Time to Blog

Let's start with news that actually got announced today, as the Bucks' home regular season finale has been rescheduled for Thursday, March 19.

The Bucks were originally slated to play that game, in which they host the Texas Brahmas, on Friday, March 20, then immediately leave for a game against the Odessa Jackalopes in Odessa the next night.

They may still leave immediately following their game, but now they'll have some time to sleep in between, so I'm sure the Bucks are viewing this as a good thing.

I originally thought all these rescheduled games were working around the LEC events schedule, but now I'm not too positive that is the case, so this may have just been the league allowing the Bucks some time to breathe between two games that may be incredibly important depending on what goes on between now and then.

The team also announced that the game will be a $1 night at the LEC, with beer, hot dogs and sodas being sold for just $1. That's pretty sweet.

The Bucks' final regular season game is keeping its date to my knowledge, and the Brahmas will close out their regular season with a game against the Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees that Saturday in Hidalgo.

I had initially thought of going to the game in the Valley if it was going to be important in deciding anything that has to do with the Bucks (Odessa is a bit too far for me to be driving alone, and I'm usually on desk on Saturdays, anyway), but now that the Brahmas have built up such a big lead, that probably won't be the case.

On that note, Brian Sandalow has released his Southeast Division standings for this week and kept the Bucks in the No. 2 spot but wants them to know a bad showing this weekend could make being that high a thing of the past.

He also notes the fact that the Corpus Christi IceRays seem to have trouble beating the Killer Bees this season, something that could come in handy for the Bees in their two games at the IceRays this weekend.

Here are the standings heading into a weekend in which each Southeast team plays two games against the same team:

While the Bucks tangle with the New Mexico Scorpions, the Brahmas will take on the team the Scorpions surprisingly defeated last night - the Odessa Jackalopes.

That series is a battle of the Southern Conference's finest, and whichever team takes the most points out of those two games will hold the conference lead at the end of the weekend. The Brahmas are currently one point ahead of the Jackalopes (30-12-5, 65 points).

Of course, if the Bucks know what's good for them, they won't be focusing too much on the clash of conference titans, but instead of the Scorpions (18-26-2, 38 pts.), who are desperately fighting for the conference's last playoff spot.

If the regular season ended today, the Southern Conference would send No. 1 Texas, No. 2 Odessa, No. 3 Laredo, No. 4 Rio Grande Valley and the No. 5 Arizona Sundogs to the playoffs.

The Sundogs (21-24-3, 45 pts.), though, are only one point ahead of the IceRays, and the Scorpions are only six out of that race. The only team that seems to be out of it is the Amarillo Gorillas (13-29-2, 28 pts.), but with 20 games left to play (the most of anyone in the league), they have not yet been mathematically eliminated.

Enough playoff talk, though. As promised, my notebook ran in today's Times and touched on the subjects of defense, Josh Bonar and the injured or otherwise missing players the Bucks have.

Coach Ruskowski said he talked to Mickey Gilchrist, he seems excited to be coming over here and Gilchrist is expected to arrive in the Feb. 25-26 range.

That means Gilchrist, who is playing with in Japan right now, could very well be on the active roster before any of the Bucks' injured players.

Defensemen Jaye Judd and Steve Weidlich could be back sooner, but nothing is definite, as neither has been practicing since Judd put in a few sessions last week.

That means the Bucks will only have 14 skaters this weekend playing two games in an altitude much higher than they are used to and with Sebastien Centomo probably closer to 80 percent than 100.

As we know, Centomo's backup Andrew Martin came to Laredo from the Scorpions, and goalies playing against old teams can go two ways. Either the guys know the shooters and want to prove themselves and do a great job...or the shooters know the goalies and can easily anticipate where to shoot the puck if they want to score.

If Martin has to start either of this weekend's games, I'm sure he'll want it to be the former.

Back to the injuries, though, Ruskowski said Jeff Bes' status for the season will be determined by the end of the week. I doubt they'll let the public know right away if its decided he cannot come back, even in the playoffs, but that will put Ruskowski in a bit of a predicament.

With the trade deadline past, there is no way he can trade within the league to try to replace Bes, though he can obviously pick up guys off waivers or bring someone in from outside the CHL.

When I asked him yesterday if that was his plan, he said it definitely was, whether he had to get someone "from Europe or wherever," so we'll see what happens there.

Who knows, maybe Chris Stanley will be available again...though I'm not sure he'd be as likely to come back with David Walker not around anymore.

Speaking of people brought in for the playoffs, though, when I was perusing transactions earlier this week, I saw a familiar name, and it turns out Josh Patterson has been with the Oklahoma City Blazers for most of the season but missed a lot of playing time and is often a scratch. His time with the Bucks doesn't come up on Pointstreak because he went by Joshua then.

The other guy who came in just for the playoffs, emergency goaltender Paul Drew, has spent his season with the Dayton Bombers of the East Coast Hockey League.

Anyway, this post is getting pretty massive, so I'm going to take a break to write my preview for this weekend and return with some more timely info and leftover quotes later.