Patience is a virtue, especially in minor league hockey. And these days, nobody knows that more than Claude Noel.
Noel begins his fourth season as head coach of the Milwaukee Admirals trying to start over after the team he led to the Calder Cup finals was decimated by call-ups, free agent defections, and injuries. Of the 24 players on the current roster, only six took part in the loss to Hershey in the championship series.
Gone is the team’s all-time post-season scoring leader, Darren Haydar, who signed a free agent deal with the NHL’s Atlanta Thrashers and currently plays for Milwaukee’s AHL archrival, the Chicago Wolves, while defenseman Scottie Upshall and high-octane scorer Jordain Tootoo are playing with the big club in Nashville.
"It poses a big challenge for the coaches," Noel said of his roster. "You’ve got to re-teach a lot of things and you can’t take anything for granted but when you’ve got 10 or 12 guys back, you can move a lot quicker."
Noel and the Admirals have benefited from a quirky schedule during the first month of the season; the team has played four games so far, all on weekends and all but once at home which has left a lot of time for practice.
Even that, however, has its disadvantages. While getting ice time is invaluable for a young team playing together for the first time, nothing comes close to the atmosphere of actual games. A 2-1 loss to Omaha on Saturday night marked the Admirals' fifth game of the season. Several teams in the AHL have played twice as many.
"You accomplish a lot of things in practice like teaching and development," Noel said. "But you don’t get a sense of that game rhythm and if you have a bad game, there’s a lot of time to dwell on things."
In order to break up the monotony, Noel took a page out of Mike Sherman’s old training camp playbook. Although instead of taking the team bowling, Noel selected an activity more in touch with his Canadian roots -- curling. He plans to come up with more activities in the coming weeks until the schedule gets heavier.
The team struggled out of the gate this season, especially in goal. Milwaukee allowed seven goals in each of its first two games.
Originally, Noel thought he might catch a break by getting Pekka Rinne back in goal this season, but the all-star was shelved for much of the season after injuring his shoulder during a bar fight in his native Finland.
Scott Reid has emerged to take the starting spot until Rinne’s expected return in January.
It’s early, and Noel is still trying to figure out just what kind of team he has got. In the past, he could always count on Haydar to find the net in the clutch, but he’s still trying to figure out who the go-to guy is.
"People will look and ask who’s going to score goals," Noel said. "But there’s always ways to win games. A team that doesn’t have the strongest offense can still win a championship. It’s too early to know our strengths."
And so begins what Noel hopes is a journey that ends with a trip deep into the playoffs. As the coach of a minor-league affiliate, he knows that he has little control of what players he has. He doesn’t have time to worry about the players who aren’t around.
That’s the way it goes in minor league hockey, where a team’s success in one season often leads to its rebuilding the next.
Noel begins his fourth season as head coach of the Milwaukee Admirals trying to start over after the team he led to the Calder Cup finals was decimated by call-ups, free agent defections, and injuries. Of the 24 players on the current roster, only six took part in the loss to Hershey in the championship series.
Gone is the team’s all-time post-season scoring leader, Darren Haydar, who signed a free agent deal with the NHL’s Atlanta Thrashers and currently plays for Milwaukee’s AHL archrival, the Chicago Wolves, while defenseman Scottie Upshall and high-octane scorer Jordain Tootoo are playing with the big club in Nashville.
"It poses a big challenge for the coaches," Noel said of his roster. "You’ve got to re-teach a lot of things and you can’t take anything for granted but when you’ve got 10 or 12 guys back, you can move a lot quicker."
Noel and the Admirals have benefited from a quirky schedule during the first month of the season; the team has played four games so far, all on weekends and all but once at home which has left a lot of time for practice.
Even that, however, has its disadvantages. While getting ice time is invaluable for a young team playing together for the first time, nothing comes close to the atmosphere of actual games. A 2-1 loss to Omaha on Saturday night marked the Admirals' fifth game of the season. Several teams in the AHL have played twice as many.
"You accomplish a lot of things in practice like teaching and development," Noel said. "But you don’t get a sense of that game rhythm and if you have a bad game, there’s a lot of time to dwell on things."
In order to break up the monotony, Noel took a page out of Mike Sherman’s old training camp playbook. Although instead of taking the team bowling, Noel selected an activity more in touch with his Canadian roots -- curling. He plans to come up with more activities in the coming weeks until the schedule gets heavier.
The team struggled out of the gate this season, especially in goal. Milwaukee allowed seven goals in each of its first two games.
Originally, Noel thought he might catch a break by getting Pekka Rinne back in goal this season, but the all-star was shelved for much of the season after injuring his shoulder during a bar fight in his native Finland.
Scott Reid has emerged to take the starting spot until Rinne’s expected return in January.
It’s early, and Noel is still trying to figure out just what kind of team he has got. In the past, he could always count on Haydar to find the net in the clutch, but he’s still trying to figure out who the go-to guy is.
"People will look and ask who’s going to score goals," Noel said. "But there’s always ways to win games. A team that doesn’t have the strongest offense can still win a championship. It’s too early to know our strengths."
And so begins what Noel hopes is a journey that ends with a trip deep into the playoffs. As the coach of a minor-league affiliate, he knows that he has little control of what players he has. He doesn’t have time to worry about the players who aren’t around.
That’s the way it goes in minor league hockey, where a team’s success in one season often leads to its rebuilding the next.
