The early session had 14 skaters and goalies Chet Pickard and Jeremy Smith. During drills, the line combinations were:

 

Gabriel Bourque-Blake Geoffrion-Mark Santorelli

Linus Klasen-Nick Spaling-Matt Halischuk

Kelsey Wilson-Mark Van Guilder-Ryan Flynn

 

The defensemen were Jon Blum, Julien Brouillette, Teemu Laakso, Scott Lehman and Brett Palin.

 

After 45 minutes, the players on the ice were joined by the remaining 13 players for a 40 minute scrimmage.

 

The scrimmage was a little choppy. I’ll chalk that up to the fact both sides didn’t have a complete team. Positioning and spacing weren’t a reaction because a center would leave the ice and someone would come on. That player had to figure out if he was indeed the center or should play another position (I hope I explained that well enough).

 

The coaches did get to see the forecheck with the forwards (F1, F2, F3). Players also had the chance to work cycles out of the corner and play at close-to-game-speed.

 

Kelsey Wilson had a nice shift working hard in the corner and keeping possession of the puck. Ryan Flynn also had a nice moment when he was strong on the puck and carried it through traffic.

 

Klasen has not been cleared for contact, so he didn’t take part in the scrimmage. Chad Painchaud and Roman Josi did not skate today.

 

The players that were on the ice in the morning left after the scrimmage while the group that came on to scrimmage stayed for drills. Pickard and Smith stayed for both. The line combinations for the second practice were:

 

Brett Robinson-Dylan Hunter-Andreas Thuresson

Connor Shields-Kevin DeVergilio-Ryan Thang

Mike Bartlett-Chris Mueller

 

The defensemen were R.J. Anderson, Wes Cunningham, Scott Ford, Grant Lewis and Jean-Claude Sawyer.

 

The team’s first exhibition game is tomorrow night at Rockford. Check out milwaukeeadmirals.com for the lineup. Milwaukee hosts Chicago at the Kern Center Saturday night.

 

Moving on…

 

Goalie Mark Dekanich will be back in Milwaukee to start the season. Nashville assigned him to Milwaukee today after Anders Lindback won the backup job to Pekka Rinne.

 

Former Admirals defenseman Shea Weber is, according to “Nashville Lifestyles” magazine, one of the 25 Most Beautiful People in Nashville. The Predators captain is on the list along with, among others, country music stars Billy Currington, Troy Gentry and Rodney Atkins.

 

Defenseman Wes Cunningham, in camp on a tryout, was a teammate of former Admirals forward John Vigilante with OHL Plymouth.

 

I leave you with the comedic stylings of one of my favorite comedians, Greg Giraldo. Sadly, Giraldo passed away yesterday. He was brilliant.