Weekend Recap

With a pair of wins this weekend, the Bucks (8-4-0, 16 pts.) have built a 3-game streak heading into their next game, another matchup with the Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees (6-1-2, 14 pts.), on Thursday.

The Bucks, who already lead the Southeast Division, have also taken the Southern Conference lead thanks to their wins and a couple of losses by the Odessa Jackalopes (7-4-1, 15 pts.). The Killer Bees are no longer their closest Southeast Division competition, as the Texas Brahmas (7-3-1, 15 pts.) have moved into second place. Of course, the Killer Bees have played two fewer games than the Brahmas and three fewer than the Bucks, so we'll see how everything evens out.

I'm still pretty upset that I didn't get to cover Saturday's 4-0 win over the Bossier-Shreveport Mudbugs, but I guess that's that. I'll be heading over to practice in a bit, so I'll get Coach Ruskowski's reaction to it and go from there. I know that the Mudbugs were down a few key players, and only had 13 skaters in the game total, but shutting them out is still an accomplishment, mostly for Sebastien Centomo.

Meanwhile, that whole Marty Standish thing seems to remain at a standstill, as some people are claiming he doesn't want to play for anyone but Oklahoma City, but we'll see. I forgot to mention this the other day, but the reason behind the delay in that trade was the fact that the league seemed to think the Bucks already had four veterans, as Bob Przybylo notes in this update.

As you could probably guess, Steve Weidlich was the player in question, but the higher-ups appear to have decided that he is, in fact, not yet a veteran.

Whatever ends up happening with Standish, it sure seems like everyone in Oklahoma City loved him, as proven by this interview on Przybylo's blog and the aforementioned Facebook group begging to bring him back to the Blazers.

According to Bryan Benway's blog, Standish was supposed to arrive in Laredo yesterday but didn't. We'll see if he's here yet today.

Meanwhile, in the Valley, Brian Sandalow didn't really care for the Thunder's sweaters (And who can blame him?) but apparently enjoys the company of his photographers. In Corpus, Greg Rajan was unimpressed by the IceRays' 5-4 win over the Amarillo Gorillas and wants an investigation into the Weidlich status issue.

There were no CHL games last night, nor will there be any tonight, but I will be back to update after practice and with this week's league honorees.

Last Night's NHL Scores: Carolina Hurricanes 3, Tampa Bay Lightning 2 (SO); Montreal Canadiens 3, St. Louis Blues 2 (SO); Philadelphia Flyers 4, Atlanta Thrashers 3; San Jose Sharks 6, Chicago Blackhawks 5; Anaheim Ducks 2, Los Angeles Kings 0.

Those scores remind me of this story I read yesterday. Pretty interesting stuff. I guess this is what the CHL was trying to accomplish by mimicking the NHL's rule changes.