Anticipated Move

I don't think anyone was terribly surprised by today's announcement that Mike Sgroi had been released by the Bucks to make room for Lance Monych on the active roster in his return from the IR.

Sgroi was trying to prove himself as a scorer rather than the enforcer threat he was known to be, but he only scored one goal and handed out two assists in his 14 games in Laredo.

Add to that the fact that he did not live up to the enforcer hype in the slightest, and you have a fairly easy decision for Coach Ruskowski, who did not show any sign of regret when I asked him about the move.

"It just didn’t develop the way I wanted it to develop," Ruskowski said. "He probably had different thoughts of me, and I had different thoughts of him, and it never developed. I told him what I wanted, and he said he was pretty close to doing that, but it just never developed.

"Things happen, and you just have to accept it."

Sgroi only fought once in a Bucks jersey and lost one that apparently wasn't so memorable to Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees tough guy Brett Clouthier.

He only had 15 penalty minutes in his 14 games with the Bucks, not a number you expect or really want to see from a player expected to reek havoc on opposing teams.

For some reason, Monych's IR activation is not yet on the Pointstreak transactions page, but he is expected to play against the Missouri Mavericks tomorrow night.

He had four goals and six assists in 14 games so far this season, including a six-game point streak to start the season.

With his return and Sgroi's departure, lines will be shaken up a bit, but not drastically.

Jeff Bes was not at practice the past couple days (or Monday, for that matter) but will play this weekend, so the lines on the ice this morning are not the ones that will be out there tomorrow night.

Neil Trimm finally hit the ice on Monday for the first time and is back in pads and taking contact at this point, but Ruskowski said it will be at least a week or two before he's back in playing shape.

I have a lot of leftover quotes from Ruskowski, and a few from defenseman Jeremy Swanson, about this weekend, so I'll post all that stuff tomorrow.