Meanwhile, the Bucks officially signed Mr. Matt Brayfield to a 5-game contract today, and he is on the ice warming up as their backup netminder as I type.
The Bucks will be facing reigning Goaltender of the Week Brett Jaeger once again tonight, while the Texas Brahmas will be getting their first shot at rookie Ryan Gibb.
I was not able to attend the morning skate today, but I can now tell you that Ryan Salvis will be playing tonight, while Jaye Judd, Steve Weidlich and Vincent Zaore-Vanie will not.
Darryl Smith is still a question mark, but at least that means the Bucks probably won't need Serge Dube as a forward and thus have at least five defensemen. We'll see if Coach Ruskowski moves Igor Agarunov back to make it six.
Oh, and it seems Justin Kinnunen has been brought back down to the CHL, so he's in the Brahmas' lineup for tonight.
As far as all those leftover quotes...I'll try to post some before the game starts.
For those of you who are actually at home and not attending the game, you can read more about it in my preview, Bryan Benway's preview and the Pointstreak pre-game notes.
The team will start wearing its blue sweaters at home tonight as it is the first home game after the All-Star break. I'm glad; I'm not much of a fan of white uniforms that aren't pinstriped, haha.
Matt skated over to take shots in such a sad fashion, but he actually stopped quite a few...though the guys may have been going easy on him. That bright blue mask he wears doesn't quite go with the rest of the ensemble.
This is the first time I've seen Sal Alba behind the bench this season, but I assume Jorge Lopez will be keeping him company during the game.
Ryan James Hand stayed out on the ice until everyone else, Brahmas included, had left. He even stood there watching all of them. Interesting.
I just heard an announcement stating that one of the impending games against the Corpus Christi IceRays has been moved from its originally scheduled date to a Sunday. Was anyone planning to tell me that?
And now, some leftover quotes...
Coach Ruskowski on the 6-3 win over the IceRays last Friday:
"I thought we played with a lot of heart and desire, and that's one thing that sometimes we've been missing in trying to win hockey games. We were shorthanded going into the game, and the guys really pitched in and did their part. Some guys rose to the forefront and were accounted for, and we did a pretty good job even though we were undisciplined and took a lot of penalties. Some penalties were called for, and I think some were a little bit exaggerated, but we killed them off, which we did a great job doing. Then we had some power-play goals, and that's been our success, power play and penalty killing. When they're doing well, we're successful; when they're not, we struggle."
On the 6-2 loss to the Brahmas last Saturday:
"We played really well, we played hard, but again we were shorthanded. I had to put defense up at forward, and then we had to go with five defensemen, but then again, we were just...I just don't know what we're thinking. We took penalties after penalties after penalties. Again, some were called for, and some were exaggerated, but it's just something that we have to contain. We're killing the penalty killers, and when it comes down to trying to score goals, they're dead; they just have nothing left. Then, the third period, the walls just caved in, and they got some pretty...soft goals against us on deflections and squeaked in a goal from a bad angle. We just didn't have it. With the injuries we had, we just didn't have enough goal-scoring power to try to win a hockey game."
On the ways the team needs to improve:
"It's not just (the Brahmas), it's gotten to the point where every game we play has to be a big one, especially when we're struggling. I've been looking around trying to see how I can improve my team somehow, but it's not happening. All the doors are closed right now. I'm having a hard, hard time trying to find people and pick up people who are interested in coming to Laredo to play. I'll keep knocking on the doors, and hopefully something will happen."
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