Killer Bees coming to North Texas

Texas Brahmas host Rio Grande Valley at NYTEX

The Texas Brahmas will host the Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees on Tuesday night for the first of four meetings between the Southeast Division rivals this season. Three of those meetings will take place at the NYTEX Sports Centre.

The Killer Bees started the season off strong with a 5-0-0 record but have since gone 4-7-2 and remain in third place in the division with 20 points. They are 3-4-0 on the road thus far. They rank 10th in the league with a 17.39 powerplay percentage and 8th in the league with a 82.17 penalty kill percentage. They are also the second least penalized team in the league behind the Brahmas.

The Bees have struggled with inconsistency as of late and have seen the return of last season's problem with players doing their own thing rather than acting like a team.

Veteran forward Ryan Shmyr has been a bust with only one goal on six shots in 18 games played thus far.

Rookie head coach Chris Brooks has yet to make any significant modifications to his roster but may want to consider some changes soon if he wants to compete with teams like the Brahmas and the Bucks.

The Bees had a dismal 16-41-7 record last season, the worst in the league. The team suffered from a lack of effective defense and several players who seemed apathetic and unwilling to display any sense of toughness as they were pushed around by almost every team they met.

The team has had some solid performances from right wings Jesse Bennefield who leads the team in scoring with 20 points (7 G, 13 A) and Robin Bouchard who is right behind him with 19 points (6 G, 13 A). Keep an eye out also for rookie forward Zak McLellan and rookie defenseman Nicolas Dumoulin who have shown a lot of promise so far this season.

I would expect Wylie Rogers in the net. He is 6-5-1 on the season and is ranked 17th in the league with a 3.48 GAA and 13th with a .901 save percentage.

The Bees will be without left wing Trevor Weisgerber who is out on injured reserve. The Brahmas will be without Matt Burto, Pete Rouleau and Kevin McLeod, all out on injured reserve.

The game begins at 7:05pm and can be seen on Nifty-TV.

Image Credit: Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees