Updates on Today's News

I am happy to say Devan Dubnyk did not pick up his first NHL win tonight, suffering a 3-2 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins despite shutting them out for two periods.

Dubnyk will likely stay with the Edmonton Oilers for at least a little while, but if he is sent back down to the Springfield Falcons, they could opt to keep Andrew Penner and send Jean-Philippe Levasseur back to the Bucks.

At this point, though, I guess no one should count on him ever returning, which is part of the reason Kevin Desfosses is now on the Bucks' roster.

I did ask Coach Ruskowski about Levassuer when I spoke to him today, but there were a few more pressing things to discuss, including forward Evan Schwabe's lower-body injury.

Ruskowski said his initial reaction when he saw Schwabe limping off the ice last night was, "You have got to be kidding me," but obviously, this season just isn't going to let up as far as injuries and losing players for other reasons goes.

Here's what he said about losing Schwabe as of last night, when he still wasn't sure how long the center would be out:

"It’s just kind of the way our season is going. Things just never change, but we have to keep going and do what we have to do. I couldn’t believe it, but it’s just another bump in the road we have to overcome."

As far as going back to normal games after spending the early part of the week bonding with his coaching rivals:

"It’s nice to have this win and to celebrate, but tomorrow’s another day and we have to get ready to play," he said. "It’s the second part of the season, and my coach friends will now be my enemies again. I expect rivalry again – hard-hitting, hard-playing, in-your-face type of hockey. I know it’s going to happen, and we have to match them and trump them, do what they do and do it better. We need to find a way to win even though we have injuries, call-ups and guys quitting, we have to persevere. We can’t feel sorry for ourselves; we have to go out there and find a way to win."

Today, I asked him if he had any regrets about letting Bear Trapp go before the All-Star break now that he's in a position where he could really use another forward.

"It’s a situation where you made your move, and it’s pretty tough when you let a guy go to call him back and see if he can play again," he said. "I don’t think that he would be in the right frame of mind to come back here and play hard for me, so we’re going to have to make different moves to get people to try to come in here. I don’t think we’ll find someone who can match what Schwabe can do, but hopefully they’ll come close enough for us to know that we can rely on them in the defensive end and the offensive end. We’re trying to do that now, but pickings are slim."

I know some of you have been wondering why Trapp was let go in the first place, and according to Ruskowski, it was a matter of speed.

"He was a really nice boy, and I know he has the head for the games and the hands for the game, but he just couldn’t get from point A to point B quick enough," he said. "In a situation where the game has gone to speed – all speed, speed, speed – it just didn’t into what I had in my plans."

Last night was obviously supposed to be fun for everyone involved, but losing Schwabe made the game considerably less fun for the Bucks in retrospect.

"It’s a bittersweet kind of deal," Ruskowski said. "It’s bitter that we lost a player, but it’s sweet that we won the game. I guess if I was in a situation where I could go back and change things up, I’d probably take a loss and have my player back for the regular season. It was obviously a fun game to coach and be associated with, but now we suffer the consequences for a month down the road, and that’s not going to be an easy pill to swallow."

Ruskowski also shared an interesting bit of information I hadn't heard him mention before. Because of all the injuries that have been plaguing the team this season, he's become concerned about running full-contact drills in practice, especially considering a couple players have been hurt in that exact situation.

"I just think that we have to move the puck better and play better defensive hockey," Ruskowski said. "They (the IceRays) have some pretty good players on that team who move the puck pretty well, so we have to be aware of that and play better defensive hockey. The stupid thing about this is that there are things we have to practice but we can’t because I’m scared they’re going to get hurt. Like defensive coverage for a 3-on-3 situation or a 5-on-5 situation – we need to practice it, but I can’t practice it because I’m scared guys are going to get hurt. That’s not a good way to coach a hockey team when you can’t do the drills you want to do because you’re scared of injuries, but we’re in that boat right now and I wish I can get out of as quick as possible because that’s something we really need to practice. If we’re going to be contenders, that’s one of the scenarios and areas we have to improve."

That wasn't a concern this week, as the team has not been able to practice at all and won't be on the ice together until tomorrow for a morning skate at Dodge Arena. They wanted to practice at the Dodge tonight, but there's a basketball game, and the LEC was obviously out of the question.

"We’re going to have the morning skate to chip a little bit of the rust off from the last few days that we didn’t get to practice," Ruskowski said. "Hopefully we can get into the right frame of mind to do what we need to do out there in Rio. There’s no excuses now. They had a chance to heal. (Curtis) Billsten came off the IR, and he’s ready to play, so I just have to find another center iceman and go from there."

Though Billsten is off the IR, Kyle Gajewski is still out of commission after having former Buck Alex Penner skate into him while he was down covering up a puck during that 6-5 shootout win over the Colorado Eagles last Saturday.

"He’s not ready to play," Ruskowski said. "He got the injury against Colorado, and he’s still not feeling right. One thing that I’ve learned is that if a guy’s not well, especially if you’re talking about head injuries, you do not play him until he’s perfectly healthy. We won’t take the risk. He’ll definitely miss this weekend and probably miss next week, and we’ll decide what we want to do with goaltenders after that."

Obviously, Gajewski's injury was the main catalyst for signin Desfosses to a five-game contract, and future goalie decisions will hinge on the way he plays.

"Desfosses will start tomorrow," Ruskowski said. "I have five games to look at him, so I want to get him playing. After that, we’ll see what happens. If Desfosses comes in here and plays really well, we might make a change. I don’t know. We need to keep the best goalies possible to give a final run in the second half."

And that brings us back to Levasseur.

"I know they (the Falcons) just called another goalie up from Colorado, but I don’t know where that leaves us," Ruskowski said. "I sent a text message to Anaheim to find out where we stand with JP, and I haven’t gotten a response yet."

Desfosses hopes to be a good replacement in the meantime, and here's what he had to say about joining the team:

"I’m a goalie, so I have to worry about stopping the puck. The only thing I can worry about is my play. The goalie position is a little bit different than everybody else on the team, so I’m going to try to stop as many pucks as I can, take one shot at a time, have fun, meet my new teammates and hopefully win some games."

As far as facing his former teammates this weekend, Desfosses noted that he could have an advantage knowing their tendencies but that those things work both ways.

"Obviously I’ve been practicing with those guys since the beginning of October, so I know those guys, like where they shoot at and stuff," he said. "But it might be a mental gain for them, too, because they know how I usually react on some different type of shots. I’ll see what ‘s going to happen against Corpus, but it should be a lot of fun for me and my former teammates. Hopefully we’ll be able to win that hockey game because it’s really important. We need to go up in the standings so we can make a push for the playoffs."

He obviously didn't get much playing time in Corpus Christi backing up All-Star Kevin Nastiuk, but Desfosses would like to stay with the Bucks as long as possible.

"That’s why I signed over here," he said. "I feel like I can help this hockey team, and hopefully it’s going to show the next few games, coach is going to like my play and I’ll be able to stay here. I’d be really happy to spend the remainder of the season in Laredo; it’s a great organization, a great team and a winning team, too, so I’m looking forward to my chance over here."

While I was at the arena, I also finally got to catch up with defenseman Jarred Mohr about playing in the All-Star Game and a few other things.

"It was a pretty good honor," he said. "I had a lot of fun out there, and it was just a privilege to play with the players that were selected. They’re all good players, and it was exciting to be a part of it."

But he doesn't think it will be a problem to put some new friendships aside for this weekend's games.

"It was fun for the All-Star Game, you come together for the one event and try to put something together," he said. "But after the game, after players part, it’s back to work and back to business, so I’m sure it’ll be a battle for both clubs (tonight)."

Considering the team is down a forward once again, I asked Mohr if there's anything he and his fellow defensemen can do to make their lives easier.

"Just get it to the forwards, basically," he said. "Let them do their work down low. We have pretty talented forwards as it is, so it’s our job to just get it to them and let them do the work and keep it simple."

With one of their top scorers out, the Bucks might need to produce more on the power play, and Mohr admitted that hasn't always been a strong point for this team but hopes it can come through this weekend.

"It's just chemistry," he said. "We have to know where one another’s going to be and make the good passes. That’s kind of been our downfall this year. Just crash the net, take a lot of shots. There’s nothing wrong with that these days, so that’s kind of our game plan."

That's most of what I got from today; I'll post my leftover All-Star quotes as soon as I get a chance.

Speaking of the All-Star Game, here are some links: the box score, my story (the headline error is a Web site thing, for the record), Bryan Benway's press release, the CHL press release, Greg Rajan's story and blog post and Brian Sandalow's game story, notebook, Stanley Cup keeper feature, running game blog and later blog post.

I think that's about it for now; I'll be sure to keep you posted if the Bucks do find a new center or anything else of interest happens before the game tomorrow.