They are on the way

They've been picked up by the bus from Bloomington. Best guestimate is the game starts around 9:15, 9:30 p.m. our time.

I asked general manager David Franke why the team doesn't leave earlier on these long trips in case something like this happens, and he said, ``We give ourselves about a 20-minute window. In Bloomington we stop and the guys grab some coffee or a snack. We have run into things where we haven't been able to make that stop before a game. The problem is if you don't have any problems you are sitting over there three hours before a game. Any longer than two hours, the players have a tendency to sit there so long and lose their edge.''

He said Neil Musselwhite has a lower leg injury from blocking a shot Wednesday night. He does not think Chris Francis will be back from Springfield this weekend, but he has not heard anything definitive.