SpongeBob lost something once. His identity.
Okay, so it’s not that bad. But to say the least, Milwaukee has been in an interesting spot. Heading into a Thanksgiving week with three games to play, the 7-6-0-0 Admirals still have a lot of questions.
Are they a win on the road team? Veteran presence guides the way? Young guns? Or Home Kings? To be honest, I don’t know. And maybe that’s the identity of this squad: The Wildcard.
Don’t laugh, take a look. There are young scorers on this team, finding their way in the pro hockey world and making their impact. Yet, two of the team’s top 4 scorers are veterans and the best goaltending performance of the season came from a 33-year-old Troy Grosenick. So they’re clearly not a solely young gun-type team.
Fine then, what about the veteran presence that makes this team special? Well… it isn’t quite that either. Fedor Svechkov, Joakim Kemell, Zach L’Heureux, and Egor Afanasyev have all stepped up in the last two weeks. L’Heureux’s last two weekends have proven the 20-year-old has something special in the tank. So, the veterans are certainly not dominating all of the play.
Therefore the team must be a blowout type squad! Win big or lose big! Okay, a little closer but I hate to define a team like that. You’re on some nights, you’re off others. And furthermore, there have been a lot more one-goal games for the Ads than big wins or losses.
So they must be great at home! Or true road warriors. At only a game above .500, you’d expect them to be around .500 in both types of matchups. At 5-3-0-0 in other barns, I wouldn’t exactly call this team “road warriors.” 2-3-0-0 doesn’t give much credence to the home side either. There’s just too small of a sample size.
That leads us to the Wildcard. And like a good ‘ole box of chocolates from Forest Gump, with the Admirals you never know what you’re going to get.
With the younger players developing at a steady rate, the Admirals’ offense has become far more of a threat. Executing on rattling goaltenders like Toronto’s Keith Petruzzelli and Martin Jones; notching Hat Tricks (again for Afanasyev) against Toronto; and playing solid defense you can see the future unfolding. It’s also inconsistent. Some nights it’s Yaroslav Askarov defending the net well, others it’s L’Heureux putting up multiple points, and then you get nights with no young play at all.
You truly do not know what you’re going to get when this team rolls onto the ice. If they’re on, they’re scary good. But when they make simple mistakes, they fall in close games.
Meet the largest benefit to the entire season.
As a Wildcard-type team, you have the opportunity to go into any game and feel like you can win it. Whether it’s a good opponent like Texas or a weaker team like Chicago. What the team needs to do now is lean into this identity.
Make like 2019 Carolina and lean into the chaos. You could develop this young identity over the next few weeks and be a fun and fast team. You can continue the road-winning ways and be a threat come the playoffs. Or you can embrace the crazy and make every team fear playing you.
Gear up for a fun December. Because embracing the Wildcard could be the path to Calder.
