A Belated Update

Sorry about the delay between posts; that should be the last of those until I take a vacation or something of that nature (if/when that ever happens).

Anyway, here is my story about the first cuts made on Sunday, and here is my story from yesterday's media luncheon, which is mostly a recap of camp so far and some comments about expectations for this season.

My day was made earlier while I was talking to recently signed veteran forward Bobby Russell for a story for our Bucks preview tab (which will come out in Friday's paper) and discovered that he was on the 1997-98 Portland Winter Hawks team that won the Memorial Cup alongside the likes of Marian Hossa, Brenden Morrow and Andrew Ference.

Russell failed to mention that he was the team's fourth-leading scorer, behind Todd Robinson, Morrow and Hossa...and that he scored the game-winning goal against the Guelph Storm in the championship game.

Here is the absolutely awesome video evidence. I'm a bit embarrassed now that I hadn't heard of the guy before last Monday.

Meanwhile, the team has cut down to one practice per day, but today was a two-parter, with Coach bringing the guys back onto the ice after a talk in the locker room so they could work intensively on the power play.

It's looking like the top line is going to be Jeff Bes, Russell and rookie speedster Darryl Smith, as those three were wearing the red jerseys in practice today.

Everything else is a little less definite. For the first half of practice, Igor Agarunov, Alex Goupil and rookie Jason Dixon were wearing yellow jerseys, but Agarunov flipped over to defense for the second half. He was replaced on the yellow line by Matt Summers, who had started the day in a maroon jersey alongside rookies Ryan Fuller and Joey Moggach.

Similarly, Erick Lizon started the day on the green line with rookies Brett Hopfe and Shaun Norrie, but was moved to the maroon line for the power play work.

Coach said he expects to make his last cuts tomorrow afternoon, but the final roster probably will not be released until it is due on Thursday. You might be surprised to see a name you don't recognize when it is published.

Rookie defenseman Ryan James Hand, who of course hurt his hand in Thursday's preseason game, will start the season on the injured reserve, which means his return will force another cut unless someone else happens to get hurt before then.

Now for some league news...the defending Northern Conference champion Colorado Eagles, as if they needed to get any stronger, made to a trade to acquire right wing Konrad Reeder, last season's second-leading scorer with 108 points, from the New Mexico Scorpions in a trade yesterday. The Eagles gave up left wing Seth Leonard in the deal.

Here is Adam Dunivan's take on that.

Obviously, transactions have been plentiful over the past couple days with everyone making cuts and some teams picking up others' scraps. Here is the list of recently reported CHL transactions.

Former Buck Jeff Genovy, who had been cut by the Odessa Jackalopes on Saturday, was picked up by the New Mexico Scorpions today. Odessa also cut former Buck Corey Courchene, but he has not been picked up anywhere else at this point.

This post has probably gotten long enough, so I'm going to go work on my tab stories, but I will try to post more tomorrow after practice, if not before then. After all, it's always a great day for hockey.