Home Ice

As mentioned in my last post, and in the comments, opposing teams don't seem to fear coming to the LEC anymore.

Attendance hasn't been what it once was for a while now, but it seems like the intimidation factor of playing against the Bucks has dropped severely this season.

Part of the reason for that could be the team's earliest playoff exit in franchise history that took place in the Southern Conference Semifinals in April, but I'm sure getting just one regulation win in the first seven home games doesn't help the Bucks' cause.

When Coach Ruskowski took over as president of the organization, his biggest personal concern seemed to be getting fans back into the arena.

As a player, he obviously experienced crowds that these guys never will, but he'd like to get them in front of something as close as possible, and that would take a pretty big increase in attendance.

Ruskowski instigated the return of tailgating and has worked with his front office staff to create dozens of promotions, and the front office in turn has created some other ways to up attendance, including adding more items to the dollar menu, bringing back family rates and working with local schools to sell tickets as fundraisers.

But, it seems the consensus is that the team actually needs to play well for fans to want to continue coming out for games.

Shootouts are exciting, to an extent, but let's be honest - not everyone is going to stick around if the games take that long all the time.

Additionally, if there isn't a whole lot of fighting going on, people here want to see a whole lot of goals, and the Bucks have not been providing either in bulk this season.

Ruskowski has been embarrassed by his team's performance at home more than once in these first few weeks and even apologized to fans on multiple occasions.

When I talked to him yesterday about the recent home games and what he wants to see from his team as they play two more at home this weekend, here's what Ruskowski had to say:

"I sure hope this will be another chance for us to bring crowds back. We need them to come back for us to be successful, as a franchise and as a team. That's why I skated them so hard and am going to work them hard all week, to try to prepare them for this weekend, to do what they have to do to be successful."

As noted in that quote, Ruskowski believes that the more fans there are at a game, the better the team can be expected to perform, so I guess it's kind of a catch-22 in that sense.

Every player who had played against the Bucks before becoming a part of the team this season, and the two who were once Bucks for short spans of time, mentioned how great the fans and the atmosphere can be at the LEC, but they probably don't feel quite the same way when the crowds are small.

Player/assistant coach Jeff Bes, who is in his seventh season of playing home games at the LEC, also talked a bit about the situation and the team's need to win in the building.

"Winning in a shootout is a lot of fun, and the crowd certainly loves it," he said. "But, obviously, we have to win games at home, in front of our home crowd. I've always said we have the best crowds in the Central Hockey League and the best fans in the Central Hockey League, so we have to go out there, and we have to win. We're at home, so we have to take advantage of home ice here. We have to do it for the fans and the city of Laredo who support us. We have to go out there and give 110 percent each and every night. It's very important to win at home.

"With teams coming into the building here, to the LEC, it has to get back to the way it was before when they knew when they were coming into Laredo, they were going to be in for a hard game, a hard-hitting game. We have to get back to those days."

It seems everything ties back to the fact that this is a cycle. If the Bucks want to intimidate, they need to be successful and have intimidating crowds. If they want the crowds, they need to be successful. Basically, if they want anything else to work out in their favor, they need to win games.

Speaking of home games, the Bucks have teamed up with H.E.B. to offer a special $5 ticket promotion for the one on Friday night against the Bossier-Shreveport Mudbugs.

Tickets can be purchased at the LEC box office or by calling 718-BUCK (2528) or via Ticketmaster at http://ticketmaster.com or at any Ticketmaster location.

Not sure how many of you are casual fans rather than season ticket holders, but if that is the case, how much more likely are you to go to a game if the team is doing well? Do you go just because you find hockey entertaining, or do you need to see the team win to feel like you're getting your money's worth?

Friday's game ends the season-high five-game homestand the Bucks have been on since their trip to Arizona, but they'll be home again for their third of six Sunday afternoon home games after a one-day trip to Corpus Christi to face the IceRays on Saturday.

The last Sunday game actually had the highest attendance of a game at the LEC this season, and this Sunday, the Cowboys don't even play, so we'll see how the crowd is for that one.

With $5 tickets and most people not working on Friday, hopefully it'll be a pretty good game in that regard.

On the ice, the Mudbugs always offer up a challenge, and they have basically the same record as the Bucks, having won seven and lost six, but they are behind the Bucks in the standings having yet to register an OT loss.

They face the Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees in Hidalgo tomorrow before driving up to Laredo for Friday's game.