Practice Report

The Bucks had a full practice today for the first time since last Wednesday, and as promised, I have some news about injuries and all that jazz.

Bobby Russell was hurt on Saturday night and is now out indefinitely with an injury of the "upper body" variety. I expect they'll place him on the injured reserve sometime later today or tomorrow, but retroactive to Saturday, of course.

With Russell getting hurt and Jeff Bes already out, the Bucks have lost two veteran leaders who have combined for 93 points so far this season. When I asked Coach Ruskowski what they're going to have to do to make up for all that, he just said, "Losers make excuses; winners find a way to make it work."

However, he did admit that the team is going to need some natural goal-scoring talent with two of its leading assist men out of the lineup, and he is obviously trying to find someone to bring in.

The trade deadline is approaching quickly, but he could always bring someone in from Europe or elsewhere as he did with Chris Stanley last season (and other players in the past) if things come down to it.

In the meantime, Mike Gooch, a very offensive defenseman in his college career, has moved into a forward spot. Erick Lizon should be back in the lineup on Thursday, but Ruskowski said he will probably leave Gooch up front and see what he can do.

Aiding him in making that decision is the fact that defenseman Jaye Judd should also be able to return on Thursday, as he participated in a full, though contact-free, practice today. Ruskowski said as long as he was feeling okay after today, he should be set to come off the IR this week.

There was quite a crowd for practice today with Lizon on a stationary bike for a while then wandering around, Bes and Russell both in attendance and Matt Miller's parents watching their son at work.

Steve Weidlich was the only player not in the arena, but from what I understand, he has some kind of minor illness and should be back to practice soon.

I spoke to the two new guys (goaltender Andrew Martin and center Mitch Stephens) today for the first time, and they both admitted to being relieved to get out of the questionable situation in New Mexico and said they hadn't even been able to get much practice time out there.

Obviously, they and Ruskowski hope that getting a few full days of practice in before the next game will help them out.

Amusingly enough, the two guys the Bucks managed to get from the same team happened to be roommates when they were with that team, so they had a familiar face and seem to be getting along with the rest of the guys pretty well already.

I'll be writing my weekly notebook to run today for tomorrow, so once that's finished up, I'll post some leftover quotes. Right now, though, I need to go to the AT&T store and get them to fix my Blackberry, which has apparently decided that it doesn't feel like connecting to the internet anymore.

Quick note to those season ticket holders among you who were concerned about the Kid's Day Game: the Bucks will be accepting those vouchers after all.

P.S. I take back the title of my blog post from yesterday; the Super Bowl made it pretty super after all. And Sid is the second Star of the Week, so that's cool, too. Glad someone else noticed how well he was playing!

UPDATE: I guess they aren't putting up a front about Russell's injury like they did by placing Bes on the 14-day IR, as Russell is out for at least 30 retroactive to Saturday night.