LV still on mend after all-star break

Nick Christensen

Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2004 | 9:41 a.m.

A week off is usually a good thing for an injury-plagued team that needs to catch its breath. Las Vegas Wranglers coach Glen Gulutzan had hoped his team would be healthy by now.

Most of his team had last week off, only practicing late in the week over the ECHL's all-star break. The two Wranglers all-stars, defenseman Dave Cousineau and forward Justin Kelly, were relatively healthy, with Kelly's broken hand nearly mended.

Yet coming into tonight's home matchup with the San Diego Gulls, Gulutzan finds himself with only eight healthy forwards ready to play -- things are so bad, Cousineau will play forward tonight. The Wranglers actually wound up with fresh injuries over the break.

Forward Tom Nelson injured his knee, and is out indefinitely. Blaine Bablitz, another forward, is out another two weeks with a leg injury, and Kelly was called up to Triple-A Lowell over the weekend. Eric Schneider scored a hat trick Sunday in the Wranglers' 6-3 win at Fresno despite playing with a sore shoulder.

"It has been a little frustrating. It's been tough, we're hoping to get guys healthy, and obviously going through a tough part of our schedule not very healthy," Gulutzan said. "We're going to look to pick somebody up. It's got to be the right guy... we're waiting to see who's available."

Besides dealing with injuries, Gulutzan also has to deal with one of the rustiest first-period teams in the ECHL.

The Wranglers are averaging just 8.8 shots-on-goal in the first period, third worst in the ECHL. In the following two periods, Las Vegas averages 9.7 shots-on-goal. Opponents average 12 shots-on-goal in the first period, compared to 10.75 per period in the final 40 minutes.

The slow start out of the gate -- Las Vegas has gotten more than ten shots on goal in only 14 of its 40 games -- has been a major point of frustration for Gulutzan, who is also the team's general manager.

"We've tried different things. We just seem to be slow starting hockey club," he said. "We're getting better here these last few games, but need to get out of gates better."

Especially tonight, against San Diego. Gulls goalies Trevor Koenig and David Burleigh have faced only 1,062 shots this year, less than any other team. San Diego handed Las Vegas their first regulation loss this season back in December.

The Gulls have also pulled into first place in the ECHL's Pacific Division, two points ahead of Las Vegas.

But Gulutzan said he's at a loss for what to try to get his team off to a hotter start.

"We've tried no morning skates, then morning skates; shorter warm-ups, longer warm-ups... it's just one of those things where we can't find a cure yet," he said. "I think basically, it's preparation. We just need to do a little better job preparing ourselves to start hockey games."