The NHL lockout is FINALLY over. We’ve been able to watch some pretty remarkable hockey over the past nearly four months with some very talented players in the American Hockey League. Now that some of them have moved on to their parent clubs including Chris Mueller, Jonathon Blum and Ryan Ellis from our team to Nashville, we will see who has the best development system going. I feel pretty darn good with the team we will have here in Milwaukee. I think that Austin Watson, Taylor Beck, Michael Latta, Kevin Henderson and many more of our guys have benefitted by playing with and against great talent at this level. It gives me great confidence that we’ll be in the Western Conference playoff hunt throughout the remainder of the season.

The NHL has its work cut out for itself. They will be playing 48 games in a pretty short amount of time. That should make for some very intense playoff-like games during the regular season. It essentially won’t be the marathon of 82 games over seven months but a sprint with 48 in about three months. Hopefully teams will be doing all of the right things to encourage fans to come back. I know that many of the clubs, including Nashville’s, have worked hard since the lockout started to stay relevant in their communities. Let’s hope that pays off.

I, along with pretty much every hockey fan, am glad that this is a 10-year collective bargaining agreement. I know that there is an opt-out clause in the deal but the chance to have labor peace for an extended period of time is so important. The NHL has to continue to grow its brand and the best way to do that is to have hockey players playing games. Let’s hope that the focus can turn to making the league as great as it is capable of being.

Here in Milwaukee, in addition to the hockey, we are excited about all of the promotions that are in the pipeline for the rest of the season. I encourage you to check out the promotions here at milwaukeeadmirals.com as well as our new mobile app. We’re going to have a lot of fun!

See you at the rink!
Go Admirals!