Saints/Cowboys prediction and tonight's rookie party

It was a good weekend in Memphis. We got the two points and were able to check out Beale Street. We visited our friend Jimmy at Superior in Memphis. Dinner was great. We got a bit of a discount.

It was good to go do something different, we normally do a lot of generic restaurants. We go to Applebee’s or Outback all the time, so it was great. He took us right down Beale Street. They moved the barriers for us and let the bus park right down Beale Street.

It was perfect.

We have six days "off," but that's really not the case.

We have to keep working hard in practice. We had that team building session and we set a high standard. We can’t slip off that high standard just because we have a couple of wins. The key to Mudbugs’ success in the past is to keep pushing each other and keep working hard.

Tonight we have the rookie party, which is a great experience. A lot of people laugh at the rookie party. Some people don’t like it, but if anybody has ever been on a team. It’s so important to get to know your guys and go out and have a beer with fellow teammates you go to battle with.

The rookies love it just as much as the veterans. They know they're part of this team, and this year a big part. We have seven rookies. We’re going to need them and we need to be a close-knit team. We’re going to dinner at Roadhouse and then we’ll head downtown.

But today's real event is the Saints-Cowboys game!

I’m in between because I like them both. But I’m kind of rooting for the Cowboys this year because of Tony Romo.

Cowboys it is.

Big win for the boys!

The boys are happy right now. We looked at tonight like we only had a couple of wins on the road and we needed to get things going. It was a desperate situation and we got the job done tonight.

We had a good first period, not a great first period, but a good first period. Our second period was a little lackluster and then we had a great third period, great overtime.

If we ever can get a little more consistency and play three solid periods I think that’s when you’ll find we’ll get more shots and more chances.

Give credit to Brian Sutherland for help with the winning goal. He did a good job keeping the puck in and got it deep to Forbie. Forbie and I have played together for awhile. While we haven’t been clicking right on lately, I drove the net and he put it right on my tape. It was a tap-in goal.

We almost wish we could get right back on the ice tomorrow, instead of waiting another week to play. When you’re on a roll, you like to keep going. We’re just starting to get this train on the right track. We’re not overconfident – there is a lot of stuff we still have to work on. Practice will help, maybe we’ll get our power play going.

Gotta go, tomorrow is the rookie party. I’ll post more on that tomorrow.

Headed to the rink

We're about to head to DeSoto Civic Center to play Memphis. We have them three times in the next couple of weeks. These are four-point games, so we can get right back on top.

Rivalries may take you off your game a little bit, so we have to stay very disciplined.

You can't get caught up in the B-S. You have to worry about going to get the two points.

Memphis' power play has won them games.

I take a lot of responsibility for our last loss to Memphis. My penalty cost us the game I feel like. No one is perfect, we have to learn from it. Hopefully we did.

It seems like when we're down a guy and our backs are against the wall, we play a little harder. We draw more penalites when we play that way -- playing harder. But you can't take stupid penalties when you're short guys on the bench. It's just going to make those guys work twice as hard -- especially when you have back-to-back games.

Hopefully tonight will go as well as Thursday, or my golf game early this week. I played with my buddy Matt Locke and his boys at East Ridge. I shot 76 and escaped with some $$.

By the way, someone read yesterday's blog and asked me why I didn't tell Jessica Simpson I was the biggest celebrity in Shreveport. That's simple. I'm not.

Eating in Memphis

Welcome back!

We're in Memphis and tonight we ate some delicious food.

Our friend Jimmy, he used to own Flannagans and Fatty Arbuckle’s in Shreveport, has a place up here. We stopped by and he gave the boys the hookup!

First about Thursday.

That was a big win. I heard Roy Lang was taking some heat for naming me the number 1 star. It's my first star of the season. I don't think Kenny will mind. I just care about getting the win.

We're one of the best defensive teams in the league right now and that's because of him and Johnny DeCaro. They are the backbone.

I had put a lot of pressure on myself lately because the point production and the winning weren't there, but I have to try to remember, you're not going to see a lot of guys be on top in scoring because of the defensive style we play.

It’s going to take every one to win, just like Thursday against Wichita.

We were excited. We’ve been really working on the power play a lot. I give credit to a team that keeps battling like they have.

We’re still a little under .500, but this is the time where we have a chance to start taking steps toward the top.

We kind of fell before, we’re up and down, so we’re trying to get some consistency in our game to get to the playoffs. We just can’t wait to long or else we’re going to get behind the 8-ball.

This week has been interesting on and off the ice.

Monday, we did some team-building at the CenturyTel Center.

Any time you have a new team and you get to know guys, it's going help when youre on the ice. You battle for each other. One guy goes in, every guy goes in to protect each other.

Team chemistry gets overlooked far too often. One guy that doesn’t and has his own little business – and does well with it – is Musky. We had a 4 ½-hour team building session and I'm telling you, it was unbelievable. We did bunch of exercises and tried to figure out what direction we were going as a team.

If you don’t have a direction, you really don’t know where youre headed, you're kind of assuming things. The team set our own direction and what we wanted to accomplish in the next few games and practices. Overally, everyone said they wanted to win a championship. If you didn’t say that – you don’t want to be on the team.

Off the ice, it was pretty crazy. Tuesday night, I went to dinner at Superior Grill with some friends and saw Jessica Simpson. She was there with her dad and actor Luke Wilson.

It was pretty funny to see a bodyguard AND a cop there to "protect" her.

My wife asked her for a picture. She said yes, but then blew her off. Not such a big fan of her anymore.

Of course, it would be great for the team if Jessica and her entourage would come to the CenturyTel for a game while she's shooting her movie here.

Check back tomorrow for more on Memphis and what it's going to take to get this thing headed in the right direction!