Tonight the Buffalo Bandits face off with the Toronto Rock at the Air Canada Centre. The Bandits have made several moves this week, including activating captain and 22 year veteran John Tavares for tonight’s game.
To make room, they placed forward Tracey Kelusky on the Injured Reserve. They also released rookies Hayden Smith and Kevin Brownell while they activated Mat Giles and Mike McNamara.
The right side will be a little weaker without Kelusky but he is replaced quickly by Giles, who they have missed all season. The left side is also instantly stronger with Tavares back in the fold.
Tavares has missed three games this season but still has 14 points. Giles hasn’t seen any action since last season, but over his career he has always been a good scorer.
“We worked on switching up the D a bit, trying to get everything where everybody understands it.” said head coach Darris Kilgour on the league conference call yesterday.
“It’s a team we love to play because of the intensity they bring,” said Rock GM Terry Sanderson on the same call. “We have a lot of respect for Darris and the Bandits.”
Toronto is atop the league standings with a 6-2 record. They lead the east by far with 97 goals scored on the season, led by 51 points from Garrett Billings and 43 from captain Colin Doyle.
This is also an interesting goaltender matchup with Anthony Cosmo of Buffalo facing his former backup Nick Rose. Rose is second in the league with a goals against average of 10.35 while Cosmo has struggled a bit at 12.91.
Game time is tonight at 7:30pm as Buffalo looks to move up in the standings and Toronto looks for separation.
