Game Day No. 14

In a short while, the Bucks (7-3-3, 17 points) host the Bossier-Shreveport Mudbugs (7-7-0, 14 points) for the first and only time this season.

I will not be sneaking away to watch the first period as originally anticipated, and I'm sorry this post is being made so late, but there are other things to be done.

The Bucks beat the Mudbugs 6-1 in their only earlier meeting this season, which was each team's first game of the campaign.

For more on tonight, you can read my preview and Bryan Benway's preview or check out the Pointstreak pre-game notes.

The line changes I mentioned the other day are one of several attempts the Bucks, who have the lowest goal total in the Southern Conference, have made to up their offense heading into tonight's game.

Coach Ruskowski basically thinks that Jeff Bes and Darryl Smith have started trying to pass the puck too much in attempt to set each other up rather than take their own goal-scoring opportunities, and that is part of the reason why he broke them up.

“I just want to give it a chance and see if this works out,” he said. “I think it’s gotten to a point there where they make an extra pass for each other instead of shooting the puck. I wanted to break them up to see if they’ll get back to shooting more, driving the net more and getting to deflections. If it doesn’t work, we’ll put them back together. But I want to get them away from the mentality of just making good passes; whoever scores scores, and whoever doesn’t should just be happy the line scored period.”

Smith admitted to noticing a similar problem and hopes that knocking one home can give way to more goals in the future.

"I think the message is just trying to keep things simple," he said. "I think me and Jeff were just trying to do too much out there, and it was working against us. We’ve been trying to force passes, and when you try to start doing things like that, it’s not going to work for you. I think we just need a garbage goal, basically, to get us going. The whole team needs that. I think once we bury one, they’ll all start going in.”

Smith also noted the fact that having two guys who are more finesse players, in himself and Lance Monych, on a line with a guy who is stronger in the corners and down low like Igor Agarunov should help the line out in several ways.

The whole team is looking for a scoring boost, and even goaltender Jean-Philippe Levasseur had noticed the lack of goal-scoring opportunities the guys in front of him have been creating of late.

He said that getting back to producing on the power play, which the team was more successful with earlier this season, could be key.

I'm going to have to leave it at that for now, but I'll try to update on the game as much as possible tonight. I brought in my laptop so I can avoid our security restrictions and listen to the radio broadcast on there.

Speaking of the broadcast, it will be starting shortly, and you can listen to it here.