Plain and Simple

During the second half of last night's game, the Bucks finally showed exactly what they are capable of doing. With their leading goal scorer in the stands, their top goaltender in Oklahoma City and only five defensemen splitting time, they came back from three goals down against a very tough team and won in a shootout.

That postgame interview with Coach Ruskowski was the best I've had all season; he obviously wasn't thrilled with the way the guys came out, but for them to stick with it after giving up a hat trick in the first 27 minutes impressed everyone, including him.

"I think we've had some pretty good performances (this season), and I think we've won games that we didn't play very well, and I was concerned," he said. "But last night, that second half was one of the better we've had. The thing about it is that we were down and we never gave up. That's a huge factor."

Every single one of the players, including the guys who didn't get to play last night, was thrilled following the game, especially rookie netminder Ryan Gibb, who called the win "massive" and "amazing."

When the Bucks fell to being behind 4-1 in the second period last night, I'm pretty sure everyone gave up on them. As a big NHL fan, I have seen three-goal leads disappear in a matter of minutes this season, so I wasn't entirely convinced, but I did know (as I stated in my game blog) that they would have to score before the second period ended if they wanted any chance to win.

Matt Miller came through with that huge second goal with just nine seconds to play in the middle period, then assisted on Rick Kozak's score that brought the Bucks within one about halfway through the third.

The guys who do all the work never get all the credit from the public in this sport, which is rough, but Ruskowski definitely noticed Miller's efforts and could not stop raving about him, even this morning.

"He's been playing pretty well for me, but I really thought he was unbelievable," Ruskowski said. "I just thought, 'That's the guy I traded for.' He played tremendous; he knocked them off the puck, went and got the puck, knocked them down again, went and did it again then made a shot on net or a pass. He played the way I knew he could and set the bar very high. Now anything less would be a disappointment for me. He's got to play that way to be successful, and for that line to be successful, and I was very impressed with his performance."

Jeff Bes, Serge Dube, Adam Rivet and Bobby Russell were also very impressive last night in the amount of effort they put forth, especially in the second period when the other guys were still lagging behind a bit.

Kozak admitted after the game that they had not come out the way they needed to, and that has been something of a trend lately. But now that they know what they can do, maybe they'll try a little harder to keep doing it.

When I asked Ruskowski this morning if he thought last night would push the guys to always play the way he wanted them to, he looked at me as if to say, "Your guess is as good as mine," because this isn't the first glimpse of this type of play the team has given him this season, just the strongest one with the best end result.

"I sure hope so," he said. "I can only bring it up to them so much. We can always hope and pray that it will happen that way, but time will tell."

Of course, one thing he has disliked about his team all season long is the fact that the players often don't finish their checks, and he mentioned one shift last night during which Kozak and Erick Lizon both completely crushed the guys they were skating with as a turning point.

"I really think that one shift where Kozak hit a guy and hammered him, then Lizon came in and hammered a guy and all the fans got into the game rejuvenated us," he said. "That's what we have to do all the time. At the home or on the road, we have to finish our checks."

For those of you who read my game blog, that would be when I said, "The Bucks are trying to check the life out of the Brahmas at this point, but it might be a little late for that to be a successful course of action."

Apparently it wasn't, and it showed that they are capable of playing the physical style of game that Ruskowski wants to see out of them. Everyone from the always brutal Kozak to Bes to Rivet, etc... was throwing his body around once the game got to the third period, and that is exactly what they need to do to keep Ruskowski from calling them "soft" and searching for guys who fit into his system better than the ones who are here now do.

However, due to the injuries to Jaye Judd and Steve Weidlich, which have landed them both on the IR, Ruswowski is still trying to bring in a fresh body to take the spot that Vincent Zaore-Vanie isn't filling.

"We're working on a couple deals to see if I can get some help in that aspect," he said. "But nothing is for sure, so until I see the whites of their eyes, it's still in the works."

Additionally, Sebastien Centomo might be meeting up with the team a bit later than expected due to some complications his wife Amanda is experiencing after the birth of their son on Tuesday. I don't believe it's anything serious, but keep her in your prayers if you're the praying type and in your thoughts if not.

On the ice, that means Gibb will likely be starting against the Mississippi RiverKings, and Ruskowski is hoping that last night's shootout win, his first as a professional, will give the young goalie some confidence that carries over into Saturday night's game, as well as giving the rest of the players some confidence in him and themselves.

"I'm very happy for him because he was struggling before (in shootouts)," Ruskowski said. "It's definitely a boost, being behind 4-1 and coming back and beating them. I just hope they know what it takes and can do it again if they all work hard. Hopefully, they can carry this on, and hopefully there's bigger and better and stuff in front of us than there is behind us."

Everyone emphasized that the win was huge for morale, and Ruskowski said this morning that he and majority owner Glenn Hart had spoken about the game possibly being the "turning point" as far as getting out of the slump the team has been in of late.

As much as the players said the win was the confidence boost they needed, I think it may have been the kick in the pants they needed. Confidence is one thing; effort is another, and they needed the latter more than the former. If giving their best effort gave them more confidence, great, but they are going to need to keep the effort up if they want to win either of their next games...or any of their next three, for that matter.

By the way, I know hockey purists hate shootouts, but I kinda like them, at least when they don't happen too frequently. Another thing I like is asking coaches why they decided to go with the shooters they chose in the order in which they put them out there.

Last night, Kozak and Alex Goupil were hot and had scored the game's last two goals, making those choices obvious enough, so I asked Ruskowski why he went with Mike Gooch. He laughed a little bit, then said Dube had actually helped him make that decision based on the way the kid fares in practice shootouts.

"I have to give the credit to Dube," he said. "We've been having shootouts, and Gooch is always pretty good at it. But in practice, it's different than in a game. There's a lot more pressure when you've got 5,000 fans watching, where in practice you only have 18 or 19 guys. But he did pretty well; he's good with the puck, he moves the puck really well, and when he made that move, wow. It was pretty slick, caught me off guard a little bit. Hopefully if we get in another shootout, he'll be someone we'll use there again."

Just to clarify, there were actually 3,317 fans at the game...at least according to Pointstreak. Oh, and there are usually more than 18 or 19 at practice, with Bryan Benway, Art Cullaton, Jorge Lopez, Bobby Moore, etc...and myself lingering about, haha.

And now I need to go dummy out pages for today, so I will leave you with something completely unrelated to the Bucks but too sweet and sad and adorable not to share. You can read more about it here or here.