Weekend Preview - Utah Grizzlies vs Idaho Steelheads

If you were here last season, you'll remember the Steelheads were the team that caused us to go home and eat cupcakes after the playoffs. Those were some good cupcakes. We're over that now though, and even though this is a pre-season game, we're glad to see the Grizzlies get back at it against an opponent other than themselves.

We know the team isn't finalized yet, and we could still see plenty of change, but these pre-season games are all about getting the guys working together and figuring out who has the ever-popular "chemistry" on the ice. With new guys trickling in every day, these games can be pretty important.

The five players Abbotsford has assigned so far (see here and here) have made it to Utah and should at least be around for the weekend games. No word yet as to who will be in the lineup, but considering ECHL.com lists only 20 players on the current Grizzlies roster, we guess there won't be many guys riding the pine. Two thumbs up for that. We're hoping they can get a team together early and stick with it through most of the season.

We are hoping to make it to the game in Logan to check out the team and see what's what. They're not selling tickets to the one in Idaho, so we guess crashing would be the method of operation for that one. We don't know how well that would work though, so we're not going to try it. That's a long drive just to get tossed out by old guys in Event Staff shirts.

Regular season starts next week.