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After 20 games, the Blizzard had accumulated 71 goals for, showing their ability to get pucks on net and beat any goaltender in the league. However, after 20 games, they found themselves suddenly feeling empty. Their captain had gone down with an injury the game before, and without Lucas Smith, the team went south.

In their four games without Smith, they've had only four goals with three of them coming in one game. They're 1-3 without their leader, who in 19 games played has contributed 7 goals and 15 points to the Blizzard. Players were quick to express concern over losing such a vital piece of the offense.

"We need to get Smithy back quick," said Belial, another big scorer on the team. "We like to work things to him in the high slot, use his one-timer on the powerplay and get him to draw out defenders in even strength situations."

While the forwards are missing having their favorite passing target, the defense and goaltending are experiencing something else with his absence.

"There's really no one else on this team who commands such respect from the other team as Smithy does," says Jakub Aittokallio. "He draws them out and opens things up on offense, and really on defense he forces them to keep an eye on him."

One of the big keys to getting Smith back will be the shift back from facing more than 20 shots a game, to possibly around 17 shots per game instead. Aittokallio says the best part of their defense is the ability to control the puck and not really need much defense.

"When we have Smith out there, he's strong and he can fight through checks and slashes and hold on to the puck," says Aittokallio. "Weber, Keenan, Nurmi, they can do it too. But without Smith, there's a lot of people passing and not much finish here. We get him back, we'll get some shots off, make their defense get tired and then with our puck control offense, we won't be facing many big opportunities coming the other way."

While the players are excited to get him back tonight, the management is more excited to see their team whole again after seeing such a drop off in production without their captain.

"It's always great to get a leader back," says Cole Reinhart, teammate and general manager. "We now see just how valuable he is to our team, and we already knew before that he was a big piece of it. Getting him back is going to keep us at the top of the West, those games we lost him for, we started letting Calgary sneak back up on us."

Questioned about the possibility of making a trade to try and enhance the secondary scoring and take some of the pressure off Smith, Reinhart was expectedly secretive.

"Around this time of year, everyone is looking to improve their team in any way possible," says Reinhart. "We'll obviously look at all options to get ready for the playoff stretch, but there's no guarantees about anything. We fully believe in and support our guys and expect to compete this season just as we have before."

While there's no doubt they'll look into options -- the Blizzard have made an in-season trade for each of the past two seasons getting Mike Ochocinco and Emils Vilmenietis -- the players are simply looking forward to having their captain back on the ice.

"He really gives us a boost if we get down, and seems to always get a scoring chance out of awful angles," says Aittokallio. "He's something special, and it's great to see him back."</div>

Quote:[b]Word Count: 607. Just something short in appreciation of our captain and an idea I had.[/b]