Game day

"We all liked Spencer, but he saw his role differently than what we thought and wasn't happy with his situation," Tory said. "You have to bring your best every night. If you aren't happy, we can't have you in the dressing room. Our team is at the point where you have to give what's needed, even if it's not exactly what you want."

Based on this statement, if I were to take a wild guess, Spencer probably vocalized that he wanted more ice time, that he was unhappy with sitting in the stands. Being a teenager, he probably got to the point of frustration where there was some snarky attitude in his tone. I don't necessarily blame him, I know he worked hard in the off season to improve his play, but whatever. Obviously, I don't know what all goes on behind the scenes, but that statement from Bob pretty much says Spencer wasn't happy, if he's not happy, they didn't want him here.

Let's talk about happier things. It's game day. AMS face off against Portland, who just got hammered pretty hard by Regina. They're gonna be itching for a win. Hopefully AMS are itching even more after the curbstomp by those same Pats.

Tri-City may have three big games this week, but coach Jim Hiller is taking it one day at a time.

"We are approaching it as Portland (tonight) and nothing else," said Hiller, whose team is 2-0 against the Winterhawks this season. "We are narrowing the focus a bit. That's where we have to start -- bite-sized chunks."

After Saturday's 7-1 home loss to Regina that ended the Americans' nine-game win streak at Toyota Center, they can't afford to look further than the game in front of them.

"It was pretty clear where we broke down," Hiller said. "Did we learn anything? We'll find out (tonight). We have done a good job of bouncing back after losses. We've done good things, but when it doesn't go our way, we don't respond very well. We had a work day and now we are excited to play again. We just want to get our game back where it needs to be." (Herald)

Shinny will miss tonight's game but is slated to be back for the weekend games. Not sure what that will mean for the line combinations. It would be easy to plug in a kid like Olstad, Holland, or Moser into his spot without completely disrupting the other lines, but who knows. It's only one game so there will probably be some shuffling, especially depending on how they're playing against Portland.