Game Day No. 36

Sorry so late getting to this post, but the Bucks (16-12-7, 39 points) are just a few minutes away from the first of two straight games against the Colorado Eagles (23-7-3, 49 points).

You can read about the matchup in my preview, Bryan Benway's preview and the Pointstreak pre-game notes.

Tonight will feature the return debut of Brent Cullaton, who was signed earlier today.

Now, for some quotes...

Coach Ruskowski

On Justin Styffe: He’s getting an operation done this week. They’re going to put a screw into his leg, he broke his leg, so I’m expecting him out for 6-8 at weeks, at least, maybe longer.

On Neil Trimm: Trimm will play on Wednesday. He hasn’t had a whole lot of skating, so I’ll watch how I play him. But he’s going to be a body on the ice, and that’s exactly what we need right now.

On goaltending: We’re going to have to make a decision off this road trip about what I’m going to do with my goaltending situation. This week will tell me exactly who I should keep and who I should let go, so we’ll wait and see and see what happens after that. I think after this weekend he (Kyle Gajewski) will be healthy enough to play.

On Kevin Desfosses: If he keeps on playing the way he played the last two games, it’s pretty obvious what I have to do with that situation. He’s been very, very good, stellar in net. I like what I’ve seen from him.

On Cody Hamilton: He’s going to be up in the United Hockey League. I put him on waivers. I talked to his agent, and he asked me if I could put him on the waivers so he could play in the United Hockey League, I think in Dayton or something, I’m not sure.

I knew that he wanted to play somewhere else. I knew that. It’s just that I don’t think players should dictate where they want to go, so I wanted to wait a little bit longer to find out if I could trade him or what I could do with him.

On this week's games: They’re a very solid team, they’re a very good team in every aspect of the game, and they’re going to be really, really tough games for us up there. And going to Rapid City, apparently, I was talking to some guys at the All-Star Game, and they were saying Rapid City’s a very tough place to play in. We just have to play consistent hockey – not great hockey – but consistent hockey and just do the good fundamentals that we’re taught in practice and do the systems and play within ourselves and not of ourselves and make the game simple and effective. Sometimes we’re too eager to do things, and we’re out of position, and that causes us to scramble. You don’t want to scramble, you want to be in good position to make sure we’re always open to scoring but also in the defensive zone open to stopping them from scoring.

On practice: We will practice tomorrow a little bit, then we play, then practice Thursday, then play, then go up to Rapid City and play up there. Unfortunately, like I said before, we’re in a situation where I have to even watch how I practice because of the injury situation. There are things I need to practice but I can’t because I’m scared something will happen injury-wise. I have to pull away from that, just do different drills to keep the guys fresh, keep them as sharp as possible. But there’s things like defensive coverage that we really need to improve on and I’m scared to do that because I’m scared that we’re going to get more injuries, and it takes away from what I’m trying to teach them.

On scoring needs: They certainly have to (step up). I thought we did it in Rio Grande pretty well, but then coming back here we didn’t do a very good job against Corpus. They’re going to have to. If we’re going to win, they’re going to have to step up. Styffe wasn’t the type of guy who would do a lot of scoring, but brought other elements to the game that we really needed – the physical play, the never-quit attitude, and he’d stand up for himself and his teammates if it came down to having to do any scrapping or any sticking up for. Him and Richards were the first guys to stand in line and say, ‘Here I am.’ So we’ll miss that part, too.

On getting points this week: It would be huge. I would be so happy if we can do that. We’re playing against the two top teams in the league, and going up there, into their building, it’s going to be a tough fight. But to get some points out of there coming home, I’d be very happy with that situation, very happy. Then we go from there and see if we can get some more players to come play, and I’m hoping by that time Lincourt will be ready to start practicing, too. Then we can go back and start practicing what we need to practice and not worry about guys getting hurt again.

On special teams: Penalty killing and power play are going to be huge. If you’re struggling to score goals 5-on-5, the only way you can score is on the power play, and that’s what we have to really key on. When we get down and dirty and shoot the puck from the point and get guys to the net, we seem to have chances to score. When we don’t do that is when we’re struggling, so we’re going to keep it simple, shoot the puck from the point as much as we can, get the guys in front of the net and screen and get some deflections that way. Hopefully that will be good enough to get a couple points from this road trip.

Adam Rivet

On what went wrong Saturday: I don’t think a whole heck of a lot, to be honest with you. You can make excuses or whatever with the injuries and whatnot, but I think sometimes when you keep losing a guy every game, it kind of puts a little bit of a damper on the morale. But I think guys are still battling. Sometimes we play smarter than we should be, but I think guys are still working, trying to find a way. For some reason, that goalie’s had our number the last four, five games we’ve played him. He’s a good goalie, and he has played well against us. Kevin played really well for us and made some big saves; it just came up at the end of the game that we just couldn’t find a way to put the puck in the back of the net.

On special teams: It’s always important. Especially at this level, special teams are definitely a key component of going far in the playoffs. Power play chances are something that we have to capitalize on. If we have to sit back and relax and talk it over, work through the bumps and bruises of our power play and penalty kill, that’s what we have to do. I think we’ve been pretty successful on both power play and penalty kill, but we just have to keep working and keep our heads up and things will start falling.

On getting, and holding, leads: It’s always important, especially for us, to get the lead. I think our stats show that when we get the lead, our success rate is a lot higher. They always play well up there, and they’re just a good team. They have a lot of veteran players who have been around for a while, and when they were down here, we knew we weren’t going to keep them to one or two goals. We knew their capability of scoring multiple goals quickly was there. We found a way to win that game, but when we go up there, we definitely have to be stingier on defense and goaltending again comes up with big saves when we need them as well as offense being there on the power play and just 5-on-5.

On getting points this week: Obviously, we’d like to come back with six points, but whenever you go on a road trip of any kind of time, if you can come back .500, as much as you’re disappointed you let three go, you’re still happy coming away with three. I think we’re going to go up there with the objective to win all three, take it one game at a time and come back here with six points, but I think worst-case scenario we want to look at is coming back here with a .500 record.

Jeff Bes

On what went wrong Saturday: Obviously, we didn’t score a goal. We just didn’t stick to the game plan. Something we’ve been harping on and stressing all year long is that if we do the game plan, we’re going to get our chances and we’re going to score and have a good opportunity to win. It’s when we try to do too much, try to do things that are not within our realm, that we get in trouble, and that’s what was happening. Their goalie played well, give him a little bit of credit, but we didn’t play solid defensively, and all our offensive chances come from good, solid defense.

On sticking to the game plan against Colorado: That’s very important. We played them here, and it was obviously a lot of power play goals. Our power play was clicking very well. They’re one of the best teams, if not the best team, in the league, so we have to stick to the game plan, but we also have to execute the game plan to give ourselves a chance to win. It’s so integral and so important for us to do that to be successful. We can’t keep getting ourselves behind the eight ball and doing things that we shouldn’t be doing. Everybody’s bought into the program, now we just have to do it. That’s where we’re at right now. It’s just a matter of getting focused and doing what we need to do to win.

On special teams: Special teams win you championships, and they’re something you really have to be focused on. First and foremost, we have to limit the penalties that we do take. It gets guys out of rhythm. You’re not rolling your lines, doing a sustained offense and a good forecheck. You’ve got guys killing penalties and guys sitting on the bench. You have guys who are wearing themselves out killing penalties and guys who are sitting on the bench getting cold, so we have to limit the penalties. Obviously, you’re going to take one here and there, but we have to limit our penalties. For the power play, we really have to be focused on what we’re doing. We have to get it back to the point, we have to get shots from the point to open it up to where we can work our plays. That’s something we didn’t do last game and we really need to work on and focus on.

On the road trip: It’s a huge road trip, especially starting the second half of the season. We’re looking at it one game at a time. We believe that we can go out there and win all three games, and that’s what we have to do. But it starts with the first game. We have to set the tone, we have to be prepared, we have to keep our emotions in check, we have to have a little more discipline than we’ve had and just make sure that everybody’s prepared to go.

Those of you who didn't opt to attend tonight's watch party can follow the game on Pointstreak, watch on CHL-TV or listen on Imagen 94.1 FM.