Mudbugs-2 Rayz-1

Okay so my prediction was wrong. I knew I shouldn't have gone out on a limb and predict the Bugs would actually play up to their potential, but w/e, we won. The team completely gave up after in the 3rd period, and if luck hadn't been on our side, the Rayz would have come away with a win. Mudbug Nation has been in an uproar lately about our non-physical play and the need for an enforcer, but I'll say there is one thing we need more than an enforcer. That one thing is a killer instinct. We're great at knocking the opponent down, and gaining an advantage, but we lack that drive to "go for the juggular" or "kick em' when their down". I want to see us go into the 3rd period with a 1 goal lead and come out with a 5 goal victory, I want to see us take a 3-0 lead and not stop scoring until the final horn sounds. Most importantly, I think coach Scott Muscutt wants to see the same thing. He made it known after the game that he was very upset, and promised that they will be looking at a lot of video on the trip up to Y-town.

The Bugs play in Youngstown on Friday and Saturday for the Steelhounds home opener.

This could be the turning point of the season, if we work hard for a full game, and do it consistently, we can beat Y-town in their barn. Normally I might feel a little sympathy for a team that we beat in their home opener, but it happened to us for the first 4 home games of the season. Sorry, no sympathy here. I'm not saying that the games in Y-town will define our season, but we are in a big hole in our division and if we expect to dig ourselves out of it we need to start now.

On another note, I'll be at the LSU vs Arkansas game on Friday and will post a recap, potentially on Friday night if I'm lucky.

Bugs vs Rayz, Pregame

Over the past 2 seasons the Rayz have come to town only a few times, but its a great game every time they do. Don't pay attention to the records, this game will most likely be decided by 1 goal, the last 5 games between these two have been. One of the most memorable games of the 05-06 season came on a Tuesday night, against Corpus Christi. The Rayz were nearing the end of a terrible season, while the Mudbugs were riding one of their usual mid-season winning streaks. The Bugs played well in the first period, racking up 19 shots, but Scott Reid was up to the task and the game was scoreless after 1. The Rayz took the lead early in the 2nd period, and despite getting more shots, the Bugs couldn't tie it up and the Rayz had the lead going into the 3rd period. Jason Campbell(who has been activated for tonights game) scored early in the 3rd and the game was tied until the Rayz took the lead again, with under 10 minutes left. The Bugs kept getting shot after shot, but Reid kept making save after save for the Rayz. Finally, with 3:41 seconds left, Chris Brassard tied the game. With under a minute left on the clock, the Bugs had a face off just to the right of Reid, Blair Manning won the face off and sent the puck to the blue line where a waiting Dale Lupul blasted the one-time home and gave the Bugs the win. It was definitely a game that would have "hooked" a lot of casual fans, if it had been on a weekend, but unfortunately it wasn't and only the die-hards were there to witness it.

The Rayz are having another bad season (so far) and are a combined -75, and their goalies are giving up nearly 4 goals a game, while their offense is producing just over 2 per game. Even Austin is doing better so far this season.

My Prediction

Bugs-5 Rayz-0

Yes, I know the Rays have made a habit out of playing us close, but I think the facts that they are winless on the road, don't have a goalie to keep them in games and the Bugs have started to dominate teams on home ice, will doom the Rayz. I think Johnny gets the start and extends his shutout streak, and everybody in attendance gets root-44's for the first time this season.

Venues

I found an article online yesterday about the top 10 toughest places to play a sporting event in the world, and you know where(Tiger Stadium was #3. Most of the venues were soccer stadiums, including #8 Rangers' Ibrox Stadium, inexplicably, Celtic Park was left out of the list. Oh well, the guy must be a f***ing Rangers fan.

Here's a link.

After reading that it got me thinking about the sports venues I have gone to. I've been to 3 bowl games (Independence, Cotton and Peach). Out of those, my favorite venue was probably the Cotton Bowl, even though LSU lost the game(and won the other two). The seats were small and jammed together and felt closer to the field than either Independence Stadium or the Georgia Dome. I also realized after the Peach Bowl in 05', that football should be played outside, period. I've gone to 3 college football stadiums, LSU's Tiger Stadium, Ole Miss' Vaught-Hemmingway Stadium and Louisiana Tech's Joe Alliet Stadium.(pronounced eye-eh). Of course my favorite is Tiger Stadium, even sitting in the upper deck it feels like you're right on top of the field. The atmosphere around Vaught-Hemmingway was, as an LSU fan, very odd. It was very civilized and very festive at the same time, nothing at all like Baton Rouge (or Ruston for that matter). There are 3 Major League Baseball stadiums that I have experienced, in Dallas, Anaheim and San Diego. Definitely Petco Park in San Diego is my favorite, but that's not a knock on the other two. I have never been to an NHL game (hoping to go to my first in a few months), but I have watched minor league games in (you guessed it) 3 different arenas. The CenturyTel Center in Bossier City, the Desoto County Civic Center in Southaven MS. and the Nytex Sports Center in North Richland Hills. Certainly my opinion here is going to be biased but I can say, the most unique arena out of the 3 would be Nytex. Its really more a practice facility than an arena, 2,300 is the max attendance, and all of the seats are very close to the glass. The 1 time I was there, I was sitting on the first row of the upper "end zone" terrace and my feet were level with the glass, which was only about 6 feet in front of me. Needless to say, I had a pretty cool vantage point to watch the game from.

Anyway, I hope I can add to that list within the next year.

Football? Futbol? UEFA anybody?

So I've been keeping up with what the British call "football" lately, and I can say that I'm becoming a Celtic fan. They're in the Champions League group play right now and are 2-0-2(w-t-l) which gives them 6 points and a tie for 2nd place in their group. Both wins came at home, including a 2-1 upset of AC Milan. They play 2 more games in the group stage, 1 against Shakhtar (2nd place) at home and 1 against Milan(1st place), on the road. The top 2 in each group move on to a 16 team knockout stage. If Celtic wins both games, they're in. If they beat Shakhtar and they lose to Milan, they will need help to move on. They play on 11-28-07 against Shaktar at 1:30 in the afternoon, (CST). Or at least its something like that. I'm hoping that game will be on ESPN.

Here's a link. uefa.com

Weekly Polls

College Football Top Twelve

my rankings (BCS rankings)

1. LSU (1)
2. Oregon (2)
3. Kansas (3)
4. Oklahoma (4)
5. Ohio State (7)
6. West Virginia (6)
7. Missouri (5)
8. Georgia (9)
9. Arizona State (8)
10. Virginia Tech(10)
11. Florida (12)
12. Texas (13)

My reason for doing 12 teams is b/c teams have to be in the top 12 of the BCS to be eligible for a BCS at large bid. I really wanted to put Kansas at #2, but I decided to wait and see how they do in their tough games in the next few weeks. If the Jayhawks come out of those undefeated, they will definitely be #2.

CHL Top Ten

1. Youngstown
2. Laredo
3. Rocky Mountain
4. Arizona
5. Colorado
6. Mississippi
7. Texas
8. Odessa
9. New Mexico
10. Bossier-Shreveport

Youngstown is clearly the best team in the league, they have just 1 more point than 2nd place Laredo, but haven't played a single home game yet. The surpise of the season has to be that Rocky Mountain, not that they are better than they were last season, or even that they appear to be serious contenders, but that they lead their division, putting Colorado in (gasp) 2nd place. After pitching consecutive shutouts and only giving up 3 goals in the last 4 games, the Mudbugs snuck into the top ten.

Stats of the Day

Mudbugs center Joe Ori has 6 goals and 2 assists in 9 games this season. 2 of those goals were game winners. He also has a +7 on the season.

The Bugs are have 7 season, and have a +/- of +13. While Rio Grande Valley, also with 7 points (and an identical record) on the season, have a +/- of -49

Kenny Ties Shutout Record

"Superman" joined Rod Branch in the CHL record books with his 22nd career shutout last night. Branch played for 3 different teams, while Kenny has recorded all of his shutouts with the Mudbugs. Joe Ori scored 2 goals, and Justin Aikens added a goal of his own as the 'bugs completely dominated the Ausin Ice Bats to win their 3rd in a row. IMO, Austin is a terrible team, and the bugs' could have won by a much wider margin if they had played well in the offensive zone, but I'll take it

Other Notes-

-The crowd(6,000+) was awesome and the place was buzzing from the get-go.

-Matthew Broderick was in the house and filmed a few scenes for his upcoming movie "Wonderful World". They were filming when the bugs scored the 2nd goal of the game. They even got him doing some of the chants.

-Karlis Zirnis picked up an assist.

-Laredo lost.....that always puts a smile on my face.

Division Standings

Youngstown- 21 pts. 11 games played
Mississippi---------14 pts. 9 games played
Texas--12 pts. 9 games played
Mudbugs------7 pts. 9 games played

bugs win!

Finally! Last night was the first time in over 7 months that I saw the Mudbugs win a game, and it was definitely a good feeling. For the most part the game was straight up boring. Neither team could get anything done in the offensive zone (I credit the Mudbugs stellar defense and terrible offense for that). Even though both teams got plenty of shots on goal, there were very few legit scoring chances. As a result of the boring play, the crowd was not into the game at all and the arena was very quiet. As the game wore on, though, the bugs started putting more and more pressure on the Oilers defense and goalie, St Pierre (who did actually play). Eventually, with just under 7 minutes left in the game, Karlis Zirnis set up Joe Ori with a sick pass, and Ori was able to send it into the net, and the Centurytel Center into celebration.

Game Notes:

John Decaro recorded his 3rd career shut out.

Karlis Zirnis got his first point of the season with his sweet feed to Joe Ori.

Speaking of Joe, he now leads the team with 4 goals.

3,456 was the announced attendance

The bugs now have a combined +4 on the season

Next Game

is at home against Austin tomorrow night. I dont think I have seen the Ice Bats win in the CTC, I may have to do some research on that.

Also,

I will do my first college football post by the end of the weekend

Mudbugs Pregame

Tonight the 'bugs play the Tulsa Oilers and begin a 3 game home stand.

An Interesting Stat: the Oilers are a combined -65 in the +/- category, while the 'bugs are only at -1, despite having a worse record. The almighty Jeff Christian has just 3 assists (no goals) and has a plus minus rating of -8. Joe Ori and Daniel Pegoraro are both at +4 on the season. Joe has 3 goals on the season, which is tied for the team lead with Chris Brassard and Tyrel Lucas. Brass scored all of his goals in the home opener, he needs to get back to scoring goals if the bugs want to have success this season. I'm not saying he needs to score hat tricks night in and night out, but a goal every other game or so would be nice, we don't have to rely on him to carry us, but he has to contribute consistently.

St Pierre: Just checked the waiver wire on pointstreak and he hasn't been put back on the roster list for Tulsa, so I'm guessing he isn't going to play. The former Mudbug and member of the all-decade team was granted a leave of absence by the league, I believe there was a death in his family.

Attendance: The last 3 crowds have been below 4,000, I'm hoping that streak ends tonight

Goalie? John Decaro was in net for the teams first win on Sat. but Ken Carroll played well in net the night before, but the offense gave him no help whatsoever and the bugs lost 3-0( 3rd goal was an empty netter). I've got a feeling Johnny will be rewarded for his stellar play on the road with a start tonight at home.

Heated History: At the end of last season, the bugs and Oilers played about 6 times in 3 weeks and there was,a goalie fight, a forward on goalie fight, and 8-0 beat down at the CTC (smirk) and all kinds of chippy play, in those 6 meetings. I wonder if that will carry over to this season at all. My guess is no, b/c Tulsa has a lot of new players from last season and so do we. But ya never know.

My Prediction: Bugs win 5-2 with Johnny in net for the 'bugs and Chalmers in net for the Oilers. Karlis Zirnis with the game winner.

atta' boy mo!

The Dallas Stars took over first place of the pacific division of the NHL today, and they are like what 2 games over .500? Clearly not the cream of the crop, but hey, being the best of a mediocre bunch has to count for something, right? Lost in the hype of the recent takeover of first place is Mike Modano's 2 goal (1 short handed) performance which puts "big Moe" in the record books as the all time points leader among American born hockey players. The San Jose Sharks came out blazin, pelting Marty Turco with shot after shot(which had me cringing, since Marty is on my fantasy team). Despite their best efforts the Sharks came away with nothing in their early push, and instead saw a classic Modano slapshot from just inside the blue line get past Nabokov, to give the Stars a 1-0 lead on the teams first shot. Then a few minutes later, with his team on the penalty kill, Mike got a breakaway and even though he lost control of the puck, was able to beat Nabokov and get his 2nd goal of the night, on just his 2nd shot. The rest of the game wasn't exactly riveting, but Turco did stand on his head to keep the Sharks from getting too close. Number of the game: 9. Thats how many saves Nabokov made, on just 12 shots.

On tap for tomorrow:

I will be heading over to Bossier to watch the Mudbugs game, hoping to see the first home win of the season.