The Bucks will begin their Southern Conference Semifinal series against the Odessa Jackalopes at Ector County Coliseum in just over an hour.
Today's Times featured my preview for the game/series and a feature about rookie defenseman Devin Featherstone.
That story was a lot of fun to write, and Devin was kind enough to send me a lot of photos from his time as a firefighter in northern Alberta over the summers. We used two of them, but obviously had a few leftover, including this one:
Just wanted to share because I thought it was very neat but we couldn't use it in the paper due to the Photoshop work done on it.
Meanwhile, one quote from that story that I cut a little short was this one from Coach Ruskowski:
"Everyone I talked to told me, 'The kid can play,' and he can. They weren’t lying to me. When I brought him in, I was pretty happy. I like the way he’s always leaning in; to me that means he has good balance and he’s a good skater. He’s got places to improve, but becoming a pro and playing the game and him understanding the professional game more and more, he’s going to be a true factor to be reckoned with in the future. I think he has a bright future. He’s good now, absolutely, but I think he could get even better."
I thought it was pretty cool to get so specific about the way he positions himself on the play and how that is a good sign about his overall performance.
Meanwhile, some leftovers from what I talked to Ruskowski about from my preview included this bit about the personal meetings on Monday:
"I think it’s very important. I think some guys seem to have an idea of not knowing what they’re doing. I asked, ‘What do you think you can do to bring this team a championship?,’ and they tell me, and I say, ‘Okay, well, this is what I think you should do. Now I can hold it against them because I got it in writing. If they don’t live up to their expectations, I say, ‘Here you go. This is what you told me. Are you living up to the expectations of what you told me that you were going to do. It kind of puts them on the line, knowing exactly what they have to do to be successful and exactly what I think they should do to be successful."
And this about the defense:
"We've got to be so conscientous. I always say, 'Head on a swivel and know where the situation is.' If you know where the situation is, you know where everybody is, you can adapt to that type of circumstance and take away the pass or hit the guy so he doesn't make the play. It's crucial. You look at the most important part of the team - it's goalie, strong defense, and the offense will take care of itself."
About passing:
"It has to improve. When we pass well, we skate well. When we pass well, we have offensive chances. If we pass well, we're not in our defensive zone. Our team, as crazy as it sounds, depends on passing as to whether or not it will be successful. A good pass can give you an opportunity for a breakaway; a bad pass will give you a chance to have to forecheck. You always want to score rather than have to forecheck and fight for the puck, so passing is crucial."
About the Jackalopes:
"They pass well, they move the puck well, they play good position. They seem to see the guy where we think he’s covered, but a nice pass makes a goal-scoring opportunity. Their defense comes up on the play a lot. A lot. So we have to be conscientous about their rushes. The rushes we have to make, we have to make sure everybody’s coming back and picking up their man, and we have to make sure that defensively we play great – not good – defensive coverage. If we play great defensive coverage and our power play and penalty killing does its job, we have a chance to win."
And about needing his players to step it up:
"Everybody has to step up their game one or two notches to be effective. It’s very important that the people who I rely on to take charge and the people who have just been here for the year step their game up. Everybody has to pull their load; everybody has to do their job. That has to be if we want to be contenders."
You can check out Bryan Benway's preview, the preview from the Odessa American and the Pointstreak pre-game notes for more.
As far as last night's games...
From the Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees' first playoff series victory in team history, via a 3-0 win over the Corpus Christi IceRays, Brian Sandalow has a game blog and a story. You can also check out the Killer Bees' press release.
On the Corpus side of things, Greg Rajan has some observations and his game story. He has also posted predictions for the semifinals.
The Killer Bees will now face the Southeast Division champion Texas Brahmas in their semifinal series, starting tomorrow night at the NYTEX Centre.
The Bossier-Shreveport Mudbugs' 5-3 win over the Rocky Mountain Rage set them up for a semifinal series against the Colorado Eagles, which also begins tomorrow.
Roy Lang III had a feature about the series win for the Shreveport Times, which also ran a game story by Kelly Morris.
And, last but not least, there was the Mississippi RiverKings' 5-3 win over the Oklahoma City Blazers to even their Northern Conference semifinal series at one game apiece.
The Desoto Times ran a short story about that game, while Bob Przybylo had a game blog and a wrapup.
That series does not resume until Wednesday.
As I mentioned yesterday, the Bucks-Jacks game is the only one going on tonight, and I will try to live blog it to the best of my ability...but I'm on desk alone on a baseball/softball night, so no promises.
No comments:
Post a Comment