Mudbugs vs. Riverkings Tuesday 11/28/06

I am going to update this throughout the night. Just click on refresh and scroll down to the period we are in to read the latest. Thanks, Montana.

Third Period Thoughts

The minute of madness is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too long for these fans. They need to either start the minute of madness before the third period begins or shorten it to 30 seconds.

Phil Aucoin just scored the easiest goal I have ever seen on the 5 on 3. I am out of here. I need to get down to my regular seat. We need some love this period.

So much for the leagues top penalty kill unit.


Second Period Thoughts

The Bugs will start the period on a powerplay as Derek Campbell finishes serving the remaining 1:45 of his elbowing penalty.

Scoreboard malfunctions are delaying the start of the second period right now. Tequila Tim just had the longest dance ever in the Century Tel Center. I wasn't sure if he was going to make it out of the dance alive.

Woo-hoo, the teams are back on the scoreboard. Time to resume play again.

We were almost killed during the first intermission by Clawed the Mudbug when he shot his T-shirt from his cannon up here. I may be wrong, but I am fairly certain that if that T-shirt would have hit me, I would have an Arena named after me when I win that lawsuit. Of course I wouldn't have enjoyed it so much since I had a T-shirt shot through my chest, but the Montana Center has a nice ring to it.

Pegoraro wins the face off, well he never gave up on the faceoff should be the more appropriate terminology. He puts it back to Ori at just inside the blue line at the Horshshoe Casino spot on the ice and banks it off of the Memphis defender. Great shot by Ori. It was an even strength goal since both teams were skating four and is Ori's fourth goal of the season. We are tied at one apiece.

...and Derek Landmesser breaks the tie with a shot from the Harrah's spot on the ice. On top of that the bench gets another penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct. This whole thing started when Darrell Stoddard ran into Forbes Macpherson at center ice during the first penalty. It was a pretty obvious dive from the stands. Forbes probably could of got run for that one. Dan Wildfong slashes a Riverking and takes another penalty. Now the Riverkings will start the third period with a two man advantage. Not good times.

Shots are all tied at 22. Memphis is 2 for 8 on the powerplay while the Mudbugs are 0 for 5 during the game.

Stay tuned for fireworks in the third period.

First Period Thoughts

Jason Sessa's power play goal was a thing of beauty in the first period. It is really easy to see the numbers when they are right in front of you scoring. Not a good effort by the penalty kill unit for the Mudbugs.

We are four minutes into the first period and the Mudbugs haven't come close to a shot. In fact the closest we came was on a dump in by Musselman about a minute into the game.

Don't let tonight's attendance numbers fool you, if there are 2,000 fans here, then I am an anorexic midget (I mean little person, sorry).

I love the icing rule that says you cannot have a line shift if you ice the puck. After this icing, linesman Kevin Mighton skated to the Mudbug bench and pulled Brian Sutherland and Jason Williamson back on the ice. Good Times.

The best part of the press ox is the guy in row P of section 101 starting the "let's go Mudbugs" every thirty seconds. It is almost like sitting next to my buddy Beerbug during an away game.

Great save by Decaro at 6:34 of the first. Glove high on Louis Dumont.

I am sitting next to Roy Lang tonight. Someone has given him a Derek Landmesser bobble head doll and put a sign that says "LANG: GO Turtles". Payback for his preseason pick of Memphis to win the Northeast division this year. I have a great picture of it that I will have to figure how to post.

For those of you who are reading this and were discouraged by the play of the Mudbugs on Friday night against Rio Grande Valley, please be happy that you are at home listening tonight. Right now we have no flow to our game. We are dropping passes for trailing skater that are not there. The Bugs are putting the puck in the crease for snipers that aren't there to shoot.

Shots are 11-5 for Memphis tonight. The Riverkings are 8-2-0 when outshooting their opponent.

Memphis only leads 1-0 after the first period. It easily could have been 2 or 3 to zero if not for a couple dandy Decaro saves. Memphis is 5-0-1 when leading after one period.

All is not lost though. Memphis is only 2-2-0 when trailing after two periods and Memphis is 0-0-1 when playing on a Tuesday. Today is Tuesday.

posted at 7:49 pm cst


Pregame Thoughts
Chris Murphy is back on the ice for the Mudbugs tonight. He will be skating in place of Cam Abbott who is a scratch.

John Decaro will be in the Mudbugs goal apparently against Larry Sterling who is 8-2-2 this year with a 2.35 GAA. The eight wins puts Sterling in second place in the CHL while the GAA is tied with John Decaro fifth in the league.

The Riverkings are wearing he most atrocious uniforms seen this side of Oklahoma City and Rio Grande. Apparently they are paying homage to the New Orleans Saints. Hopefully we will see the non-existent Reggie Bush offensive production and not the Drew Brees offensive explosion tonight.

The numbers are almost impossible to read from up here in the press box.

The Mudbugs will be all black tonight. Thank goodness. I say that we keep it black until it bucks us.

Montanalysis of tonight's game:

Three Keys

The Mudbugs must get ahead early. Memphis is 1-3-1 when trailing after one period and Bossier is 3-1-2 when leading after the first period.

The Mudbugs must also keep up the work on the penalty kill and CLEAR THE ZONE!!!! The Bugs are still first in the league with a 91.7% penalty kill success rate on 145 chances (also tops in the league)

Most of all, and this is the worst kept secret in the league, the Bugs need to score some freaking goals. Decaro and Sterling both sport identical 2.35 GAA. Sterling is 8-2-2 and Decaro is 3-3-3. Four times this season Decaro has given up three goals or less and lost

Keith Kaval will be the referee tonight. This is a huge matchup of Northeast Division rivals who are separated by only three points. A win keeps the Mudbugs within shouting range of the top of the division. A loss puts the Mudbugs five points back.

Prediction - Mudbugs win 4-3.

posted 6:55pm cst

Postgame thoughts

• Final shot total has the Mudbugs leading 40-27.
• Daniel Pegoraro, Karlis Zirnis, and Ken Carroll get the first, second, and third stars respectively.
• We broke the power play drought that we were in thanks to Pegoraro. A great story about Pegoraro. My father decided during the first game that he was either going to love the player or hate the player. After one shift he loved Pegoraro, so Pops I hope you are happy.
• My favorite female hockey player provided me with some posters that she was giving out and they look fabulous. Good job Mudbugs.
• One unruly fan needs a very big time out. Along with Jason Duda who waited in the penalty box for a good ninety seconds after the game to skate back to the bench. I am guessing he has been watchin a lot of WCW and WWE. Good job Duda.
• One gigantic monkey off of the Mudbug's back.
• Now bring on Memphis on Tuesday. Hopefully Mudbug Nation can provide more than 4,343 fans.

posted at 9:45 pm cst

Third Period Thoughts

• I kind of like the second intermission interview between Justin Scholtes and a player. For instance we learned tonight that Daniel Pegoraro likes swimming pools over oceans, the color red, and he was the coolest guy in school. Then he drops the fact that his favorite song right now is the new song by Christina. Apparently he realized that he was about to lose some credibility so he decided to throw out that he likes Kenny Chesney also. From now on, nobody ever gets to give me crap about my music selection.
• Robert J. Wright just thanked the official apartment complex of the 2006-07 Mudbugs. Roy Lang believes, and I totally agree, that there are enough Puck Bunnies out there to make that announcement a bad idea. Good thing we are out of the Aspen Apartments. It was bad enough that those apartments were party central in Shreveport, but when they moved out there were people burning down the buildings.
• Daniel Pegoraro just scored a 4-on-4 goal with only four seconds left in Forbes MacPherson's penalty to put the Bugs up 3-1 with 9:44 left to play. So far tonight all three goals and six assists have been tallied by nine different skaters. Not bad balance.
• 4,343 fans on hand tonight. On a night with no high school football and only the Notre Dame/USC game on television. What gives Mudbug nation? Three hundred less fans than last night facing one of our biggest foes is rediculous.
• Nice elbow behind the play by Jason Duda to Dan Wildfong's mouth. Then Darren McMillan takes a cross checking penalty to give the Mudbugs a two man advantage.
• Apparently DePudt saw the elbow because Duda is sitting in the box for the next four minutes. So we have Wiebe in the box for the next 1:16, McMillan in the box for the next two minutes. Duda in the box for the next four minutes. I believe that the Mudbugs will be on a two man advantage forever against Wichita.
• I forgot to add the hissy fit that Wichita Mark French through when he tossed the water bottle on the ice and started banging the dasher. Very mature Mr. French. Very mature.
• Karlis Zirnis and Ryan McLean were both just shown the gate for the night. They both got double minors for smearing and unsportsmanlike conduct. Congratulations to Zirnis for getting second star tonight.
• The drought is over. Daniel Pegoraro scores off of assists by Chris Gustafson and Chris Brassard. Ten skaters have points tonight. We still need one more goal for Sonic time baby.
• I am not saying that Ryan McLean and coach Mark French shower together. I am just saying that they are the only two Thunder guys in the shower. Together.
• Bad form by a Mudbug fan who had Travis Clayton coming over the glass to challenge him. Hey drunk fan, these guys have sticks and pads, you would get smoked.

posted at 9:33 pm cst

Pregame thoughts

• At the end of the period the Thunder were only credited for five shots. By my count there should be four more shots added onto that total. Hopefully that will be rectified sometime during the night. The funny thing is that I have been complaining about it all night up here and I just now found out that the shot counter sits by us. Good times.
• Great goal by Cam Abbott. This guy works too hard not to show up on the score sheet every night. Of course as I am typing this he just missed a wide open goal off of a missed shot by Zirnis.
• Great work by the Abbott, Brassard, and Zirnis line as well as the Musselman, Macpherson, and Wildfong line along with the blue liners. We kept the Thunder pinned in their own zone for a solid ninety seconds. Great work.
• Keep an eye on Steve Dix. He left his feet during the first period on a hit on Pegoraro that left Pegoraro a little woozy (from my point of view). "Pegs" just returned the favor along the far boards. Now Dix is running around like a baby trying to hit someone. If you think I am mentioning this just so that you are saying the word Dix to yourself, then you may be onto something.
• This may seem like an old joke, but if you put Viagra on Ryan McLean will he grow?
• What about Steve Dix?
• I know that we are loud with our "Clear The Zone" cheer on penalty kills, but I can here the boys down there clear as day during penalty kills. Great job Amigos. Oh, and Jeff, the idea of banging the signs works great. It is very, very clear throughout the arena. For those of you who do not like our little cheer, please keep in mind that we are number one on the penalty kill in the CHL. I am sure that we have nothing to do with it, but there are three men who think they are responsible. By the way, my girlfriend will not sit with me during the game because she hates that cheer.
• Things are very tense between the two teams exiting the second period. Expect some chippiness in the third period. The Mudbugs lead by one going into the last frame. They are currently be outshot 29-19 in the game. My count has the Thunder with 22 so with a three shot difference we are doing better.

First Period Thoughts

• The Blaznek, Clayton, and Duda line is broken up and nobody even told me. Right now Duda and Clayton are skating with Kris Wiebe while Blaznek is on the second line. This is kind of like when Beyonce left Destiny's Child and left Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams all by themselves. Maybe not. You try coming up with a superstar trio that broke up in their seemingly prime.
• Blaznek's goal was a thing of beauty. You just can't leave a guy with that much talent wide open in front of the net. They just missed another one with 2:15 left in the period that Duda gave to Wiebe. You can see Clayton and Duda feeding Wiebe on every powerplay and having him set up in the slot.
• Wildfong's goal opened up perfectly after the shot by Brassard. I always find it amazing that teams leave Dan Wildfong alone in front of the net. Actually, I can kind of relate. It is kind of like a Duke (sucks) University basketball game when you watch the ball getting passed around and all of a sudden there is JJ Reddick all alone at the top of the key. You scream at the TV and at Roy Williams "How in the hell can you leave that guy open?". Then you watch the replay and see just how hard JJ Duke worked for that shot.
• Roy Lang just asked a great question. "Why don't you see defensemen skate around with the puck to kill time when they are deep in their own zone with nobody chasing the puck?" I was wondering the same thing last night. You would think that somewhere in Coach Muscutt's playbook there is a play where Jeremy Downs gets the puck and starts skating around while people try to catch him.
• Speaking of calling plays. Was anyone else who watched yesterday's LSU/Arkansas game sick and tired of the "Wildcat" formation? By the end of the game I was hoping to find Verne Lundquist and Gary Danielson and release a Wildcat into their bed. Maybe that is what the Bugs need to do. Come up with some unbelievable gimmick play that just fools the other team so much that they have no idea how to combat it. Maybe we only put four skaters on the ice from now and play a man down. Or maybe we play three defensemen and two forwards. Or let the other team win every faceoff. What is the worst that can happen? We are already playing in a league that gives two teams do-over during the playoffs.
• Our shot counter here at the CTC has always been bad, but this year that person is atrocious. That person missed three shots on Carroll by the Thunder. I know that they were just the opposite last year. Me thinks that Ken Carroll will not like this very much in the morning.
• Oh, one more thing for the CenturyTel Center. Can we not put an eighty-year old person in charge of the only coffee and cappuccino machines in the arena? Last night I had to wait over five minutes for her to pour two black coffees and a vanilla cappuccino. It wasn't that she was slow, which she was, but she kept getting all "Monkish" by constantly checking the level of coffee in each cup. I was almost ready to jump over the counter and pour my own damn coffee.

posted at 7:58 pm CST

Pregame thoughts

• Where are the fireworks this year? Not that I am biased since my buddy Dannie lit them off last year, but it was always nice to see the opposing teams goalie jump after the National Anthem.
• Memo to the Mudbugs regarding the National Anthem. The guy last night, Peter Gabucci was very good. The two singers last week (the young girl and the gentleman with the shiny head) were awesome as well. Tonight's singer left a lot to be desired. I am not going to mention his name but there is no way he would have been invited to Hollywood if this were "American Idol".
• Why doesn't the CTC invest in another American Flag and place it at the other of the arena so everyone can salute a flag during the National Anthem? There is plenty of room.

posted at 7:21pm

BACK IN BLACK

Thank goodness for the losing streak. Now we can get the Bugs back in their more familiar home black jersey's. Don't get me wrong, I really like the red jerseys the Bugs have worn this year, and we have won every game at home up until last night. It's just that sometimes a jersey sends a message. The Mudbugs always wear black jerseys during big games and you will find no bigger game than this one tonight. Bossier-Shreveport is only three points out of the cellar and the Bugs have played in two extra games. Fortunately, the season is young.

Keys to the game:

Keep Joe Blaznek, Travis Clayton and Jason Duda off of the boards - The Wichita trio accounts for fifty percent of the scoring for Wichita. The trio are terrific on special teams and need to be accounted for on every shift.

No stupid penalties - Blaznek is currently second in the league with three shorthanded goals in the young year. The power play for Wichita is 9th in the league and their penalty kill is ninth in the league. On top of that, Wichita is number one in the league with penalty minutes with 507 on the year.

Score a freaking goal - Maybe it is time to quit being cute with the puck. Set up in front of the net and pepper Martin with shots. Scott Muscutt is down in the locker room right now lighting a fire under the boys telling them that the better team will not win tonight, the team that wants it most will win the game tonight.

On a personal note I would like to thank the Southern Women's Hockey League for giving out posters tonight and I would like to give a shout out to my beloved Montana State University Bobcats who advanced to the second round of the I-AA NCAA football playoffs.

posted at 7:01 pm cst

Preview of tonight's game - The best of times, the worst of times

It seems as I was correct with my memory. The Mudbugs have never been shutout twice in a row. Never. Nine years of not being shutout in consecutive weeks. The good news is that this team is number one with the penalty kill with a 91.2% kill rate. This is a good number since the Bugs currently lead the league with 136 shorthanded opportunities. Good times.

Now for the bad times. The Mudbugs are dead last with the powerplay in the CHL. Yep, we are scoring on only 8.9% of their powerplay opportunities. I think I need to run to the restroom because I just threw up in my mouth.

The natives are restless in the swamp right now, but the thing that I hope everyone remembers is that this is a very, very young team. There are six players just out of college, two players who did not play at all last year, two players were in Germany during last season, and one player who spent most of the year in Fort Worth. Even that is not an excuse. While leaving the CTC last night my boy Brian turned to me and asked if we should stay to watch them skate lines like the 1980 Olympic Hockey Team. Hopefully we won't hear Muscutt screaming "AGAIN" tonight.

It looks like we will have Ken Carroll in goal tonight for the Mudbugs who fell to second in the league in Goals Against after the three goal game last night. In goal for the Thunder will be Andrew Martin who was the first goaltender on the ice for Wichita. Some of you may remember that Martin was on the team during Carroll's absence at the beginning of last year. Martin sported a 2-3-0 record with a 2.59 GAA . This year he is 1-1-0 with a a sparkling 1.84 GAA.

Posted at 6:37 pm CST


Montana is in the Insider

I will be blogging during the game for our good friend Sabrbug during tonight's Mudbug game vs Wichita. Tonight's game is a pivotal one for the Mudbugs as they must put forth a better effort than the one the previous two games. For the first time in recent memory the Mudbugs have been blanked in consecutive games, to the same team, with the same goaltender. I will keep all up to date with developments as the game goes on. Remember that tonight is free poster night at the CenturyTel Center and there will be an autograph session immediately following the game with the players.

Personally I am expecting a much better game from the Bugs as hopefully the Tryptophan has worn out. Coach Muscutt played with the lines a little bit last night trying to find the right combination of players on the ice. The first line of Wildfong, MacPherson, and Zirnis is still the money line for the Bugs, but was anyone else taken aback at Wildfong taking the draw instead of Forbes?

The second line of Brassard, Williamson, and Abbot needs to make some things happen tonight and the third line of Musselman, Ori, and Pegoraro was basically nonexistant last night. I loved the energy early on in the year from Ori, Nason, and Pegoraro and hope to see those three together again.

The power play is non-existent right now. We really miss two players that would make this thing go. Ryan Fairbarn did a decent job on the point this year and his work on the power play is sorely missed. The player I think we miss most of all may be Craig Minard. Many may not know this, but Minard was immensely instrumental in the special teams for the Bugs and often served as a coach on the Ice for Muscutt. Gustafson will be something special for us. I really do believe it and even though he had a horrible night last night, he will show up in the box score tonight. That kid simply cannot have two bad games in a row for us. Right now we have one consistent blue liner and that is Jason Basile. Downs, Lightbody, Sutherland, and Gustafson are not playing badly, they just seem apprehensive. We should work that out tonight.

I would expect that the fans from Wichita will have a long drive home tonight and that I will end up at Sonic with a cherry limeade.