Beaudoin News

Mathieu Beaudoin

Former fave - will continue with the Coyotes organization,  but as a "Pirate" in Portland, ME.
For more information on Pirates and Coyotes click  Beaudoin

For Beaudoin loyalists

Aeros Beaudoin by Trask

In case you have not read this by Uminsky who blogs on the Rampage:

"Mathieu Beaudoin, who signed on as a third line energy guy, ended up leading the team in scoring with 51 points, just one ahead of Brett MacLain. Beaudoin enjoyed a career season in San Antonio, scoring 20 goals for the first time in his career (21), but missing the playoffs stings the Rock Forest, Quebec, native.

“You don’t like this feeling. It’s a long summer when you don’t make the playoffs,” said Beaudoin. “It’s a lot easier when you’re playing, you don’t have to think about getting a contract, where you’re gonna be next year.”

Beaudoin waxed nostalgic about what could have been with this team.

Rampage Beaudoin by Jerina

“This team was the best team, even better than last year in Texas,” said Beaudoin of his Calder Cup Finals run last year with the Stars. “Unfortunately for us, good for them, we lost five or six guys who are NHL players who made a big difference in our team. Guys stepped up from the East Coast and got a chance to play, but it’s not the same. It’s tough to fill those roles when guys like (Mikkel) Boedker, (Andrew) Ebbett, even (Tim) Stapleton at the  beginning of the year. leave.”

Not to mention MacLean and Ryan Hollweg, who Rampage general manager Brad Treliving said was an emotional spark and instant hit with his Phoenix teammates and also filled that role in SA.

It would be nice to see Beaudoin back with a Bull on his chest next season."

Yes, indeed, t'would have been nice...for all of his followers!

Stars Beaudoin by Stars blog/media

San Antonio is close enough that one could hop over to take in a game or more ;-)! It was so much fun, when he was last year a Stars, and this past season a Rampage :-).

A course, it would have been only on Sundays,
when the Aeros not tie-ing up one's attention, or Opera does :-)!

Meanwhile he is driving to Phoenix to serve as a 'black ace' for the Coyotes in case a clear day roster player gets injured.
 
What's a Black Ace, you who are not versed in Hockey ask?
Per The Hockey Hall of Fame site:

"History Of The Black Aces
In the Old West, Wild Bill Hickok was shot while playing poker.  He was holding what became known as the "Dead Man's Hand" - two eights, the jack of diamonds, and the BLACK ACES!  If you're holding this hand, you've run out of luck.
Eddie Shore, an Honored Member of the Hockey Hall of Fame, was owner of the AHL Springfield Indians.  Shore bought the Indians in 1940 after his playing days with the Boston Bruins. He started to to call the players who were working their way back into the line-up of his club, his 'Black Aces.'  These were players who were coming off of injuries or were being punished.  They had run out of luck as far as Shore was concerned.  Former Boston Bruins coach and current color commentator for Hockey Night In Canada, Don Cherry, was one of Eddie Shore's most celebrated 'Black Aces.'

From "Grapes: A Vintage View of Hockey" by Don Cherry with Stan Fischler:
"Anyone who crossed Shore became a 'Black Ace,' one of the many extras he kept on the squad - but wouldn't dress for punitive purposes.  The Black Aces had to work extra hard in practice and were always available to play should any of the regulars enrage Shore even more.  In addition to scrimmaging with the team, the Black Aces were required to do odd jobs around the arena such as painting seats, selling programs, making popcorn, and blowing up hundreds of balloons before the ice shows."

And there you have it....The origin of the Black Aces!

Vintage Hockey -  playing without helmets !

Well, I am sure, 

Beaudoin and his fellow Black Aces nowadays,  will not be required to 'paint seats,

sell programs', etc. :-)! Wishing him "ICE TIME", though!

AND the Aeros' Black Aces are:

F Buck, Brandon

F Broda, Joel

F Morency, Pascal

D Fraser, Jamie

I am not clear where these guys fit in:

F Campbell, Scott,

Caron, Josh(gone, he did not stay but a few days - did he?) 

LW Foucault, Kris,

D Lofquist, Sam?

So if any of you, chers readers, can clarify this,

I will appreciate your comments.

Also unclear if Kuemper, Darcy will join as BU Goalie,

since his team is close to ending their season?

Again, any news about him will be welcome.

AND FOR TONIGHT IT IS

GO AEROS!

Video: Byers Misconduct, Beaudoin Goal, Daoust Goal

The way NOT to play-Misconduct by Byers gets him thrown out.

                                      Beaudoin's lonely goal-at least Rampage suffered no shut out!

                   And Daoust puts the "Icing on the cake" with his gioal almost immediately afterwards.

A Hackett save!

Bullfight favors Aeros..

let me just say this: it was a game to keep fans on edge of their seats.
Four goals by Houston - all in the second period..
Seemed to me like bang, bang, bang and bang..especially those two in tandem by MacMillan.
Followed in the Third by the 'icing on the cake' goal by Daoust.
I mean really, that Number 5 goal wasn' t needed to make this game a winner!
And the crowd of an almost unprecedented number - over 11000 - just roared.
And honked horns on the way home!
What a game.
One felt as if the 'Good Old Days of Howe' were back in Houston.

Anyway, I kept an eye out for 'soft spot' of olden days ;-),
but also kept watch for the 'invisible man' Penner.
What a surprise, he was very visible..see photos below.
And could he skate!  Man, could he skate!
And seemed to be in the right place more often than not!

And to the fans delight TWO fights broke out!
And more stuff went on.
What with misconducts and several being 'escorted' out from the game towards the end.

And a bitter end for the Rampage!
Even that stunning goal by 'soft spot' Mathieu Beaudoin in the Third,
couldn't make the Rampage feel much better!

Alas, the Aeros Powerplay went a bit...soft!
They had a 3-5 opportunity and they could not score.
But really they didn't need to.
Their goals were more then enough to get a big win!

The Rampage, who started out so superbly in the season, are on a downward slide.
It seeems to me, the decline started with the December games.
They just keep sliding!
And having Climie injured, that hurt.
Though Fallon did yeoman's work stopping 35 of the Aeros' onslaught of 40.
It just wasn't enough!

There was one instant when Hackett just lifted his glove
and, hey presto, the puck sailed right into it..
Well at least, it seemed that way to me..so just shut mouth already!

And now a few pictures by artandhockey,
videos, or at least one, will follow manana! 
It takes so darn long to upload into the blog - gotta have lots time to do it/
Perhaps while listening to Joe O'Donnell reporting from San Antonio!

Almond Kearns Fight

Traffic Jam in front of Hackett



 Beaudoin in the midst of  it



Face Off

DiSalvatore and Weston battling for the puck

 The Fritsch and Penner Duo

May and Palmer have at each other, too!

O'Sullivan - DiSalvatore Goal



MacMillan-Ortmeyer-Falk Goal Nr. 2



Daoust having a trial run ;-)!

O'Sullivan pinned down.

Duh, did you see where that puck went ? ;-)



A save by Hackett



Penner-Frisch line of  Defense

The Shadowing (Penner) of Hackett :-)?

Hackett: "Hey Hollweg  get outta way, you aren't made of glass"!

Collision on front of Fallon

A well placed stick makes a puck fly behind the net

Beaudoin Nr. 26 and  Stone Nr. 28 en guard at Fallon's net!

Nr. One Star MacMillan

That's what counts!

All Stars 2011 -

in just a few words-no hype, no awesome, no huge, no other hyper attributes/adjectives here.

Somehow it hits me wrong that in the news everything is labeled awesome, huge, and other such hype.

Never mind that certain words have faded in and out in our vocabulary.

Remember: RAD? Remember COOL?

Ah well, maybe you, cher reader, is too young to remember those and others.

Right now everything is just AWESOME!

And one more thing that bugs me:

Why am I good?

When asked how are you?

As opposed to bad?

I am doing well, thank you.

NOT doing good...

unless of course, I am donating time and money to a worthy cause :-)

The AHL:

All Star game is over. East wins over West 11-8

Beaudoin second from right (no points)



Noreau no points

Locke 2 assists







The NHL:

All Star game is over as well with team Lidstrom winning over team Staal with 11-10 in a shoot out.





News from Syracuse and more

Aeros win in OT ..4-3. vs Syracuse Crunch and
Rampage win over Abbotsford 4-2.
Aeros -50 games played- and
Rampage -48 games played - are tied with 58 points.



Montoya & Beaudoin (Jerina Photo)

 Beaudoin added to AHL All Star Roster( he'll skate in West with Noreau versus Locke in East - FYI :-)

"The American Hockey League (AHL) today announced that San Antonio Rampage right wing Mathieu Beaudoin has been added to the roster to represent the Western Conference Team at the 2011 AHL All-Star Classic.  Beaudoin will replace Rampage defenseman Garrett Stafford, who is unable to attend due to an injury.
Beaudoin, 26, has notched 32 points (14 goals, 18 assists) in 30 games for San Antonio this season, including a team-best four game-winning goals.
This is Beaudoin’s first All-Star selection as he joins teammate Brett MacLean to represent the Rampage.
It is the fifth time in franchise history that a replacement has been named to represent the Rampage at the mid-season classic.
AHL All-Star Skills Competition is on Sunday, Jan. 20 (2 p.m. CDT) and the AHL All-Star Game on Monday, Jan. 31 (6 p.m. CDT). The All-Star Game will be televised on Fox Sports Southwest."

Aeros Eclipse Stars with a 3-1 win.. with an add on

In the West:
Peoria and Admirals are also tied with 55 points!
Aeros are now tied with Oklahoma City with 54 points!

Beaudoin

Rampage trails with 53 points after a big comeback tonight (meant to write that Beaudoin, after being out for weeks, came back on the ice AND scored one goal of the many - just for all those  loyal fans still following Beaudoin)  
Stars and Wolves tied with 52.
Icehogs with 43 points still firmly last!

Unbelievable how tight this race is!

And without further ado:

Mr Hockey drops first Puck





Let the game begin



 Stars goal first




BUT Hackett saves the rest



After the Wellman Goal










 

IMHO both goalies did well, with the bigger share of spectacular saves going to Hackett, back in his  Wundergoalie reincarnation.

It was quite an eventful game.

Stars gave chase, passed well. Pounded the net of Hackett. 

But Aeros were flying from one end of the rink to the other, skirmishing, stealing pucks and digging for it everywhere. Inserting and excerting themselves between the Black clad Stars. And catching up the Stars by shots on goal.

Stars' followers were few, their usual screamed 'STARS

 during the anthem sounded rather puny, for a change.



O'Sullivan and DiSalvatore after the empty netter



A bunch of Real Happy Campers

To some hot headed and fiery hearted fans, there was ONLY one fight, and one that was rather un- impressive, between Sawada of the Stars- clearly the winner - and Palmer of the Aeros.
And not much of slamming against the glass either.
So the fans' sound level seemed much reduced. But - ah well I shall NOT go there!

"Unexplained" is the fact that when ever I do NOT wear an Aeros Jersey, the guys win! 
Yes, really.
Of course I am NOT superstitious.
Not me, oh no!
But they do win when I wear one of my others!

And so they did, after 3 periods of fluid motions and 1 goal each.
I still can't wrap my eyes and mind around the saves by Hackett, using all he got. Eyes behind the head maybe? You all saw that one: Reaching back and plucking the puck out of the air-SAVED again!

Feet, legs, pads, body... all used to make save after save!


Actually I thought that empty netter was due earlier - but Bachman, hurriedly putting on the brakes to skate backwards to the net, and his defense guys did an admittedly super job getting the puck away from the net. Only to have one slapped into it, after all that exertion, by Di Salvatore from O'Sullivan just seconds after Bachman, again, scooted towards the bench in favor of 6th Star.

BTW for Beaudoin fans: he's back on ice, and he gets one of the goals tonight.

Admirals outsail Rampage

One expected a bit more from the number 1 seeded Rampage.

But their production in the first period lacked cohesion, their offense play seemed not just disoriented but simply missing, although "Soft Spot" MB ALMOST got a shorthanded goal.
The Ads netminder Jeremy Smith, soon to be 21 years old, had it somewhat easy to keep the Rampage from scoring in the first period, despite 10 shots on goal. The Admirals sailed ahead with 2 pp goals by Mueller and Begin.

The 2. period started with Admirals 2 up on Rampage 0.
But then the "bulls" stormed back in the 2nd. with 3 goals by Prucha, Watkins and Beaudoin (ppgoal)  whilst peppering Smith with 18 shots to lead 3-2 going into the third.

And that's all she wrote, Admirals bounced back strongly with goals by Bourque, Klasen and an empty net goal to win the game 5-3 in regulation.

Alas a shot by Ebbett (Rampage) hit the post-it would have given the Rampage a 4-2 lead.
Unfortunately, Rampage blew several chances to score on 6 pp.
They managed just the1 by Beaudoin, who now has 24 pts.
They seemed troubled in penalty kills.
That allowed the Admirals to convert 3 pps of 4 into goals.
Montoya was the Rampage net minder, stopping 27 of 31.
Admirals' Smith stopped a respectable 33 of 36!

Otherwise the drive on this sunny cool Sunday morning was uneventful.
We arrived relaxed after the obligatory stop at Buccee's for coffee, fudge and well, you know,
plus 2 stretch stops before that.
Now we'll enjoy a misty-rainy (predicted) day in the Texas hill country.
Correction it is HOT, real HOT, sunny, a real stunner poolside

while sipping a nice Texas Red! LOL

We head back to Cowtown on Tuesday for a meeting of the HGO Lucia Hospitality committee on Wednesday, and the Aeros's Thursday Morning game to 'celebrate' Better Half's birthday ...lol! AND some photos from Sunday's game.
After which we once more head West for (need to stock up on some Texas Reds)  Winery and museum visits and 2 Hockey games (yep, more hockey) in Austin.

BTW.. it seems that young Jared Spurgeon will celebrate his birthday (it was just a few days ago) by being recalled to the Wild! Wow, what a good chance for this 5'8 tall defender.

ESP, Osmosis, Empathy?

Well, which is it? What gives?

When the Wild win, the Aeros win!
When the Wild loose, the Aeros loose!

Kalus/Jerina

Or so it seems to me...probably JUST coincidence ;-)!


Gillies/artandhockey

Last night's "Two Lone Rangers"

Gillies

and

Kalus

(on a PP) managed to score in the third,

upholding the Aeros' Honor vs 'last seeded' Chicago Wolves.

Ouzas

 "New" goalie Michael Ouzas made 13 respectable (afterall he had to travel, had to sit on the bench, had to get used to a new system/teammates-so he may have been a bit 'rusty') saves, after Khudobin was pulled. Alas, he had to 'eat the loss' after 'being thrown to Wolves', so to speak!

Was Khudobin showing off his speciality?

"When he is good, he is VERY, VERY good, when he is bad, he is...ahem, well! "

Of course he could've been pulled to conserve him for this afternoon's

 "Pooches Day game" at home! Who knows for sure, we are all just guessing.

But, when it comes to our team ;-) -

I'm with Janis Joplin and say "Stay with me, Baby"

 

The Aeros, surprisingly, had a strong come back in the third after non-events in 1. and 2.

'NUF SAID!

Interestingly,

Stars' Richard Bachman  (5th) ''outsaved' (to date),
followed by Rampage's Climie (6th)
and Aeros' Khudobin (7th).
Regretfully, none of our Aeros made it into the AHL's top 37 skaters list, as of today.

Forget about a spot on AHL's top scorer list or leader list.



Beaudoin and Locke/Trask

On the positive side, especially for his fans,

Mathieu Beaudoin (Nr. 6 in AHL top scorer list) having earned a

more than respectable 21 pts in 19 games.

and his Rampage are still firmly in the lead. 

Former Aeros' fan favorite Corey Locke, with 27 pts in 18 games, 

continues to 'own'  the AHL top scorer list's Nr. One spot.

So much for the morining morning of a sunny Sunday!

Go out there! Enjoy LIFE!

Believe in miracles...

So, we have to believe in miracles as the Texas Stars overpowered the Hamilton Bulldogs on their home ice in front of 5000 fans!

What an achievement in an inaugural season.

Now they are poised to face the Hershey Bears in the final battle for the Calder Cup!

At Austin June 7, 9 and 11!

So there are at least 2 more games,

but may run to 3, right here in Texas.

And the 'StarsTrekking' begins again! Hockey in JUNE!

Baritone sings a paean to The Stars (Die Sterne ;-)!

GO STARSand bring back to Texas the Calder Cup
"Soft Spot" Matt Beaudoin(Chris Jerina Photo)

got one goal and one assist. Perttu Lindgren one goal and 2 assist, Graham and Benn the other two scorers

while Climie (artandhockey photo)

was peppered with 43 shots stopping 41!

Having added NHL'ers Subban and Maxwell did not do too much for the Bulldogs, although Subban got a goal.