11/13/23 - Admirals Center Ice

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Hello and welcome to Milwaukee Admirals CenterIce with Michael Jahowski. I'm Aaron Sims.
The Admirals go two and one lastweek, and we'll score sixteen goals
in the span of three games,lots of action on the ice in the
last three contests. It was incredible. I mean the offensive juggernaut kicked in.
Yeah, it really did. LikeI said right before we went,
I said, I guess all whatyou and I have to do is complain

(00:21):
about something. It happened seven,four and five, the number of goals
the last couple of games, andagain the Admirals go two and one over
this last week. To talk aboutthat and much more. Head coach Carl
Taylor coach, thanks for the time. How's everything going today after this last
week. Yeah, everything's great.No, we're just getting ready for this
busy weekend, the three and threewe have coming up. It's funny how

(00:43):
you go. It always seems togo every year zero to sixty. Right,
You play a game, you playa game once every week, and
then all of a sudden, here'ssix games in ten days or something like
that. It always happens that way. Yeah, we've had no flow to
our schedule, that's for sure.It wasn't definitely wasn't designed by the coaching
staff. It's been very erratic,So it is what it is. The

(01:04):
schedule is always a schedule, andthere's good and bad times about it,
but it'll be good to get someaction. But three and three is a
very taxing event for anyone to haveto go through. How do you approach
that with your players? Certainly they'veall played back to backs. We just
played back to back here a coupleof days ago. But how do you
approach three and three or do younot even talk about it? Because you've

(01:25):
said many times, if you don'ttalk about it, it's not an issue.
Yeah, most of the guys probablyhaven't done a three and three coming
from junior or from college. Theyplayed two games a week or three games
a week with a mid week orso. There'll be a new experience for
the young guys, but that's justthe way it is. They got to
figure it out, and like yousaid, you do have to be careful.
It's only becomes a bigger deal ifyou make it a bigger deal.

(01:48):
So we just have to make surethat we're prepared. They're getting information from
the older players and understanding how wego about our business. But you can't
be trying to save anything for thenext day or else you're going to lose
the day that you're so coach,you score fourteen in your first seven and
then you score sixteen in your lastthree. What what's different? What what
happened in the last three that didn'thappen in the previous seven? And I

(02:12):
know we scored goals, but whatwhat's what's what's different? Well, outside
of the guys finishing better, we'vestill left a lot on the table.
But I think as a group,we focus on our ozone play and some
of our structure and how we cantry to create more, how we can
hold onto pucks longer, how wecan have some more ozone time and the

(02:36):
cover pucks. So I think that'sbeen a bit of a positive thing that
has improved. But also in thefirst games when we weren't scoring, we
were doing lots of good things,we just weren't finishing. So our ozone
time was down, our interior opportunitieswere down. But now we're getting a
better read, better numbers in thoseareas, and funny enough, look there's

(02:58):
a correlation. We started score Admiral'shead coach Carl Taylor joining us at Milwaukee
Admirals Center. Icy. Also,we've talked about and you called me out
here the other day because we didn'ttalk about the power play in the pregame
show on Saturday, but we cantalk about it now. It scored and
it was a huge, huge goal. And on top of that, you
didn't lose any momentum really on thepower play on that Saturday night game against

(03:22):
Texas. Yeah. Well, thenumbers don't look great right obviously, but
we haven't had many opportunities on it. It's a it's interesting. Dallas is
one of the best teams in theNational Hockey League. I think you're at
eight percent on the power play tostart the year, and then last night,
unfortunately for the Minnesota WHI, wehave five for five for eight on

(03:45):
the power play and all of asudden they go from eight percent to twenty
percent. So early in the yearthese numbers will adjust accordingly. With that
being said, we did score atimely power play goal the other day.
We didn't make some changes on itbased on personnel, and in the end,
if people are not going to executethe way I want him to,
then we'll find the people that will. So sometimes it's receiving the coaching and

(04:11):
executing the plan, and sometimes it'sjust the lack of opportunity. So we
need to find a way to getmore power plays, and I think part
of that is spending more time inthe offensive go Yeah, no doubt.
And one of the guys that hadan assist on that power play goal was
Kevin Wall And he's a guy feelinghis way through his first year as a
professional. But mile my, hewas effective here the other night. The

(04:33):
point notwithstanding, he was an effectiveplayer for you here on Saturday evening.
Yeah, he played well, andhe's played well. He's played three other
games too. He played very welland his third game he was just okay,
but he was fine in it.So he's a young guy finding the
way, but he played very well. They look like a guy that was
trying to make a statement with hiseffort in his recovery when there was a

(04:57):
mistake made. But he's also agentleman who has lots of game and has
an opportunity to build what he's doneto this point. But he's definitely a
player has a lot of promise.We've talked to Carl about Naver and Mutter
quite a bit, and he's outthere he stole the pocket and led to
the gurry on off goal, orintercepted the pass and led to the gury

(05:19):
on off goal. But this weekendhe was I know you had said you
wanted him to be kind of apest player out there, and he started
to show a lot more signs aboutthat here in the last few games.
Yeah, much is a work inprogress, and there's he made a couple
of really nice plays for goals thisweekend, offensively for assist and he's just

(05:41):
trying to find his game on ashift by shift consistent basis so that he
can develop it and it can berepeatable. So the old scientific question can
you repeat the performance? So hopefullywe're working going through that path. We
will be working towards that with thenevern and just focusing on his shifts and

(06:02):
over this week with our trending block, will definitely be sitting down and go
over some stuff to find the goodand to try to eliminate the bad and
try to get a more consistent effort. But definitely some steps forward this week
at a times What is this weeklike for you now? Again? We've
got several days before the three andthree, So is it a day of

(06:24):
hard conditioning and then you lighten up? How do you handle practice going into
a three and three? Yeah,you got it. You've got to give
them some rest to make sure you'regetting prepped for the opportunity. But three
and three is a lot of action, a lot of tight turnaround. The
nice thing is we play the oneteam twice on the back end, so
your pre scout is your or yourpostgame recap is your pre scout for the

(06:46):
next day. From a coaching perspective, but for the players, it's all
about trying to prepare the right wayand trying to get yourself ready. You
know, today was a lighter day. We had Jackie and our skating coach
who did a bunch of power skinningindividually with the guys. So it's a
less physical day, but some learning. We'll have a couple of regular practices
and probably Thursday is going to belighter day off as we try to make

(07:11):
sure we got the energy full forthe weekend. You get to your first
look at Rockford this this Friday nightin Rockford. What what have you seen
out of them on film or ontape or on whatever we have in person
in a case, Yeah, yeah, yeah, No. Rockford's a good
team. They're very fast, They'revery quick. Their power play has been

(07:31):
striking well this year. They havea lot of young prospects that are one,
two, three years in and sothey have a bunch of group of
young players that are trying to buildwith. I think they're going to be
a difficult team to handle this yearand a difficult team to face of the
season proceeds. Obviously, Chicago isin to rebuild and some of the young

(07:55):
guys have stuck with them, butthe other players are in the American League
and building and trying to trying tolearn and grasp the league. But they
also have a few players that havebeen there for a while. They're knocking
on the door. So I thinkthey're going to be a very good team
and a very difficult team to playagainst throughout the season for our whole division.
Why that Texas team though, theycan sure skate huh. Yeah.

(08:18):
They're fast, there's no question aboutit. And that rink and is definitely
a place where they're never out ofa game. We've come back late when
I was coaching there, a numberof times, the energy and the crowd,
having a full building behind you andI can really assist you. And
they do a quite quite a goodjob with that in Texas in Cedar Park,
with the team and with the businessside of things. So yeah,

(08:41):
it's a very fast team that cancounter. And you know, the second
game, we basically had our waywith them and then we just the last
six minutes of the second period startedturning pucks over on hozone entries and doing
things to fuel their offense. Thatdefinitely made it ug refer so when we
had the game in hand. Solessons to be learned, But that's what

(09:01):
happens when you have a young team. Well, and you did learn and
you end up that goal from CamelBoy. They they walked away from I
think they were all assuming he wasgoing to shoot, and credit to him,
he had his head up and walkedall the way in there on that
game winner. Yeah, I wishI could say it's a good thing he
listened to me, but I didn'thave much to do with that other than
throwing him over the board. Sono elital offensive player and capitalized in a

(09:24):
critical moment. And know Kimmy's hada bit of a slull start in his
eyes production wise, so definitely happyfor him and the weekend he had,
but also to get that game winnerin a critical moment. Very good,
coach, will let you go.We'll talk to you on Friday night.
Gay, So good, guys,Thank you. Was head coach Carl Taylor.

(09:45):
The Admirals going two and one lastweek, and as we talked about
three and three this weekend, firstwith Rockford, first time we've seen them.
And by the way, Carl hasseen them in person. His nephew,
Nolan Allen, was a first roundpick who plays for the ice Hawks.
So Carl went down a few weeksago, a couple of weeks ago
to with his family and watch themplay. And so yeah, he got

(10:07):
to see them in person, andhe tried to take it in as a
fan and as a proud uncle anduh and uh mis sure there was a
little bit of scouting going out.Is wrong to bring in a legal pad,
uh you know, one of thosedo the uh yeah, get your
get your zoom. Nowadays, whenyou say zoom, everybody thinks about the
app and the on your computer andeverything like that. But those little cameras,

(10:28):
they were about the size of aphone a little thicker, but they
and they ran on a couple oftriple A batteries or double A batteries and
those were called zooms. And youcould pop the thing out and it would
have a USB and you could insertthat into your in the side of your
computer and download whatever video you had. But you could have yeah you had
that little I still have one.Get that little video and and yeah,
do that under your arm and anduh, next thing, you know,

(10:50):
you might have this appruter film orsomething. Absolutely and what Belichick was doing,
right, you can go tape thepractices of the opposition. Yeah,
things like that. Well, Ilook back at the last couple of years.
I mean, you know, Texasscoring three goals down the stretch to
beat this lot game last year.Yeah, and you know, just end
up just you know, watching thegame, and look at listening to the
games here, and when watching thegames here, it was like, you
know, you feel comfortable and allof a sudden boom, you know,

(11:13):
you're you're you're losing or it's died. Yeah, you know, especially down
there, so many weird things.It never seems like it's a except for
a couple of playoff games last year, it seemed like it was sort of
in control, especially the game fivelast spring. Yes, when the Admirals
came out and scored four in thefirst period, and then you start to
breathe a little bit, and thenthat's when Yarro got stuck on that poke
check and trying to slide out andthey scored. And I think he said

(11:37):
the best thing was it was forto one, not four to two or
something. Yes, absolutely, butyou'd always have to for Scott Ford and
I said this after the game.You have to fight. You have to
just keep swinging until the final bellin that building. You always do because
they always find a way to getone in somehow, some way, and
they and the setup they had itwas perfect. It was perfect. Obviously

(12:01):
it worked. They score from theleft circle, a wide open net and
forces the overtime. And fortunately forthe Admirals there, Camel had the defenders
all run away from him like theywere had the same charge on a magnet.
You know, they're just just repelledby him and wow, and he
lifts it into the net. Soit was pretty great. Wow, that's

(12:22):
just incredible. But you know,and we've always we've been such a good
road team over the last Yeah,twenty three and ten last year. Gosh,
it's incredible. Yeah, no,it's uh and it's I'll tell you
what. It's fun to win anywhere, and it's it's fun to win in
Texas certainly, and it'll be funif the Admirals can sweep this weekend here
against Rockford and Chicago, who isdown on its luck. But they got
a five nothing win here yesterday,so cranking. We'll see how they get

(12:46):
going here. If that gets themgoing. They've got a couple of goaltenders
Kincaid and Shield that can play,and they've certainly got names. But you
know, where where are they atin their in their careers is the thing
and who can be the motor thatgets it going. I you know,
you look at that team and tome, with Chicago, Isaac Radcliffe has

(13:09):
a heck of a chance to bea major driver on that team because he's
a younger guy, because he wasa higher draft pick, and he has
some NHL games. And there werea lot of guys, don't get me
wrong, a lot of guys onthat team that have some NHL games,
But Ratcliffe has the size and Imean it was surprising to see him sign
with that team, that an unaffiliatedteam. I figure he would. Still

(13:31):
he's the guy who's he's not aveteran. He doesn't have two hundred and
sixty games as a pro, Soyou can sign him. You can don't
have to worry about waivers back andforth, all of this stuff. You
don't have to worry about sitting ata veteran because if you put him in
the lineup, he's got some speed. Well, obviously we saw him firsthand
last year for a couple of months. Goals, big goals. He's he's

(13:52):
a nice player, and I thinkhe he's he's a guy. If he
you know, you got to gethim some help, obviously, But he
can be a driver down there asmuch as one can be from the wing.
You got Rocco, who's certainly adriver, and then see what else
can can happen. You know,col Schneider. He only has two points
so far on the season, whichI'm a little a little surprised about.
He was a healthy scratch one nighttoo, which is too bad. Matt

(14:16):
Donovan's having points wise a good season. So it'll be interesting to see Chicago,
especially on the back to back andthe first time on Saturday night when
they add when they are here onSendics Dog Day, absolute bring your dog
to the game Humans twenty dollars,dogs for five dollars, then part of
the proceeds go to Hawes of Waukeshaw. You can get your tickets at Milwaukee
Admirals dot com. It's always afun night, you know, it's it's

(14:39):
it's fun when you go to theNational anthemy on you your dogs just howling
there. Yeah, yeah, Andit's just a fun night. Yeah,
no doubt about that. So again, go to Milwaukee Admirals dot com find
out more about Sendics Dog Day comingup on Saturday night when the Admirals host
the Chicago Wolves here at UW MilwaukeePanther Arena. We're gonna take a break.
Troy Grosnik will join us next.You're listening to Milwaukee Admirals Center Ice.
Welcome back Milwaukee Admiral Center Ice withMichael Jahowski. I'm Aaron Simms,

(15:01):
joined now by Admiral's goaltender Troy Grossnick. Are going to jump right in.
Troy, I'm curious so many playershave such unbelievable memories, and I'm curious
about you about that? How goodis your memory because I bring this up,
the save you made in the secondperiod on Friday night, going right
to left, getting the glove out, and Frederick Carlstrom arguing that that was

(15:24):
a goal for him even though itwas in your mid I'm curious, where
does that rank in your top tenof saves of all time? If it
cracks your top ten? Uh,you know, I had a decent enough
memory when it comes to saves.I have a terrible memory when it comes

(15:45):
to the ones I give up,you know, so I forget about that's
but it's it's high up there.I mean, those are the kind of
ones that you know, the fullstretch gloves save. That's kind of the
you know, I guess if agoalie has to pick, you know,
but number one saves the way theway it looks. Uh, it's kind

(16:07):
of high on the list, Ithink for most goalies. But yeah,
it's it's it's up there. Ithink there's actually one, and it was
when I was playing in San Joseand it was against the Admirals. That
was pretty similar. It was inSan Jose and and that at the time,

(16:29):
it was pretty high on my list. But I'll have to go back
and look because there aren't there aren'tmany of those games, obviously the Admirals,
and it would have been it wouldhave been in Uh, it would
have been it would have been thegame in Santos. I remember talking about
it with somebody and we tried tofind the video and it might have been

(16:52):
gone forever. But it's uh,yeah, it's high on the list.
There's a couple other ones too,a couple of Sports Center saves, but
that were high. But that one, you know, just the I think,
I think the just because the waythat play happened, there wasn't a

(17:15):
ton else I could have done beforeit. Yeah, that you know that
I didn't. You know, sometimeswhen as a goalie, when you make
a save like that, there's somethingyou did before that kind of puts yourself
in a bad position. And thatone, it wasn't so much. There
was kind of a screenplay. Itgot past hit something in front and and

(17:40):
I didn't even you know, Iwas still trying to look around the screen
to find the puck and then youknow, the kind of the goalie alarm
bells were going off in my headand as like this puck's gotta be somewhere,
and you know, kind of foundit the last second as it was
coming off a stick and just splitout and tried to make the save.
And so for that reason it's probablypretty high on the list. There's there's

(18:03):
other ones. I know, there'sone again from my Santels eight Days that
I know it ended up being onSports Center and stuff, but I kind
of misplayed a play before and uhand making yeah exactly, and it was
kind of like it was a reallyawkward looking save that I think it made

(18:25):
it made it more special too.And then there's actually one that probably just
about nobody ever saw because it wasthe COVID year playing for Ontario in the
l A practice rink and I wentto play a pocket hit something and not
even the stanchions. It was onthe the whiter yellow of the board and

(18:48):
it kicked off right in front ofthe net and I had to go out
and make a diving stave that waspretty good too. But yeah, it's
uh, that one's that one wasdefinitely on the list now that we have
talked about that save, Yeah,well, and I'm curious, then,
are all the saves with the gloveare all the like you're the best goalie

(19:10):
saves are they all that way withthe glove with the kick of whichever hand
you catch with. Are they allthat way? Or are there some like
you see and you like you said, there there are somewhere mistake is made
or something and you have to dowhatever and win mil And did you do
a three sixty here the other day? By the way, uh? You
split around in the in the nethere the other on uh Saturday night?

(19:32):
I think, Uh. I mean, I know on one of the goals,
I got spun around, uh,and I almost made another save.
But it happens, you know thatthey run together. But the I would
say a majority of them my glovesaves though, yeah, like that's just

(19:55):
you know, that's that's the sexyone. You know, that's the left
fielder diving into the alley or something, right, Yeah, and you know,
like growing up playing baseball, likeI'll make a save. You know,
you don't get the chirp guys asmuch in the game as a goalie,
but you know in practice, likeyou make a diving gloves save and

(20:15):
you're like, oh, Jeter inthe hole, you know. But yeah,
I would say the majority of myglossa is the other one. I
think that you know, they're likethe paddle saves, you know, the
kind of last ditch desperation. Yeah, yeah, in the paddle back there

(20:36):
and just kind of swatted out ofmid mid air. Those are the other
ones that are cool, and madea few of those too, But I
think the glove, for sure,it just looks the best. It looks
the cleanest, and especially when youcatch it and just end the play right
then and there. I mean,yes, there's nothing better as a goalie.
Yeah, in silence everybody, right, especially on the everybody's just quiet.

(20:59):
Yeah, Oh that's the best serieah, like like it's yeah, you
know, it's like the whole crescendo, And especially when you get a guy
like I mean, there was abumber, like we end up losing the
game. But anytime you get aguy that's kind of like arguing like oh
that went in and you're like,no I didn't. That's right, that's
right, I got it right hereexactly. Yeah, you got to prove.

(21:22):
So are the good ones. SoI was watching the Sports Enter the
other night and they were talking abouthow defensive cornerbacks have to have a real,
real short memory, and then theyactually alluded to a great goaltender save
and then a great a bad goalthat went in. And how goaltender has
to have a real short memory whenit comes to goals. And you know
you're you know you're a little bitolder in your career, but as a

(21:44):
young goaltender and an old goaltender,do they still bother you the same amount?
And then how how long do youdwell on one? Well, I
mean ideally you let it go rightaway. I mean you know they're not
all the same. There's one likeyou make my stakes here, like I
think any goalie once you get tothe pro level, well even before then,

(22:04):
I mean you're a competitive person,right, and that you take I
don't care what kind of goal goesin it if it's a good goal,
bad goal. Like there's a there'sa part of you that takes it personally,
right, like they just did somethingbetter than you, So you do
you know, you take it personally. But like you said, like you

(22:26):
have to have the short memory.So I I have like I call it
like relax, release, refocus.It's just something that I go to,
you know, after any goal oractually after some big saves too, you
kind of take a deep breath.It's your relax and then like on the
axhale, you're releasing it and thenyou refocus. Sometimes there might be you

(22:49):
know, a stick slam or somethingthat goes before the relax, but that's
part of the process sometimes, Soget the frustrat and then yeah, it's
for me, it's the three hoursrelax, release through focus, and get
back into the game. And youknow, there's I think it's just like

(23:11):
anything you do, the more practiceyou have at it, the better you
get at it. So now whatis it like year eleven of playing pro
hockey and I started using it incollege actually, so I've gotten pretty good
at it and and just realizing nowis not the time to dwell on it.
We'll look at video later and wecan break it down more there.

(23:32):
But dwelling on anything that's happened inthe past while you're playing is not going
to do you an your favorites you'vebeen more than. The most important save
is the next one, So justtry to try to relax, release,
through focus, and then make thenext save. Treg gross Nick joining us
at Milwaukee Admirals Center ice. Youknow Scott Darling, the former Admiral's goaltender

(23:56):
Stanley Cup winner Uh, he's doingstand up comedy now, and he one
of his jokes and I'm paraphrasing here, but it's along the lines of as
a professional goaltender, they turned ona red light to make sure everybody in
the building knew that you screwed up. He said, Now I'm just going
in front of the people to dostand ups so they can all see how
I'm screwing up. I needed thatkind of negative feedback again, and it

(24:18):
was. It's a funny joke,but it's it's like it all the blame
is there, right, I mean, the goalies get the win, the
team, Yes, the team getsthe win, but the goalie at the
end of the day has the win, has the set like all the stats
are are goalie centric in this game. Will you and I we've talked about
this before on this show and inmany other occasions. You were drawn to

(24:40):
this position very young. Yeah.Yeah, And you know it's one of
those things. I mean, there'sso many you know, good sports quotes
when it comes to you know,like I think it's John Sally, like
the pressure makes diamonds, right andright. It's a very high stakes position.
Obviously, you know, you canthe goat really quick, and you

(25:02):
can be the hero too. Andyou know, I I try to you
know what, real quick you showedI'm sorry, erupt, you showed your
age by saying goat in the termsthat we knew of it, knew of
it ten years ago. Not thegreatest, not the greatest of all times
that people are using now. Thatwas gonna. I was gonna throw under
the bus to Simpson. But whenyou but you got in there quicker,

(25:22):
that was great. I'm like,well, all right, all right,
sorry about that. I just wantedto point that out because I I I
appreciate the use of the word goatis the uh the and the not hero
exactly. I appreciate that. Yes, no, yeah, it's uh.
It is just one of those positionsthough. And you it's funny to me

(25:44):
because that stuff that's happening outside rightand you know inside all all I'm trying
to do is, like I said, stop the next puck. Just give
the chance, the team a chanceto win. You know, some nights
it's gonna be pretty easy, uh, and some nights it's going to be
tough. But like the whole goalis, give the boys in front of
me a chance to win. Youknow, so sometimes you got to come

(26:08):
up with a few more big stopsthan other Knights. But that's all all
that's kind of going through your headin the game is make the next dave.
And you know, obviously some nightsgo better than others, and it
is it's just one of those positions. But it's pretty easy. You know,

(26:30):
a bad goal is pretty easy tosee. I don't think everybody necessarily
understands. There's sometimes where where stufflooks like it should be a save,
that it might be a little bitmore nuanced. But for sure, everyone
knows a really bad goal. Everyonein the building knows, like there's no

(26:51):
hiding at least you got a maskon. They can't see your full face.
But uh, that's uh yeah,It's just one of those positions where
it's kind of high stakes and youknow, it's it's something that that it's
definitely makes the position unique. AndI think it is one of those things
where if you don't have that youknow good and bad you know, big

(27:15):
save, bad goal, if youdon't have that ability to kind of shut
it off, like for me,it's those three hours, it's it's it
can snowball right like it can snowballany pretty quick. So that's why I
think that having that short memory isis definitely crucial. I think too,

(27:37):
when you when you said, uh, Darling's joke there reminded me back.
I want to say, I don'tremember who it is, but it's an
older goalie like Ken Dryden or JacquesPawn or somebody like that. You usuld
say, like, there's not manyjobs in the world that you know when
when you make a mistake, abig right red light goes off and everyone,

(28:00):
yeah, that's right, so youknow, it just it comes with
the territory. You just kind ofhave to block it out. Yeah,
no, I mean the goalie,the quarterback, the pitcher, like though,
those people are front and center andeverything, and yeah, they matter,
and those are the ones that arecredited. Those are the individuals who
are credited with wins and losses here. So it's it's certainly a big deal.

(28:22):
Troy Grossenik joining us, Let's talkabout this year's team. Fourteen goals
in the first seven games, sixteenthe last three. The defense had been
pretty solid. I think it's stillfairly solid. And do you think that
this last week the team's turning itaround a little bit here. Yeah,
I think it's it's one of thething that comes with the abs and flows
of the season. Right there's goingto be nights where we're putting up a

(28:47):
bunch of goals, and there's goingto be nights where we're not. And
we have to control what we cancontrol. I mean, I think there's
certain massacts of the game. LikeI said, that's super early in the
season, you're going to see kindof swing. And now for me,
like you hear, you know,especially with the Packers right now, like

(29:10):
that, the big thing is complimentaryfootball. Complimentary football, right, like
we got to play complimentary hockey,right, Like, we can't. You
know, we're struggling to score,so we can't go cheat offense. You've
got to be able to take careof everything in the d zone. Two
and we have enough talent where ifwe do take care of the d zone,

(29:30):
like those offensive chances we were gettingthe chances, they just weren't going
in, we don't have to cheatfor it. And now you know we're
potting the goals, like, wegot to make sure that we're taking care
of our own end too, andyou know that starts goal goal out right,
it's uh I think another thing Ithink people don't necessarily realize is you

(29:56):
know, they'll say defenseman goalies,like those guys keep the the puck out
of the net, will you knowthese days, like defensemen are important in
the offensive though, and forwards areimportant in the defensive zone too. You
know, it's the six man unitwhen we're in our d zone, and
it's something that I'm sure we're goingto be focusing on this week in practice.

(30:18):
And you know, I think youknow, the last three games,
those the teams we played Texas inToronto are both you know, those are
pretty good offensive teams, I thinkwhen when we just look at them on
their roster, and I think historicallytoo, so they were good tests for
us. I think there's a fewthings in the D zone that we kind

(30:40):
of got exposed, and you know, I think it's going to be highlighted.
It was already highlighted in video,and I'm sure we're going to be
harping on it in practice. AndI mean the goal is the same right
that complementary hockey like this pot youknow, four goals a night and keep
them to two and you're going towin a lot of games out about it.

(31:00):
Troy. Can't thank you enough forthe time as always really appreciated.
Well, we'll see you later thisweek. Sounds good. Thanks Simsey and
Loa. Thanks Troy, Admiral's goaltender, Troy Grossnick. Good stuff, really
good stuff. We're going to takea break when we come back. The
Admirals Director of Merchandise, I gotthat right, got that right, did
good deal? How about Admirals Directorof Merchandise Sarah Schumar is going to join
us. Yeah, sometimes we're notso good at titles. Yeah, got

(31:22):
a big roll of decks up here. We'll be back in a moment.
You're listening to Milwaukee Admiral Center IceWelcome Back Milwaukee Admiral Center Ice with Michael
Jahowski. I'm Aaron Sims, andwe mentioned that, well, lots of
things coming up, obviously, lotsof home games in the near future before
the holiday, right around the holiday. As a matter of fact, I'm
always fascinated to see new stuff inthe store all the time. Yeah,

(31:45):
it's almost like, you know,I'm kind of wondering where she stores all
the stuff in the building because yougo up there and it's like, wow,
it's fresh, never frozen. Yes, exactly, right, phenomenal.
It really is great stuff. Yeah, The Admirals Director of MERCHANTI Sarah Schumar,
joins us. Now, thanks fordoing this, thanks for having me.
Well that's as well just said,there's always new stuff. How does

(32:07):
that work? Well, like,are you constantly in catalogs in online?
Like I don't know, I seethat. I like that. Yeah,
I was wondering, like it's isit is something like you can there are
teams in this league that you cango to their pro shops and it's the
same shirt that's been there since nineteenninety four. That's not necessarily the case,

(32:31):
you know what. And I knowone of those people on one of
those teams until Sarah Schumer, wellyou know, Kim Sally did a nice
job, but before Sarah Schumer startedcoming in and changing stuff around all the
time. Yeah, And I tellyou what, it's unbelievable. It really
is, and the fans just loveit. I really like to and I
tell fans this all the time.I really try to have at least one

(32:51):
new thing with every game, andsome games like this upcoming game on Saturday,
we're in the process right now ofhanging three, possibly four new pieces
for the store. Really, doghas got a lot of money, not
even to mention our not even tomention our merchandise. That's that's will be
in the store or in the portablefor that game. I just I you

(33:14):
know, I'm a I'm a shopperwhen I go to other teams, when
I go to other events, andI like to I like to look new
when I go into other stores.I would like to see something fresh,
and that's what I try to dofor our fans here. Well. Obviously
you can get the jersey, thesweater right all the time, and whatever
variation might be out at the time, things like that. But I mean,

(33:35):
what what do you look at whenit comes to style or long sleeve,
short sleeve? Like what factors init? Is it what you hear
from fans or is it other thanthat? For sure, that's a big
part of it. It's definitely variety, you know. I like to have
there's some great sweatshirts in there thatare a little pricey because they're a great
sweatshirt. But I like to alsomake sure that somebody can walk in and

(33:58):
buy a T shirt for twenty bucksand any any single game. Definitely just
really looking for a variety of notjust styles, but also a variety of
price point. I always tell peopleone of the hardest things about buying is
not just getting things I like,because then the store would look like my
closet, right, So sometimes Ihave to say, ah, this isn't
necessarily my style, but I knowour fans will like it. And that's

(34:21):
that's always, you know, trickierthan you would think, because you know
you have an aesthetic or you havesomething that you have in mind. But
there's our fans are diverse, andwe have to have diversity in the store.
Yeah, Aaron mentioned it and heglossed over the jerseys. What is
the final date or have we passedit already to order a jersey that can
be personalized in time for Christmas?That is a fantastic question, and I

(34:42):
was just talking to our customizer thismorning about it. So we don't have
the final date yet, but itwill. We will post it all over
the world when it comes. It'llprobably we probably have a little bit more
time, but jerseys are are verypopular right now, so we're working hard
to get the ones done that wehave. And while we're talking about jerseys,
if you have been in the store, You've probably noticed that our third

(35:05):
jersey has not been in there yet, but we are yep. So we
have white jerseys and navy jerseys inall sizes from kids up to four X.
The faux back alternate jersey we areexpecting right around Thanksgiving. Okay,
so that is our goal right now. It's kind of be it's kind of
be really fun for you to havean owner that is so passionate about merchandise.

(35:30):
It is it is, you know, it's just incredible. And you
know the the amount of ideas hehas, and you know, and I
mean, you know, we're notright next to each other in the office,
and you know, he'll come acrossthe office and say, Sarah,
I really like this. What doyou think? And then you have to
be bluntly honest with him. Sometimeshe likes your answer, and sometimes he
doesn't correct. Yeah, yeah,some I get I get lots of emails

(35:52):
at random times of day, randomtimes of year, with with things he's
found other places that he likes.And that's great. That's feed That's as
much feedback as feedback from our fans. Our fans are the ones that are
wearing it and buying it and proudlysporting it all over town. So feedback
from all directions is important. Speakingof did you see John Greenberg the other

(36:14):
day tweeted the picture of Kevin Nashwearing the old Admirals logo and how about
that? That was something yeah ina recent picture. So Sarah Schumar joining
us the Admirals director of Merchandise.So we'll just say you said something about
the customizer. If I have somethingolder, can I bring that in too
and get it customized through you?Or is it something that we need to
purchase through the store. Usually,if it's an Admiral's jersey, I can

(36:37):
usually get it customized. I don'talways want to say absolutely. So somebody
pulls something out that either has threethreads left in it or is like,
I don't even know what that is. But usually if it's a jersey that
we've worn that we have the fontsfor, we can get it customized.
One thing that's always I was terrificis your selection of hats. I mean,

(36:59):
I mean between ball caps and winterhats. I mean the selection is
just increable. There's something for everybody. I like hats. You know me
outside of work and I'm usually wearinga hat. I wear this one about
eighty five percent of the time,the one with the refrigerator on it.
And I'm I'm I asked you beforeabout yeah some day, Yeah, someday

(37:20):
it will be this year, butsome you might wear it, Sarah,
but I will I no, no, I love the refrigerator and it's I
was I was giving a little alittle distance because I know that we will
wear it someday this year. Uh, it is not in the assortment of
specialty jerseys that will be wearing thisyear, but someday, Aaron, Yeah,
looking forward to it. We alllove the fullback jersey when we first

(37:40):
saw it, and I don't thinkit's surprised you that is extremely popular.
I mean, or has it?It is? No, it is.
And I think it's nice to havea different color of merchandise to work with,
you know, because you can onlyhave so much navy in your closet,
so it's nice to be able towork with a different color palette.
As well as the fact that thejersey itself is pretty dark. Cool.

(38:01):
That's one thing too that you cango since you have the opportunity to go
retro and you can get the differentblue or the different whatever the cream,
the whatever colors there might be.Yeah, it's fun. We have some
great logos. We have a youknow, fifty plus years of pretty great
logos. The the guy from theeighties into the nineties that everyone has different

(38:24):
names from him, but the Royaland Red is probably our most popular as
far as me putting it on merchandiseand it being popular to sell our most
popular of the older logos. Buteven just the variety of being able to
use like the ma from the sleevepatch or you know, just starting to
bring back some of the the lastGuy because he wasn't really retro yet when

(38:47):
I started, just starting to bringhim back a little bit. So it's
there's a lot of variety to workwith and it's a lot of fun.
My favorite thing in the world isseeing Admiral's merchandise out in nature. Yeah,
no care, And it's a credibleyou have the amount that you end
up seeing here. He really is. So I'm kind of a forgotten part
of your product line, as arethe trinkets, the pucks and the cowbills

(39:07):
and all this stuff. You havesomething for everyone, I mean, and
price points for everyone. Well,and I don't know that we've ever talked
about this on the show, Butdo you have pucks for every single game
that are specific to that game,because you know, we did that for
We tried that for a little bitlast year and it just wasn't something we
decided to go forward with. ButI do like if when we were a

(39:29):
specialty jersey or we have a specialtynight, for sure would like to like
to get some some pucks not necessarilydated, but like we had a home
opener puck, not necessarily dated,but when we wear our specialty jerseys,
I'll always be at least one ortwo pucks that match that jersey. Okay,
very cool. So your I mean, your advice to the fans.
With things changing all the time,being on the website every day, right,

(39:52):
come see me in the store everygame you come to the websites,
you're gonna see things on the websitethat aren't in the store, and vice
versa. It's just a logistical thing. I literally fifteen to twenty minutes ago
put a few more items on thewebsite, trying to beef it up a
little bit for the holidays, somethings that maybe I don't have room to

(40:13):
put in the store right now,but I already have in so I'm trying
to get some more variety on therefor the website for people that are doing
holiday shopping. There's a game Saturdayafter Thanksgiving. There's a bit a road
game on the Friday after Thanksgiving.So I'm curious what the Black Friday Cyber
Monday weekend. What does that looklike? Is should it all be online
as the store? Will you openon the game day. Obviously, the

(40:34):
store will be open for the game, and we'll definitely chalk full the store
with some newness for that weekend asfar as you know, specials, as
far as like a special pricing,we will have a couple of items online
that will just be online with somespecial pricing. Maybe a couple of other
things that we're working on. VeryTBD, very good. We'll keep paying

(40:55):
attention. Visit Milwaukee Admirals dot comto find out more. Sarah, thanks
for doing this, Thanks for havingme, Sarah Schumar joining us. We'll
take a break and come back andwrap it up. You're listening to Milwaukee
Admiral Center Ice one final time tonightMilwaukee Admiral Center Ice. It's a Hockey
Hall of Fame weekend. As manyof you know, Tom barosso Ken,
Hitchcock, Pierre Tourjeon, Henrik Linquiz, Pierre Laquah, and Carolyn Willette being

(41:16):
honored by the Hockey Hall of Fame. And when you think about it,
how many how many Hall of famersdo you figure you've seen come through this
area? Mentioned one here you wouldhave known hitch Yeah, certainly, definitely,
Yeah, lots of guys, right, Like, it's amazing to think,

(41:36):
Yo, who's eligible next year?Shay Webber, Yes, isn't that
amazing? How about that he couldbe and will likely be just the second
former professional Milwaukee player to be inthe inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame.
The only other one Bert Olmsted.Bert Olmsted. Bert Olmsted played for
the Milwaukee Chiefs in like nineteen fiftyshort the short lived the Chiefs. It

(42:00):
was a Blackhawks farm hand, tradedto Montreal and then Toronto, and he
was I believe he was the firsthead coach of the California Seals as well.
But he is the only player toever have played home games in Milwaukee
that is in the Hockey Hall ofFame. And Shay Webber is probably not
far from being the second which ispretty amazing. How about kudos that both

(42:22):
Badger hockey programs huh yeah rated numberone of the coach both ranked number one.
I texted Todd Moleski, our friendfrom the Wisconsin State Journal, I'm
like, is Mike Hasting's like thegreatest coach ever? And He's like,
well, the evidence is there thatmaybe he is. That's pretty amazing.
The Admirals have a three and threethis week, and their home on Saturday
night six pm against the Chicago Wolves. Will have all the games for you.

(42:44):
Visit Milwaukee Admirals dot com for theschedule. Thank you all for listening
to Milwaukee Admirals Center Ice tonight onthe Big nine twenty in your iHeartRadio app.