Game Day No. 30

First things first, I'd like to wish a very happy birthday to Coach Ruskowski. I know he doesn't read this, but it's the thought that counts, right? And if I'm going about it that way, I also have to wish a very happy birthday to my father. So, happy birthday!

Serge Dube and Jason Dixon were at the morning skate today, and both will play tonight against the Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees.

Dube will likely be playing as a forward tonight, but I wouldn't be surprised to see him stay near the blue line on special teams.

When I talked to Ruskowski about Dixon not being at practice yesterday, he said he has "no qualms with giving him a day off" because Dixon is not one of the players whose work ethic he would ever question. I wonder who is.

It seems the day off was a good idea, as Dixon was doing well this morning and said he's feeling better. And, as Ruskowski said, it was better for him to save up his energy for tonight.

I saw the Bucks' special sweaters hanging up in the laundry room while I was at the arena this morning, and they're kinda funky looking. I did not see the backs, though, so hopefully the numbers will be easy enough to read.

In addition to the Bucks' seventh annual New Year's Eve clash with the Killer Bees tonight, there will be six more CHL games, most of them rivalry matchups.

My preview for tonight is semi-focused on Darryl Smith's callup because I figured that was the biggest thing to come out of yesterday for the Bucks. What I didn't realize is that the massively shorthanded Killer Bees would lose two more players before the night was over, with veteran forward Robin Bouchard leaving and rookie defenseman Jesse Perrin getting injured. Yeesh.

Brian Sandalow had another item on the depressing front in this story about the inherent lack of job stability for minor-league hockey players.

In better news, to an extent, Ray Bourque's son Chris was the talk of the NHL (at least before games ended) last night as he scored his first goal in the league with the Washington Capitals. Of course, I'll always remember him mostly for taking off after his freshman hockey season at BU.

We have an early deadline today, so I'll get to go home for a bit before tonight's game and then head over to the LEC early enough to complete my game-day blogging there. But, just FYI before I close this for now, Sebastien Centomo will be the Bucks' starting goaltender tonight.

Oh, and here's the link to the Pointstreak pre-game notes.

UPDATE: The Killer Bees will not be quite as depleted as expected, as Sandalow is reporting that Dennis Maxwell is back with the team. Maxwell was the Killer Bees' third-leading scorer last season with 12 goals and 35 assists, but that was in a very different system. Plus, after being semi-retired for a few months, who knows if he was able to get back in playing shape already. Guess we'll see tonight...but 13 is probably better than 12 regardless.

This has nothing to do with the reason for the update, but here's a fun fact (with video) about today thanks to the Steel City Sports Fan (Penguins Edition) Blog:

On This Date in Pittsburgh Penguins History:

Mario Lemieux becomes the first player in NHL history to score a goal five different ways in one game (even strength, power play, short-handed, penalty shot, empty net) in an 8-6 win over New Jersey.



As many of you probably know, Ruskowski played with Lemieux on the Penguins for the 1985-86 and 1986-87 seasons (which I obviously find super cool), and his catchphrase about Le Magnifique (Super Mario, if you prefer) is, "If God put anyone on this earth to play hockey, that was Mario Lemieux." Can't say I disagree.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Back to Maxwell, here are the official announcement and Sandalow's story.