Mbaraga and Leserpance Re-Sign

Hello fellow Jackalope fans!  It is a cool, cloudy day here in the Permian Basin, and it's starting to look more and more like hockey weather!  Speaking of hockey weather, the Jackalopes training camp starts in just a little over a week,  the Jacks will play their exhibition games against Colorado in a little over two weeks, and finally the regular season will begin in just about three weeks.  I don't know about any of you, but I am ready for some hockey. 

 The main reason I am blogging today, though, is because it was announced yesterday that both Mike Lesperance and Patrick Mbaraga have re-signed with the Jacks for the upcoming season.  I'm still not exactly sure how to take this news, and probably won't know how to take the news until more signings are announced.  But, I will go ahead and give my opinion on both of these players, comparing the positives with the negatives of both players.

  Lets start with Lesperance. The positives of re-signing Lespo is that he is still very young, has plenty of potential to grow into a good player, and has tremendous chemistry with Jeff Pierce.  The only real negative that I see is that his points total actually went down in his second season with the Jacks instead of going up.  He also averaged only a point every other game, but like I just pointed out, he has great chemistry with Pierce.

  Now lets move on to Patrick Mbaraga.  I must admit that I was a little shocked to see Mbaraga return to the Jacks.  The guy is a decent physical defensive defenseman, and had a decent +/- rating last season, but he also took some very stupid penalties during crucial times last season, that often came back to bite the Jacks in the ass when all was said and done.  With that said, Mbaraga is a very physical player with some size, which is something that the Jacks lacked overall last season, so if he could cut down on taking stupid penalties, then he could really develop into a very good defensemen for the Jacks.

  Time will tell if either of these guys make the regular season roster, but from what I have been hearing, it will be pretty difficult for either of them to make the regular season squad.  The training camp is sure to be very competitive, and may the best men win a spot on the Jackalopes regular season roster.  That said, I would like to say welcome back to both Mbaraga and Lesperance, and I truly do hope that you guys prove me wrong and show that you are more than capable of getting things done for the Jacks.

  Now that I have covered the re-signings from yesterday for the Jacks, I am going to go ahead and wrap things up here.  If any other signings are announced soon (which should happen since camp is about to start in about a week) then I will definitely keep all of you updated on The Enforcer, so be sure to check the blog frequently.

In other Jackalope news:





5 Jacks Attend AHL Camp


• The Jacks have also announced that five of their players will attend the Bridgeport Sound Tiger's training camp, which is great for these players to get some exposure up in the AHL.  Congratulations to Joel Martin, Marc-Antoine Gelinas, Brady Leisenring, Pierre-Olivier Beaulieu, and Jean Bourbeau.  Remember that Bourbs has a two-way contract with the Jacks and Bridgeport, so I'm still not totally sure if he will start the regular season with the Jacks or Sound Tigers.  The selfish side of me is hoping that he plays with the Jacks, but the caring side of me hopes that he gets to play at the next level.  Either way, I wish Bourbeau all the success and luck in the world.
• The Jacks have also remained involved with the community, which is something that the Jacks have become very good at over the last couple of seasons.  They have proven that they truly do care about the community, and not to sound repetitive or anything, but I think it's time for the folks of the area to return the favor by showing up to support the Jacks in the quickly approaching regular season. 

Until next time Jackalope fans all I have to say is GO JACKS GO!!! and it's just a few more weeks until the regular season starts!