Saturday, February 21, 2004
Well, here's what's taking me away from hockey this weekend, not that I'm missing much in Austin.
Sadly, the Ice Bats are no longer chasing Killer Bees -- they're looking over their shoulder at the Jackalopes. Brett Seguin, the all-time leading scorer among active CHLers (and the 48th leading scorer among all minor league players ever) is now pointless in 11 games. And unless Mark Hulshof snuck onto the ice and tied all the Austin defensemen's skates together, I'm pretty sure he can't be blamed for Friday.
It won't get any easier at home -- judging by last night's Laredo-Corpus game, the Bucks don't feel like letting up. And you know the season is completely topsy-turvy when I can write a sentence like "maybe Austin can get two points against the Bugs, a team they've owned this year." Well, in 2003 at least -- Sunday could be very different.
So you gotta hand it to Tracy Egeland for making the Southern playoff race a bore. The North is much more interesting -- Memphis won't go away, but is still puffed up by playing all those games. Laxdal and Sauter are best friends. And New Mexico gave away the advantage of its Southwest-heavy schedule by dropping four games to Lubbock and Odessa as well as one to Wichita.
Remember when Dan Price signed with the Komets and one of the Fort Wayne papers referred to him as a defensive upgrade and far from a one-dimensional player?
This story by Justin Cohn is more on target, with Pricer himself saying, I'm not the best on the defensive side of the puck. They knew that up front and I'm sure they checked around.
Nevertheless, he seems to be keeping a good attitude about things, and at least he's on a playoff team.
You guys don't really think the Eagles are unprepared for their call-ups, do you?
First of all, who knows how long they'll last?
Second, just as Ruskowski has his Cullaton replacement figured out, Stewart has surely lined up horses from abroad-- their names would already be on file with the league office, and they just have to play three regular season games to become playoff-eligible. Then it's a matter of if or when they leave their European teams (depending on their playoff situation, or if they can get out of a contract).
One defenseman is already in the fold, waiting for his visa: Curtis Sheptak, a former college teammate of Lee Ruff's.
Also, I hear Jared will suit up. Can they fit him under the cap? And aren't the spong monkeys better forecheckers?
