Three O' Clock ...

and being wide awake, even without a cock's crow! Oh, what to do? Sleep seems too elusive...

Well, for one, it might be a good time to recount
Coach Mike Yeo's prediction of the AEROS'  future in front of dedicated, avidly curious hockey fans.
Who will have to bide their time to meet the other two coaches face to face to pepper them with questions :-)

 

Actually, it might be better to describe it as HOW he said it. 

Brimming with enthusiasm, full of great plans, happy with the majority of the current player talent; still having a certain concern at some weaknesses to be ironed out, and above all GUNG HO to go!
And per Yeo, this is a YOUNG team.
HmHm... does that mean that several of the 'older' guys (if one could call 26 - 28 older) will be shipped down or rather up to Bakersfield or across the State to Laredo, just to keep them near in case; or will they get a nice "thanks guys but no thanks"?

What IS certain is that "Dimples" Anton Khudobin and "Wundergoalie" Matt Hackett will be the 2 net minders, while J.T. Nr.1 (Josh Tordjman) will be off soon, and apparently he knew that when he signed on for the year.  I seem to recall also hearing that "Baby Boogie" (Aaron Boogaard) will or already has be(en) ship(ped) out, since the "Kassassinator", Matt Kassian, after clearing waivers, will be back in Houston.
And with Drew Bagnall ("The Bagman?") we seem to have the 'fighting Aeros' section covered.
And let's not forget that Cody Almond "JOY" and Carson McMillan -"MacAttack" have been known to drop the gloves at a moments notice. And not afraid to go nose to nose with foes, and even, when disagreeing, with referees. Perhaps not smart, but afraid - they are not!

Warren Peters (of the Texas Stars Fame) looks to be Captain material, as does "Speedy" Jon DiSalvatore. And Chad Rau-"WOW" apparently has caught the coach's confidence with his controlled, but perhaps a bit too calm, playing; while "Frisky" Colton Gillies will need to learn to calm 'down' :-)! On the other hand he is slated to be on a line with "The Scrapper" Daoust- Aeros's "energize bunnies" at play!
Marco Scandella ("Shatterhand"?) looks to give "Ironman" Max Noreau some hard competition in slapshot fury.

We did learn that Yeo is a smooth raconteur, and can, and does say it all with utter conviction which IS a good thing.  And seems to want coaches and players to be 'accessible to fans'...on that subject we will have to wait and see ;-)! And  no, visits to the locker room after a game are not considered an option, despite some suggestions  ;-) from some engrossed members of audience last night!

The team will need firing up to sustain it over those murderous 3 on 3s, when sleep will have to come on the bus and energy will need constant re-igniting! And yet, Yeo knows that there will be 'dead zone' nights, but as he so bluntly stated "I might be dying inside, but on the outside I will be calmness personified".
And so he looks, very capable of bringing THAT of!
On the other hand, he will be a 'hands on' (figuratively, natch, not literally.. he did solemnly swear NOT to throw water bottles or other items) coach, moving and talking players up while on the bench etc.!
Yes, we can expect some 'hype', cliches, lots of  'rah rah rah'.. but IF that's what it takes to get the guys going-I mean skating and scoring- in the right way... I, for one, am all for it!
Go Yeo! Yeah, Yeo Go!
And talks of a fast game, of a physical game, of a concentrated game with good line pairings but flexible enough to switch as the situation warrants.  Power play, Penalty kills, Face Offs are areas he feels need still to be worked and improved upon.  And in his opinion it is not only the face off  'specialist' that will count, but also the wingers. He wants a tight game with good puck handling/passing! Short concise passes.
And seems to frown on the 'primadonna' approach which some players seems to have succumbed to, at least during last season.
As he rattled off the names on 'HIS' lines, I caught only the Daoust/Gillies (Energize Bunnies) combo, and somewhere in the 4th line will be "Avalanche" Petr Kalus..but the rest is still ?? at least I do not recall every name, since there are all those NEWBIES!
Apropos, Newbie, Tyler Cuma of the leg brace-minor injury, is expected to be soon back to normal.
For them we have yet to match name to face to talent :-)! We shall find out soon enough when the FINAL roster will be announced-any day now, maybe even later today! And since I am certain that other bloggers will blog on that, I leave you, dear readers, to go to their sites for that "little" (lol) detail.
So, that was my impression and it was a good one.



and with Queen's"Don't stop me now" - Bring on the games!
And let's