Monday, Monday

The players had a really rough skate today for the first time this season. I'm not sure if it was because of the loss on Saturday or to make up for time lost to the day off yesterday, but everyone was pretty worn out by the end of the day. Actually, I guess the reason was probably because there will not be ice tomorrow in preparation for the WWE show at the LEC.

Meanwhile, Steve Weidlich was back on the ice and suited up as a forward, which Coach Ruskowski said was just to help him get back into the swing of things but not something that should be ruled out for game situations.

I'm not sure Weidlich will be the D-man to get the call to offense should Coach choose to go that direction, but he does believe it to be an option now that he has eight defensemen on his roster once Ryan James Hand comes off the IR.

Hand was at practice today for the first time since his injury and skated in the sprint exercises at the end of practice. He wasn't in pads or anything, but he was holding his stick and seemed to be in great condition other than the cast on his injured hand. I assume he will come off the IR as soon as his 30 days are up, or at least as soon as Coach can decide who to cut to make room for him.

I got to meet Jaye Judd, who was acquired in a trade late last week and did not arrive in Laredo until the morning of the season opener on Friday, for the first time today. He, like everyone else Coach has brought in this season, seems like a great guy and very dedicated to learning as much as he can to help the team in any way that he can.

Judd said he wasn't feeling his best on Friday after all the travel and definitely did not think he played great due to being unfamiliar with the systems and everything else he needed to know, but I'd say he did a pretty decent job considering the situation.

There should be some more roster news in the next couple days.

Back to this weekend, though. Starting off 1-1 is clearly never the Bucks' objective, but as anyone who saw these games can tell you, the guys played hard and never let up throughout both contests. The loss on Saturday was based on 90 seconds of a 60-minute competition, and even Bossier-Shreveport Mudbugs head coach Scott Muscutt could not stop raving about the Bucks when I spoke to him after the game.

"The Laredo Bucks are so well-coached, and they are always consistent," he said. "They have those big five guys that come back here every year and they are so potent out there on power play, on penalty kill and even strength. You take your back off for one second against these guys, and you're going to pay the price."

Ruskowski felt the same way and told me today that he is not at all unhappy with his team's performance Saturday night, so I guess that wasn't the reason behind all the extra skating this morning at all.

However, Coach does think there are a few players who the team depends on who haven't quite stepped up to that challenge yet this season. He isn't going to name names, of course, and he is confident that those kinks will work themselves out shortly.

I have some leftover quotes from this weekend and some new stuff from Coach this morning, but I'm going to save them for now in hopes that I can write a notebook to run in today or Wednesday's paper.

Obviously, no one is thrilled by the fact that they can't practice tomorrow, but I'm sure the team will get together somewhere...just not in the arena; they aren't even allowed in at all on days with shows at night. The ice should be back out on Wednesday afternoon.