The Shreveport Mudbugs will begin their title defense of the Robertson Cup Championship on Wednesday afternoon in Blaine, Minnesota in NAHL Showcase. The Mudbugs will play four games on Wednesday through Saturday against teams that they may not face again this season unless they meet in the Robertson Cup Finals. Shreveport ended its last season in the exact place that they will begin this year. One of the key matchups will be a rematch of the championship against Aberdeen Wings. The Mudbugs surprised the team who had only lost 4 games all season in the finals.
“It is exciting. It’s a good event,” Coach Jason “Soupy” Campbell said. “It’s a great opportunity for the guys. It’s a great opportunity for the coaches and scouts for the NAHL and the colleges out there. It’s a great opportunity for all of us to get together and mix and mingle and meet, build relationships. It’s a great opportunity for the boys to perform. They get to get their names on some team’s radars so they can be looked at through the year so that they can continue to play to the standards we expect them to, the schools expect them to, to get committed in the long run. It’s a good event it’s a lot of hockey so you have to prepare yourself as best yourself going in because you don’t have the luxury of a lot of video analysis or anything like that. Because you are facing teams that you may only be one and done.”
Like mentioned before, the last ice that the Mudbugs played on in a regular-season or playoff was in June in Blaine, Minnesota. The boys were home a month and then had to come back to Louisiana. “It was c concern knowing that some of our guys were home a month and then back,” Coach Campbell said. “At the same time, long as they’re healthy, they’re good to go. They’re young and in good shape. It’s something we have to monitor through the year but something we do every year anyway. We monitor the to rest ratio. Sometimes too much time off and guys are. just itching to get back. So about a month, a month and a half, guys start pushing it. Guys are just hungry to get back. Coaches are ready to get going again. We’ll just do what we normally do. They need rest, we’ll give them rest. We feel they can keep plugging away, we’ll keep plugging away.”
The Mudbugs are taking a large roster to Blaine and it’s still an evaluation process for the team to see who fits in their system. “We still have a lot of players here,” the championship-winning coach said, “We’re still going to have to make a lot of moves. Going into Blaine isn’t a bad thing to have a larger roster than normal. You can move guys in and out of the lineup from game to game basis which can come in handy when you’re playing four games in four days with travel and all that. Guys get hurt, guys get tired and it’s again it’s an opportunity where we’re not so worried about going 4-0 there. Yeah, we want to win, but we want to see how many guys can play the brand of hockey that we want to play and hopefully it’s everybody. And that makes our decision tough once the showcase is over to try to trim the roster down a little bit. We’re just excited for the opportunity and see these guys perform.”
Shreveport will begin at 4:30 on Wednesday as they will face the Minnesota Magicians from the Midwest Division. Thursday will be the championship rematch with the Aberdeen Wings at 7:15 pm. Friday, the Mudbugs will face the Janesville Jets at 2:45 pm. They will wrap up on Saturday at 3:15 pm against the St. Cloud Norsemen.
Shreveport will get their first taste of home ice on Sept 25 & 26 against the United States National Hockey Team. Sunday will be the Mudbugs Alumni game.
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