Getting Ready

Nothing new to report from practice today other than the return of Robin Richards, which means the Bucks will have 18 players in the lineup when they face off against the Allen Americans in Game 1 of their Southern Conference Semifinal series on Friday.

I talked to Coach Ruskowski, player/assistant coach Jeff Bes and captain Adam Rivet after practice today, but a large majority of the quotes I got will be used in either my notebook running in tomorrow's paper or the preview to run on Friday, so I'm going to hold off on posting them here.

The Bucks are already up in Allen after departing immediately following an early practice this morning, so they'll be well-rested and ready when it comes time to play.

Coach Ruskowski skated them a bit extra at the end of practice just to loosen them up and get the blood flowing, as they say, before the long bus ride.

The Bucks and Americans now know that the winner of their series will face the winner of one between the Odessa Jackalopes and Texas Brahmas, as the Brahmas earned a series-clinching 2-0 win over the Corpus Christi IceRays tonight.

I doubt either team is looking ahead to that quite yet, though, but if the Bucks do make it out of Round 1, odds are there will be an amateur defenseman on their roster before then.

Ruskowski is looking into one junior player in particular, but he is still playing with his other team.

You can read more about that in my notebook tomorrow, along with some info about what the team has been focusing on this week and how they feel about their current goalie situation.

I need to finish up some office work now, and without practice tomorrow, there won't be much new news to post, but I'll set up my account to auto post the quotes from my notebook and be sure to update if any news breaks.