As part of a spectacular date night I went to the Ads game last night. I'm still not over the disgusting uniform and logo change, but that's another rant for another time.
The hated rival Chicago Wolves were in town and had brought with them a sizable fan base. There was a crowd of 9,000 at the game, which is about triple the number of fans that were there when the team was deep in post-season play last April and May.
So there was a lot of energy and we were expecting a lot of fighting, which surprisingly didn't happen.
The best play of the night occurred in the final minute or so. Chicago was down 3-2 and played much of the last few minutes without their goalie. Sheldon Brookbank was assessed a silly penalty and Milwaukee was playing, effectively, two men down. The defense was packed in and a shot was pushed through the center. Rich Peverley deftly intercepted the pass and pushed it straight back down ice for a short-handed open net goal. The beauty was in the handling of the shot, where Peverley cradled the puck, keeping it from bouncing off his stick and was able to shoot in one smooth motion. Beautiful hockey!
Earlier in the season we had gone to a pre-season Ads game and it could not have been sloppier. The team couldn't pass, couldn't put together plays and their puck handling skills were as smooth as freshman on his first date.
That was not the same team that took the ice last night. The passes were crisp and on point and the Ads finally looked more like the team that we watched go to the Calder Cup last season.
Football and college hockey have definitely taken my attention, so I had no idea that so many names were gone from this team. I understand that this is the life of a minor league team, but I was still aware that I recognized two names on the ice, and one was now playing for the other team.
Anyway, I won't do a big breakdown because I'm sure you don't care that much, but I will say that the Ads are worth the price of admission. I'm thinking they got a new marketing person this year because there are a lot more promotions and specials. It's a cheap night out for the family, there really isn't that much fighting and I really think it's worth it.
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3 comments:
You won the game and you're still complaining about the officiating? I guess you'll never be satisfied. Although I'm a Wolves fan, I didn't like the Brookbank penalty either. He, and the rest of the Milwaukee team, had been pulling the same thing all night. The officiating should have been consistent, i.e., you don't call things you've ignored all night in the last minutes of a tight game.
Patrick
ciachort.blogspot.com
I was pretty impressed with the officiating overall. Milwaukee/Chicago games are usually a free-for-all with tons of fights and cheap shots and there was none of that in this game. They found the good balance between calling too much and not calling enough and managed to never lose control of the game, which is something I've seen too little of in this league.
So, they have tripled attendance and you still have a problem with their uniform and logo change? Maybe you best get over it -- looks like the strategy is working.
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