Game Day No. 42

The Bucks will begin a 3-in-3 weekend against the Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees tonight with plenty at stake despite the number of games left in the season.

The Bucks (19-15-7, 45 points) are back in fourth place in the Southern Conference, two points behind the Texas Brahmas (21-17-5, 47 points, and only three points ahead of the Killer Bees (18-18-6, 42 points) and Corpus Christi IceRays (18-19-6, 42 points).

The Bucks want the big story this weekend to be the return of former captain Serge Dube, but if they don't play well, the big story could be them falling out of playoff position.

If that happens, there's no guarantee they can move back into the fourth spot, especially considering how they've fared against the IceRays this season and their penchant for injuries during this campaign.

My notebook in today's Times talks about tonight's games, the injury situation and the fact that untimely penalties are starting to become the death of this team by wearing out the few guys who aren't already below full-strength.

You can read more about this weekend's matchup in Bryan Benway's preview and Brian Sandalow's story for The Monitor about what the Killer Bees need to do to against the Bucks if they want to reach the postseason.

Sandalow also covered the Killer Bees' recent trade, which sent rookie defenseman Mike Harr to the Missouri Mavericks in exchange for d-man Andrew Davis.

Davis is not expected to play in tonight's game.

Bucks defenseman Jay Holladay will play tonight, but is not going to be on the blue line, as he is expected to at least start the game on the top line with Jeff Bes and Darryl Smith, with whom he played during Sunday's 4-3 loss to the Odessa Jackalopes.

Dube should be a big benefit to the blue line even if he can't handle long shifts quite yet, and it is worth noting that nagging injuries severely hampered his play last year and should be fully healed after almost exactly 10 months of rest.

Kevin Desfosses should be getting the start in goal, a chance for him to rebound from that 6-3 loss to the IceRays, his former team, last Saturday.

I'll be live blogging from the LEC tonight, and you can also follow the game on Pointstreak, watch on CHL-TV or listen on Imagen 94.1 FM. If you aren't there yourself, that is. Everyone who is will receive two free items from the dollar menu.