Admirals' playoff push: Three at Scope

By Jim Hodges

Correspondent

In mid-January, Ryan Craig went home to Tampa for a respite from 3-1/2 disconsolate months of hockey.

The Admirals had lost 4 of 5 games in their last home stand before the All-Star break and were tied with Springfield for last in the American Hockey League. Darren Rumble, a former teammate of Craig's at Springfield, had been fired as coach.

"We were at rock bottom," Craig said.

And today?

"We've got a chance to do something really special," Craig said. "I don't think many teams have gone from last at the all-star break to the playoffs."

The final sprint begins tonight when Wilkes-Barre/Scranton comes to Scope. The Admirals finish the regular season with home games Friday and Saturday against Hershey, the AHL's top team.

The Admirals are three points behind Wilkes-Barre/Scranton for third, the last guaranteed playoff spot in the AHL East. They are two behind Bridgeport, the fifth-place Atlantic Division team but one that could cross over to the East for the a playoff spot if it outpoints Norfolk.

To be on the verge of crashing the playoffs is testimony to locker-room leaders who kept the team together. Chief among them is Craig, who was appointed captain in Jim Johnson's first move as coach.

"Without question, without players like Craiger and (Adam) Hall and (Mitch) Fritz and (Matt) Lashoff... we don't survive some of the things we've been through as a team this year," said Leigh Mendelson, who replaced Johnson as coach Feb. 23 and was, in turn, replaced by Johnson on Saturday.

It's been a strange run as the Admirals try to become the first Tampa Bay minor league affiliate to make the AHL playoffs. Nobody backs away from the unusual nature of the season - Johnson was spirited away to become an assistant coach to a head coach, Rick Tocchet, who didn't want him.

With three games in three nights just after Johnson was send to Tampa Bay, there wasn't time to think much about who was coaching. But then there was the trip home.

"I think that first weekend, there wasn't much we could really do," said Lashoff, who might not be around for this week's key games; he was called up to Tampa Bay on Tuesday. "But then it was a kind of snowball thing. We didn't know what was happening. We got through that first weekend and there was so much going on."

The leadership, behind Craig, stepped in and stepped up.

"We have some older guys, but as a team, we're very young," he said. "When something like that happens, I mean, when you were in juniors, you never saw something like that.

"In pros, when things are going so well after going so badly, you don't see a change made like that. So the leadership group and the coaching staff worked to keep everything in focus."

It's why you have captains and alternates in hockey, a game in which their influence is greater than any other.

"It's a different environment, a different game, a different culture," Mendelson said. "In this game, you're taught to respect your leaders. By the same token, the leaders have to earn that respect."

And so Craig, Hall and Fritz, among others, worked to support Mendelson.

"This is not to take away from the job Leigh Mendelson and (assistant coach) Ben Eaves have done, but there's only so much a coach can do when there's so much shuffling going on in an organization," Lashoff said. "There are emotions that are in effect in a locker room that coaches can't see, so it's really crucial for veteran guys and leaders on a team to take hold of a situation and make sure guys are doing the right things and working together instead of pulling in different directions."

Under Johnson, the Admirals worked themselves to third place, but their margin eroded. While Wilkes-Barre/Scranton went on a tear, the Admirals couldn't score. They've lost 5 of 6, yet are just two points out of a playoff spot.

" These are the biggest three games we're going to play all year: Games 78, 79 and 80," Craig said. "If you don't have some nervousness, some pressure.... We're almost in a win-or-go-home-situation."