^Gusher Fan^

Cincy lost 2-1 to Trenton. We are tied 3-3 at end of 2nd period. Let's hold em Catters!!!!!!!!

Way to go, Nabby!!!

IMHO: The best article ever published in the Enterprise about Our Catters! ^GF^ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ [Hidden Content] 01/06/2008 Myriad of tasks to be done before the puck drops at a Wildcatters game By CHRIS DABE , The Enterprise BEAUMONT - Malcolm Cameron wore a red pullover shirt under a navy v-neck sweater, blue jeans and brown boots. His slicked black hair pointed up, away from a full-grown goatee around a toothy grin. He sipped coffee from a silver travel mug while hunched over a laptop computer, onto which he copied video that highlighted strengths and weaknesses of his team's opponent. Wildcatters Pregame Cameron, 38, does not claim to be a coaching genius, but picture Dallas Cowboys coach Wade Phillips with a clicker in hand and both eyes focused on a video monitor. All Cameron asks of players is to give a consistent effort and adhere to a game plan, and they'll finish most contests as winners. This day is no different. Cameron, set to coach in the ECHL All-Star Game for a second straight season Jan. 23, prepares his South Division-leading Texas Wildcatters hockey team for the Charlotte Checkers the same way he does for any other squad. "What I say is you can't have a huge difference between the top and bottom of your team," Cameron said about eight hours before his team's game Friday at Ford Arena. "Because the bottom always drags the top down. If you have 70 percent of your players giving all their effort and 30 percent not working hard, that turns out to be far less than 70 percent." Cameron's game preparation lasts about 12 hours. He arrives to work at 7:45 a.m., edits video for about 90 minutes and puts his team through a 60-minute practice. A post-practice video-watching session lasts about 20 minutes, after which players leave the arena. Most players go to apartments rented by the team. They eat, take naps and return to Ford Arena by 5 p.m. This game, a 4-2 victory for the Wildcatters, began at 7:30 p.m., but Cameron's preparations started with the arrival of a small package from a former roommate Thursday afternoon. He received a DVD of Charlotte's Dec. 29 game against the South Carolina Stingrays. The team's coach, Jared Bednar, roomed with Cameron during his first professional playing season, in 1993-1994 with the Huntington (W. Va.) Blizzard, so Cameron used the connection to get an edge. This is the third game this season and the first in 42 days between the Wildcatters and Checkers. The Wildcatters won the first two games but will soon face a squad unlike what they saw earlier this season. Charlotte used 17 players no longer on the team's roster in the first two games against Texas. "Two weeks ago is a long time in this league," Cameron said. "Two weeks ago, this team was very different, and two weeks from now it will be significantly different than it is today." Change occurs daily for ECHL teams. At this time, however, Cameron had little way of knowing an injury to his best skater hours later would cause him to make significant mid-game adjustments while his team nursed a one-goal lead. Surveillance Cameron changed into an all-black, nylon workout suit with a Wildcatters logo on the left breast for a morning practice. He began the session with power play units on the ice and later chided his entire team for a poor performance in passing drills. By 11:05 a.m., Cameron's players assembled in front of him and a 32-inch television, to which he linked his laptop to show video clips. Cameron stressed Charlotte likes to pass the puck by rimming it around the ends of the rink, from one side of the goalie net to the other. He tells his forwards to seal a passing lane to the front of the net when Charlotte is on a power play. Failure hours later to do this allowed Charlotte to score a goal in a second period that frustrated Cameron. Tim Cook, a rookie defenseman from the University of Michigan, sat in a bank of wood paneled locker stalls and watched Cameron speak. He is a 6-foot-4 New Jersey native with close-cropped blond hair. He said the video session helps players understand their opponents' tendencies. "When a person is watching a game it looks like guys are just doing whatever they're doing, but each guy has a specific job," said Cook, oftentimes responsible for clearing the puck from the Wildcatters' goal and preventing crossing passes to the other side of the net during opponents' power plays. "It's a lot more intricate than you think it is initially," Cook said. Cameron's next attempt to gain an edge for the night's contest came when he sat about halfway up the arena bleachers to watch the Checkers complete their midday practice. Wildcatters forward Marc Fulton stood in the doorway to his team's bench and watched with a different purpose. "He'll pick up subtleties in what they do," the 6-1, grizzled native of Vancouver, B.C., said of Cameron. "If they work the power play, he'll kind of see where they set up and stuff like that. I'm not (watching) with the same kind of purpose as Coach. I'm watching to see some guys I know." The middle of Cameron's game day typically consists of a workout, a trip home for lunch and a mid-afternoon return to the arena. By 4:45 p.m., Cameron sat at a desk in an office around the bend of an L-shaped hallway under the bleachers. Cameron's attire: a gray button-down shirt, a yellow and gray patterned tie, black pinstripe pants and black shoes with a silver buckle across the top. A black pinstriped suit coat rests on a hanger. On his right hand is a gold ring with a blue face and gold 'A' on top. "That's my college national championship ring," said Cameron, a 1993 graduate of Acadia University in Nova Scotia. Cameron said he wears the ring only on game days. "It puts me in a winning mindset," said Cameron, who reinforced his messages from the morning during a brief meeting at 5:45 p.m. Much like a baseball player who tailors a bat by sanding the handle and applying pine tar, hockey players sand and tape the tops and bottoms of sticks in the hours before a game. They check for stick flexibility by bending it toward the floor. After that, some players loosen up by kicking a soccer ball to each other. A few listen to music. Many talk about hockey. Game time By game time, players will have already skated an additional 20 minutes, retreated to the locker room and returned to the ice for starting lineup announcements. Assistant coach Leon Hayward arrived from a sales job in Houston at 6 p.m. A Wildcatters player last season, Hayward lives in Houston and coaches only in home games. "As a player, it's amazing how much you actually miss," said Hayward, in charge of defensemen during games. "But it's been a definite adjustment being a coach and seeing how the game is played. You see how the game develops more as a coach." Hayward called attention to Kevin Baker when he suffered a groin injury in the opening minute. Limited by the injury to power plays because those require less skating, Baker played through the pain and scored a second-period goal to extend his point streak to eight games. With Baker limited, Cook shifted from defense to forward. Cook shifted back to defense when David Schulz suffered a shoulder injury that put him out of the game in the third period. Put another player out of the game with a broken skate and another in the penalty box, and Cameron had limited options. "I took one of (Hayward's) guys," Cameron said of Cook. "Then somebody blows a skate, somebody gets hurt, one gets a penalty and now all of a sudden you have one (defenseman) left on your bench. And you're shifting guys around, going back and forth and changing your line combinations. "It gets tough when that happens, It always seems to happen at once. When that happens, as I said to the guys in the lockerroom, you still have to do what you do best. Just because you're playing more minutes doesn't mean you have to do something different." Cameron stepped off his team's bench for the final time Friday with his 184th regular season ECHL victory. Although he gets credit for the victory, he may have been stuck at 183 without additional input. In addition to Hayward, athletic trainer Haley Orwick informs Cameron of his players' health, as she did when she told him Baker should be limited to power plays during the first intermission. Wildcatters players Riley Emmerson and Dan Welch, inactive for the game, sat in the bleachers to chart turnovers and hits and reported to Cameron during intermissions. Team captain John McNabb instructed teammates when on the ice and shouted encouragement when on the bench. "Leon, when he's here, does a great job; I don't even pay attention to the D," Cameron said. "Then it's the players. Haley does a great job keeping them healthy. Phil (Shipp) does a great job getting their equipment and making sure they're ready for games. And then the players themselves, they're buying the message. "It's really good that we have veteran players who are selling the message on the bench and in the lockerroom so that I don't have to. That's really helped, players holding each other accountable." At the end of the night, Cameron leaned away from his desk with his tie removed and the top button of his shirt undone. He took a sip from a beer bottle. "I'm glad we faced a little adversity so we can see what guys are made of," Cameron said with more than half a season ahead of him.

That's Our Boys!!!! ;D

It was rather unfortunate that the Catters let, of ALLLL people, former Catter, Mike Bayrack score 2 goals! Our goal tender Peter Aubrey had some sort of brain farct when he decided to hang out and make friends with the puck BEHIND the net! It's kinda hard to block a shot on goal when you are not in front of the goal! > Also, it's a shame, our Boys were NOT playing at all like the same team that whooped Mississippi last week. There were times that they looked so bad, the pee wee league could have done better. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not dissing Our Boys, just expressing my frustration that they did not play to their potential. Just as in the first two seasons, we became accustomed to poor performance and loosing, the last two seasons have been polar opposites. We have become accustomed to awesome performance and the winning attitudes that come with it. I just hate to see them have such an off night! All in all, a win IS a win, and we'll take it!!!

Anyone?? Care to guess what they are doing?? What IS that tool that they hold?? ??? : What is a s-q-u-e-e-g-e?? Seriously, this was what was going on Dec. 28, 2007 in Pensacola, Fla. at "The Hangar", immediately after all practices were concluded. By game time, the glass around the entire rink sparkled, and was clear as could be. Did I mention, this is another SMG-operated facility?

Hmmm... I wish Mr. Personality well.

Still here, been out of town. Gee Buc, we didn't know you'd miss us so much! I guess we'll all have to check in every day or two and start a new Lumberton or L-TRAIN thread so you'll know we were here!

The kids learned a few "standards" alright. I think some of them may have picked up some of the standard hockey chants...but you won't find them on any TAKS test! Seriously, the kids ALL seemed to have a great time. The roar of the crowd was UNBELIEVABLE!! Absolutely awesome! There were 2600 kids, and they ALL were seated without any major problems, and we only had one slip through with the wrong group on the way out, but he was very quickly found and returned to his group! Lots of new fans! ;D

This should be interesting.... gotta be at the arena @ 08:00 to help all these little darlins find their seats... I just really, really, REALLY hope that their teachers have been instructed to keep the kids in their seats while the puck is in play!! In fact, I think I'll send Q a request to do that, right now!! Cookie, you got those bunny slippers out yet?? I'm looking for my mice slippers!

Congrats Dayton!! I hope all you fans welcome Your Boys home with the same Umph! you sent 'em off with! They deserve it! NO ONE on that team should hang their heads. They need to hold 'em up HIGH!! We're proud of you all, Broncos!!!

ShaZAAAAAAM!!!!

I wonder if there is a mass exodus of "fans" now?

Oh Lordy, I hear the Fat Lady warming up....

Chooo CHOOOO!!! They need SOMETHIN!!!! And quick!!