Weekend Preview - Utah Grizzlies vs Idaho Steelheads

The Grizzlies are still in Idaho. Well, all except Tyler Ruegsegger, who got traded to Alaska yesterday. The Grizzlies are getting Maxime Tanguay in return, who is said to be one of the fastest skaters in the league. Like always, we'll miss Tyler, and wish him the best of luck in Alaska. Except when he's playing the Grizzlies.

Back to Idaho - the Grizzlies are stuck there until they play two games this weekend. Once they have accomplished that feat, they will be released into the maze that is downtown Boise where they will try to find their way to the path that will take them home to Utah. If this was a video game, they'd have to win on both Friday and Saturday nights, rescue a puck bunny, kill a vampire potato and build a lego bus before they made it to the maze. Thankfully, this game isn't being played in an alternate reality, because that sounds like about the weirdest video game ever known to man. However, we'd still like to see those two wins.

Utah recently battled their way out of a 4 game losing streak with an intense shootout win on Wednesday. Believe us when we say we were just as excited as anyone to see that win (except maybe Coach Colley). But now we really have to take a look at the standings. The Grizzlies are barely clinging to the conference lead by one point. While they were doing all that losing, Las Vegas was catching up. They are now breathing down Utah's neck, threatening to take over first place, so those 4 points available this weekend are crucial if they want to stay on top. Yes, we realize that it's still a long way to the playoffs, and leading the conference doesn't unlock some secret cheat once you get there that makes you invincible in the post season. But maybe it should. We'll work on that. (We just really like it when our team is in first place.)

We got the feeling after last weekend that the team was feeling somewhat worn out and pitiful, so we're hoping they got out of their funk with the win on Wednesday. We'd like that team back that kicked everyone's trash around the conference in December. Time to start kicking more trash, and Idaho is the perfect place to do it. Bonus points if they can get out of town before the trash gets cleaned up.

Idaho has only won 4 of their last 10 games, but two of those wins came against the Grizzlies. The Steelheads are always a tough team, even when they're not at their best. Utah can't be fragile for these two games. All that mental stuff that goes with a 4 game losing streak has to be out of sight, out of mind. We know one game isn't really a streak, but two is. So is three. That's this week's goal - 3 game winning streak, to be continued next week.

Puck drops at 7:10 tonight - the games can be heard on 1230 KFAN.