Rink notes

I am sitting at the rink getting ready to sharpen skates. The room is all set up. First off, my prayers go out to the people of Chile who mean a lot to me. I lived in the western part of Santiago, Chile for two years. I have been able to connect with a few people and found out that they are ok.

Looking across the rink I notice that Robin Bouchard is down to 14 goals to break Don Parson's record that he set last season. Luckily, that number won't go down tonight as he serves the last game of his suspension.

Craig Macdonald scored the game winner again last night and increased his league lead to 9. He now leads the league in powerplay goals with 11.

We are starting to play better on the road. In our last 5 road games we are 2-2-0-1, 4 of those games have been against the 3 teams above us. Last night was a good win for us to start this road trip. It helped scoring the first goal and building our confidence. It will be important for us to come out strong tonight and try and get that first goal.

Here are a few of the one liners that we heard from a welcoming crowd in Flint last night,
"You are nothing but a role player on a mediocre team in a sub par league"
"Hey trainer you suck too"
"Why don't you put that on your blog you ...."
"Do you guys braid each others hair"
Our new goalie Rob Mattison got a kick out of the fact that they kept chanting his name and wanted him to play in the game. I am sure the he would not have been against playing. There was one fan in particular who wanted me to mention him on my blog, so here is your shout-out. You know who you are. Thanks for making our trips to Flint so enjoyable. The new lights in the building look good.

After the game we stopped at a restaurant across the street from the rink to watch the Canada vs Slovakia game, before getting on the road to Muskegon. It got a little tense for the Canadian players, but they were happy their country pulled out a close win.