Moose Move On

It's funny how one can discover how much one likes something after not doing it for a while. I used to write weekly recaps on Wednesdays here on HBIC called "Antler Banter" about the Manitoba Moose that looked at all things happening around the team. This was before the Winnipeg Jets arrived in town, and I was one of the few people who covered the team without being affiliated or having a press pass. Watching the Moose host Milwaukee this week has rekindled that interest in the AHL squad, so it was nice to see the Manitoba Moose grit out a win in Game Three today to keep their playoff run going.

Admittedly, Jets fans should be filling Canada Life Centre to cheer on the Moose as these are the players that the Jets should be promoting. Some will argue that these players aren't entirely ready for NHL ice time, and that may be the case for some players. What we saw in this series, though, is that a pile of these players could be serviceable, effective NHL players if they are given the time and space to grow into those roster spots. No one is Macklin Celebrini, but there are a lot of guys who could bring skills and talents that the Jets need.

David Gustafsson should have been playing with the Jets all season, but he worked his tail off with the Moose. In doing so, he may have been the best 200-foot player on either team in this AHL series. Gustafsson won't wow anyone with flashy plays or thunderous hits, but he'll give you a consistent and reliable effort every time he goes over the boards. He scored the biggest goal this season for the Moose in Game Two, and he added two helpers in the Game Three 2-1 win.

In all three games, he was excellent on the defensive side of the puck which makes me wonder why he wasn't skating in Jonathan Toews' roster spot this season. He wins face-offs, he checks well, he doesn't cheat up the ice, and he's a leader on this Moose team through his play. He's not going to be the vocal leader in the room, but Gustafsson sees the game well and understands what makes his successful. Those are the players the Jets needed this season.

Of course, I could heap praise on Gustafsson and a number of his teammates throughout this article after how they played, but beating Milwaukee only opens the door to a much more difficult challenge in the Grand Rapids Griffins who the Jets will host next Saturday and Sunday in Games One and Two. The Griffins went 51-16-5 this season after starting the season 24-1-1, they tied a franchise-record 15-game winning streak, and they set a new AHL record with a 17-game road points streak. Yeah, the Grand Rapids Griffins are pretty good.

Not only are they good, but they're deep too. They had nine players with 30-or-more points. They had five players with 20-or-more goals. Goaltenders Sebastian Cossa and Michal Postava sported a combined 43-14-4 record, a 2.26 GAA, and a .923 save percentage. Their power-play was only 15th-overall at 18.7% so there is room for improvement, but they had the AHL's best penalty-killing efficiency at 86.0% while scoring ten shorthanded goals. Yeah, they're good.

For as good as Gustafsson and his cohorts were, this Griffins team is a completely different challenge for the Moose than what the Admirals were. The Griffins won three-straight games over Manitoba in October by a combined 13-4 scores. The teams split the two games played here in January before Manitoba took an overtime win in Grand Rapids in Feburary. Grand Rapids bombed Manitoba in Winnipeg in two games at the start of April by 6-3 and 7-2 scores, so Manitoba's 2-6-0 record against Grand Rapids doesn't bode well.

However, these teams are required to play the games, and that's where Manitoba has to push the pace on Grand Rapids. They can't get into a track meet with Grand Rapids as the Griffins don't have an issue scoring; rather, the Moose will want to keep a controlled tempo where they forecheck without giving up too much and are quick to backcheck when the Griffins push the puck down the ice. Both Thomas Milic and Domenic DiVincentiis have proven they can win big games, and they'll need big saves to keep the Griffins at bay.

The Moose have every right to celebrate tonight after a hard-fought win against a very good opponent in the Milwaukee Admirals, but Monday will see the Moose back at work as they begin preparing for the top team in the Western Conference. Manitoba may have finished 29 points back of Grand Rapids in the regular season, but eliminating them from the Calder Cup Playoffs takes three wins in five games.

These two former IHL foes should put on a heckuva show when the series opens in Winnipeg on Saturday. All I'll add is "Go Moose Go!"

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

Swept You Like A Hurricane

It was pretty clear from Game One last Saturday that these Carolina Hurricanes were not going to be denied. They may still lose in these Stanley Cup Playoffs, but the Ottawa Senators were not going to be the team to end the Hurricanes' dream of a Stanley Cup parade this season. Despite the heroics shown by goaltender Linus Ullmark, the depth of the Hurricanes showed in each game as they got contributions up and down the lineup that the Senators simply could not match. Mix in an ineffective power-play, invisible top-line players, and a Carolina team that kept coming at the Senators in waves, and the four-game playoff appearance was all that was weakly written by the Ottawa Senators this season.

The Hurricanes started this series by shutting out the Senators, and that should have been seen as an omen for what was to come because the Hurricanes never trailed at any point in this series. Had the Senators won the double-overtime contest in Game Two, we might be talking about a different series with some doubt creeping into the Hurricanes' minds, but that never happened thanks to Jordan Martinook. Carolina led for 121:22 of the 213:53 of total time played in this series, and that's the telling statistic of this series.

Having the Senators score once on their 21 power-play opportunities should mean that the coaching staff will need to answer a lot of questions when it came to preparation and execution. That one goal was scored today by Drake Batherson, and it has been proven time and again that teams that win the special teams battles often win the games. In today's game alone, the Senators had three 5-on-3 opportunities and scored on none of them which, again, magnifies the importance of special teams. Ottawa now knows that well.

Make no mistake that the Hurricanes had to earn this series sweep, though. The line of Logan Stankovan, Taylor Hall, and Jackson Blake ran roughshod over the Senators in these four games, combining for seven goals and 16 points. The renaissance of Frederik Andersen was illustrated on a number of occasions where he made big saves, leading to his 1.10 GAA and .955 save percentage. When you consider that Shayne Gostisbehere, Andrei Svechnikov, and Nikolaj Ehlers combined for one assist in four games, Carolina's depth should make them a favorite to emerge from the Eastern Conference.

"Can't understate that," Hurricanes head coach Rod Brind'Amour said of Frederik Andersen's goaltending after the game. "Especially when you want to consider how well the other guy was playing there in their end, it was a goalie matchup. They were going save for save, and we needed it. Otherwise, this thing could have gone a lot different. It's probably the best hockey he's played for us."

Brind'Amour is not wrong. Andersen has never won more than eight games in a playoff year, and he's halfway there now. In a season where he lost the starter's role to Brandon Bussi thanks to a 16-14-5 record, a 3.05 GAA, and an .874 save percentage, he has been extraordinarily good in the Carolina crease thus far. He outduelled a remarkable Linus Ullmark who ends his playoffs with a 2.03 GAA and a .932 save percentage - numbers better than Jesper Wallstedt, Jake Oettinger, and Karel Vejmelka who are .500-or-better in these playoffs. Clearly, Andersen was a big part of the Hurricanes' victory.

Carolina will now let the bumps and bruises heal as best they can while they wait for the winner of the Pittsburgh-Philadelphia series. Ottawa, meanwhile, will clean out their lockers, meet with the media, and start preparing for next season. There weren't many people who believed that the Senators would win the series, but I don't think anyone expected them to be out seven days after the playoffs started. That's where questions will need to be asked.

Tim Stutzle, Brady Tkachuk, and Dylan Cozens are under contract until 2028 for $23.65 million. They had two goals (Cozens) and an assist (Stutzle). Shane Pinto had no points and his salary jumps to $7.5 million next season. Drake Batherson is a free agent at the end of next season and will need a hefty raise if he's to stay in Ottawa. Jordan Spence, Dennis Gilbert, and Nick Jensen are all free agents this year with Tyler Kleven and Artyom Zub being free agents in the summer of 2027. Ottawa will have some tough decisions to make if they felt this group was good enough to push for a Stanley Cup.

Four losses without holding a lead against a team that seems like a legitimate contender for the Stanley Cup means they weren't good enough. Not even close. The hard part begins now for the Senators as decisions will be made when it comes to evaluating this group so that, next year, the Senators aren't rocked by the Hurricanes.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

It's An IHL Night!

I had a number of errands I needed to get done tonight, so my ability to watch the Stanley Cup Playoffs was interrupted by life. As much as I try to prevent this from happening, life occasionally gets in the way and needs to be dealt with accordingly. Being that I was running around tonight, I put the car stereo to good use by tuning into Game Two of the AHL Calder Cup series between the Milwaukee Admirals and the Manitoba Moose, but I also used Bluetooth to listen to Game One of the ECHL Kelly Cup series between the Indy Fuel and the Fort Wayne Komets! Manitoba was in must-win terrotory after dropping Game One by a 4-1 score in their best-of-three matchup while Fort Wayne and Indy opened their series in Fort Wayne, Indiana this evening. It almost felt like I was back in my university days, listening to the Moose on the radio with frequent visits from their IHL counterparts in Fort Wayne and Milwaukee! So how did these three former IHL teams do tonight?

We'll start in Winnipeg where the Admirals and Moose met. A win by Milwaukee would see them advance to play Grand Rapids while a Manitoba win would push this series to a third and deciding game on Sunday. Ryna Ufko beat Dominic DiVincentiis while shorthanded early in the second period to put Milwaukee ahead, but Parker Ford erased that lead 2:11 later when he beat Matthew Murray to make it 1-1.

A tight-checking game meant things didn't open up in the third period, and it seemed like we were heading for overtime. Oasiz Wiesblatt would be whistled for an elbowing penalty with 1:52 left in the frame, and I'll let Moose broadcaster Daniel Fink handle the rest.
With 43 seconds reamining in regulation time, Moose forward David Gustafsson tipped Brendan Yager's shot past Murray, pushing the Moose to the 2-1 win in Game Two. There was all sorts of rough stuff at the end of this game between the two former IHL foes, but they'll play one more time this season when they meet in Game Three on Sunday afternoon at Canada Life Centre with another former IHL foe in the Grand Rapid Griffins waiting for the winner of this series.

If that wasn't enough IHL references for one article, we'll keep going because the ECHL's Kelly Cup Playoffs began tonight, and the Central Division-winning Fort Wayne Komets, formerly of the IHL, were in action as they hosted the Indy Fuel in Game One of their series. Fort Wyane was playing in their 606th playoff game this evening over their 74-year history, hunting for their 319th win. Indy, meanwhile, wasn't an IHL team and had only two playoff wins in their entire history. Both sides would add another chapter to their histories tonight!

Komets forward Brady Stonehouse would get things started late in the first period when he beat Indy netminder Mitchell Weeks while shorthanded to put the Komets up 1-0. There were handful of chances by both sides as the game moved through the middle frame, but both Weeks and Komets goaltender Nathan Day were putting up walls at both ends of the ice. We wouldn't see the score change until early in the third period off a turnover at center ice, and I'll let legendary Komets announcer Shane Albahrani handle this one.
Matthew Brown would finish off the passing play after the turnover at center ice, and the Komets would take a 2-0 lead on his goal. Austin Magera would add a power-play goal with just over five minutes to play, and Nathan Day stopped 30 Indy shots as the Komets took Game One by a 3-0 score to go up 1-0 in the best-of-seven series!

With their 319th playoff win in the books, the Komets will look to go up 2-0 over Indy tomorrow night before the series shifts to Fishers, Indiana for three games. The ECHL plays all their series as 2-3-2 series to reduce the travel costs for teams, so the Komets will want to sweep their home games in order to go into enemy territory in good standing. The winner of this series will play the winner of the Bloomington Bison-Toledo Walleye series in the next round.

Clearly, it was a good night for two former IHL teams in Manitoba and Fort Wayne as they picked up big wins in their quests for trophies. Milwaukee is still in the hunt despite the loss tonight, and with the Grand Rapids Griffins waiting for the winner and the Chicago Wolves in the other Central Division series there are IHL fingerprints all over the Calder Cup Playoffs. Fort Wayne is the lone former IHL team in the Kelly Cup Playoffs, but they look like a contender there as well.

Listening to these two games on the radio as I drove around the city completing tasks made it feel like 1997 all over again when Manitoba, Milwaukee, and Fort Wayne were juggernauts in the IHL. Some would say those were the "good ol' days" of minor professional hockey!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

The Hockey Show - Episode 709

The Hockey Show, Canada's only campus-produced radio show that strictly talks hockey, is back tonight to set up another big show next week while chatting about all the news that came out of the hockey world this week. It looks like we'll have some Survivor: NHL Playoffs eliminations next week unless something dramatic happens in those playoff series, so be ready for the first wave of contestants who will make their home from Survivor Island. Beyond that, our hosts have a pile of hockey news to discuss, so make sure you're ready to go tonight for The Hockey Show at 5:30pm CT!

Tonight, Teebz and Jason will likely spend a lot of time dissecting the words spoken by the man to the left at his season-ending press conference among the topics they discuss. There will be some chatter about cronyism in the KHL, some trademarked names for an AHL team, some European league winners, a quick AIHL update, a sledge hockey update, a Survivor: NHL Playoffs prizing update, a couple of quick hits about UMFM's Pledge-O-Rama that begins tomorrow, and we'll go over Kevin Cheveldayoff's words with a fine-toothed comb. It will be a busy hour of hockey chatter, so snuggle up to your radio or internet-streaming device tonight for The Hockey Show at 5:30pm CT on one of 101.5 FM, Channel 718 on MTS TV, or via UMFM.com!

If you live outside Winnipeg and want to listen, we have options! The UMFM website's streaming player works well if you want to listen online. We also recommend Radio Garden if you need an easy-to-use online stream. If you're more of an app person, we recommend you use the TuneIn app found on the App Store or Google Play Store.

If you have questions, you can email all show queries and comments to hockeyshow@umfm.com! Tweet me anytime with questions you may have by hitting me up at @TeebzHBIC on Twitter! I'm here to listen to you, so make your voice heard! And because both Teebz and Jason are on the butterfly app where things are less noisy, you can find Teebz here and Jason here on Bluesky!

Tonight, Teebz and Jason chat bad hirings, bad names, big winners, Australian fun, sledge developments, Survivor updates, pledge drives, lots of verbal diarrhea, and much more exclusively on 101.5 UMFM and on the UMFM.com web stream!

PODCAST: April 23, 2026: Episode 709

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

Zero Creativity

From what I've gathered, the logo to the left is the logo used by the city of Hamilton, Ontario on its letterheads and on official documents. I have no way of verifying this as I have no official documents from Hamilton, but it seems reasonable to assume that this logo would be the city's chosen graphical representation. Knowing how important a logo is for any business, one would assume that those businesses seeking a new image would aim for a great logo. With the AHL's Bridgeport Islanders moving into Hamilton next season, they also needed a new team name on which that logo can be based, and it seems the AHL franchise has chosen three potential team names as finalists.

I made the case back on March 31 that they could ressurect the Hamilton Tigers name as the AHL franchise would pay respects to the NHL team that existed from 1920-25, and it would work well with the city's CFL team who are the Tiger-Cats. It's clear that they can't be the Islanders any longer since they're not on an island, but they conceivably could be the Islanders since Bridgeport was mostly on solid land as a city. In any case, I was hoping they'd go with "Tigers".

According to today's trademark filings, they will not use that name.

Hamilton Mustangs

The first trademark that was filed was for "Mustangs" which seems like a complete sellout considering that the fictional Ontario Hockey League team in the 1986 movie Youngblood were the Hamilton Mustangs. With the new Youngblood movie featuring the same team, I assume the AHL franchise owners thought they could cash in with this name somewhat being in the pop culture spectrum. To me, this is pandering to the easiest name. I know it worked for the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, but the fictional teams names can remain fiction.

For the record, Hamilton did have an OHL team in 1986 called the Steelhawks who, in 1996, became the Erie Otters after a stop in Niagara Falls. The Mustangs were never a Hamilton-based OHL team.

Hamilton Havoc

Ok, this name has a little more creativity, but this isn't a unique name by any means as the SPHL's Huntsville Havoc should be filing a cease-and-desist when it comes to this name being used. I can see the owners wanting the alliteration of "Hamilton Havoc" where they can emphasize both words, but I think of Huntsville when I hear "Havoc hockey". It'll take some time for that to change in my brain.

Hamilton Hammers

For a city that is commonly referred to as "The Hammer", using "Hammers" as the team name seems a little derivative. The sports headlines will write themselves with this name, so it makes me wonder why they wouldn't have gone for "Mjölnir" as the name while using Norse god Thor as a mascot. Maybe this imagery was too close to that of the ECHL's Adirondack Thunder, but having the mightiest hammer would set them apart from other teams. Marvel may contest my choice of name and its images, but having players skate out to MC Hammer saying "It's Hammer time" would be an interesting twist.

Ok, so those three names aren't great by any means, so there has to be other ones. I mentioned Tigers and I do like Steelhawks, but it was suggested on a Reddit thread that the team should be called "Lakers" in honour of freighters that cross the Great Lakes and use Hamilton as a port city. I'm not sure the logo would be very inspiring based on the linked image, but "Lakers" could be a team name option as well.

A fun name could be "Isotopes" which would ruin the theme night that the Springfield Thunderbirds hold, but McMaster University produces medical-grade isotopes used to treat cancer! As McMaster's website states, the isotopes produced at the Hamilton-based university are used for "treatment for more than 70,000 cancer patients every year" around the world! Could the AHL franchise be the Hamilton Isotopes?

While the three names highlighted above will likely end up as the franchise's new name, Hamilton clearly has alternate options as good or better than the three they chose to trademark. We know they won't be the Islanders which means that the Fisherman logo can be used by the New York Islanders again if they chose, so I'm hoping these three names were trademarked to throw people who were hunting for a scoop off the trail because those are terrible names.

I had high hopes that Hamilton would get a great team name and logo to use, but it doesn't seem like The Hammer will nail this one.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!