Game Day No. 45

I wasn’t able to procure an Internet connection last night, so I wasn't able to post any quotes. I did type them up, though, so here they are:

Coach Ruskowski

On Evan Schwabe: It’s probably very unlikely that he will play (today). (Monday) was the first time he actually put the equipment on and skated. You can tell at times he looks really good, then at times when he tries to push off too hard, it’s affecting him a bit. So probably not (today), but I’m hoping for the weekend.

On Igor Agarunov: I would think that he will probably be coming off the IR on Saturday. We’ll see, anyway. I would think that we’ll see if we have any injuries from (today) or Friday and see if we can get him in there against Rio Grande.

On Paul Elliott: He’s day-to-day. I’m hoping he’ll be able to play (today), but we’ll find out. It seems like every day he’s getting a little better even though he’s still limping a little bit and it’s still swollen a little bit. But we keep putting ice on it, and hopefully he’ll come back to where he can put a skate on to actually play.

On Jeff Bes missing Monday’s practice: It’s just part of this time of the season, to rest the older players. I’m not saying old players, but older players, just give them more rest time and let them go out fresh for the game.

On the Ryan Ford/T.J. Schneider situation: The guy drove them down, one of the big hockey fans and kind of a scout I talk to often, he said, ‘I’m coming down there, bringing two guys.’ I said, ‘No promises,’ and he said, ‘No, no promises.’ He said, ‘I want to see what your league’s about and see what we can do.’ Fortunately for Ford, we had injuries, and he had a chance to play. There was another kid who came down with him that I wanted to get in the lineup, but I couldn’t do it. It’s the craziest thing; I was short of players, but I couldn’t put him on the roster. It’s just the rules and regulations of the league, and I’m kind of handcuffed here.

On Serge Dube’s status with the team: We’re supposed to talk about it today (Monday). I left a call in right before I went on the ice, and I’ll hopefully get a message or a call and see exactly what he’s interested in doing.

On having Dube back in the lineup: You know what, having him and Elliott back, it’s just like that comfort blanket. You feel comfortable when they’re around, just like your little blankie. You feel comfortable and safe with them around, and that’s how I feel with those two guys. I feel safe, and I know they’ll do the job for me. They know exactly what to expect, and they know what job is supposed to be done, and they do it. It was nice to have them, even in the dressing room it was nice to have them, there. Guys felt more secure when those two guys were on the ice.

On the weekend’s games: This is the ironic thing about hockey, and sports in general. Rio comes in here, and we outplay them; we have 52 shots on net to the 30 they had, and lose in a shootout. We go into Rio, and they really put on us for about a period and a half. They really put on us. Then we came back a little bit, but they outplayed us there, and we came out with a 3-2 shootout win. Against Amarillo, we played okay the first period. The second period and the third period, especially the second period, oh my gosh. Thank goodness for my goalie. If it wasn’t for my goalie, we wouldn’t have won the game. Period. We didn’t play well at all. So it was nice to know we could win. It was an ugly win, but a win’s a win, and we desperately needed the points.

On getting 5 of 6 points over the weekend: As a coach, when you get those kind of numbers, you’re kind of happy with them, but you’re always looking at how you played. Last game we didn’t play very well, so I’m hoping we can bounce back and play well. Here’s the stupid thing about it: I thought we played harder and better, and I felt better about my team after the Odessa game that we lost than I felt after Amarillo because we didn’t play well at all. I was happier after the Odessa loss than I was after the win against Amarillo. A win’s a win, don’t get me wrong, but we played so hard and well against Odessa and we lost. I felt bad that we lost; I don’t like losing, I’m not trying to say that, but I liked the way my team played. But we struggled against Amarillo. I don’t know why, but we struggled. I’m happy that we won, don’t get me wrong, but we didn’t play the way we’re capable of playing, and that’s kind of disturbing to me as a coach.

On what went wrong Sunday: We weren’t thinking, we weren’t playing very good position, we weren’t playing the system at all; we were just putting the puck on the boards. Our defensive coverage, we were just following the puck all over the place instead of playing in position and making sure our position was strong and that we played a strong game. They were beating us to the puck, they were beating us to the net, we weren’t physical. There’s not much left that we did do right. We worked a little bit (on Monday) on the different systems that we’re going to face against Corpus Christi, and hopefully it will work to our advantage.

On the game plan against the IceRays: We know they’re going to come out hitting us. That’s the No. 1 thing. We just have to make sure that we take the hits and give some hits. It’s a man’s game, and we have to play it like a man. We have to play hard, we have to play physical, we have to play smart, we have to play the system the way it is and execute, get short gaps from defensemen to the forwards. If we can do that, that’s a huge advantage for us, too. It’s the little intangibles. If we win the little battles, we’ll win the war eventually, and that’s what we have to do. We have to show them that we’re for real and that their little winning streak against us is going to stop. We have to go out there and prove it.

On special teams: You know what, I guess I knock my power play and penalty killing too much. We’re third or fourth in the league in both categories, so that’s not bad out of 16 teams. But I guess if you’re a perfectionist, like I think I am, you always want to perfect something. We just need to get a little better, shoot the puck from the point more. It will start to attack the defense and loosen up down low.

Adam Rivet

On the weekend: Being shortmanned right now, that was huge. We have some key guys out of the lineup, they’re starting to get healthy and will hopefully be back soon, but five out of six points, that was a big weekend for us to get us one point back with a game in hand on Texas. Hopefully we’ll take advantage of that.

On getting past the IceRays: We have to come out and play our system and not let things get away from us. Last time we played them, we started off well, we got up 2-0 in the first, then they scored a couple quick ones and we just let things slide. We got away from the system, and sometimes to win games, even though things happen against you quickly, you kind of have to relax and stay with what you’re doing and what’s successful for you. It seems that when we’ve been playing them, we’ve gotten away from that, so we just have to play our game and play hard and play smart.

The Bucks (21-8-2, 50 points) are currently getting ready to take on the Corpus Christi IceRays (19-20-6, 44 points), a team they are winless against in their last six meetings, in the annual Kid’s Day Game at the LEC.

Nearly 5,000 kids from local schools are expected to be in attendance, so this should be a pretty loud one, and if what Coach Ruskowski says about the team playing better in front of a larger crowd is true, that could work to the Bucks’ advantage.

Kevin Desfosses (8-7-2) will be starting in goal for the Bucks, and I assume former Buck Kevin Beech (8-5-2) will get the start for the IceRays.

You can read more about the matchup in my preview, Bryan Benway’s preview and the Pointstreak pre-game notes, and those of you who are at work for the game can follow it here or on Pointstreak, or try to watch on CHL-TV or listen on Imagen 94.1 FM.

Elliott will be playing today, while Dube's status does not seem to be finalized, as he is not in the lineup. I will ask Ruskowski about that after the game.