eighteen and I waslike, I'm probably not going to the

(26:52):
NHL, so I wasn't really tooconcerned about it. But honestly, that's
the best thing that ever happened tome, not getting drafted and being able
to choose a player where I wantto be, in a place that wants
me, in a place that hasopportunity. And that's what I found in
Nashville. And I'm so grateful thatI made the choice I did, and
it was it was pretty easy forme because of the people that they have
in this organization, from top tobottom, So who is who who does

(27:15):
the sale selling? Then? Likethat, like you have basically they're they're
trying to sell their wares, right, they're selling that we're the best place
for you, We're the best allof that stuff. Right. It's a
big sales job. You you needsome first stuff, You need some strong
people around you, family, advisors, whatever it might be. Uh,
maybe all of the above. Butwhat was it about the Nashville sales pitch

(27:37):
that made you think Nashville is theplace? I think it kind of had
a lot to do with, uhbeing pretty family, aren't it, and
like caring about the people. I'mbig into that, And that was huge
at college too, Like like Isaid, like Hastings was the hardest coach
probably all ever have in my entirelife. But at the same time,
like he'd called me in his officeand say, hey, like are you

(27:59):
doing all right? Everything's all rightlike at home, like stuff like that,
Like little things like that that goesa long way and people's success.
And I found that here in Nashvilleand Milwaukee, like everything from top to
bottom. Like I said, it'spretty it's pretty tough too, Like the
sales pitches are always you gotta takeit with a grain of salt too,

(28:19):
right, Like, and I foundsome teams promised the world, and I
knew that them promising the world wasn'ttrue because Hastings has had players that have
moved on and have been promised theworld and never got those things. So
what I wanted from them was themto be honest with me, like this
is what's gonna this is how it'sgonna be, this is how you're gonna
have to be, and this ishow this is where we see you and

(28:41):
stuff like that, and that's likeI was, like, the biggest thing
for me was honesty, and likeI don't need you to tell me I'm
gonna come in I'm gonna play topfour minutes in the NHL right away,
because I knew deep down, likeI know that that was not the case,
and that's usually not the case unlessyou're a Connor Burdard or you know,
like guys like that. Right.So once the team did that,
it was kind of like, allright, I'm not doing that. But

(29:03):
it's pretty tough to you know,stay humble about it when you have all
the GMS flying in the mad Cato, all these people coming to meet you,
and giving you these pitches. Buthonestly, with most like connected with
Nashville's uh like upper management staff andall the recruiters, like great Dreshel he
did an awesome job, Jeff Kelthylike stuff like that. They were just

(29:26):
they were always present and that kindof that goes a long way with me.
Like stuff like that. Yeah,how would how would you describe your
game? You know, you gotthe fans that are gonna get a chance
to you know, some fans aregonna get a chance to see it for
your first time here on Saturday night, and talk up a little bit about
your game. What what? Whatdo you pride yourself on? What tip
of defenseman are you? I'd sayI've always been had a super offensicide to

(29:52):
my game. I've enjoyed that andI love getting points and scoring goals and
like everybody else does. But Iknow that in my label, there's a
label called defenseman. So I alsoI also take a lot of pride and
defending. And you know, I'vealways always enjoyed playing at the other team's
top lines and having that pride andnot allowing them to be as best as

(30:14):
they can be. So I'd say, like, definitely a two way guy.
I've played on the penalty kill mywhole life to power play, Like,
I just think that I'm a prettywell rounded defenseman that you know needs
work on both ends still. Butat the same time, I think two
way defenseman is kind of what you'regonna get for me. Well, and
I'm sorry, go ahead, no, I was just gonna say your your
stats would back that up, right, and you said you said it,

(30:36):
man Cato. They encourage you toplay h and just play. And one
of the top scorers among the blueline and also one of the top shot
blockers on the blue lines. SoI mean, right there, I think
it shows that that's your that's inyour that's on your resume. Yeah,
absolutely, And I think I takepride and blocking shots like I think there's
nothing more that kind of gets memore excited than when you block a big

(31:00):
shot and like the bench gets firedup for it, you know what I
mean. Like, guys has tobe credit for little things like and that's
why I think that Mankato, theydid a really good job of that.
Like it wasn't all the fancy goalsthey give credit to. They give more
credit to the little things that it'slike, hey, you did this really
well, Like we love that.Like it was more they let you know
the little things and then you startto figure it out, like, hey,

(31:22):
this is what I need to do. And I'm not going to be
Quinn Hughes in the NHL. It'sjust not how I play like I need
to. I do the little thingslike block shots, be on the Pemiley
kill and you know, work myway that way. Yeah, I just
you know, I'm still amazed atthe shot blocking. I mean, I
when I watched when I watch ourteam, when I watched hockey, and

(31:45):
you know, you might have shotshot block and shot block and itthing goes
on versus ten, twelve, fifteen. It's unbelievable. I mean, it's
a small percentage of the shots getto the goalie where they did a few
years ago. I mean, what'sthe thought problem? I mean, I
mean, I you know, Ihappen to think it's a little bit crazy,
But what's the thought process of divingin front of a guy that's firing
up a you know, ninety fivemile an hour shot. Yeah, I

(32:07):
mean, obviously it's something that youdon't really think about in the moment.
It's just kind of like, thisis my job, this is what I
should do, So you kind ofdo it. And then obviously, like
you earn a trust and a typeof level of like enthusiasm from your goalies
that enjoy it. And like Isaid, when you hear the bench and

(32:27):
all that stuff, like everybody promotesit, you know what I mean.
So it's just like it's a goodthing. Everybody like you get noticed for
things like that. Like there's nota whole lot of there is a lot
of guys, but there's also alot of guys that could probably play at
certain levels, but they don't dothe little things like that that cost them
careers, cost them millions of dollarsin their bank account because they won't do
the little things right. Jake,we can't wait to see you on home

(32:51):
ice on Saturday night at Panther Arenasix o'clock against the Texas Stars. Thanks
so much for doing this here tonight. We appreciate it. Best of luck
and we'll see you at the thinYeah. Thanks, guys, I look
forward to Jake Livingstone, Admirals Defenseman. We're going to be joined by Admiral's
President John Greenberg to tell us aboutopening night festivities. That's coming up next.
You're listening to Milwaukee Admiral Center Ice. Welcome back to Milwaukee Admirals Center

(33:13):
ICE with Michael Jehowski. I'm AaronSimms and opening night, the home opener,
i should say, is coming upon Saturday night, six pm against
the Texas Stars. To talk aboutthat and much more. As the president
of the Milwaukee Admirals, John Greenberg, you were there on Saturday night in
Chicago. Go want to know eachweek, that's what you gotta do here,
it's college football. But what yourthoughts on what you saw out there

(33:38):
from the visiting team now the hometeam coming up on Saturday. Yeah,
I wasn't sure what to expect becausewe didn't know what in the world to
make of Chicago, right, ButI thought that our guys played a really
good game. The speed was noticeable, you know, I'm not sure if
it was this more of one speedfrom one side and less of speed for
the other, but our guys playedwith good pace. Really, I thought

(34:01):
controlled the puck for a good portionof the game. Getting a little more
traffic in front would probably may haveneeded an extra goal or two along the
way. Penalty kill was great.I thought the referees may have been a
little over eager to uh get themselvesinto the game, and very demonstrative too

(34:27):
with their calls. Yeah, Imean when you get an unsports but like
the first penalty of the year,that that's really somebody trying to, you
know, show that they're out there, I guess, but I don't want
to get fined, so we're gonnajust leave it at that. So I
thought that was great. I enjoyedwatching uh faders fetch golf play. I
thought that that was uh, youknow, I had never seen him play

(34:51):
a game before because when he gothere last year, he was never really
out there and he was noticeable,and I thought that was great. So,
you know, between that and Ijust I thought you could see some
maturity from Yarrow in the net andsome really really good five alarm saves out
there. So but you know,it was good to kind, I think,

(35:14):
for the guys to play somebody elsein anger, you know. And
now we'll take a week off andget ready for the next one. So
how excited are that year? Well, this will be my my nineteenth season
and my eighteenth opener. Obviously,the one year we didn't play toss,
that one out the window and comingoff of last season and the excitement that

(35:34):
was built here all the way intoearly June. Yeah, I can't wait
to get started again. I thinkthis team is very much capable of getting
back to June hockey again, andI think that's going to be, you
know, a really good thing tosee. And I'm excited to play in
just in front of our fans,in our front of our building and put
on our show and do the thingsthat that we do really really well here

(35:57):
and excited to you know, getthat that enthusiasm back of the building.
I would love to have the crowdbe like it was of the playoffs October.
It was unreal. You know.You know what's funny is and John
Greenberg, Admiral's president, joining us. I didn't even consider the playoff run
going into this season, right.It just it's kind of two separate animals.
But I know there's a bu therewas a buzz, and there is

(36:20):
a buzz and and Greg Ravell pointedit out. He's like, I can't
wait to get back in because ofhow good the fans were in June.
So Greg, Greg said that earlierin the show, and that's again,
I didn't think about it until Gregsaid it and what you just said.
I my goodness, what a memory? What a memory? Fans were so
good and so into it, anduh uh, that's just that atmosphere.
You know. You want to bottlethat, Yeah, and you want to
bring that out every single game,and uh, you know it's that it's

(36:45):
hard to do that, but I'dlove to be able to. I was
gonna say, how do you howdo you do that? Because they're not
all going to be right, Likewe get into we get into February and
it's it's not gonna be it's notgoing to be necessarily all of that on
the line, right, thirty sixnights of putting on the show and trying
to create that type of intensity.Yeah, Yeah, there's gonna be some

(37:06):
nights where it's a little flat,you know, but we try to minimize
those to the best of our ability. And I think once you start to
build the momentum and crowds, youknow, kind of build on themselves that
way. Yeah, I think,you know, then there becomes an expectation
of how much fun this is.Like if you were in a playoff game
last year and you didn't have funand you were really into it. I'm
not sure what you were. Imean, you'd be calling these games forever.

(37:29):
Will join and John you too,between the two between baseball at the
major league level and this, Like, you didn't need the artificial stuff whatsoever
for the playoff game. You didn'tneed to play the ramones or or something
like that to get people going.They were they were students, they knew
what was going on. That wasa lot of fun. Not saying that
it's not fun in February. I'mjust saying that it was a different animal.

(37:53):
Oh there's no question, right,there's no question about it. I
mean it was you know, butyeah, our fans are so passionate.
Yeah, and they really really are. Like like when I said the greg
about shoot right, yeah, yeah, I mean, if if you didn't,
if you didn't just throw up thefirst shot in the par play in
the first fifteen seconds, everyone's goingto let you know. Yeah, we

(38:16):
had all kinds of assistant coaches goingshoot right right, exactly right. So
what what are we doing opening night? If if we can give are there
any surprises? Are there any thatwe don't want to talk about or anything
like that? Well, uh,you know, we'll be doing some of
the things we always do. Youknow, everybody gets a bangnet schedule thanks
for our good friends with PEPSI,so that'll be, you know, a

(38:38):
great thing to take home and throwin the fridge. So you always don't
when we're playing get here early.You know, I always tell you to
be here for the warm up.You know, the guys to have that
energy when they go on the icefor the first time here. That's gonna
be a lot of fun being yourseeds for the introductions. I think the
open video that we've done this yearis unlike anything we've ever done before here.

(39:00):
You know, when there's makeup artistsand professional actors involved, you know
that you got something special. Aset was built, the whole nine yards,
so I can't wait to see thefinished product. I saw that,
you know, in progress, butI haven't seen the finish, so I'm
looking forward to that. But allthat and then just a you know,
being here to celebrate the return ofhockey again. I think it's it's just

(39:23):
a really special and energetic and funnight to be around. You know,
a lot of buzz about Tesla.I mean, you know, even even
our producer, you know, youknow, Jeff, Jeff Jeff, Jeff,
We're going to be producerless on thatnight because because Jeff's gonna be here
enjoying enjoining Tesla then in the front. Yeah. Yeah, so Tesla.
It's great to uh to bring themin. That's the first time we've had

(39:45):
them in our concert series and hugelypopular at Summer Fest this summer, big
crowd there, and they sounded great. I listened to it for a little
bit and I was like, Hey, this is pretty good. And John
Bitterer, our VP of ticket sales, has been hoping that we could do
this show for a long time anda lot of reasons to bring me in,

(40:07):
Tesla, and that's gonna be agreat way to kick off the you
know, the postgame concert series.I will break the news that The Badger
Band, we haven't announced it yet, is coming back on Saturday, January
the twentieth, so the week beforeTesla, The Badger Band will be joining
us. So we've got three othershows that we're going to be announcing here
over the next few weeks and afull concert lineup, and to go with

(40:31):
all the other great entertainment, we'regonna be doing their course of the year
real quick. In the last fortyfive seconds we have. I think it's
our third home game. It willbe our Veterans Day night, right,
our salute to the military, Novemberfourth, November fourth, and that's always
one of the best nights of theyear, it is, for sure,
and we're glad that we're able tofind a data to do that. We're
gone on Veterans Day this year aroundthe road somewhere, so we are glad

(40:54):
to get it in on November fourth. All active military and veterans free tickets
go through the USO and they'll getthe information to us and we will help
you get into the building so wecan honor you. Face off six pm
on Saturday night as the Admirals openup the home schedule against the Texas Stars.
Can't wait, can't wait. Thankyou Eric, thank you John.

(41:15):
We're'll take a break and wrap thingsup. Next. You're listening to Milwaukee
Admiral Center Ice one final time tonightMilwaukee Admiral Center Ice with Michael Jahowski.
I'm Aaron sim So the home opener, I don't know if people haven't heard
in this show. The home openeris a Saturday night six pm against the
Texas Stars at UW Milwaukee Panther Arena. We want you there. Obviously there's

(41:38):
nothing like Opening Night. But thatbeing said, we will also have the
game not only here on the radioon the Big nine twenty in your iHeartRadio
app, but Mark Van Gilder willjoin me once again this season. It'll
be the first of our schedule oftelevision games as well on My twenty four.
So very excited to be back withmy twenty four partnering with them,
and we'll have that for you sixpm on My twenty four at absolutely,

(42:00):
I tell you what. And it'sso much fun. And then having them
as a partner and really being ableto expose our game to to to everyone.
It's been great. Yeah, it'sbeen a great partnership. There's no
doubt about that. So Opening nightfor you. In our last thirty seconds,
what does it mean to you?Oh, just extending I mean it,
just I mentioned last week, Ihave butterflies. I'll be all like,

(42:22):
I'll be jumpy, I'll be I'llrun to run up to my booth
that I normally get into my boothabove an hour and ten minutes early.
I'd like to get up to probablytwo hours early. And just yeah,
absolutely and then you crash. No, you know, literally pretty much high
throughout the entire game. It's somuch fun. I mean it is.

(42:43):
It's I mean, you might havethe next best gig, but I tell
you what, it's I got thebest gig. Yeah, yeah, I
agree, I got it pretty good. We got to wrap things up.
Thanks for listening tonight to Milwaukee AdmiralCenter ICE