Leading up to this game, I had a story in Thursday's Times about Jeff Bes returning to game action and one today about the team's expectations for this big opening weekend, with insight from Bes, team captain Adam Rivet, alternate captain Darryl Smith and, of course, Coach Ruskowski.
You can read the Bes story here, the preview here, Bryan Benway's preview here and the Pointstreak-pre-game notes here.
Earlier this week, I mentioned that forward Peter-James Corsi would be placed on the IR today, and he was, leaving the Bucks with 18 players on their active roster.
Goaltender Jean-Philippe Levasseur, the most recent addition to that lineup, will be starting in net tonight.
Here are some of the quotes, both leftover and used, that I got about this weekend:
Adam Rivet
It is a tough arena to play in, but we can’t really worry about the past with the losing streak in there. We just have to go in there and play hard. Obviously, we have a lot of new guys, and they’re really itching to get at it, and we’re hoping to change the trend there and hopefully get our first win.
You always want to get a quick start you don’t want to fall behind the eight ball. I think the guys know that we have to come out working hard and come away with four points. You want to start the season off right and get out in front of the group. You don’t want to be climbing back in later on, so it is key to go up and show up for both games. It’s a lot of travel, so I’m sure the boys will be tired, but it’s early in the season, so they should still be fresh.
Obviously there are going to be some adjustments as time goes on with boys still learning the systems, but I think they’re starting to get a handle on things. At times, we may have to tweak things a little so that everything’s done properly, but I think we’ll be all right.
Darryl Smith
I think it should be a really good game and hopefully we come out of there with no injuries.
I think we really just have to focus on our tasks, especially in our zone. I think offense will come, but the biggest thing is just working on our defensive coverage and things like that in our own zone, first. Obviously the guys aren’t going to be used to the long bus trip we have right after the game on Friday, but I think at the beginning of the season everyone is still going to be fired up, so it might work in our favor a bit to have the other teams going out and going 100 miles per hour in their home openers.
I’ve always liked it here, and Coach Roscoe has always been great to me along with all the other guys. I think we have a great group of guys, so I’m excited to be back and really start playing again, so I’m really looking forward to the start of the season, and hopefully it goes well for us.
Jeff Bes
Obviously two wins this weekend is our goal, and it would be a huge momentum builder for us. We have to go in there, and we have to play solid hockey. It’s both of their home openers, and they’re going to be excited, so the key is to come out just as strong as they do and hopefully score the first goal to take their crowd out of it then just keep working hard and keep plugging away and keep playing the system. If we do that, we have a really good chance of winning.
We’re definitely prepared. The guys have been working really hard. We’ve had a couple of surprises make the club, and some disappointments, but you’re going to get that every year. But as we all know, if we’re not winning and we’re not doing well, there are going to be changes to be made, but we’ve given everybody equal opportunity to show what they can do, and we’re satisfied with what he have going into Friday night’s game.
Coach RuskowskiWe just need to do our systems. Hopefully we can outplay them and do well in that aspect, but it’s going to be a tough road going out there to play a team with that much experience.
It’s going to be a character builder. No question about that.
I tried to bring in more speed and skill, toughness and spirit, mobile defensemen and solid goaltending. If we have those aspects, we’ll win more games than we lose. But what’s tough about bringing all these new guys in is that they may have all the talent in the world, but if they don’t play as a team, their talent is useless. It all depends on the leadership and how the guys bond with each other.
We practiced (Thursday), and I liked what I saw (from Levasseur). He looked pretty good, and I’m looking forward to seeing him play (tonight).
Lines will stay the same as the ones I mentioned the other day, with Bes-Smith-Lance Monych, Igor Agarunov-Evan Schwabe-Maxime Lincourt and Justin Styffe-Neil Trimm-Nick Klaren handling the forward duties. I imagine Robin Richards will sub into the third and/or second lines at least a couple times.
Defensive pairings were set as of Wednesday's practice, but Ruskowski said he thinks he'll be changing things up a bit during the game tonight. As a reminder, Rivet, Looby, Jarred Mohr, Cody Hamilton, Benjamin Dieude-Fauvel and Tomas Sample are the team's current d-men.
The top power play unit is expected to be the top line with Rivet at one point and Mohr at the other. That decision came as no surprise to me because Mohr has an amazing slap shot. The fact that 16 of his 21 points last season came on the power play is a pretty good hint that this is a smart call.
It should be noted that the Bucks had minimal time to work on their power play and penalty killing (thanks in part to Pit Bull slowing up their progress), so we'll see how well those aspects of the game work out tonight.
Sorry so late in getting to this, but I blame the fact that I have to do the sports section for The Zapata Times before I can do anything else on Fridays. The game starts in about 10 minutes, and I'll be updating as much as I can. You can follow it on Pointstreak for a more consistent flow on information.
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