John Royal

Jon DiSalvatore setting the example on the ice.

​The no doubt about it leader of the Houston Aeros is Jon DiSalvatore, the 30-year-old captain in his third season with the team. He's the go-to-go guy for information after the game. He's the unquestioned locker room leader. He's the team's leading scorer, and he's the one constant on a squad that's ever-changing because of injuries both in Houston and with the parent club up in Minnesota.

And for the first time ever in his AHL career, he's playing in the All-Star game. He leads the Aeros with 31 points including 12 goals and 19 assists (Casey Wellman leads the team with 13 goals). He's the top special team player with six power play goals. His name's not on the top of any of the AHL leader categories, but the AHL leader categories don't matter when it comes to the important thing: the Aeros winning games.

The Aeros have been winning games this season -- they're in second place of the AHL's West Division with a record of 21-9-3-9 (54 points), just one point behind the first-place Oklahoma City Barons. They're tied for the second-best record in the AHL's Western Conference, and they're tied for the fifth-best record in the entire league.

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John Royal

Matt Hackett has been one of the team's bright spots.

​For a team coached by a man nicknamed "Torch," the Houston Aeros (20-8-2-7, 49 points) have been a pretty lifeless entity the past month. And as the team moves into the second half of the season this weekend, lifelessness appears to be the least of their problems.

The Aeros opened the season fine, moving into first place and obtaining the best record in the league. They strongly resembled the hot team that ended the regular season and mowed through their AHL playoff competition before losing in the Calder Cup Finals to the Binghamton Senators in six games last year.

But then things started falling apart. Primarily, things started falling apart with the Aeros' parent club, the Minnesota Wild. The Wild, coached by last season's Aeros coach Mike Yeo, also got off to a hot start, and were looked poised to burn through the NHL. Then the injuries hit. And when the injuries hit in St. Paul, the result was felt in Houston, where player after player after player has been called up and sent back.

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​We have some great commenters here on Hair Balls, and it's time we paid some damn attention to them.

So we'll be highlighting a Comment of the Day each morning, from the previous day's work. Maybe two comments, even.

This will all be determined by a highly rigorous scientific formula involving wit, clarity and whatever else we feel like at the moment.

We reviewed the year in Aeros' hockey, which turned out to be a pretty good year.

In the course of it we praised the new alternative uniforms, which get rid of the cartoon bomber logo. One reader said we were full of it.

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John Royal

The Aeros like to hold Miss Aeros Bikini Contests.

​To wrap up my year in review of the teams I cover, here's a look back at the 25 most significant moments with the Houston Aeros for the year 2011.

1. The Aeros added veterans Jed Ortmeyer and Patrick O'Sullivan to the team just as the New Year hit. From that point on, a team which had been struggling to pick up new coach Mike Yeo's system kicked it into high gear and went on a tear through the AHL. A tear which found the team making the finals of the AHL's Calder Cup playoffs.

2. The Aeros swept the Peoria Rivermen in four games, then took out the Milwaukee Admirals and Hamilton Bulldogs in thrilling seven-game series, before ultimately losing to the Binghamton Senators in a six-game championship series.

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​Derek "Boogeyman" Boogaard, a former Houston Aero enforcer who we got to know before his NHL career took off, has been found to have suffered with a neurodegenerative disease that medical experts have linked to concussions.

Boogaard, once one of the league's most feared brawlers, died on May 13 at age 28 due to an accidental drug and alcohol overdose. Though his brother was charged with Derek's death, a Minnesota judge later dismissed the felony charge levied against Aaron Boogaard, who would plead guilty to a gross misdemeanor.

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John Royal

Meet Matt Kassian, Twitter superstar.

​Following athletes on Twitter can be boring. Most of the stuff they tweet is dull because they're afraid of offending any followers or making their coaches and/or teammates angry. Others use it primarily as a medium to promote themselves and whatever product their agent has just set them up with. And most have no personality.

So say hello to Matt Kassian, forward and enforcer for the Houston Aeros. Kassian doesn't get as much ice time as the flashy forwards. Primarily because he's not a flashy player. He's not the best of skaters, nor the most graceful of players -- though those who have watched him play the past several years have noted his huge improvement as a player. What he is is an enforcer, and his job is to protect his teammates. He fights a lot, and throws his body around, trying to aggravate the opposition.

He's also one of the nicest people you could meet. He's got a great sense of humor. And he's just one of those guys you want to hang around with before and after games. He's also becoming a bit of a Twitter sensation among hockey fans.

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John Royal

Aeros watch as Binghamton celebrates last season's Calder Cup win

​Four months ago the Houston Aeros stood on the Toyota Center ice stunned. Stunned that they'd lost to the Binghamton Senators. Stunned that the AHL Calder Cup, which has been in their grasp, was gone. Stunned that the Senators were celebrating on their ice. Stunned that their magnificent playoff run was over. Stunned that the season was over.

Over and leaving them unfulfilled. Over and leaving them wanting more. Wanting it all. Wanting the Calder Cup to be theirs. To be passing it amongst themselves, raising it high over their heads while the home fans roared.

The Houston Aeros start a new season on Sunday afternoon at 5:05 p.m. at Toyota Center when they host the Chicago Wolves. And while the season is new, the focus, the purpose, is not. This season for the Aeros is about completing some unfinished business. It's about becoming the champions of the AHL. Setting right the wrongs that had so suddenly ended the 2010/2011 season on their home ice.

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Aaron Boogaard faces charges.

​The news surrounding the tragic death of former Houston Aero Derek Boogaard keeps getting sadder: Police in Minnesota have charged his brother Aaron with giving him an Oxycontin pill that led to his overdose death in May.

Our sister paper City Pages reports that Boogaard's father, a former policeman, says Aaron was trying to regulate Derek's use of the painkiller by doling the pills out slowly.

The AP reports that charges were filed earlier today of unlawful sale of a controlled substance and interfering with a crime scene by trying to conceal evidence.

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The NHL's Minnesota Wild is the subject of a Hard Knocks-type show on its minor-league system, and that means the Houston Aeros will be front and center.

Becoming Wild will include episodes on the Aeros' Calder Cup run and coach Mike Yeo, who went from heading the Aeros to the Wild.

Who wouldn't want to see a six-part series on the Aeros? Well, don't get your hopes up. It's not airing here.

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Hockey in Reliant Stadium? In September? A disaster in the making?

​The word on the street yesterday was that the NHL is coming to Houston. Not to play real hockey, of course. And not for the season. But just for a preseason game. At Reliant Stadium. In September.

I like hockey. I want hockey to become a huge thing in Houston. But seriously, a hockey game in a football stadium in September just speaks to this whole thing not being completely thought out, which, in a way, makes sense seeing that one of the teams supposedly involved in this supposed game is the Phoenix Coyotes, a team that's been such a monumental failure in Phoenix that the vultures from Canada have been hanging over the team for several years, just waiting for the chance to return the team to the country from which it came.

Let's go to the obvious problems with this game. There's the Coyotes, who don't even have a following in Phoenix, much less a national following, and they're playing the Dallas Stars from the hated city of Dallas. Then there's the fact that this game is supposedly being played at Reliant Stadium. Supposedly being the operative word, seeing as how the good folks out at the Reliant complex say that an agreement for this game doesn't even exist.

And have I mentioned that they're playing this in a football stadium in September?

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