Today

Today's practice lasted a little over an hour and featured a variety of drills, including a lot of odd-man rushes and a shootout contest to end the day, or at least the coach-organized portion of it.

The mood was definitely upbeat on the ice, and Coach Ruskowski seemed pleased with what he saw, which included forward Maxime Lincourt getting back in the swing of things.

Ruskowski had Neil Trimm on the top line with Jeff Bes and Darryl Smith at practice today, but he said that isn't definitely the way it will be tomorrow. My next post, a Ruskowski quote overload, will have a bit more info on that.

Lincourt scored a couple nice goals during the odd-man rush drills, and it looks like his wrist shot is not feeling any lingering effects from the upper-body injury that has sidelined him since Dec. 27 and for a few games before then.

In the shootouts, newly-crowned No. 1 goaltender Kevin Desfosses stopped everything he faced until Robin Richards ended the contest with a heavy shot that sailed in right under the crossbar.

He made a couple nice moves, during that drill and others, but a great poke check on Benjamin Dieude-Fauvel really stood out.

Pier-Olivier Pelletier was also scored on by Richards, but in his case because of poor positioning committing to a shot too early, and also by Todd Griffith, Jay Holladay and Jeff Bes.

Griffith made some nice deke moves that could earn him a shot if any of this weekend's games go into a shootout.

This weekend's 3-in-3 is the first of seven straight for the Bucks, who have only had one thus far this season, and there will also be a few other games sprinkled in on week days as they go down the final stretch.

Tomorrow night is a battle for third place in the Southern Conference with the Texas Brahmas (20-15-5, 45 points), while Saturday's, game will pit them against the Corpus Christi IceRays (16-17-6, 38 points), against whom the Bucks (18-13-7, 43 points) are winless in their last six tries.

In a bit of good news for the Bucks, and ironic news for the IceRays, who waived Desfosses on Jan. 8, goaltender Kevin Nastiuk - who has shut the Bucks out twice this season - has left the team to play in Germany.

You can read more about that in Greg Rajan's initial blog report, story for the Caller-Times and reactionary blog.

It's a shame this didn't happen before I left the LEC this morning, though I'm sure no one would admit to being relieved about it anyway.

Anyway, sorry I haven't posted much about the fact that tomorrow night is the "Pink in the Rink" game, but you can read more about that in the Bucks' press release and purchase tickets at the LEC or by calling 718-BUCK (2825).

If the game sells out, which it is reportedly close to doing, the Bucks will donate $10,000 to WINGS (Women Involved in Nurturing, Giving, Sharing) of Laredo for the second straight year.

Just like last year, Bucky is camped out on the roof until all the tickets are sold, and he has been joined by players and city officials.

That should do it for this post; stay tuned for some quotes, which I promise will be up within the hour.