A Major Case of the Mondays

After my first personal experience with seeing the Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees beat the Bucks in the regular season, talking to Coach Ruskowski was a bit different than usual, even different from his usual reaction to a loss.

Losing to the Bees (5-0-0, 10 points) is something the Bucks (5-3-0, 10 points) are "not supposed to do," and though these losses are clearly a reflection of improvement to the Bees, Coach made it obvious that he will not continue to lose to them without putting up a fight...also known as completely revamping most of his roster.

As far as Saturday's 3-1 loss to the Bees, here is my story from the game and here is Brian Sandalow's. As you can guess, the tones are a little bit different.

Nothing involving the Bucks has arisen on the transaction list since Saturday, but I'm sure we won't be waiting too much longer on that, as implied by the quotes in my story and by Bryan Benway's latest blog. He also wrote about last week's transactions over the weekend.

In spite of all the early roster shakeups in Laredo, I guess the big story in the Southeast Division, and even the entire league, is the hot start of the Killer Bees, who are now the only undefeated team in the CHL.

From what I've read in Sandalow's stories and what first-year head coach Chris Brooks told me on Saturday, they are taking it all in stride and know that five straight wins this early in the season won't necessarily mean much down the line. But the fact of the matter is that this team is good, much better than anyone was willing to give it credit for heading into the season.

The Bucks and Bees will meet again this Saturday, this time being their first clash at the LEC of the regular season. That is going to be a big game for both teams in a lot of ways, and the guys who Ruskowski keeps around and brings in this week will need to step it up to get by a Bees team that won't be bus-lagged like the one they faced this weekend.

A couple of notes about the Bees statistically:

-Though this is obviously in part because of how few games they have played, they have been shorthanded less frequently than everyone in the league except for the Bossier-Shreveport Mudbugs. They are still averaging 8.8 penalty kills per game, but that is fewer than many teams in the league, including the Bucks (9.4).

-They have been averaging 40.2 shots per game, including a total of 100 in their two wins over the Bucks. That is the highest per game total in the league, and obviously a higher number of chances will usually generate a higher number of goals. The only time they were outshot so far this season was in Friday's game against the Odessa Jackalopes, but rookie goaltender Wylie Rogers stepped up and made 53 saves to earn them a 2-1 win.

-Their leading scorer (right wing Trevor Weisgerber - eight points) is tied for 37th place in the league, yet they are outscoring opponents 21-9 (20-9 if you don't want to include the shootout goal), which shows that they are well-rounded offensively. Obviously, Weisgerber's low ranking is another thing affected by the low number of games they've played to date, but the fact that everyone on the team except their enforcer, two defensemen and the goalies has registered a point this early in the season is certainly not a bad thing (for them, anyway).

-The choice of Brooks to stick with two rookie netminders is paying huge dividends, as Rogers leads the league in save percentage (.957) and is third in goals-against average (1.57) and backup Christian Boucher didn't do a bad job himself in Saturday's win.

- No one on the team has a negative plus/minus ratio, with 14 skaters in the positive numbers and three at zero.

But enough about the Bees...for now. Another unrelated statistical note, though: three of the league's top scorers thus far (Rich Hansen - 18 points, Chris Lipsett - 15, Les Reaney - 14) play for the expansion Rapid City Rush.

Meanwhile, the Bucks are going to be practicing tomorrow, then will be without ice Wednesday before having a morning skate and then hosting the Odessa Jackalopes (4-2-1, nine points) on Thursday.

Coach Ruskowski and player/assistant coach Jeff Bes were competing in the Logistics & Manufacturing Association Golf Tournament this morning, so I didn't go to practice, but I'll be there tomorrow to see if there are any new faces around or any old ones missing.

I will have a notebook running in tomorrow's Times talking a little bit more about how the Bucks' season has gone so far and noting the league's weekly honors, which this week went to Wichita Thunder winger Jason Duda (Player of the Week) and Odessa's Alexandre Vincent (Goaltender of the Week).

There were two games in the CHL last night, with the Amarillo Gorillas beating the Arizona Sundogs 3-2 and the Rapid City Rush topping the Thunder 4-2. The league has tonight off, as per usual, but you can read Bob Hoffman's "Shots From the Points" to catch up on some of what happened last week.

In the NHL, the Edmonton Oilers beat the Philadelphia Flyers 5-4, the Atlanta Thrashers defeated the Florida Panthers 5-3, the Carolina Hurricanes topped the Toronto Maple Leafs 6-4, the Anaheim Ducks beat the Calgary Flames 3-2, the San Jose Sharks beat the Colorado Avalanche 5-3 and the Detroit Red Wings defeated the Vancouver Canucks 3-2 in one of few nights so far this season that all games ended in regulation.

Tonight, the Buffalo Sabres are at the New Jersey Devils, the Columbus Blue Jackets are at the New York Islanders and the Avalanche are at the Chicago Blackhawks. You can see the league standings many places, including here.

UPDATE: Greg Rajan is reporting that the IceRays have been assigned defenseman John Adams from the Houston Aeros and have waived d-man Nathan Oke. Speaking of the Aeros, they posted this video interview with Coach Ruskowski, who played in Houston back in the day and was the first coach the Aeros ever had.

NHL Scores: Sabres 2, Devils 0; Islanders 4, Blue Jackets 3 (OT); Blackhawks 6, Avalanche 2.