The Bucks came up big under pressure tonight, earning a 5-1 win over the Texas Brahmas to improve to 27-18-9 (63 points) to move back into a tie for third place in the Southern Conference with the Brahmas, who fell to 29-20-5 (63 points).
The Brahmas will have a chance to take back third place outright when they host the Missouri Mavericks (27-23-4, 58 points), but the Bucks will then have a game in hand on them.
Sylvain Deschatelets is certainly proving to be good find by Coach Ruskowski, as he scored twice and handed out an assist tonight to move his point total with the Bucks to seven in three games.
Darryl Smith had the first four-assist night of his professional career, and Jeff Bes handed out three helpers.
As if chasing the reigning Goaltender of the Week from his net and posting five goals against a team that averages under three goals-against per game, the Bucks apparently got another puck in the twine that was called a no-goal.
You can read more about the game in Bryan Benway's press release, and I'll be sure to ask Coach Ruskowski about it at practice this week.
If there is anything those of you who were there would like to share, please feel free. The best I could get was the game live box because I can't get the radio feeds on my work computer and didn't have my laptop today.
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Game Day No. 54
So sorry for the delay in posting today, but I've been swamped with baseball, golf, softball, soccer, track and field... well, you get the idea, since I got here.
Hopefully some of you are at this game so you can let me know anything the box score doesn't, but those of you who aren't can follow it on Pointstreak, watch on CHL-TV or listen on Imagen 94.1 FM.
Due to a shortage on time, I'm just going to copy and paste my story from last night, which focused a lot on tonight, below:
Bucks win, set up key game
The Laredo Bucks picked up two crucial points in the standings with a 3-2 win over the Rio
Grande Valley Killer Bees on Friday, setting up another battle for third place with the Texas Brahmas tonight at the LEC.
Laredo (26-18-9, 61 points) jumped out to a lead in the first period that was quickly lost but regained it in the second and held on to improve to 10-0-3 against Rio Grande Valley (21-25-8, 50 points) this season.
“It was huge,” Bucks Head Coach/General Manager Terry Ruskowski said. “We need to keep people behind us and try to catch Texas. (Tonight) is a big game for us.”
Laredo stands two points behind the Brahmas (29-19-5, 63 points), who defeated the Corpus Christi IceRays on Friday night and will face Texas tonight with third place in the Southern Conference on the line.
“It’s huge,” Ruskowski said. “This is our building. We have them one more time back in their building, which is a very hard place to beat them. Coming in here, we have to show ourselves.
We have to show that we’re capable of playing with a very good hockey team.
“We just have to continue to play the way we’re capable of playing and trying to improve. When we move the puck and come at them with speed, we’re a different hockey team. When we sit back, we’re not effective, so we have to stay on our toes instead of our heels.
“We’ll have to come out, and hopefully we can match them and trump them. It’s going to be a
hard battle, but I think the guys know that, so we’ll bunker down and see what we can do.”
Tonight’s game would not provide the Bucks with the same opportunity had they lost on Friday, and some late defensive stands, especially during a two-man advantage for the Killer Bees, were crucial to that victory.
“That 5-on-3 was the difference in the hockey game,” Ruskowski said. “(Goaltender Pier-Olivier) Pelletier made the great saves, but the guys in the front did a really good job
of containing them, getting sticks on the shots. They did a tremendous job.
“That was really the turning point of the third period, and probably the whole game.”
No goals were scored in the third, making Sylvain Deschatelets’ first tally for Laredo at 6:36 in the second the difference in the game.
Deschatelets scored off a feed from a faceoff win just 26 seconds after Neil Trimm gave the Bucks a 2-1 lead.
Eric Giosa scored Laredo’s first goal at 16:05 in the first when he backhanded a rebound past Wylie Rogers (8-8-2), who was making his first start against the Bucks this season.
“I thought at the start of the game we were going to have trouble scoring because we had some really good chances and never scored, “ Ruskowski said. “But when Gio scored at the end of the first period, then I thought the guys got more relaxed.”
Grant Goeckner-Zoeller scored Rio Grande Valley’s first goal to tie the game at 1 at 2:10 in the second period, and Stacey Bauman’s slap shot with under a minute left in the middle frame led to the final 3-2 score.
Pelletier, in his first start at the LEC since Dec. 31, made 23 saves on 25 shots to improve to 4-4-1.
Not trying to jinx them, but as of when I am typing this, the Bucks lead the Brahmas 3-0 after one period on two goals by Deschatelets and one by Todd Griffith with Pelletier in net.
I'll update again after the game.
Hopefully some of you are at this game so you can let me know anything the box score doesn't, but those of you who aren't can follow it on Pointstreak, watch on CHL-TV or listen on Imagen 94.1 FM.
Due to a shortage on time, I'm just going to copy and paste my story from last night, which focused a lot on tonight, below:
Bucks win, set up key game
The Laredo Bucks picked up two crucial points in the standings with a 3-2 win over the Rio
Grande Valley Killer Bees on Friday, setting up another battle for third place with the Texas Brahmas tonight at the LEC.
Laredo (26-18-9, 61 points) jumped out to a lead in the first period that was quickly lost but regained it in the second and held on to improve to 10-0-3 against Rio Grande Valley (21-25-8, 50 points) this season.
“It was huge,” Bucks Head Coach/General Manager Terry Ruskowski said. “We need to keep people behind us and try to catch Texas. (Tonight) is a big game for us.”
Laredo stands two points behind the Brahmas (29-19-5, 63 points), who defeated the Corpus Christi IceRays on Friday night and will face Texas tonight with third place in the Southern Conference on the line.
“It’s huge,” Ruskowski said. “This is our building. We have them one more time back in their building, which is a very hard place to beat them. Coming in here, we have to show ourselves.
We have to show that we’re capable of playing with a very good hockey team.
“We just have to continue to play the way we’re capable of playing and trying to improve. When we move the puck and come at them with speed, we’re a different hockey team. When we sit back, we’re not effective, so we have to stay on our toes instead of our heels.
“We’ll have to come out, and hopefully we can match them and trump them. It’s going to be a
hard battle, but I think the guys know that, so we’ll bunker down and see what we can do.”
Tonight’s game would not provide the Bucks with the same opportunity had they lost on Friday, and some late defensive stands, especially during a two-man advantage for the Killer Bees, were crucial to that victory.
“That 5-on-3 was the difference in the hockey game,” Ruskowski said. “(Goaltender Pier-Olivier) Pelletier made the great saves, but the guys in the front did a really good job
of containing them, getting sticks on the shots. They did a tremendous job.
“That was really the turning point of the third period, and probably the whole game.”
No goals were scored in the third, making Sylvain Deschatelets’ first tally for Laredo at 6:36 in the second the difference in the game.
Deschatelets scored off a feed from a faceoff win just 26 seconds after Neil Trimm gave the Bucks a 2-1 lead.
Eric Giosa scored Laredo’s first goal at 16:05 in the first when he backhanded a rebound past Wylie Rogers (8-8-2), who was making his first start against the Bucks this season.
“I thought at the start of the game we were going to have trouble scoring because we had some really good chances and never scored, “ Ruskowski said. “But when Gio scored at the end of the first period, then I thought the guys got more relaxed.”
Grant Goeckner-Zoeller scored Rio Grande Valley’s first goal to tie the game at 1 at 2:10 in the second period, and Stacey Bauman’s slap shot with under a minute left in the middle frame led to the final 3-2 score.
Pelletier, in his first start at the LEC since Dec. 31, made 23 saves on 25 shots to improve to 4-4-1.
Not trying to jinx them, but as of when I am typing this, the Bucks lead the Brahmas 3-0 after one period on two goals by Deschatelets and one by Todd Griffith with Pelletier in net.
I'll update again after the game.
Friday, February 26, 2010
Game No. 53 - Bucks vs. Killer Bees
Starters: Bucks - Jeff Bes (F), Sylvain Deschatelets (F), Jarred Mohr (D), Pier-Olivier Pelletier (G), Adam Rivet (D), Darryl Smith (F); Killer Bees - Jay Hardwick (D), Aaron Lee (F), Zak McClellan (F), Sean Muncy (F), Wylie Rogers (G), Tom Sawatske (D).
First Period: Guess the Bees are giving Andy Franck a break for the night. This is the first time the Bucks will face Rogers this season. ... Bucks have taken the first three shots of the game. ... First shifts by the enforcer types taken without any confrontation. ... Bucks get the game's first power play with Daymen Rycroft headed to the box for hooking Todd Griffith at 3:35. ... Nice glove save by Rogers on the Bucks' fourth shot of the game. Only one they got on the power play, which has expired. ... Pretty decent shift by the Neil Trimm-Evan Schwabe-Todd Griffith line, who got the Bucks' fifth shot on goal. ... The Bucks just had a completely empty net with Rogers down and out, and Eric Giosa's shot missed the net high. May have hit Mike Looby's stick on its way toward the goal. ... Another power play for the Bucks with Andrew Davis in the box at 8:27. The penalty was on Rogers, who was called for goaltender interference after being run into by Deschatelets. Don't think anyone who has anything to do with the Killer Bees is all too thrilled with that call. ... Penalty killed. ... Pelletier faced only one shot in the first 10 minutes, by the way. ... Deschatelets has drawn another penalty via another incident that he started and got away with his part of, this one against Muncy for hooking at 13:06. ... Some sloppy passing by the Bucks gave Topher Scott a shorthanded break, though Mohr was pretty close to him, and Pelletier had to make his second save of the game on Scott's shot. ... Penalty killed. ... Bucks have broken through at 16:05 in the period, as Trimm got a shot on net that bounced of Rogers back to Giosa, who banged it in almost effortlessly. Griffith gets the second assist. Bucks lead 1-0 with 3:55 to play in the first period. ... Nathan Ansell just got a shot off right between Benjamin Dieude-Fauvel's legs. The Killer Bees are up to five now. ... I just realized that the Bucks have gotten more than a third of their standings points from the Killer Bees. They are 9-0-3 against the Killer Bees, which adds up to 21 of their 59 total standings points. ... End of the period, Bucks lead 1-0, up 13-6 on shots. ... The Corpus Christi IceRays lead the Texas Brahmas 2-1 after scoring early in the second period of their game.
Second Period: Killer Bees got a good chance early, take two shots but couln't find each other with Pelletier out of position. ... Smith just led Griffith down the lane and set him up for a shot that missed the net wide. ... Tie game on Grant Goeckner-Zoeller's long wrist shot, set up by Rycroft at 2:10. ... First penalty on the Bucks at 3:52, with Deschatelets headed off for tripping. ... Bucks got a great shorthanded chance, but Rogers made a good save on Schwabe. ... Penalty killed. ... Bucks have taken back the lead on a goal by Trimm, who sure has been getting in on the offense a lot lately. The Bucks were able to score that one cleanly right off a breakout. Dieude-Fauvel gets what is currently the lone assist. Bucks lead 2-1 at 6:10. ... For some reason, the primary assist on Giosa's goal is listed as Griffith on Pointstreak. That makes zero sense. ... Bucks just scored a blink-and-you'll-miss-it goal right off a faceoff in the Killer Bees' zone. Smith won the faceoff, and Deschatelets banged it home for his first goal and fourth point with the Bucks. They lead 3-1 at 6:36. ... Griffith gets the second assist on the Deschatelets goal, and Joel Irving has been given the second on Goeckner-Zoeller's score. ... Killer Bees just got a 2-on-1 break but tried to get too fancy with their passes and missed each other on what would have been the last one. ... Ansell to the box for holding at 11:05. Bucks get their first power play of the period. ... As the "one minute remaining" announcement was being made, the Killer Bees scored on a crazy slap shot by Bauman that seriously went through about five bodies to get to the net. Bucks lead 3-2 at 19:01. Matt Sweazey and Irving get the assists. ... Bes took a slap shot just seconds before the period ended, breaking his stick and missing the net high. ... End of the period, Bucks lead 3-2, up 23-13 on shots.
Third Period: The Brahmas lead the IceRays 3-2 with under 10 minutes to play in regulation. ... Very close call for Rogers there with the Bucks in his face, but the Killer Bees were able to clear. ... The Bucks get the period's first power play with Irving headed to the box for slashing at 2:20. ... Penalty killed. ... Teams just exchanged good scoring chances, but neither got a goal. ... Bucks get another power play with Goeckner-Zoeller headed to the box for hooking at 7:11. ... Killer Bees got an excellent shorthanded chance, and Pelletier made probably his biggest save of the game while flipping over in the crease. ... Penalty killed. ... The Brahmas have beaten the IceRays 4-3 to improve to 29-19-5 (63 points). ... Trimm to the box for tripping at 11:11. Killer Bees on the power play. ... Killer Bees will get 1:06 on a 5-on-3 now with Looby joining Trimm in the box at 12:05. That reminds me, Looby was given an assist on Deschatelets' goal. He'll serve two for tripping. ... Trimm got the puck on a long pass right out of the box for a perfect breakaway chance, but Rogers made a good glove save. Trimm got another shot just seconds later and missed the net. ... Penalties killed. ... Another big chance for Trimm right out front a couple minutes later was stopped, and everyone on the ice immediately started pushing and shoving each other. ... Another good save by Pelletier has kept the Bucks in the lead with just under three minutes to go in regulation. ... Under a minute now, and Rogers is on the bench. Time out for the Killer Bees with 57.3 on the clock. ... Icing on the Bucks with 34.4 to go, bringing the faceoff back to their zone. ... A block on a shot by Bauman late was pretty key.
Game Over: Bucks win 3-2, improve to 26-18-9 (61 points), two behind the Brahmas (29-19-5, 63 points), who will visit the LEC tomorrow night. ... Coach Ruskowski said the kill on that 5-on-3 was the key to the game for the Bucks. He was also surprised to hear the Brahmas closed out the IceRays in regulation tonight, said that worried him a bit because the IceRays have been playing great hockey. Additionally, Pelletier's performance in the third may have earned him another home start, as Ruskowski said he is considering straying from his original plan to have Kevin Desfosses in net tomorrow. You can check out my story in tomorrow's Times (on Page 6) for more, and I'll post the quotes up here tomorrow afternoon.
Second Period: Killer Bees got a good chance early, take two shots but couln't find each other with Pelletier out of position. ... Smith just led Griffith down the lane and set him up for a shot that missed the net wide. ... Tie game on Grant Goeckner-Zoeller's long wrist shot, set up by Rycroft at 2:10. ... First penalty on the Bucks at 3:52, with Deschatelets headed off for tripping. ... Bucks got a great shorthanded chance, but Rogers made a good save on Schwabe. ... Penalty killed. ... Bucks have taken back the lead on a goal by Trimm, who sure has been getting in on the offense a lot lately. The Bucks were able to score that one cleanly right off a breakout. Dieude-Fauvel gets what is currently the lone assist. Bucks lead 2-1 at 6:10. ... For some reason, the primary assist on Giosa's goal is listed as Griffith on Pointstreak. That makes zero sense. ... Bucks just scored a blink-and-you'll-miss-it goal right off a faceoff in the Killer Bees' zone. Smith won the faceoff, and Deschatelets banged it home for his first goal and fourth point with the Bucks. They lead 3-1 at 6:36. ... Griffith gets the second assist on the Deschatelets goal, and Joel Irving has been given the second on Goeckner-Zoeller's score. ... Killer Bees just got a 2-on-1 break but tried to get too fancy with their passes and missed each other on what would have been the last one. ... Ansell to the box for holding at 11:05. Bucks get their first power play of the period. ... As the "one minute remaining" announcement was being made, the Killer Bees scored on a crazy slap shot by Bauman that seriously went through about five bodies to get to the net. Bucks lead 3-2 at 19:01. Matt Sweazey and Irving get the assists. ... Bes took a slap shot just seconds before the period ended, breaking his stick and missing the net high. ... End of the period, Bucks lead 3-2, up 23-13 on shots.
Third Period: The Brahmas lead the IceRays 3-2 with under 10 minutes to play in regulation. ... Very close call for Rogers there with the Bucks in his face, but the Killer Bees were able to clear. ... The Bucks get the period's first power play with Irving headed to the box for slashing at 2:20. ... Penalty killed. ... Teams just exchanged good scoring chances, but neither got a goal. ... Bucks get another power play with Goeckner-Zoeller headed to the box for hooking at 7:11. ... Killer Bees got an excellent shorthanded chance, and Pelletier made probably his biggest save of the game while flipping over in the crease. ... Penalty killed. ... The Brahmas have beaten the IceRays 4-3 to improve to 29-19-5 (63 points). ... Trimm to the box for tripping at 11:11. Killer Bees on the power play. ... Killer Bees will get 1:06 on a 5-on-3 now with Looby joining Trimm in the box at 12:05. That reminds me, Looby was given an assist on Deschatelets' goal. He'll serve two for tripping. ... Trimm got the puck on a long pass right out of the box for a perfect breakaway chance, but Rogers made a good glove save. Trimm got another shot just seconds later and missed the net. ... Penalties killed. ... Another big chance for Trimm right out front a couple minutes later was stopped, and everyone on the ice immediately started pushing and shoving each other. ... Another good save by Pelletier has kept the Bucks in the lead with just under three minutes to go in regulation. ... Under a minute now, and Rogers is on the bench. Time out for the Killer Bees with 57.3 on the clock. ... Icing on the Bucks with 34.4 to go, bringing the faceoff back to their zone. ... A block on a shot by Bauman late was pretty key.
Game Over: Bucks win 3-2, improve to 26-18-9 (61 points), two behind the Brahmas (29-19-5, 63 points), who will visit the LEC tomorrow night. ... Coach Ruskowski said the kill on that 5-on-3 was the key to the game for the Bucks. He was also surprised to hear the Brahmas closed out the IceRays in regulation tonight, said that worried him a bit because the IceRays have been playing great hockey. Additionally, Pelletier's performance in the third may have earned him another home start, as Ruskowski said he is considering straying from his original plan to have Kevin Desfosses in net tomorrow. You can check out my story in tomorrow's Times (on Page 6) for more, and I'll post the quotes up here tomorrow afternoon.
Game Day No. 53
Coming off their 6-4 road loss to the Allen Americans last night, the Bucks are back home to host the Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees tonight.
The Bucks (25-18-9, 59 points) have not lost to the Killer Bees (21-24-8, 50 points) in regulation this season, posting a 9-0-3 record against them, and tonight would not be a good time to let that happen with the Texas Brahmas (28-19-5, 61 points) coming to the LEC tomorrow night.
Though the only way the two teams will be tied for third place when they face off tomorrow is if the Bucks beat the Killer Bees and the Brahmas lose their game against the Corpus Christi IceRays tonight, tomorrow's contest promises to be pretty crucial for the Bucks.
With that said, I guess I should give you all a heads up that I will not be allowed to cover that game because there are several high school Border Olympics tournaments going on this week, and due to a wedding being attended by my co-worker, only two people will be working for sports, meaning I need to stay in on desk.
Meanwhile, I guess it wouldn't be too much of a surprise to see the IceRays (24-21-7, 55 points) beat the Brahmas tonight considering they've won five of six, including their last three by five goals each.
That might be even worse for the Bucks, though, with the IceRays creeping up on them in the standings. If they have to face a team that has done so well against them this season in the play-in round of the playoffs, I imagine they'd prefer to do so with home-ice advantage.
Anyway, tonight is "Rivalry Night" at the LEC, resulting in some promotions you can read more about in Bryan Benway's preview.
Pier-Olivier Pelletier is expected to start in goal for the Bucks, marking just his second home start with the team and first since a 5-3 loss to the IceRays on Dec. 31.
I'll be at the arena to live blog tonight, and you can also follow the game on Pointstreak, watch on CHL-TV or listen on Imagen 94.1 FM.
The Bucks (25-18-9, 59 points) have not lost to the Killer Bees (21-24-8, 50 points) in regulation this season, posting a 9-0-3 record against them, and tonight would not be a good time to let that happen with the Texas Brahmas (28-19-5, 61 points) coming to the LEC tomorrow night.
Though the only way the two teams will be tied for third place when they face off tomorrow is if the Bucks beat the Killer Bees and the Brahmas lose their game against the Corpus Christi IceRays tonight, tomorrow's contest promises to be pretty crucial for the Bucks.
With that said, I guess I should give you all a heads up that I will not be allowed to cover that game because there are several high school Border Olympics tournaments going on this week, and due to a wedding being attended by my co-worker, only two people will be working for sports, meaning I need to stay in on desk.
Meanwhile, I guess it wouldn't be too much of a surprise to see the IceRays (24-21-7, 55 points) beat the Brahmas tonight considering they've won five of six, including their last three by five goals each.
That might be even worse for the Bucks, though, with the IceRays creeping up on them in the standings. If they have to face a team that has done so well against them this season in the play-in round of the playoffs, I imagine they'd prefer to do so with home-ice advantage.
Anyway, tonight is "Rivalry Night" at the LEC, resulting in some promotions you can read more about in Bryan Benway's preview.
Pier-Olivier Pelletier is expected to start in goal for the Bucks, marking just his second home start with the team and first since a 5-3 loss to the IceRays on Dec. 31.
I'll be at the arena to live blog tonight, and you can also follow the game on Pointstreak, watch on CHL-TV or listen on Imagen 94.1 FM.
Game No. 52 - Americans 6, Bucks 4
The Bucks suffered a 6-4 loss to the Allen Americans tonight, dropping them to 25-18-9 (59 points) with 12 games left in the regular season.
Neil Trimm and Jeff Bes each scored a pair of goals, and Sylvain Deschatelets had three assists in his Bucks' debut.
The last goal for the Americans was an empty-netter, meaning Kevin Desfosses allowed five. He faced 36 shots.
You can read more about the game in Bryan Benway's press release for now, and I'll post more when I get to the office tomorrow.
Neil Trimm and Jeff Bes each scored a pair of goals, and Sylvain Deschatelets had three assists in his Bucks' debut.
The last goal for the Americans was an empty-netter, meaning Kevin Desfosses allowed five. He faced 36 shots.
You can read more about the game in Bryan Benway's press release for now, and I'll post more when I get to the office tomorrow.
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Game Day No. 52
The Bucks begin their fifth straight 3-in-3 tonight in Allen against the playoff-bound expansion Americans.
Though they have had an odd habit of beating the best teams they face, the Bucks have yet to get a win against the Americans, against whom they are 0-1-2, including 0-1-1 on the road. Both of those OT losses were actually in overtime, not shootouts, by the way.
Anyway, the Bucks are 25-17-9 (59 points) overall heading into tonight's game, while the Americans are 35-12-4 (74 points).
The Bucks stand two points behind the Texas Brahmas (28-19-5, 61 points), who play three games this weekend beginning tomorrow. So, as seems to be the case a lot lately, the Bucks could move into a tie for third with a win tonight but might not stay there for long even if they do.
This will be the last of three straight road games for the Bucks, who then play three in a row at home, starting tomorrow.
This weekend's promotions/events include rivalry T-shirts tomorrow, when the Bucks host the Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees (21-23-8, 50 points) and the Give Blood, Play Hockey drive on Saturday, when they host the Texas Brahmas.
After practice on Wednesday, I talked to Coach Ruskowski about the three teams the Bucks will face this weekend and the importance of the weekend overall.
Here's what he had to say:
On what he expects to see from the Americans: A quality team that moves the puck, that can score, play defense and their goalie plays very well. He's a pretty good goalie. We just have to make sure our specialty teams work efficiently because their power play is pretty good. They have talented players, and if we frustrate them, stop them before they get started, it's going to be a huge advantage for us. Frustration, on a skill team, could play a pretty big role for us. We frustrate them, and now they're trying to make different passes, we intercept them and get goal-scoring opportunities, and if we score on them, it's a huge advantage for us. But we just have to be a good, patient team. Hopefully they make mistakes, and hopefully we can make their mistakes count as goals for us.
On continuing to get points against the Killer Bees: We just have to keep working hard against them knowing that if we work hard, we have an opportunity to win, and if we have an opportunity to win, we have to because points are hard to come by, and points right now are very important for everybody. We have to concentrate and focus on what we have to do. We can't worry about what happened in the past, we have to worry about what's happening in the present. That means working hard and preparing ourselves to do the best we can.
On trying to beat the Brahmas: It's huge, it's absolutely huge. This weekend is very important because all of the teams are either two points ahead of us, which is Texas, so we have to make sure we do a good job against them, then of course we have Rio down and trying to go against Allen, a really good team. It's a very tough weekend for us, there's no question. We have to be focused, make sure we're rested up, and we have to do the things for us to be ready to play the best we can play. That means my job is to make sure they're rested - that means they work hard during the games - and prepare them to play the best they can each shift of each period of each game we play.
On what they worked on in practice this week: I wanted to go over, to make sure everybody's on the same page on our traps, our neutral ice forecheck, and our forechecking period. We added a little bit different to our power play breakout just to throw a little curveball to see how exactly they respond to what we have to do, what we can do, to change it up anyway.
On this weekend's expected goalie situation: I'll probably start Kevin (Desfosses) on Thursday, then Pelts (Pier-Olivier Pelletier) on Friday, then Kevin on Saturday again against Texas. We'll see how that works. We'll do it that way, but if things change, then they change. It changed last weekend because I put Kevin in against Corpus. I wanted to see exactly how Pelletier would react to me pulling him, and he reacted in a positive way and played pretty well against Rio and I was happy with those kind of results.
I will not be able to get to a computer during tonight's game, but I will try to post at least the score and stuff when it is over.
As noted previously, there is a watch party tonight at Hal's Landing. Those of you who don't feel like watching the game there can follow it on Pointstreak, watch on CHL-TV or listen on Imagen 94.1 FM.
And for now, you can get more info on the weekend from Bryan Benway's preview and the Pointstreak pre-game notes, which say new center Sylvain Deschatelets will be wearing No. 41.
Though they have had an odd habit of beating the best teams they face, the Bucks have yet to get a win against the Americans, against whom they are 0-1-2, including 0-1-1 on the road. Both of those OT losses were actually in overtime, not shootouts, by the way.
Anyway, the Bucks are 25-17-9 (59 points) overall heading into tonight's game, while the Americans are 35-12-4 (74 points).
The Bucks stand two points behind the Texas Brahmas (28-19-5, 61 points), who play three games this weekend beginning tomorrow. So, as seems to be the case a lot lately, the Bucks could move into a tie for third with a win tonight but might not stay there for long even if they do.
This will be the last of three straight road games for the Bucks, who then play three in a row at home, starting tomorrow.
This weekend's promotions/events include rivalry T-shirts tomorrow, when the Bucks host the Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees (21-23-8, 50 points) and the Give Blood, Play Hockey drive on Saturday, when they host the Texas Brahmas.
After practice on Wednesday, I talked to Coach Ruskowski about the three teams the Bucks will face this weekend and the importance of the weekend overall.
Here's what he had to say:
On what he expects to see from the Americans: A quality team that moves the puck, that can score, play defense and their goalie plays very well. He's a pretty good goalie. We just have to make sure our specialty teams work efficiently because their power play is pretty good. They have talented players, and if we frustrate them, stop them before they get started, it's going to be a huge advantage for us. Frustration, on a skill team, could play a pretty big role for us. We frustrate them, and now they're trying to make different passes, we intercept them and get goal-scoring opportunities, and if we score on them, it's a huge advantage for us. But we just have to be a good, patient team. Hopefully they make mistakes, and hopefully we can make their mistakes count as goals for us.
On continuing to get points against the Killer Bees: We just have to keep working hard against them knowing that if we work hard, we have an opportunity to win, and if we have an opportunity to win, we have to because points are hard to come by, and points right now are very important for everybody. We have to concentrate and focus on what we have to do. We can't worry about what happened in the past, we have to worry about what's happening in the present. That means working hard and preparing ourselves to do the best we can.
On trying to beat the Brahmas: It's huge, it's absolutely huge. This weekend is very important because all of the teams are either two points ahead of us, which is Texas, so we have to make sure we do a good job against them, then of course we have Rio down and trying to go against Allen, a really good team. It's a very tough weekend for us, there's no question. We have to be focused, make sure we're rested up, and we have to do the things for us to be ready to play the best we can play. That means my job is to make sure they're rested - that means they work hard during the games - and prepare them to play the best they can each shift of each period of each game we play.
On what they worked on in practice this week: I wanted to go over, to make sure everybody's on the same page on our traps, our neutral ice forecheck, and our forechecking period. We added a little bit different to our power play breakout just to throw a little curveball to see how exactly they respond to what we have to do, what we can do, to change it up anyway.
On this weekend's expected goalie situation: I'll probably start Kevin (Desfosses) on Thursday, then Pelts (Pier-Olivier Pelletier) on Friday, then Kevin on Saturday again against Texas. We'll see how that works. We'll do it that way, but if things change, then they change. It changed last weekend because I put Kevin in against Corpus. I wanted to see exactly how Pelletier would react to me pulling him, and he reacted in a positive way and played pretty well against Rio and I was happy with those kind of results.
I will not be able to get to a computer during tonight's game, but I will try to post at least the score and stuff when it is over.
As noted previously, there is a watch party tonight at Hal's Landing. Those of you who don't feel like watching the game there can follow it on Pointstreak, watch on CHL-TV or listen on Imagen 94.1 FM.
And for now, you can get more info on the weekend from Bryan Benway's preview and the Pointstreak pre-game notes, which say new center Sylvain Deschatelets will be wearing No. 41.
About Last Weekend
This is already belated enough, so I'm just going to get right to the quotes from Coach Ruskowski and several players about the incidents of last weekend.
First up, goaltender Kevin Desfosses. In case you need a reminder as to what he's talking about, you can go back to the box score for the 9-4 loss against his former team, the Corpus Christi IceRays, or watch this video again:
Here's what Desfosses had to say:
On his actions: We were playing against my former team, that was the first time I went back to that building, and things didn't go right at first, and I got pretty annoyed. I was trying my best, and I know my teammates were trying their best, too, but things just fell apart and I got caught up in it. Being a little bit impulsive, in the impulsiveness of the moment, things like that happen sometimes. I mean, it's no big deal for me. I've done it before, and it might happen again. I'm not proud of it, but sometimes you have to do what you have to do to make sure you're ready for the next game or for the next day. It was a way for me to get my frustration out.
On why he was frustrated: I was frustrated with the way I was playing, I was frustrated with the way the team was playing. Obviously, we win as a team, and we lose as a team, and that was a big thing about losing all together, so I was really upset about everything. Also, the day before, we were winning 6-1 or 6-2 or whatever, and they came back to make it 6-5, so maybe it transferred over a little bit to the next day. Sometimes, there's a glass, and there's something always dripping in it, and maybe that was the last drop that made it explode. I'm over that now, and I'm looking forward to this weekend, to be ready for the big weekend.
On how he feels about the IceRays: I got along well with a few of the guys on that team, so off the ice, I can call my former captain or my former roommate or whatever, but on the ice, I really hate those guys because I don't think they gave me the right opportunity over there. I never got to play a lot, and when I first got over here, I got to play a lot and played well, and I got welcomed in by my teammates, so I was really looking forward to beating my former team, obviously. Right now, we would face those guys in the playoffs, and I think that would be fun, but obviously our goal is to finish third to have that bye, but otherwise, we'll face them.
On how he left the IceRays/came to the Bucks: Around the fourth or fifth of January, I asked for my release, called my agent up to see what was around. At first, they didn't want to release me, but then the GM over there, Pat Dunn, really treated me well in all my time over there. He's a class guy. I really loved him, and he really liked me, too. He's a class act, and so he kind of forced the way of the coach, and they released me on a Friday. On Saturday morning, I'm standing in my apartment waiting on my agent's call, then I got a call from Maxie. Max Lincourt called me, and I'm just thinking he's got some news for me because we were really good friends, good buddies, before I came here. But no, he was calling, and he was like, 'My coach would like to sign you.' So I was really, really happy about that, fortunately, so I signed right away. That was the All-Star break, so I got to be a little bit at home and stuff and prepare my stuff and get ready. I've really enjoyed my opportunity over here, so I'm really looking forward to the rest of the season.
On how he feels heading into this weekend: I'm working hard this week. Sometimes, we say that we need to fall to go back higher, so obviously this weekend was a big fall for me, so I'm looking forward to redeeming myself this weekend. Thursday's going to be a big challenge, and I don't know what the plan is for this weekend, but I'll be ready for this weekend. Me and Pier (Pelletier) have been going back and forth, and it's fine with me, because he's a good goalie, and I'm a good goalie, so everything is fine.
Just figured I'd get his exact words on how he left the IceRays because it seems as though there has been some confusion about that. I thought everyone knew he had asked to be released so he could get a starting role somewhere (which begs a question or two about how he'd react if Jean-Philippe Levasseur did return), but if you didn't, now you do.
Moving right along, here's what Robin Richards had to say about his incident with Brett Clouthier, which was originally reported by Brian Sandalow:
On Thursday night's events: There was a little melee, and I was pretty rattled about the way I played. He said a couple things, and I said a couple things, then I kind of got mad so I said I'd meet him in the parking lot if he wanted. He was there when I was driving away, and we just talked, nothing really happened, but I guess it transferred over to Saturday's game. I respect the guy, he's a really tough guy, and you have to watch out for those big boys. But I'm not going to back down from him, I'm not going to be nervous; well, I am nervous, but I'm not scared of him. I'm not going to back down from him. Take all callers, you know.
On what happened Saturday: Both fights were pretty anticipated. The second fight, he asked me to go, and I said no, I didn't want to go, and he was like, 'Come on, we have to go,' so I got him first. That's hockey. If you give me the opportunity, I'm going to put the ball in my own court. He's a tough guy, and you really have to watch out for those guys, like I said.
On Clouthier's desire to 'knock his block off' soon: Like I told him out there, if he wants to knock my block off, he's going to have to do it twice because I'm not just going to let that happen. I'd be surprised if he does that once, let alone twice, so bring it on. I don't mean to sound overconfident or anything, but I've been doing this a lot of years. I'm sure he has, too, and for him to make a bold statement like that, he's probably not going to knock my block off, so let's not get ahead of ourselves there. I guess we'll find out come Friday.
On whether things will carry over to this weekend: We’ll see how it is. We can’t just turn this into a gong show. We’re both in the playoff hunt, so we’ll see how this goes, but I’m sure we’ll share a couple words. We have two more games between us before the end of our season, so I’m sure our paths will cross again.
On whether or not all this is a distraction: It’s part of my game, and I know it’s part of my role. But if he wants to go and jump me, I’ll let him take a penalty. You have to play within the means of the game, you can't just go out there being an idiot because I can be an idiot, too, and just say no and get the power play and go out there and score a goal. Because, to tell you to the truth, I like scoring goals probably just as much as I like fights, so I can do a little bit of both.
On taking on more than just the enforcer role: I'm not as good with the puck as some guys, so I'm sure they could just throw anybody out there (on the power play), but I hope Terry believes in me. I'm trying my best out there and learning new stuff every day, and basically my job is just to get my big body in front and hopefully pucks bounce in off me from wherever it is, whether it be my teeth, my elbows, anything.
On staying focused this weekend: We just have to come out and play to our level and not let any distractions get the better of us, be it with these fights or the playoff spots or skates. We just have to come out hard. We have a big road game against a guy in our conference, so it's pretty big, then Rio, which is obviously a huge game because they're always tough to play against, so it's a big 3-in-3, and hopefully we can get six points.
In case you need a reminder, here's what Clouthier said about Richards in Sandalow's aforementioned story:
“Out here today we went a couple times and he jumped me. That’s unacceptable between two tough guys. I haven’t jumped another tough guy in a long, long time unless he runs someone from behind,” Clouthier said. “If that’s how he’s going to do it, try to get the upper hand… next time hopefully we square up and I’ll knock his block off.”
Now here's what Coach Ruskowski had to say, about these incidents and some other things last weekend:
On whether he's worried about distractions: They're professionals, and they have to know that our No. 1 issue is to win hockey games, to play as hard as we can to win hockey games. So no, I'm not worried about that.
On Desfosses' actions last Friday: I understand where he was coming from. Actually, he did what I was wanting to do. If a guy doesn't care, that bothers me more than a guy who does care - about his goals-against, about whatever. That shows he cares. He doesn't want to get beat, he doesn't want those goals scored against him. I like that attitude. He took frustrations out like I wanted to do.
On the Richards-Clouthier incident: I don't know a whole lot about what happened, to I can't really comment, but I think that's just lying dogs and we should just leave lying dogs lie. Let's talk about what's on the ice, not after it. They almost had a little altercation before the game in warmups... that's hockey.
On what went wrong in Friday's loss: Right from the start - we took two penalties, and they scored, and it was just downhill after that - it was Murphy's Law. Anything that could go wrong did go wrong. Our defense wasn't quick enough, they weren't making good plays, good passes. I thought we had a chance to come in after the second period we scored bang, bang, two goals, but then they came right back and scored. So for just a short period of time we had momentum, and when they came back and scored, they took the momentum right back away from us. That's discouraging. It happened again in the third period - we scored, and they came right back to score again against us. That's very discouraging for any player, any player, any goalie how that situation happens. It's frustrating, very frustrating, but we just have to be more committed to being a better team and a more disciplined team. We can't take penalties against good teams and expect to win hockey games.
On whether four of six points each weekend is enough: We always shoot four three of three, but if we can take two out of three, I'm happy with that. I'm happy with that. But we need to get points, we have to continue to get points, so obviously three of three is the best scenario we could be faced with, but if we take two out of three each weekend, that's pretty good numbers. I'll take that effort every week.
And finally, captain Adam Rivet, on everything previously discussed and the turn play takes toward the end of the season, considering he got in fights in two consecutive games over the weekend:
On whether he's worried about distractions for the team: No matter what, you always want to keep your focus on what's going on on the ice as far as playing with the team and stuff, so you just kind of look forward and keep going and practicing and going up for the games.
On tensions boiling over: Teams are competing for playoffs, and so are we. It's definitely not my job, but there were a couple hits, and you just have to make sure they're not crossing the line. You want to protect the guys and just say that's not right. Whether they're good fights or bad fights, whatever, sometimes it's just part of the game, and coincidentally I had two fights last weekend. I don't go into this weekend expecting the same thing to happen, but we are battling for a playoff spot, trying to get third position and keep winning. We want to go into the playoffs on a roll, and we have to keep working hard and battling, so that's the mentality.
On what the team needs to do every weekend: I definitely think all six (points) is better. It seems to be that maybe we’ll start off with a pretty good win, then we'll kind of get lackadaisical, then we'll get ourselves back and up and get a win in our Saturday or Sunday game. Guys know that right now, we want to get all six points. We know Allen’s going to be a big challenge, and Rio’s battling, trying to keep their playoff hopes alive, as well against Texas. It’s going to be a tough weekend, but it’s an exciting challenge. I know the guys feel the same way as I do, that we want to get all six points. It's one game at a time. Every point is valuable right now, so we don’t want to let them slide away.
On whether last week's struggles were a wake-up call: You hope so. I think we did let it slide on Thursday, then Friday we came out a little slow, then we came back and made it a 5-4 game, then they scored the next shift. You can't let that happen. When that happens, that takes the momentum away. A lot of people don't realize that the next shift after a goal is a big one, and we didn't capitalize on maybe taking advantage of them being a little bit down after a goal, and they took it to us and were able to score. I think those were goals for them that maybe changed the momentum of the game. Though we started off slow and finished slow, we had our opportunities to come back in the game, and we just can't let those opportunities slide. Hopefully the guys realize from the Thursday and Friday game that our Saturday game was a 60-minute performance, and that's what we need from every game.
Hopefully that about covers everything for now.
First up, goaltender Kevin Desfosses. In case you need a reminder as to what he's talking about, you can go back to the box score for the 9-4 loss against his former team, the Corpus Christi IceRays, or watch this video again:
Here's what Desfosses had to say:
On his actions: We were playing against my former team, that was the first time I went back to that building, and things didn't go right at first, and I got pretty annoyed. I was trying my best, and I know my teammates were trying their best, too, but things just fell apart and I got caught up in it. Being a little bit impulsive, in the impulsiveness of the moment, things like that happen sometimes. I mean, it's no big deal for me. I've done it before, and it might happen again. I'm not proud of it, but sometimes you have to do what you have to do to make sure you're ready for the next game or for the next day. It was a way for me to get my frustration out.
On why he was frustrated: I was frustrated with the way I was playing, I was frustrated with the way the team was playing. Obviously, we win as a team, and we lose as a team, and that was a big thing about losing all together, so I was really upset about everything. Also, the day before, we were winning 6-1 or 6-2 or whatever, and they came back to make it 6-5, so maybe it transferred over a little bit to the next day. Sometimes, there's a glass, and there's something always dripping in it, and maybe that was the last drop that made it explode. I'm over that now, and I'm looking forward to this weekend, to be ready for the big weekend.
On how he feels about the IceRays: I got along well with a few of the guys on that team, so off the ice, I can call my former captain or my former roommate or whatever, but on the ice, I really hate those guys because I don't think they gave me the right opportunity over there. I never got to play a lot, and when I first got over here, I got to play a lot and played well, and I got welcomed in by my teammates, so I was really looking forward to beating my former team, obviously. Right now, we would face those guys in the playoffs, and I think that would be fun, but obviously our goal is to finish third to have that bye, but otherwise, we'll face them.
On how he left the IceRays/came to the Bucks: Around the fourth or fifth of January, I asked for my release, called my agent up to see what was around. At first, they didn't want to release me, but then the GM over there, Pat Dunn, really treated me well in all my time over there. He's a class guy. I really loved him, and he really liked me, too. He's a class act, and so he kind of forced the way of the coach, and they released me on a Friday. On Saturday morning, I'm standing in my apartment waiting on my agent's call, then I got a call from Maxie. Max Lincourt called me, and I'm just thinking he's got some news for me because we were really good friends, good buddies, before I came here. But no, he was calling, and he was like, 'My coach would like to sign you.' So I was really, really happy about that, fortunately, so I signed right away. That was the All-Star break, so I got to be a little bit at home and stuff and prepare my stuff and get ready. I've really enjoyed my opportunity over here, so I'm really looking forward to the rest of the season.
On how he feels heading into this weekend: I'm working hard this week. Sometimes, we say that we need to fall to go back higher, so obviously this weekend was a big fall for me, so I'm looking forward to redeeming myself this weekend. Thursday's going to be a big challenge, and I don't know what the plan is for this weekend, but I'll be ready for this weekend. Me and Pier (Pelletier) have been going back and forth, and it's fine with me, because he's a good goalie, and I'm a good goalie, so everything is fine.
Just figured I'd get his exact words on how he left the IceRays because it seems as though there has been some confusion about that. I thought everyone knew he had asked to be released so he could get a starting role somewhere (which begs a question or two about how he'd react if Jean-Philippe Levasseur did return), but if you didn't, now you do.
Moving right along, here's what Robin Richards had to say about his incident with Brett Clouthier, which was originally reported by Brian Sandalow:
On Thursday night's events: There was a little melee, and I was pretty rattled about the way I played. He said a couple things, and I said a couple things, then I kind of got mad so I said I'd meet him in the parking lot if he wanted. He was there when I was driving away, and we just talked, nothing really happened, but I guess it transferred over to Saturday's game. I respect the guy, he's a really tough guy, and you have to watch out for those big boys. But I'm not going to back down from him, I'm not going to be nervous; well, I am nervous, but I'm not scared of him. I'm not going to back down from him. Take all callers, you know.
On what happened Saturday: Both fights were pretty anticipated. The second fight, he asked me to go, and I said no, I didn't want to go, and he was like, 'Come on, we have to go,' so I got him first. That's hockey. If you give me the opportunity, I'm going to put the ball in my own court. He's a tough guy, and you really have to watch out for those guys, like I said.
On Clouthier's desire to 'knock his block off' soon: Like I told him out there, if he wants to knock my block off, he's going to have to do it twice because I'm not just going to let that happen. I'd be surprised if he does that once, let alone twice, so bring it on. I don't mean to sound overconfident or anything, but I've been doing this a lot of years. I'm sure he has, too, and for him to make a bold statement like that, he's probably not going to knock my block off, so let's not get ahead of ourselves there. I guess we'll find out come Friday.
On whether things will carry over to this weekend: We’ll see how it is. We can’t just turn this into a gong show. We’re both in the playoff hunt, so we’ll see how this goes, but I’m sure we’ll share a couple words. We have two more games between us before the end of our season, so I’m sure our paths will cross again.
On whether or not all this is a distraction: It’s part of my game, and I know it’s part of my role. But if he wants to go and jump me, I’ll let him take a penalty. You have to play within the means of the game, you can't just go out there being an idiot because I can be an idiot, too, and just say no and get the power play and go out there and score a goal. Because, to tell you to the truth, I like scoring goals probably just as much as I like fights, so I can do a little bit of both.
On taking on more than just the enforcer role: I'm not as good with the puck as some guys, so I'm sure they could just throw anybody out there (on the power play), but I hope Terry believes in me. I'm trying my best out there and learning new stuff every day, and basically my job is just to get my big body in front and hopefully pucks bounce in off me from wherever it is, whether it be my teeth, my elbows, anything.
On staying focused this weekend: We just have to come out and play to our level and not let any distractions get the better of us, be it with these fights or the playoff spots or skates. We just have to come out hard. We have a big road game against a guy in our conference, so it's pretty big, then Rio, which is obviously a huge game because they're always tough to play against, so it's a big 3-in-3, and hopefully we can get six points.
In case you need a reminder, here's what Clouthier said about Richards in Sandalow's aforementioned story:
“Out here today we went a couple times and he jumped me. That’s unacceptable between two tough guys. I haven’t jumped another tough guy in a long, long time unless he runs someone from behind,” Clouthier said. “If that’s how he’s going to do it, try to get the upper hand… next time hopefully we square up and I’ll knock his block off.”
Now here's what Coach Ruskowski had to say, about these incidents and some other things last weekend:
On whether he's worried about distractions: They're professionals, and they have to know that our No. 1 issue is to win hockey games, to play as hard as we can to win hockey games. So no, I'm not worried about that.
On Desfosses' actions last Friday: I understand where he was coming from. Actually, he did what I was wanting to do. If a guy doesn't care, that bothers me more than a guy who does care - about his goals-against, about whatever. That shows he cares. He doesn't want to get beat, he doesn't want those goals scored against him. I like that attitude. He took frustrations out like I wanted to do.
On the Richards-Clouthier incident: I don't know a whole lot about what happened, to I can't really comment, but I think that's just lying dogs and we should just leave lying dogs lie. Let's talk about what's on the ice, not after it. They almost had a little altercation before the game in warmups... that's hockey.
On what went wrong in Friday's loss: Right from the start - we took two penalties, and they scored, and it was just downhill after that - it was Murphy's Law. Anything that could go wrong did go wrong. Our defense wasn't quick enough, they weren't making good plays, good passes. I thought we had a chance to come in after the second period we scored bang, bang, two goals, but then they came right back and scored. So for just a short period of time we had momentum, and when they came back and scored, they took the momentum right back away from us. That's discouraging. It happened again in the third period - we scored, and they came right back to score again against us. That's very discouraging for any player, any player, any goalie how that situation happens. It's frustrating, very frustrating, but we just have to be more committed to being a better team and a more disciplined team. We can't take penalties against good teams and expect to win hockey games.
On whether four of six points each weekend is enough: We always shoot four three of three, but if we can take two out of three, I'm happy with that. I'm happy with that. But we need to get points, we have to continue to get points, so obviously three of three is the best scenario we could be faced with, but if we take two out of three each weekend, that's pretty good numbers. I'll take that effort every week.
And finally, captain Adam Rivet, on everything previously discussed and the turn play takes toward the end of the season, considering he got in fights in two consecutive games over the weekend:
On whether he's worried about distractions for the team: No matter what, you always want to keep your focus on what's going on on the ice as far as playing with the team and stuff, so you just kind of look forward and keep going and practicing and going up for the games.
On tensions boiling over: Teams are competing for playoffs, and so are we. It's definitely not my job, but there were a couple hits, and you just have to make sure they're not crossing the line. You want to protect the guys and just say that's not right. Whether they're good fights or bad fights, whatever, sometimes it's just part of the game, and coincidentally I had two fights last weekend. I don't go into this weekend expecting the same thing to happen, but we are battling for a playoff spot, trying to get third position and keep winning. We want to go into the playoffs on a roll, and we have to keep working hard and battling, so that's the mentality.
On what the team needs to do every weekend: I definitely think all six (points) is better. It seems to be that maybe we’ll start off with a pretty good win, then we'll kind of get lackadaisical, then we'll get ourselves back and up and get a win in our Saturday or Sunday game. Guys know that right now, we want to get all six points. We know Allen’s going to be a big challenge, and Rio’s battling, trying to keep their playoff hopes alive, as well against Texas. It’s going to be a tough weekend, but it’s an exciting challenge. I know the guys feel the same way as I do, that we want to get all six points. It's one game at a time. Every point is valuable right now, so we don’t want to let them slide away.
On whether last week's struggles were a wake-up call: You hope so. I think we did let it slide on Thursday, then Friday we came out a little slow, then we came back and made it a 5-4 game, then they scored the next shift. You can't let that happen. When that happens, that takes the momentum away. A lot of people don't realize that the next shift after a goal is a big one, and we didn't capitalize on maybe taking advantage of them being a little bit down after a goal, and they took it to us and were able to score. I think those were goals for them that maybe changed the momentum of the game. Though we started off slow and finished slow, we had our opportunities to come back in the game, and we just can't let those opportunities slide. Hopefully the guys realize from the Thursday and Friday game that our Saturday game was a 60-minute performance, and that's what we need from every game.
Hopefully that about covers everything for now.
Levasseur in Bakersfield
The Bucks just confirmed that Jean-Philippe Levasseur has been sent to the Bakersfield Condors, the AHL affiliate of the Anaheim Ducks with which he was initially intended to play this season.
Levasseur will not be coming back to the Bucks, at least not now, and he is more than likely going to return to the Springfield Falcons when the Condors are done with him.
I'm not sure where the Falcons got the impression that Levasseur was returning to Laredo, but it seems they got Bucks' fans hopes up for nothing.
UPDATE: Bryan Benway's blog is updated with the team's take on this whole ordeal.
Levasseur will not be coming back to the Bucks, at least not now, and he is more than likely going to return to the Springfield Falcons when the Condors are done with him.
I'm not sure where the Falcons got the impression that Levasseur was returning to Laredo, but it seems they got Bucks' fans hopes up for nothing.
UPDATE: Bryan Benway's blog is updated with the team's take on this whole ordeal.
Not So Fast
Seems like the person who puts together the Springfield Falcons' game night notes may have been misinformed about Jean-Philippe Levasseur's destination upon being called back from his loan by the Anaheim Ducks.
Those notes, as mentioned earlier, said that Levasseur is coming back to the Bucks, but the Bucks have heard no such news and the story from the Falcons' game tonight begs to differ:
Stepping in at the last moment to serve as Dubnyks backup was Bryon Lewis, a 42-year-old former player at American International College.
Lewis has never seen professional action, but has had two prior stints with the Falcons, the first one coming eight years ago. He resides in Monson with his family. He was the backup becasuse No. 2 goalie J.P. Levasseur, who had been on loan from the Anaheim Ducks, was recalled and sent to Bakersfield (ECHL) under emergency conditions.
Thanks to Greg Rajan for the heads up on that.
I'll update this post and share anything else I may have learned by then tomorrow.
Those notes, as mentioned earlier, said that Levasseur is coming back to the Bucks, but the Bucks have heard no such news and the story from the Falcons' game tonight begs to differ:
Stepping in at the last moment to serve as Dubnyks backup was Bryon Lewis, a 42-year-old former player at American International College.
Lewis has never seen professional action, but has had two prior stints with the Falcons, the first one coming eight years ago. He resides in Monson with his family. He was the backup becasuse No. 2 goalie J.P. Levasseur, who had been on loan from the Anaheim Ducks, was recalled and sent to Bakersfield (ECHL) under emergency conditions.
Thanks to Greg Rajan for the heads up on that.
I'll update this post and share anything else I may have learned by then tomorrow.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Levasseur Returning?
According to the AHL Transaction Page, the Anaheim Ducks recalled Jean-Philippe Levasseur from his loan to the Springfield Falcons today.
According to the Falcons' game night notes for their contest tonight, Levasseur is headed back to Laredo.
Here's what they say on the subject:
The Springfield Falcons signed goaltender Bryon Lewis to an Amateur Tryout Agreement on Wednesday afternoon after J.P. Levasseur was reassigned by the Anaheim Ducks back to the Central Hockey League's Laredo Bucks.
The team has not given me any information about any possibility of Levasseur returning, and it would be rather ironic if he does just a few weeks after finally retrieving his possessions - and his dog - from down here during the AHL All-Star break.
Levasseur has not been playing much since Devan Dubnyk got sent back to the Falcons early this month and hasn't started since Feb. 16, two days after a stunning 49-save shutout.
Getting Levasseur back would obviously be huge for the Bucks, but it would also force them to get rid of one of their current goalies and probably put them in a salary situation where they could only carry 18 guys and stay under the cap.
We'll see how this all plays out; I'm trying to get in touch with the Bucks to see what they can tell me about the situation.
UPDATE: The Bucks say they have not heard anything about Levasseur's status, and it seems I am incapable of getting a long blog post done while I am working on desk alone. I will transcribe quotes when I am home, and I promise you will get a lot of them tomorrow morning. Sorry for the delay(s).
According to the Falcons' game night notes for their contest tonight, Levasseur is headed back to Laredo.
Here's what they say on the subject:
The Springfield Falcons signed goaltender Bryon Lewis to an Amateur Tryout Agreement on Wednesday afternoon after J.P. Levasseur was reassigned by the Anaheim Ducks back to the Central Hockey League's Laredo Bucks.
The team has not given me any information about any possibility of Levasseur returning, and it would be rather ironic if he does just a few weeks after finally retrieving his possessions - and his dog - from down here during the AHL All-Star break.
Levasseur has not been playing much since Devan Dubnyk got sent back to the Falcons early this month and hasn't started since Feb. 16, two days after a stunning 49-save shutout.
Getting Levasseur back would obviously be huge for the Bucks, but it would also force them to get rid of one of their current goalies and probably put them in a salary situation where they could only carry 18 guys and stay under the cap.
We'll see how this all plays out; I'm trying to get in touch with the Bucks to see what they can tell me about the situation.
UPDATE: The Bucks say they have not heard anything about Levasseur's status, and it seems I am incapable of getting a long blog post done while I am working on desk alone. I will transcribe quotes when I am home, and I promise you will get a lot of them tomorrow morning. Sorry for the delay(s).
Bucks Sign Deschatelets
The Bucks have signed center Sylvain Deschatelets to fill the forward absence on their current roster.
This move was awaiting league approval, and some immigration paperwork, but is now official.
Deschatelets played nine seasons of professional hockey everywhere from the ECHL to Italy before joining the North American Hockey League (LNAH) for the 2009-10 campaign.
His "Drop Your Gloves" profile offers some information as to what he's done in that league this season, as does his LNAH page.
Coach Ruskowski knew of Deschatelets and went after him knowing that he had no contractual ties to sever before he could play for the Bucks, unlike some players currently in the European leagues.
Ruskowski said he likes Deschatelets' size, his numbers and the fact that he won't back down from the "rough stuff," a part of the game he feels Robin Richards has been forced to deal with on his own too much since Justin Styffe went on the injured reserve.
Deschatelets will be in the lineup when the Bucks face the Allen Americans tomorrow night.
This move was awaiting league approval, and some immigration paperwork, but is now official.
Deschatelets played nine seasons of professional hockey everywhere from the ECHL to Italy before joining the North American Hockey League (LNAH) for the 2009-10 campaign.
His "Drop Your Gloves" profile offers some information as to what he's done in that league this season, as does his LNAH page.
Coach Ruskowski knew of Deschatelets and went after him knowing that he had no contractual ties to sever before he could play for the Bucks, unlike some players currently in the European leagues.
Ruskowski said he likes Deschatelets' size, his numbers and the fact that he won't back down from the "rough stuff," a part of the game he feels Robin Richards has been forced to deal with on his own too much since Justin Styffe went on the injured reserve.
Deschatelets will be in the lineup when the Bucks face the Allen Americans tomorrow night.
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
A Couple Moves
Before I write a longer post, I'd just like to note that the Bucks have placed Maxime Lincourt on the 14-day injured reserve retroactive to Feb. 14 and waived Ryan Ford for the second time.
Lincourt has not played since the Bucks' 4-3 shootout win over the Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees on Feb. 14 but has been participating in practice. His injury is of the upper-body variety, which allows him to skate though he has been avoiding contact.
Lincourt will be available to come off the IR following this weekend's games.
Ford, who was signed by the Bucks on Feb. 6, waived on Feb. 13, then re-signed on Feb. 16, is now gone for good.
He played six games with the Bucks, contributing one assist, and was a minus-3.
Ford participated in practice today but obviously will not make the trip to Allen, which has been postponed to tomorrow morning at 6 a.m. due to weather conditions.
These moves put the Bucks down a forward, so don't be surprised to hear some more roster news tomorrow. I'll be sure to post as soon as anything like that becomes official.
Defensemen Paul Elliott and Adam Rivet did not skate in practice today, but neither is expected to miss time this weekend.
Lincourt and Robin Richards, both forwards, dressed as d-men in their absence.
UPDATE: Powerlifting and high school basketball playoffs took over my evening, so I haven't had a chance to transcribe any quotes from practice today. Not much breaking news to report anyway, but I did talk to Richards, Kevin Desfosses and Ruskowski about their take on this weekend's events, as well as team captain Adam Rivet. My first post tomorrow will likely be a roster move, but after that, I'll get some quotes and other info up on here.
Lincourt has not played since the Bucks' 4-3 shootout win over the Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees on Feb. 14 but has been participating in practice. His injury is of the upper-body variety, which allows him to skate though he has been avoiding contact.
Lincourt will be available to come off the IR following this weekend's games.
Ford, who was signed by the Bucks on Feb. 6, waived on Feb. 13, then re-signed on Feb. 16, is now gone for good.
He played six games with the Bucks, contributing one assist, and was a minus-3.
Ford participated in practice today but obviously will not make the trip to Allen, which has been postponed to tomorrow morning at 6 a.m. due to weather conditions.
These moves put the Bucks down a forward, so don't be surprised to hear some more roster news tomorrow. I'll be sure to post as soon as anything like that becomes official.
Defensemen Paul Elliott and Adam Rivet did not skate in practice today, but neither is expected to miss time this weekend.
Lincourt and Robin Richards, both forwards, dressed as d-men in their absence.
UPDATE: Powerlifting and high school basketball playoffs took over my evening, so I haven't had a chance to transcribe any quotes from practice today. Not much breaking news to report anyway, but I did talk to Richards, Kevin Desfosses and Ruskowski about their take on this weekend's events, as well as team captain Adam Rivet. My first post tomorrow will likely be a roster move, but after that, I'll get some quotes and other info up on here.
Monday, February 22, 2010
Weekend Recap
I am alive, but apparently I missed a heck of a lot Bucks-wise while I was in bed drowning myself with orange juice.
I'm not sure where to begin, so let's start with the Robin Richards - Brett Clouthier rivalry that was apparently born after the Bucks' 6-5 win over the Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees on Thursday.
Brian Sandalow has that story in his game story for the Bucks' 5-1 win over the Killer Bees on Saturday.
Here's an excerpt:
As the teams left the ice following a 6-5 Laredo win, Clouthier, in what he called a “pretty stupid move” shot a piece of corn at Richards, leading to a confrontation between the two. The confrontation led to another incident in the parking lot of the Laredo Entertainment Center near the Bees bus as Richards tried to meet with Clouthier and the Bees as they were leaving the arena.
Clouthier and Richards then fought several times in Saturday's game, which you can read more about in Sandalow's game blog and Bryan Benway's press release.
Somehow, Richards wasn't able to steal the (negative) spotlight for the Bucks this weekend, as Kevin Desfosses did the honors with his meltdown after allowing five goals in relief of Pier-Olivier Pelletier in the Bucks' 9-4 loss to the Corpus Christi IceRays on Friday.
If you haven't seen the video, which apparently doesn't even show the whole ordeal, here it is:
That is courtesy of KRIS TV, Corpus Christi's NBC affiliate.
Greg Rajan has more on the incident in his game story and postgame blog, and you can read about the only positive to come from that game for the Bucks in Benway's press release.
All the controversy and craziness aside, the Bucks escaped the weekend with four of six possible standings points, improving to 25-17-9 (59 points).
Thanks to the Wichita Thunder's 1-0 win over the Texas Brahmas yesterday, the Brahmas stand at 28-18-5 (61 points), only two points ahead of the Bucks with a meeting between the two teams on tap this Saturday.
Those two are still fighting it out for third place in the Southern Conference, while the IceRays (23-21-7, 53 points) are holding onto the fifth spot, four points ahead of the Killer Bees (21-23-7, 49 points).
The team on top, the Odessa Jackalopes (38-10-4, 80 points) clinched a playoff spot over the weekend, and the Allen Americans (34-12-4, 72 points), who the Bucks will face on Thursday, are still safely ahead of the Brahmas and Bucks in second.
The Bucks practice tomorrow morning before departing for Allen at night, so I'll be there to check up on injuries, Coach Ruskowski's opinion on the weekend's events and how they're preparing for the final 13 games.
By the way, there will be a watch party for the one against Allen on Thursday for those of you interested.
I'm not sure where to begin, so let's start with the Robin Richards - Brett Clouthier rivalry that was apparently born after the Bucks' 6-5 win over the Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees on Thursday.
Brian Sandalow has that story in his game story for the Bucks' 5-1 win over the Killer Bees on Saturday.
Here's an excerpt:
As the teams left the ice following a 6-5 Laredo win, Clouthier, in what he called a “pretty stupid move” shot a piece of corn at Richards, leading to a confrontation between the two. The confrontation led to another incident in the parking lot of the Laredo Entertainment Center near the Bees bus as Richards tried to meet with Clouthier and the Bees as they were leaving the arena.
Richards said what he did after Thursday’s game was “really immature of me.”
Interesting...Clouthier and Richards then fought several times in Saturday's game, which you can read more about in Sandalow's game blog and Bryan Benway's press release.
Somehow, Richards wasn't able to steal the (negative) spotlight for the Bucks this weekend, as Kevin Desfosses did the honors with his meltdown after allowing five goals in relief of Pier-Olivier Pelletier in the Bucks' 9-4 loss to the Corpus Christi IceRays on Friday.
If you haven't seen the video, which apparently doesn't even show the whole ordeal, here it is:
That is courtesy of KRIS TV, Corpus Christi's NBC affiliate.
Greg Rajan has more on the incident in his game story and postgame blog, and you can read about the only positive to come from that game for the Bucks in Benway's press release.
All the controversy and craziness aside, the Bucks escaped the weekend with four of six possible standings points, improving to 25-17-9 (59 points).
Thanks to the Wichita Thunder's 1-0 win over the Texas Brahmas yesterday, the Brahmas stand at 28-18-5 (61 points), only two points ahead of the Bucks with a meeting between the two teams on tap this Saturday.
Those two are still fighting it out for third place in the Southern Conference, while the IceRays (23-21-7, 53 points) are holding onto the fifth spot, four points ahead of the Killer Bees (21-23-7, 49 points).
The team on top, the Odessa Jackalopes (38-10-4, 80 points) clinched a playoff spot over the weekend, and the Allen Americans (34-12-4, 72 points), who the Bucks will face on Thursday, are still safely ahead of the Brahmas and Bucks in second.
The Bucks practice tomorrow morning before departing for Allen at night, so I'll be there to check up on injuries, Coach Ruskowski's opinion on the weekend's events and how they're preparing for the final 13 games.
By the way, there will be a watch party for the one against Allen on Thursday for those of you interested.
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Game No. 49 - Bucks vs. Killer Bees
Pre-Game: Sorry about the recent lack of posts; I somehow managed to get sick again, this game is the first thing I've dragged myself out of bed for since Tuesday night. With that in mind, I'm not sure I"ll have as much to say tonight as usual. And unless I get my voice back completely by the end of the game, I won't be going downstairs for interviews. Kind of difficult to conduct those when you can only speak a couple words at a time. ... As usual, you can follow tonight's game here or on Poinstreak, watch on CHL-TV or listen on Imagen 94.1.
Starters: Bucks - Jeff Bes (F), Kevin Desfosses (G), Paul Elliott (D), Ryan Ford (F), Mike Looby (D), Darryl Smith (F); Killer Bees - Nathan Ansell (D), Brett Clouthier (F), Andy Franck (G), Joel Irving (G), Jesse Perrin (D), Daymen Rycroft (F).
First Period: Maxime Lincourt is the Bucks' scratch tonight. Wouldn't say he's an entirely healthy one, though. ... Killer Bees take a 1-0 lead at 5:28 on a goal by Grant Goeckner-Zoeller, set up by Aaron Lee, who kept the puck in on a clearing attempt by the Bucks and sent a sharp pass over to his linemate, who scored easily. That was the Killer Bees' second shot of the game. Sean Muncy gets the second assist. ... Stacey Bauman to the box for hooking at 9:06 to give the Bucks the game's first power play. ... Well, they hit the outside of the net, but not the inside just yet. ... Killer Bees get a power play now with an interference call against Jarred Mohr at 13:13. ... Penalty killed. ... Clouthier just shoved Todd Griffith into and almost over the boards into the Killer Bees bench. ... Oh right, that followed a touch up for a delayed interference call against Perrin to give the Bucks another power play at 17:12. ... Tie game. Robin Richards jammed in a loose puck after taking one shot at it previously. Mohr gets the primary assist for his shot from the point that got the puck into the crease, and Bes gets the secondary for his pass to Mohr. Still 2:13 left on the clock for someone to break the 1-1 tie before intermission. ... Billsten in the box for holding the stick at 18:13 to give the Killer Bees a chance to take the lead back on the power play. ... Well, the tie has been broken, but not by the Killer Bees. Smith wristed a shot that rolled over Franck's shoulder into the net after taking a pass from Bes on a 2-on-1 shorthanded break. Bucks lead 2-1 at 19:10.03. Killer Bees have 49.7 seconds left on the power play in this period and a will get a few more seconds on it to start the second if they don't score before intermission. ... Igor Agarunov and Eric Giosa got another 2-on-1 going for the Bucks, and though they did not score, they did keep the Killer Bees from getting any chances before intermission. ... End of the period, Bucks lead 2-1, up 14-7 on shots.
Second Period: Tom Sawatske has taken a hooking penalty at 1:40 to put the Bucks on the power play. ... Not for long, as Bes is headed to the box for a hook of his own at 1:53. Time for some 4-on-4. ... Penalties killed. ... Considering the number of shots the Bucks were getting on Franck, it's no surprise to see them score again here. Smith stayed out after his linemates on a long shift, did some work behind the net and sent a nifty centering pass to Neil Trimm, who elevated a shot right over Franck's shoulder. Adam Rivet gets the second assist. Bucks lead 3-1 at 7:25 in the period. ... Right off the ensuing faceoff, Perrin committed a high-sticking penalty, which was called at 7:47 following a delay. Bucks on the power play. ... Bucks getting another power play now at 12:20 with Jay Hardwick heading to the box for hooking. ... Twenty seconds into that, the Bucks have scored their second power-play goal of the game, this one off the stick of Griffith, who was planted right outside Franck's crease. Assists to Mohr and Evan Schwabe. Bucks lead 4-1 at 12:40. ... Agarunov to the box for hooking at 13:32. ... Rivet just tried to start a breakout from behind his own net and had his pass taken away by the Killer Bees. He's lucky nothing bad came of that. ... Some very nifty stick work by Schwabe has given the Bucks a 5-1 lead, as he skated in shorthanded and faked Franck out to rip a bad-angled wrist shot past him. Billsten, who sent the pass to Schwabe from near the blue line and held up there, gets the assist on that goal. Bucks lead 5-1 at 14:15 in the period. ... Clouthier to the box for hooking at 15:51. ... Bucks let Lee break out shorthanded then tie him up to award him a penalty shot. ... And wow, did he take advantage of that. Beautiful wrist shot just ripped by Desfosses. The thing is, Desfosses made the save on the initial shot Lee had taken, which he got off despite being hooked up, which makes it seem like the Bucks would have been better off just leaving him alone on his original chance. Bucks lead 5-2 at 16:08 ... Right after that was announced, the Bucks got their four-goal advantage back on Griffith's second of the night, a power-play goal assisted by Benjamin Dieude-Fauvel and Looby. Bucks lead 6-2 at 16:58. ... Rough goal to give up for Desfosses, as he made a great save on a shot by Sawatske but could not cover the puck, and Rycroft skated in and jammed it off his toe into the net. Clouthier gets the secondary assist. Bucks lead 6-3 at 19:24. ... End of the period, Bucks lead 6-3, up 27-21 on shots.
Third Period: Muncy is headed to the box for boarding at 5:45 to give the Bucks the first power play of the period. ... Rycroft has cut the Bucks' lead to 2 with his second of the game, a shorthanded wrister that beat Desfosses top shelf. Bucks lead 6-4 at 7:40. ... Another power play coming for the Bucks with Hardwick headed to the box for holding at 10:34. They should probably try to keep the Killer Bees off the board on this one. ... Griffith just hacked Perrin's stick out of his hand on what would have easily been a slash if the stick broke, and Perrin looked to the ref for a call but got nothing. ... Dieude-Fauvel to the box for hooking at 15:33 to put the Killer Bees on a late power play. ... Desfosses got caught of position on a save, and Irving rocketed in the rebound to cut the Bucks' lead to 6-5 with 3:48 to play in regulation. ... Ruskowski has called his time out. ... The Killer Bees have taken a 38-33 shot lead, by the way. ... Franck just made a big save on Smith to keep this a one-goal game. ... Franck tried to go to the bench late in the period but couldn't make it off the ice.
Game Over: Bucks win 6-5. Killer Bees hold a 38-33 final shot advantage. ... Bucks improve to 24-16-9 (57 points), moving back into a tie with the Texas Brahmas for first place, but the Brahmas have a game in hand. ... Not so encouraging the way the Bucks let two four-goal leads turn into a one-goal win. We'll see how they fare the rest of the weekend.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Ford Is Back
Ryan Ford is still in Laredo, practiced today and will re-sign with the Bucks as soon as he clears waivers.
Seems the team is now far enough below the salary cap to carry 19 players, and Ford displayed some traits Coach Ruskowski liked enough to keep him around.
Jeff Bes and Paul Elliott did not practice today to rest some nagging injuries.
I'll post more, with some quotes, later.
UPDATE: Seems everything went through already, as the Bucks have announced Ford's re-signing. Also noted in that press release is the fact that forward Mark O'Leary has been moved from the 14-day injured reserve to the 30-day IR. This is no surprise considering the fact that he's still in a cast and on crutches.
Seems the team is now far enough below the salary cap to carry 19 players, and Ford displayed some traits Coach Ruskowski liked enough to keep him around.
Jeff Bes and Paul Elliott did not practice today to rest some nagging injuries.
I'll post more, with some quotes, later.
UPDATE: Seems everything went through already, as the Bucks have announced Ford's re-signing. Also noted in that press release is the fact that forward Mark O'Leary has been moved from the 14-day injured reserve to the 30-day IR. This is no surprise considering the fact that he's still in a cast and on crutches.
Monday, February 15, 2010
Back in Fourth
The Texas Brahmas picked up a 2-1 shootout win over the Allen Americans today to improve to 26-17-5 (57 points) and take over third place outright again, dropping the Bucks (23-16-9, 55 points) back to fourth.
Each team has now played 48 games this season, and the Bucks will get a chance to move back into a tie for third when they host the Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees (20-21-7, 47 points) again on Thursday with the Brahmas off for the night.
The Bucks and Brahmas both have 3-in-3s this weekend, but the Brahmas do not start playing until Friday.
They host the last-place Wichita Thunder (7-35-4, 18 points) and first-place Odessa Jackalopes (36-9-4, 76 points) then play the Thunder in Wichita, while the Bucks host the Killer Bees, face the Corpus Christi IceRays (21-21-7, 49 points) on the road, then drive down to Hidalgo to play the Killer Bees again.
Obviously, yesterday's game against the Killer Bees did not go as the Bucks had hoped, as suffered a 4-3 shootout loss to fall to 2-0-3 against their former Southeast Division rival at home this season.
You can read more about the game in my story and Bryan Benway's press release.
Coach Ruskowski was not very talkative after the game, at least not in talking about it, but he still served as jersey auctioneer and opted not to make the team skate today following a tough 3-in-3, so it's safe to say he wasn't as upset as he has been with some other losses.
Here's some of what he had to say:
On the effort yesterday: I don't know. We didn't pass, we didn't... you know, they lost a couple games in a row, and they played very hard. I just don’t know what my team’s going to do game in and game out. I can’t judge them anymore, I just can’t judge them, so it's hard. We didn’t play our best game, obviously, but we showed character in the third period to come back. So that was a positive, but we couldn’t close the door.
On the weekend as a whole: Again, I guess the only positive thing is that we came back, scored two goals in the third period to come back and tie it. We lost in a shootout, mind you, but it going .500 for the week with two away and one home, that’s okay.But if you set your sights low, you’ll shoot low, and we’d like to set our sights high. If we don’t reach our goals, at least we have a good substitute for second place.
On shootouts against the Killer Bees: I don't know. Obviously, when you go to a shootout, it's whoever's lucky, whoever has the best shot to score. They have a very good goalie, and we have a tendency to not score a whole lot on him in shootouts, or in regulation. When it goes into a shootout, it seems like we’re at a little disadvantage.
On players stepping up: I think (Curtis) Billsten, scoring that goal, was good going to the net. I really can't mention anybody really who comes up in my mind.
On goalie play over the weekend: I thought (Pier-Olivier) Pelletier played very well last night, very well, and I thought Desfosses played OK today.
The team got the full day off today, as far as I know, but they'll be back on the ice tomorrow, so we'll see how Ruskowski is feeling after they get a practice in for the first time since last Monday.
I'll be back to report on practice, and his post-practice thoughts, tomorrow.
Each team has now played 48 games this season, and the Bucks will get a chance to move back into a tie for third when they host the Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees (20-21-7, 47 points) again on Thursday with the Brahmas off for the night.
The Bucks and Brahmas both have 3-in-3s this weekend, but the Brahmas do not start playing until Friday.
They host the last-place Wichita Thunder (7-35-4, 18 points) and first-place Odessa Jackalopes (36-9-4, 76 points) then play the Thunder in Wichita, while the Bucks host the Killer Bees, face the Corpus Christi IceRays (21-21-7, 49 points) on the road, then drive down to Hidalgo to play the Killer Bees again.
Obviously, yesterday's game against the Killer Bees did not go as the Bucks had hoped, as suffered a 4-3 shootout loss to fall to 2-0-3 against their former Southeast Division rival at home this season.
You can read more about the game in my story and Bryan Benway's press release.
Coach Ruskowski was not very talkative after the game, at least not in talking about it, but he still served as jersey auctioneer and opted not to make the team skate today following a tough 3-in-3, so it's safe to say he wasn't as upset as he has been with some other losses.
Here's some of what he had to say:
On the effort yesterday: I don't know. We didn't pass, we didn't... you know, they lost a couple games in a row, and they played very hard. I just don’t know what my team’s going to do game in and game out. I can’t judge them anymore, I just can’t judge them, so it's hard. We didn’t play our best game, obviously, but we showed character in the third period to come back. So that was a positive, but we couldn’t close the door.
On the weekend as a whole: Again, I guess the only positive thing is that we came back, scored two goals in the third period to come back and tie it. We lost in a shootout, mind you, but it going .500 for the week with two away and one home, that’s okay.But if you set your sights low, you’ll shoot low, and we’d like to set our sights high. If we don’t reach our goals, at least we have a good substitute for second place.
On shootouts against the Killer Bees: I don't know. Obviously, when you go to a shootout, it's whoever's lucky, whoever has the best shot to score. They have a very good goalie, and we have a tendency to not score a whole lot on him in shootouts, or in regulation. When it goes into a shootout, it seems like we’re at a little disadvantage.
On players stepping up: I think (Curtis) Billsten, scoring that goal, was good going to the net. I really can't mention anybody really who comes up in my mind.
On goalie play over the weekend: I thought (Pier-Olivier) Pelletier played very well last night, very well, and I thought Desfosses played OK today.
The team got the full day off today, as far as I know, but they'll be back on the ice tomorrow, so we'll see how Ruskowski is feeling after they get a practice in for the first time since last Monday.
I'll be back to report on practice, and his post-practice thoughts, tomorrow.
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Game No. 48 - Bucks vs. Killer Bees
Starters: Nathan Ansell (D), Brett Clouthier (F), Andy Franck (G), Joel Irving (F), Jesse Perrin (D), Daymen Rycroft (F); Igor Agarunov (F), Curtis Billsten (F), Kevin Desfosses (G), Benjamin Dieude-Fauvel (D), Eric Giosa (F), Jay Holladay (D).
First Period: These Valentine's Day jerseys are rather distracting, but they match the goalie pads Desfosses wears quite nicely. Holladay is wearing No. 33 instead of his usual 17 for some reason, while backup goalie Pier-Olivier Pelletier is wearing 17. Guess they ordered the wrong jerseys for each number? Additionally, Desfosses is in 31 instead of 35. ... Only one whistle in the first five minutes, lots of back-and-forth play. ... Evan Schwabe just got a great chance on the doorstep and did a nice job elevating the puck to try to get it past Franck, but he was still able to make the save. ... Killer Bees take a 1-0 lead on their third shot, and a nice play by all three guys involved, at 7:06 in the period. Sean Muncy scored the goal on assists from Grant Goeckner-Zoeller and Aaron Lee. ... Scary moment as Jesse Bennefield was rammed into the boards and has been down on the ice for a long time. A fight ensued, with every player on the ice piling up on top of each other. ... Bennefield was able to leave the ice with the help of Rycroft and both team's trainers, and judging by the towel he was holding to his face, his nose may have been broken. Jarred Mohr just skated over to tell the ice crew to go clean the blood off. ... Uninjured players from each team have headed to the room with 11:47 still left in the period. ... Penalties have been decided, and somehow the Bucks ended up with a power play. That's very interesting. Shaun Landolt got two fighting majors; Dieude-Fauvel got one; Agarunov, who already left the ice, got a game misconduct; and Clouthier is serving the only penalty that's up on the board, another fighting for Landolt. ... Killer Bees killed that off easily. ... Darryl Smith to the box at 11:17 to serve two for slashing. ... Penalty killed. ... Tie game at 15:14 on a goal by Neil Trimm. He was in the right place at the right time and actually able to get a stick on a rebound to knock it into the net behind Franck, who was still committed to the initial shot by Schwabe. ... Agarunov's game misconduct was apparently a fighting intervenor penalty. Some of those other ones are still being sorted out on Pointstreak. ... Bucks get a power play with 1:29 on the clock as Clouthier heads to the box to serve a penalty of his own for holding. ... Nothing doing on the first-period portion of that. ... End of the period, game tied 1-1, Killer Bees up 13-10 on shots.
Second Period: The Killer Bees are going on the power play just after killing the remaining time from Clouthier's penalty off with Mohr headed to the box just 46 seconds into the period for hooking. ... And the Bees have capitalized to take a 2-1 lead at 1:24 in the period as Irving redirected a shot by Rycroft past Desfosses. Andrew Davis gets the second assist. ... Bucks get another power play now at 3:32 with Davis headed to the box for tripping Trimm. ... One of the Killer Bees and the team's equipment manager just headed to the room on separate runways. ... Desfosses just misplayed a puck and ended up stuck outside his net with one of the Bees right on the doorstep but somehow managed to dive back in time to keep the puck from crossing the goal line. ... Agarunov just walked through the press box in a suit and clearly fresh out of the shower carrying the blade half of a stick. ... Is it just me, or does Schwabe seem to be limping around on his skates? ... Couple close calls with the Bees pressing on offense, but Desfosses has been able to make some key saves. ... Lincourt just left the ice in the middle of a shift, hunched over and clutching his wrist. ... Clouthier headed to the box again, this time for hooking, at 13:44 in the period. ... Penalty killed. ... Wow. The Killer Bees have taken a 3-1 lead as Clouthier snapped a shot while skating up the wall toward Desfosses that clanked off the crossbar into the net. Don't think anyone was expecting that. Goal came at 18:18 in the period. No assists announced right away. ... Adam Rivet just left the ice with 5.1 seconds left in the period. No penalties on the board, and no one accompanying him. ... Clouthier and Irving just left, too. ... Okay, penalty up now, on Irving. Two for unsportsmanlike conduct. ... And now Rivet's penalty is up, two for slashing. ... Faceoff and nothing else doing to close out this one. ... End of the period, Killer Bees lead 3-1, up 30-21 on shots. ... There's a video on the Jumbotron with Jeremy Swanson and Justin Styffe teaching the crowd how to do the chicken dance. Cruelty toward injured players much?
Third Period: Bucks get a 4-on-3 power play with Perrin going off for tripping at 1:16 and Rivet and Irving still in their respective boxes. ... Close chance, but the Bucks couldn't bat the puck out of the air into the net. ... Franck was just shaken up on a play, not sure what happened there, but he is kneeling down with his face to the ice. ... No more power play with Bes heading to the box for high sticking at 1:59. Killer Bees will eventually get a power play out of that. ... Seems Rivet also took an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for that exchange at the end of the second period. ... Bucks have cut the Killer Bees' lead to 3-2 at 4:02 in the period on a goal by Billsten. The guys playing the best games aren't always the ones who get the goals, but Billsten and Trimm have been everywhere doing everything for the Bucks this afternoon, and for them, it actually shows on the score sheet. No assists on that one yet. ... Following a Jumbotron proposal (she said yes), the Bucks have drawn another penalty and will go back on the power play at 6:11 with Irving in the box for hooking. ... I really feel like the Bucks have yet to set up on the power play today. They just got a good scoring chance, but it was on a very even-strength type of rush. ... Penalty killed. ... Good wrist shot by Lincourt deflected over the net by Franck. ... And we have a tie game, complete with a very passionate goal celebration, as Mohr just flipped his second attempt over Franck, who was playing the angle down low. Rivet and Trimm get the assists on the goal, which was scored at 14:01 in the period. Mohr is one happy camper right now, and I guess you can say that makes up for the power-play goal the Killer Bees scored with him in the box. Game tied 3-3. ... Trimm was just hauled down, and no call was made, then Trimm got sent to the box for interference seconds later. Killer Bees on the power play with 3:20 to play in the period. ... Best chance so far was one for Perrin, but he one-timed it wide. ... Penalty killed. ... Whoa. Desfosses just made a highlight-reel glove save to keep this tied with 36.6 to go in regulation. That seemed to be on its way in the net for sure. ... These teams are incapable of ending a game in regulation at the LEC this season. ... End of the period, game tied 3-3, Killer Bees up 36-33 on shots.
Overtime: Regardless of the end result, the Bucks are back in a tie for third place with the Texas Brahmas (25-17-5, 55 points) taking today off. The Brahmas will now have a game in hand, though. ... Schwabe got a great chance to start, but Franck made the save. ... No shots by the Killer Bees halfway through the OT period. Well, none on goal, as a couple have been blocked. ... Shot by Bes barely touched by Franck to deflect it high. That looked like it might end the game. Only 45.8 seconds left in OT. ... Killer Bees get a power play with 28.4 seconds to go with Schwabe headed to the box for a trip. ... Chris Brooks taking a time out to draw up a play for his team. ... Things didn't go as he had planned, and things are evened up at 3-on-3 now with Goeckner-Zoeller headed to the box with 19 seconds left. ... End of the OT period, game tied 3-3, shots tied at 36.
Shootout: Bucks opt to shoot second. ... Rycroft up first. ... He was able to draw Desfosses down and flip it into the net top shelf. ... Todd Griffith first for the Bucks. ... No elevation = pad save by Franck. ... Goeckner-Zoeller up next. ... Shot it right at Desfosses for a pad save. ... Smith now. ... Tried to go five-hole, and Franck closed the gap to make the save. ... Tom Sawatske next. ... Wow, that was... just wow. Sawatske seemed to be taking his shot and definitely faked Desfosses out to get around Desfosses and get the net. ... Bes now. ... Crossbar. ... Irving could win it. ... Stopped by Desfosses. ... Dieude-Fauvel trying to keep the Bucks alive. ... No such luck, as Franck makes the save.
Game Over: Bucks lose 4-3 in the shootout, move to 23-16-9 (55 points), tying them with the Brahmas for third place in the Southern Conference. Due to the jersey auction, players will be jumping in the showers before I can get down there, so I'll only be able to talk to Coach Ruskowski. ... Robin Richards got off the ice then stayed on the runway, and one of the linesmen went over to make sure he didn't come back out. Not sure who he was mouthing off to because the Killer Bees seemed to be ignoring him completely. ... Ruskowski spent a lot of time talking to the guys - no audible yelling, though - but didn't have much to say to me. This team's only consistent quality this season has been inconsistency, and it seems that is really weighing on him at this point. You can check out my story in tomorrow's Times to see what he had to say, and I'll post the quotes on here when I get to the office in the afternoon. Happy Valentine's Day, if you're into that sort of thing.
Game Day No. 48
The Bucks (23-16-8, 54 points) are just about ready to take on the Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees (19-21-7, 45 points) for the second straight day.
You can read more about the matchup in Bryan Benway's preview or check out the Pointstreak pre-game notes.
As usual, you can follow the game here or on Pointstreak, watch on CHL-TV or listen on Imagen 94.1 FM.
Saturday, February 13, 2010
Game Day No. 47
Sorry to post this after the game started, but those of you looking to follow tonight's action between the Bucks and Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees can do so via several mediums:
Pointstreak box score
Pointstreak Game Live
CHL-TV
Imagen 94.1 FM
Pointstreak box score
Pointstreak Game Live
CHL-TV
Imagen 94.1 FM
Agarunov Back, Ford Waived
Unsurprisingly enough, forward Ryan Ford has been waived to make room for Igor Agarunov on the active roster.
Agarunov will be back in the lineup tonight against the Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees after missing a couple weeks with an upper-body injury.
Ford showed some impressive speed while he was in Laredo, but that alone wasn't enough to get him a permanent roster spot.
He will return to his team in the AAHL.
Oh, and that Pointstreak standings error has been fixed. Bryan Benway said it was a glitch of some sort.
Agarunov will be back in the lineup tonight against the Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees after missing a couple weeks with an upper-body injury.
Ford showed some impressive speed while he was in Laredo, but that alone wasn't enough to get him a permanent roster spot.
He will return to his team in the AAHL.
Oh, and that Pointstreak standings error has been fixed. Bryan Benway said it was a glitch of some sort.
Friday, February 12, 2010
Game No. 46 - Brahmas 4, Bucks 0
Sorry I couldn't post anything sooner, but the Bucks fell back into fourth place tonight courtesy of a 4-0 shutout loss to the Texas Brahmas, who moved back into third.
The Bucks are now 22-16-8 (52 points), while the Brahmas are one point ahead at 24-17-5 (53 points).
Immediately following the loss, the Bucks had to get on the bus to drive about 11 hours down to Hidalgo, where they will face the Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees (19-20-7, 45 points) tomorrow night.
You can read more about the loss in Bryan Benway's press release.
The Bucks are now 22-16-8 (52 points), while the Brahmas are one point ahead at 24-17-5 (53 points).
Immediately following the loss, the Bucks had to get on the bus to drive about 11 hours down to Hidalgo, where they will face the Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees (19-20-7, 45 points) tomorrow night.
You can read more about the loss in Bryan Benway's press release.
It's Official
As shown on the Pointstreak transactions page, the Bucks have officially activated forward Evan Schwabe from the IR and waived former captain Serge Dube.
What this means is that Dube was unable to work something out with his current employer and is not eligible to return to the team for the playoffs unless the Bucks re-sign him and have him play one more game at some point during the regular season.
Schwabe will be in the lineup as the Bucks face the Texas Brahmas tonight.
Coach Ruskowski wasn't left with much choice in this situation, as waiving Dube was only something he was going to do if Dube could not play, but he will have a decision to make tomorrow if Igor Agarunov is going to be able to return to the active roster.
What this means is that Dube was unable to work something out with his current employer and is not eligible to return to the team for the playoffs unless the Bucks re-sign him and have him play one more game at some point during the regular season.
Schwabe will be in the lineup as the Bucks face the Texas Brahmas tonight.
Coach Ruskowski wasn't left with much choice in this situation, as waiving Dube was only something he was going to do if Dube could not play, but he will have a decision to make tomorrow if Igor Agarunov is going to be able to return to the active roster.
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Today's Notes and Quotes
The Bucks left Laredo this morning around 10 a.m. to drive up to North Richland Hills, where they will play the Texas Brahmas in another battle for the third-place spot in the Southern Conference tomorrow night.
Contrary to what I had initially heard, the team will not be practicing when they get to the NYTEX Center later today, but Coach Ruskowski did say tomorrow’s morning skate will be a bit more intense than the average one might be to make up for two days without any ice time.
Forward Evan Schwabe, who suffered a lower-body injury in the All-Star Game on Jan. 13, will return to the lineup tomorrow night, less than a month after being hit by a puck made him the unlucky recipient of a setback in a contest that should have been a bit more fun for him.
With the active roster currently full, Ruskowski is going to have to get someone off it before Schwabe can be put on it, and that move hinges on whether or not Serge Dube will stay with the team.
Obviously that means a decision regarding Dube needs to be made before tomorrow night’s game, and I’ll update on that as soon as I hear anything.
The Bucks (22-15-8, 52 points) currently have third place all to themselves, but they are only one point ahead of the Brahmas (23-17-5, 51 points), so they must win tomorrow if they want to keep the spot outright.
An overtime or shootout loss by the Bucks would result in another tie for third between the two teams, while a regulation loss would put the Brahmas back ahead in that race.
Tomorrow’s game is the start of another 3-in-3 for the Bucks, who will make the long trek from North Richland Hills to Hidalgo for the first game of a home-and-home against the Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees (19-19-7, 45 points) at State Farm Arena on Saturday.
The weekend concludes on Sunday, when the Bucks host the Killer Bees in an afternoon game at the LEC.
Ruskowski and the players were available to the media as they packed up the bus at the LEC this morning, so I was able to talk to Ruskowski, Darryl Smith and Schwabe about a few different topics.
Here’s what they had to say:
Coach Ruskowski
On the team’s current play: We still need work in different spots, there’s no question. Once we get the injuries back, we’ll have a bit more speed, a bit more skill involved, and I think that will hopefully be a positive. And I think that once we do that, we’ll be okay, and I think that we can win hopefully more than we lose.
On getting Evan Schwabe and Igor Agarunov back: Well, I think it takes the pressure off the other lines that are trying to score all the time and put the pressure on themselves. I think these guys are good hockey players. They’re on the power play, on the penalty killing, on their own shift, so these guys will take the pressure off the other guys. And hopefully they’ll come back and score, because that will really take the pressure off and give us an opportunity to have three lines that can score, which is exactly what I want.
On making roster room: I’m waiting on one situation to happen, and we’ll see if it does. If it doesn’t, I have to put a guy on waivers by tomorrow and put Schwabe on the roster.
On tomorrow night’s game: It’s a very tough place to play. It’s a small building, a cramped building, an older building, and it’s a tough place to play against them. What we have to do is weather the storm right off the bat because I know they’ll be coming out strong. Weather the storm, then get back into what we have to do to be successful and take the puck to them as much as we can and try to force them to make errors. And obviously when we do get opportunities, because we don’t get many good opportunities there, when we do get opportunities, we have to make them count.
On the importance of the weekend: Every game is a big game now. You can’t emphasize bigger and bigger and bigger, because that’s what it is. It gets bigger and bigger and bigger every game we play, and every win that we have to get keeps on getting bigger and bigger and bigger because now it’s the playoff stretch run, and we’d like to get as high as we can to make the playoffs and go from there.
On what needs to happen against the Killer Bees: All I ask my players is to play as hard as they can and let the chips fall where they may, and if we play as hard as we can, like I’ve said before, hopefully we’ll win more than we lose. But it’s an opportunity for us to hopefully have the opportunity to win, so we just have to play hard. All I ask of my players is to play as hard as they can, and hopefully they’ll do that.
On the penalties: I really thought we had the problem solved when we were in Odessa because we really lost that game because we took unnecessary penalties. I really chastised the guys, and I thought we were getting to the point where we wouldn’t do that. But obviously, it didn’t happen because they still took unnecessary penalties. But, on the other hand, some of the penalties that were called, I didn’t think they were penalties, so you can’t really chastise them a lot because I thought they were kind of iffy penalties. When Adam (Rivet) was going into the corner, they both bumped and one guy fell; I didn’t think that was a penalty. And then when (Curtis) Billsten hit the guy at the blue line, I thought that was just a good, solid hit, and they called him for charging. I try not to be on the guys as much, but I look at the penalty and see if it was a real, solid penalty or an iffy penalty. We have to know that anything borderline, the referee is going to call it against us, so we have to be more conscientious about those kinds of plays.
On practice: Practice makes perfect. Unfortunately, with our situation, I really thought that we needed the rest more than we did the practice. Once we get to next week where we don’t play ‘til Friday, obviously we’ll play Sunday afternoon, we’ll have Monday off, then we’ll get back on Tuesday just showing them one thing for about a half an hour and make sure everyone knows what we’re doing. Wednesday, the same thing, though we may do a different thing, maybe forechecking, neutral ice forecheck, maybe do our power play, so everybody knows exactly what they’re doing because we just went through that in practice. I want them to know exactly what, if we’re changing things, make sure they know what the changes are, not on the board, but on the ice.
On plans for tonight/tomorrow: I just feel that with the injuries and what we have now, just to drive up there and have a good meal, then we’ll have a little morning skate. We’ll have kind of a tough morning skate, just to get the guys prepared, get the lactic acid out, get them prepared for playing that night.
On goaltending this weekend: I haven’t thought about it. I probably would go with (Kevin) Desfosses on Friday and Sunday and then with (Pier-Olivier) Pelletier on Saturday, give the guy a rest because it’s a long trip from Fort Worth to Rio, so this goalie will be more fresh and ready to go. Then it’s a short trip from Rio to here, so we’ll let Kevin go from there.
Darryl Smith
On the current situation: I think, as a team, we’re really starting to come together. We’ve realized coming down the stretch it’s going to be pretty tough, and there are a lot of teams really close, so every game is like a playoff game now. I think everybody is really starting to realize that, and I think the push to the playoffs is pretty evident that it’s on.
On tomorrow’s game: I think it all just comes down to who wants it more. That third position in playoffs is huge. Nobody really wants to play that mini-series between fourth and fifth, so I think if we can stay in third, it’s only going to benefit us. But we know they have a good team, so I think it all just comes down to whoever works the hardest.
On breaking away from the Killer Bees: I think with Rio, we just have to keep it simple and do our jobs in our own zone. I think if we do that, they usually get frustrated and send an extra guy in, so then the offense will come. But basically with them, they have a lot of speed, and we just have to find a way to slow them down and just capitalize on our chances.
On getting Schwabe and Agarunov back: I think it’s going to be huge. Just to have another guy like Schwabe, who’s really got that offensive mind, and Iggy’s just one of those power forwards who does his job to a T. Both of those guys are huge assets to the team, and getting them back, I think it’s only going to help with the morale of the team and have the guys heading in the right direction.
On the current morale level: I think the biggest thing was just getting by Corpus. I don’t know why, but the Corpus curse was alive, so just being able to knock them off and some of the teams that we’ve been able to knock off here in the second half like Colorado and Rapid City, things like that, I think the confidence is slowly starting to build. Once that starts building like it is, I think when you have confidence, you can pretty much do anything.
Evan Schwabe
On getting back in the lineup: I’m excited. It’s been a long four weeks, and I haven’t done a whole lot, so it’s just good to be back with the guys on the ice with them, so it will be exciting.
On his health: I’m not 100 percent, but good enough to play and good enough to help the team. I’ll go out and do what I can and do what coach asks me.
On the current level of competition: I think the games are going to be a lot tighter. Every point is huge, and we want to try to get third place, and obviously tomorrow Texas wants to get third place, so it’s just going to be a battle from here on out. Obviously, of the teams that are battling for the playoffs, one of the teams isn’t going to make it, so you know everyone’s going to be giving it all they’ve got in these last 20 games here.
On tomorrow’s game: From what I hear, it’s a tough place to play. It doesn’t have the glitz and glamour of some of the other arenas in the league, so we just have to basically stick to a simple game plan and stay out of the penalty box, and we should be okay.
On coming back to a tightly-called game: I hope I can skate well enough where I don’t have to hook and hold and get penalties that way, so we’ll have to wait and see. You never know what you’re going to get with the refs sometimes, and just kind of play it game by game.
On what he’s seen from his teammates: I think we’re playing really well. You see flashes of it, and if we can just get more consistent, play 60 minutes. We’ve been playing one period here, one period there; that’s kind of hurt us a little bit. Hopefully we can put together full games, and we’ll be okay that way.
When I posted quotes from Rivet on Tuesday morning, I did not have them all typed up, so here’s the rest of what he had to say on Monday:
On closing out games in regulation: It gets bigger and bigger as each game goes by. You don’t want them getting any points. Sometimes you see the scoreboard, and two of the teams are playing each other, and they go into overtime, so they all get points. But against us, as well. When you get the opportunity to step on them, you have to do it, and the boys have been working hard. We’ve been shortmanned now for a while, it seems, and guys have been trying to get the job done, but we really have to buckle down and when we have the opportunity to close games out, we have to do it.
On getting players back: That will be big. Schwabie’s such a crafty player, he’s great with the puck, and he’s one of our older guys, mature guys, who can step in and control play very well. So when he gets back, he’s definitely going to help us out offensively. Iggy’s been, since he’s played here, he’s such a vital player. He’ll play defense, he’ll play forward, he’s strong on the puck, he works the corners well, and in important moments of the game that we need a solid player out there, we have Iggy out there, and he does a great job. So once we get those guys back, they’ll really help us out.
On the defense: You just have to play simple hockey. That’s one of (Paul) Elliott’s successes, that he keeps thing simple, he does his job, he doesn’t really go outside the box too much, he stays in his comfort zone and does a great job. Everybody just has to pull their socks up and do a job. He does a great job when he’s in there, and other guys just have to bear down and play tighter (when he’s not).
Obviously, that last topic was discussed with the possibility of Elliott being out of the lineup on Tuesday still looming, but he did play then, and he is expected to play this weekend.
As previously noted, Agarunov has been given clearance to come off the IR on Saturday, so he should be in the lineup that night.
Another roster move will be necessary before that happens, regardless of what is decided with Dube tomorrow, so stay tuned for more on that when things are cleared up.
Contrary to what I had initially heard, the team will not be practicing when they get to the NYTEX Center later today, but Coach Ruskowski did say tomorrow’s morning skate will be a bit more intense than the average one might be to make up for two days without any ice time.
Forward Evan Schwabe, who suffered a lower-body injury in the All-Star Game on Jan. 13, will return to the lineup tomorrow night, less than a month after being hit by a puck made him the unlucky recipient of a setback in a contest that should have been a bit more fun for him.
With the active roster currently full, Ruskowski is going to have to get someone off it before Schwabe can be put on it, and that move hinges on whether or not Serge Dube will stay with the team.
Obviously that means a decision regarding Dube needs to be made before tomorrow night’s game, and I’ll update on that as soon as I hear anything.
The Bucks (22-15-8, 52 points) currently have third place all to themselves, but they are only one point ahead of the Brahmas (23-17-5, 51 points), so they must win tomorrow if they want to keep the spot outright.
An overtime or shootout loss by the Bucks would result in another tie for third between the two teams, while a regulation loss would put the Brahmas back ahead in that race.
Tomorrow’s game is the start of another 3-in-3 for the Bucks, who will make the long trek from North Richland Hills to Hidalgo for the first game of a home-and-home against the Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees (19-19-7, 45 points) at State Farm Arena on Saturday.
The weekend concludes on Sunday, when the Bucks host the Killer Bees in an afternoon game at the LEC.
Ruskowski and the players were available to the media as they packed up the bus at the LEC this morning, so I was able to talk to Ruskowski, Darryl Smith and Schwabe about a few different topics.
Here’s what they had to say:
Coach Ruskowski
On the team’s current play: We still need work in different spots, there’s no question. Once we get the injuries back, we’ll have a bit more speed, a bit more skill involved, and I think that will hopefully be a positive. And I think that once we do that, we’ll be okay, and I think that we can win hopefully more than we lose.
On getting Evan Schwabe and Igor Agarunov back: Well, I think it takes the pressure off the other lines that are trying to score all the time and put the pressure on themselves. I think these guys are good hockey players. They’re on the power play, on the penalty killing, on their own shift, so these guys will take the pressure off the other guys. And hopefully they’ll come back and score, because that will really take the pressure off and give us an opportunity to have three lines that can score, which is exactly what I want.
On making roster room: I’m waiting on one situation to happen, and we’ll see if it does. If it doesn’t, I have to put a guy on waivers by tomorrow and put Schwabe on the roster.
On tomorrow night’s game: It’s a very tough place to play. It’s a small building, a cramped building, an older building, and it’s a tough place to play against them. What we have to do is weather the storm right off the bat because I know they’ll be coming out strong. Weather the storm, then get back into what we have to do to be successful and take the puck to them as much as we can and try to force them to make errors. And obviously when we do get opportunities, because we don’t get many good opportunities there, when we do get opportunities, we have to make them count.
On the importance of the weekend: Every game is a big game now. You can’t emphasize bigger and bigger and bigger, because that’s what it is. It gets bigger and bigger and bigger every game we play, and every win that we have to get keeps on getting bigger and bigger and bigger because now it’s the playoff stretch run, and we’d like to get as high as we can to make the playoffs and go from there.
On what needs to happen against the Killer Bees: All I ask my players is to play as hard as they can and let the chips fall where they may, and if we play as hard as we can, like I’ve said before, hopefully we’ll win more than we lose. But it’s an opportunity for us to hopefully have the opportunity to win, so we just have to play hard. All I ask of my players is to play as hard as they can, and hopefully they’ll do that.
On the penalties: I really thought we had the problem solved when we were in Odessa because we really lost that game because we took unnecessary penalties. I really chastised the guys, and I thought we were getting to the point where we wouldn’t do that. But obviously, it didn’t happen because they still took unnecessary penalties. But, on the other hand, some of the penalties that were called, I didn’t think they were penalties, so you can’t really chastise them a lot because I thought they were kind of iffy penalties. When Adam (Rivet) was going into the corner, they both bumped and one guy fell; I didn’t think that was a penalty. And then when (Curtis) Billsten hit the guy at the blue line, I thought that was just a good, solid hit, and they called him for charging. I try not to be on the guys as much, but I look at the penalty and see if it was a real, solid penalty or an iffy penalty. We have to know that anything borderline, the referee is going to call it against us, so we have to be more conscientious about those kinds of plays.
On practice: Practice makes perfect. Unfortunately, with our situation, I really thought that we needed the rest more than we did the practice. Once we get to next week where we don’t play ‘til Friday, obviously we’ll play Sunday afternoon, we’ll have Monday off, then we’ll get back on Tuesday just showing them one thing for about a half an hour and make sure everyone knows what we’re doing. Wednesday, the same thing, though we may do a different thing, maybe forechecking, neutral ice forecheck, maybe do our power play, so everybody knows exactly what they’re doing because we just went through that in practice. I want them to know exactly what, if we’re changing things, make sure they know what the changes are, not on the board, but on the ice.
On plans for tonight/tomorrow: I just feel that with the injuries and what we have now, just to drive up there and have a good meal, then we’ll have a little morning skate. We’ll have kind of a tough morning skate, just to get the guys prepared, get the lactic acid out, get them prepared for playing that night.
On goaltending this weekend: I haven’t thought about it. I probably would go with (Kevin) Desfosses on Friday and Sunday and then with (Pier-Olivier) Pelletier on Saturday, give the guy a rest because it’s a long trip from Fort Worth to Rio, so this goalie will be more fresh and ready to go. Then it’s a short trip from Rio to here, so we’ll let Kevin go from there.
Darryl Smith
On the current situation: I think, as a team, we’re really starting to come together. We’ve realized coming down the stretch it’s going to be pretty tough, and there are a lot of teams really close, so every game is like a playoff game now. I think everybody is really starting to realize that, and I think the push to the playoffs is pretty evident that it’s on.
On tomorrow’s game: I think it all just comes down to who wants it more. That third position in playoffs is huge. Nobody really wants to play that mini-series between fourth and fifth, so I think if we can stay in third, it’s only going to benefit us. But we know they have a good team, so I think it all just comes down to whoever works the hardest.
On breaking away from the Killer Bees: I think with Rio, we just have to keep it simple and do our jobs in our own zone. I think if we do that, they usually get frustrated and send an extra guy in, so then the offense will come. But basically with them, they have a lot of speed, and we just have to find a way to slow them down and just capitalize on our chances.
On getting Schwabe and Agarunov back: I think it’s going to be huge. Just to have another guy like Schwabe, who’s really got that offensive mind, and Iggy’s just one of those power forwards who does his job to a T. Both of those guys are huge assets to the team, and getting them back, I think it’s only going to help with the morale of the team and have the guys heading in the right direction.
On the current morale level: I think the biggest thing was just getting by Corpus. I don’t know why, but the Corpus curse was alive, so just being able to knock them off and some of the teams that we’ve been able to knock off here in the second half like Colorado and Rapid City, things like that, I think the confidence is slowly starting to build. Once that starts building like it is, I think when you have confidence, you can pretty much do anything.
Evan Schwabe
On getting back in the lineup: I’m excited. It’s been a long four weeks, and I haven’t done a whole lot, so it’s just good to be back with the guys on the ice with them, so it will be exciting.
On his health: I’m not 100 percent, but good enough to play and good enough to help the team. I’ll go out and do what I can and do what coach asks me.
On the current level of competition: I think the games are going to be a lot tighter. Every point is huge, and we want to try to get third place, and obviously tomorrow Texas wants to get third place, so it’s just going to be a battle from here on out. Obviously, of the teams that are battling for the playoffs, one of the teams isn’t going to make it, so you know everyone’s going to be giving it all they’ve got in these last 20 games here.
On tomorrow’s game: From what I hear, it’s a tough place to play. It doesn’t have the glitz and glamour of some of the other arenas in the league, so we just have to basically stick to a simple game plan and stay out of the penalty box, and we should be okay.
On coming back to a tightly-called game: I hope I can skate well enough where I don’t have to hook and hold and get penalties that way, so we’ll have to wait and see. You never know what you’re going to get with the refs sometimes, and just kind of play it game by game.
On what he’s seen from his teammates: I think we’re playing really well. You see flashes of it, and if we can just get more consistent, play 60 minutes. We’ve been playing one period here, one period there; that’s kind of hurt us a little bit. Hopefully we can put together full games, and we’ll be okay that way.
When I posted quotes from Rivet on Tuesday morning, I did not have them all typed up, so here’s the rest of what he had to say on Monday:
On closing out games in regulation: It gets bigger and bigger as each game goes by. You don’t want them getting any points. Sometimes you see the scoreboard, and two of the teams are playing each other, and they go into overtime, so they all get points. But against us, as well. When you get the opportunity to step on them, you have to do it, and the boys have been working hard. We’ve been shortmanned now for a while, it seems, and guys have been trying to get the job done, but we really have to buckle down and when we have the opportunity to close games out, we have to do it.
On getting players back: That will be big. Schwabie’s such a crafty player, he’s great with the puck, and he’s one of our older guys, mature guys, who can step in and control play very well. So when he gets back, he’s definitely going to help us out offensively. Iggy’s been, since he’s played here, he’s such a vital player. He’ll play defense, he’ll play forward, he’s strong on the puck, he works the corners well, and in important moments of the game that we need a solid player out there, we have Iggy out there, and he does a great job. So once we get those guys back, they’ll really help us out.
On the defense: You just have to play simple hockey. That’s one of (Paul) Elliott’s successes, that he keeps thing simple, he does his job, he doesn’t really go outside the box too much, he stays in his comfort zone and does a great job. Everybody just has to pull their socks up and do a job. He does a great job when he’s in there, and other guys just have to bear down and play tighter (when he’s not).
Obviously, that last topic was discussed with the possibility of Elliott being out of the lineup on Tuesday still looming, but he did play then, and he is expected to play this weekend.
As previously noted, Agarunov has been given clearance to come off the IR on Saturday, so he should be in the lineup that night.
Another roster move will be necessary before that happens, regardless of what is decided with Dube tomorrow, so stay tuned for more on that when things are cleared up.
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Yesterday
Though the Bucks were, and probably still are, more than thrilled with their 4-3 shootout win over the Corpus Christi IceRays last night, not everyone feels the same way.
Greg Rajan noted that Jeff Bes's controversial tying goal in the third period was the talk of the IceRays' locker room after the game in his postgame blog, and today he spoke to Central Hockey League Commissioner Duane Lewis about it.
You can read what Lewis had to say in Rajan's blog post about the conversation.
Obviously, none of that can change the fact that the Bucks (22-15-8, 52 points) got two points out of yesterday's game and are now alone in third place in the Southern Conference, one point ahead of the Texas Brahmas (23-17-5, 61 points), who the Bucks will play on Friday in North Richland Hills.
The Bucks had today off entirely due to the Foreigner concert at the LEC, and they will leave Laredo tomorrow around 10 a.m. so they can get to the Fort Worth area in time to practice before the end of the day.
Friday's game will be the first of another 3-in-3, as the Bucks drive all the way down to Hidalgo after it ends to play the Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees (19-19-7, 45 points), then come back to Laredo to host the Killer Bees on Sunday.
But back to yesterday... you can read the reaction from the Bucks' side of things in my story, which sadly had to be cut at deadline to make more room for high school basketball. You can also check out Bryan Benway's press release and Rajan's story for the Caller-Times.
Rajan's notes on the Caller-Times Web site offer some interesting information about the hit Adam Rivet laid on Steven Later and what ensued.
As Benway's headline notes, yesterday's win broke the "curse" that was the Bucks' six-game winless streak against the IceRays, also snapping the skid goaltender Kevin Desfosses had going against his former team.
Of course, the main reason I am here is to finally post those quotes I got yesterday. I was able to do more interviews than usual because of the early game time, so you'll get more than one take on the win, including what Desfosses had to say.
Here goes:
Coach Ruskowski
On getting the win: It proves a couple points. We're in the third-place spot, which is a nice place to be, and it proves that we can beat Corpus. That was the big thing. We already had this in our minds, that we were having a hard time against them to win, and to come up with a win, I think that kind of helps us mentally, also.
On the third goal: From the bench, we thought it was in, then the play kept on going. So I was hoping it was in, then when it was official, obviously the guys on the bench really caught fire from that. I know the power play at the end didn't work out really well, but what we were doing was making sure we didn't get blocked. These guys are so talented that if they block the shot they're going to be coming back at you 2-on-1. We just wanted to make sure that we got the point first of all and worked something out, and hopefully like we did in a shootout, win. But it was nip and tuck there for a while.
On what finally clicked: I think when our defense stands up on their forwards. When we let them come at with speed and with their ability, they're going to beat us and go hard, drive to the net, and they're going to have a chance to score. I think our penalty killing did a pretty good job today, even though they scored twice on it, they had a lot of chances. Way too many chances. So that part was good. Our goaltending did a really good job today. Desfosses played great today, again. Did he not get Performance of the Week today? So he was huge for us. We're still missing guys. Obviously when we get some guys back, get three lines that can come at you, it will maybe take a little stress off our defense and our goalies, and it will then maybe help us play better and not have to go into shootouts.
On those guys coming back: I talked to the doctor today, and he said that he (Evan Schwabe) should be able to play this weekend, then (Igor) Agarunov will be able to play Saturday, he's coming off the IR. So those are two important guys to get back into their spots, then we'll just have to wait and see about other guys coming back, see if we can get somebody in from Europe... there are just a lot of things going on.
On the penalties yesterday: We're certainly not playing very smart. There's no question about that. Everybody knows that they're calling it tight, and we have to be a smarter hockey team. I thought we learned our lesson when I really chastised a couple guys after the game in Odessa about taking unnecessary penalties, but they just take them again. They have to know that anything close, he's going to call, so we have to be regimental in our minds not to take those penalties. I don't mind the hard hits penalties; we'll try to kill them off. But it's the hooking, tripping, those chintzy penalties that cost us. And they do end up costing us, those penalties, so the big hits I don't mind, but the unnecessary stuff, I don't like at all. We have to play smarter.
On the Serge Dube situation: It's still way up in the air. I don't know what to do with him. He has to commit one way or the other.
Kevin Desfosses
On getting a win over the IceRays: It's really nice to finally get that curse, as some people were calling it, out of the way, but it was a hard battle, and that shows that the division is really tight right now, that shows in the standing. No matter who we're playing, no matter when we're playing, we have to be ready.
On what helped snap the skid: I don't know, we maybe caught a break or two. I don't know if the puck went in on the third goal, but on the first goal they scored, I didn't think that was a real goal. So to get that bounce back and work together and believe in ourselves. That's our motive, believe, and we did believe in ourselves and play 60 minutes no matter what, and we all stuck together, and we finally got that win.
On what lies ahead: It's huge, it's a huge game, and now we've played as many games as Texas with one more point than them. So right now, we have to enjoy our day. It's nice to play in the morning so you can enjoy your day. Tomorrow, we get a nice day off; so many guys have injuries and stuff, so we're all going to relax then get back to work on Thursday and get ready for Friday because you have to play every game like it's your last. The standing is so tight right now. You have to play every game like it's your last game and give it your all.
Curtis Billsten
On getting the win: It was huge, not only because of the team having our number, but because points are so important right now that we can't let games at home slide anymore. The room has a bright feel to it right now, but we have to get ready for the weekend.
On what the team needs: I think just consistency. I think we all know we've been pretty banged up this year with a lot of injuries and stuff, but we definitely have to make sure we keep things simple and really stay out of the penalty box. Today, we played pretty well, but we got ourselves into a lot of trouble there, and some penalties that almost cost us the game. So I think going into this weekend, discipline's going to be No. 1 on our chart.
On getting some forwards back in the lineup: It would be absolutely huge (to get Schwabe and Agarunov back). Those guys are just awesome character guys to have in the dressing room, let alone on the ice with their game. So we're all definitely very excited to have them back, hopefully both this weekend, and we'll just have to move on from there.
Jeff Bes
On the win: Just for the mental aspect of it, to come out here, I think we lost four of five straight against them. Suffice it to say, we were due to win against them. We’ve been playing shorthanded, and you have to give the guys a lot of credit for coming out and working hard the way they did. And how about that crowd? I tell you, all those school kids out there cheering us on gave us a little extra motivation and energy for the morning game, so that was a lot of fun to play in.
On what the team needs to take from the game: Great goaltending, again. You know, Kevin's playing phenomenal, and Pelly (Pier-Olivier Pelletier) has been playing well, too, when he's been in there. We have to take away sticking to the game plan. It seems like we've been talking about it all along, but when we do the game plan and execute the game plan, we're victorious, we're very successful. So we really have to concentrate on that. Getting up into third place right now, it's a dog fight. It's going to be that way for the next 19 games. We have to be prepared, we have to go into Fort Worth, we're playing in their building, and we have to execute our game plan and be ready. We have to get the guys rested up, heal up some of the bumps and bruises and go get 'em.
On battling back for the victory: You know what, that just shows the character of the team and the players, believing in the system and believing in themselves. Going out there with the will to win, that's something that we've been battling to get and to learn - the will to win. And that's something that the past two games we've shown to battle back and do this. Now let's just win one in regulation.
On the mental effect of the win: It was absolutely a morale boost. When you haven't beaten a team in six games, it's definitely a morale boost. It pulls the team together when you have a win like this, guys sticking together, guys pulling for each other and rooting for each other on the bench. That's something that builds a team even stronger, and I'm really looking forward to Friday's game.
On getting guys back into the lineup: Schwabie coming back, he's a centerman, great on draws, veteran guy, he's leadership in there, very calm, cool, collected. He'll really help. And of course, Iggy, he's really strong in the corners, it's hard to get the puck off him. So getting some veteran players back in there and settling down the younger guys, and even some of the older guys sometimes, just bringing them back, the experience they have and the competitiveness they bring to the team, is only going to help us in the run to the playoffs.
Greg Rajan noted that Jeff Bes's controversial tying goal in the third period was the talk of the IceRays' locker room after the game in his postgame blog, and today he spoke to Central Hockey League Commissioner Duane Lewis about it.
You can read what Lewis had to say in Rajan's blog post about the conversation.
Obviously, none of that can change the fact that the Bucks (22-15-8, 52 points) got two points out of yesterday's game and are now alone in third place in the Southern Conference, one point ahead of the Texas Brahmas (23-17-5, 61 points), who the Bucks will play on Friday in North Richland Hills.
The Bucks had today off entirely due to the Foreigner concert at the LEC, and they will leave Laredo tomorrow around 10 a.m. so they can get to the Fort Worth area in time to practice before the end of the day.
Friday's game will be the first of another 3-in-3, as the Bucks drive all the way down to Hidalgo after it ends to play the Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees (19-19-7, 45 points), then come back to Laredo to host the Killer Bees on Sunday.
But back to yesterday... you can read the reaction from the Bucks' side of things in my story, which sadly had to be cut at deadline to make more room for high school basketball. You can also check out Bryan Benway's press release and Rajan's story for the Caller-Times.
Rajan's notes on the Caller-Times Web site offer some interesting information about the hit Adam Rivet laid on Steven Later and what ensued.
As Benway's headline notes, yesterday's win broke the "curse" that was the Bucks' six-game winless streak against the IceRays, also snapping the skid goaltender Kevin Desfosses had going against his former team.
Of course, the main reason I am here is to finally post those quotes I got yesterday. I was able to do more interviews than usual because of the early game time, so you'll get more than one take on the win, including what Desfosses had to say.
Here goes:
Coach Ruskowski
On getting the win: It proves a couple points. We're in the third-place spot, which is a nice place to be, and it proves that we can beat Corpus. That was the big thing. We already had this in our minds, that we were having a hard time against them to win, and to come up with a win, I think that kind of helps us mentally, also.
On the third goal: From the bench, we thought it was in, then the play kept on going. So I was hoping it was in, then when it was official, obviously the guys on the bench really caught fire from that. I know the power play at the end didn't work out really well, but what we were doing was making sure we didn't get blocked. These guys are so talented that if they block the shot they're going to be coming back at you 2-on-1. We just wanted to make sure that we got the point first of all and worked something out, and hopefully like we did in a shootout, win. But it was nip and tuck there for a while.
On what finally clicked: I think when our defense stands up on their forwards. When we let them come at with speed and with their ability, they're going to beat us and go hard, drive to the net, and they're going to have a chance to score. I think our penalty killing did a pretty good job today, even though they scored twice on it, they had a lot of chances. Way too many chances. So that part was good. Our goaltending did a really good job today. Desfosses played great today, again. Did he not get Performance of the Week today? So he was huge for us. We're still missing guys. Obviously when we get some guys back, get three lines that can come at you, it will maybe take a little stress off our defense and our goalies, and it will then maybe help us play better and not have to go into shootouts.
On those guys coming back: I talked to the doctor today, and he said that he (Evan Schwabe) should be able to play this weekend, then (Igor) Agarunov will be able to play Saturday, he's coming off the IR. So those are two important guys to get back into their spots, then we'll just have to wait and see about other guys coming back, see if we can get somebody in from Europe... there are just a lot of things going on.
On the penalties yesterday: We're certainly not playing very smart. There's no question about that. Everybody knows that they're calling it tight, and we have to be a smarter hockey team. I thought we learned our lesson when I really chastised a couple guys after the game in Odessa about taking unnecessary penalties, but they just take them again. They have to know that anything close, he's going to call, so we have to be regimental in our minds not to take those penalties. I don't mind the hard hits penalties; we'll try to kill them off. But it's the hooking, tripping, those chintzy penalties that cost us. And they do end up costing us, those penalties, so the big hits I don't mind, but the unnecessary stuff, I don't like at all. We have to play smarter.
On the Serge Dube situation: It's still way up in the air. I don't know what to do with him. He has to commit one way or the other.
Kevin Desfosses
On getting a win over the IceRays: It's really nice to finally get that curse, as some people were calling it, out of the way, but it was a hard battle, and that shows that the division is really tight right now, that shows in the standing. No matter who we're playing, no matter when we're playing, we have to be ready.
On what helped snap the skid: I don't know, we maybe caught a break or two. I don't know if the puck went in on the third goal, but on the first goal they scored, I didn't think that was a real goal. So to get that bounce back and work together and believe in ourselves. That's our motive, believe, and we did believe in ourselves and play 60 minutes no matter what, and we all stuck together, and we finally got that win.
On what lies ahead: It's huge, it's a huge game, and now we've played as many games as Texas with one more point than them. So right now, we have to enjoy our day. It's nice to play in the morning so you can enjoy your day. Tomorrow, we get a nice day off; so many guys have injuries and stuff, so we're all going to relax then get back to work on Thursday and get ready for Friday because you have to play every game like it's your last. The standing is so tight right now. You have to play every game like it's your last game and give it your all.
Curtis Billsten
On getting the win: It was huge, not only because of the team having our number, but because points are so important right now that we can't let games at home slide anymore. The room has a bright feel to it right now, but we have to get ready for the weekend.
On what the team needs: I think just consistency. I think we all know we've been pretty banged up this year with a lot of injuries and stuff, but we definitely have to make sure we keep things simple and really stay out of the penalty box. Today, we played pretty well, but we got ourselves into a lot of trouble there, and some penalties that almost cost us the game. So I think going into this weekend, discipline's going to be No. 1 on our chart.
On getting some forwards back in the lineup: It would be absolutely huge (to get Schwabe and Agarunov back). Those guys are just awesome character guys to have in the dressing room, let alone on the ice with their game. So we're all definitely very excited to have them back, hopefully both this weekend, and we'll just have to move on from there.
Jeff Bes
On the win: Just for the mental aspect of it, to come out here, I think we lost four of five straight against them. Suffice it to say, we were due to win against them. We’ve been playing shorthanded, and you have to give the guys a lot of credit for coming out and working hard the way they did. And how about that crowd? I tell you, all those school kids out there cheering us on gave us a little extra motivation and energy for the morning game, so that was a lot of fun to play in.
On what the team needs to take from the game: Great goaltending, again. You know, Kevin's playing phenomenal, and Pelly (Pier-Olivier Pelletier) has been playing well, too, when he's been in there. We have to take away sticking to the game plan. It seems like we've been talking about it all along, but when we do the game plan and execute the game plan, we're victorious, we're very successful. So we really have to concentrate on that. Getting up into third place right now, it's a dog fight. It's going to be that way for the next 19 games. We have to be prepared, we have to go into Fort Worth, we're playing in their building, and we have to execute our game plan and be ready. We have to get the guys rested up, heal up some of the bumps and bruises and go get 'em.
On battling back for the victory: You know what, that just shows the character of the team and the players, believing in the system and believing in themselves. Going out there with the will to win, that's something that we've been battling to get and to learn - the will to win. And that's something that the past two games we've shown to battle back and do this. Now let's just win one in regulation.
On the mental effect of the win: It was absolutely a morale boost. When you haven't beaten a team in six games, it's definitely a morale boost. It pulls the team together when you have a win like this, guys sticking together, guys pulling for each other and rooting for each other on the bench. That's something that builds a team even stronger, and I'm really looking forward to Friday's game.
On getting guys back into the lineup: Schwabie coming back, he's a centerman, great on draws, veteran guy, he's leadership in there, very calm, cool, collected. He'll really help. And of course, Iggy, he's really strong in the corners, it's hard to get the puck off him. So getting some veteran players back in there and settling down the younger guys, and even some of the older guys sometimes, just bringing them back, the experience they have and the competitiveness they bring to the team, is only going to help us in the run to the playoffs.
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