Mark Morrison is taking a page out of the NFL coaching book, where Monday is often a hard practice day for Sunday’s losing teams while Sunday’s winners are rewarded with a light or off day.

The Victoria Salmon Kings GM and head coach said tomorrow will either be a complete day off for his players to roam Sin City or a day cluttered with sweaty practise, depending on the results of tonight’s ECHL encounter against the Las Vegas Wranglers at the Orleans Casino Arena. Call it Morrison’s Vegas Rules as his team plays the Wranglers tonight, Thursday and Friday.

Since Vegas has no major-league teams, it is coaches in the ECHL who come in to play the Wranglers and Triple-A skippers in baseball’s Pacific Coast League who play the Las Vegas 51s (named after Area 51 with a logo featuring an alien) who have the thorny job of pioneering what constitutes appropriate behavior for pro athletes while in the bright and decadent desert metropolis.

“If we win [today] then [tomorrow] is off for the guys. If we don’t win, the schedule will be much tighter and regimented,” said Morrison.

Regardless, Morrison said a standard of behavior is expected on the road whether the team is on the Strip or what passes for a strip in downtown Stockton or Bakersfield.

“It’s about being adults and looking after yourselves and most guys know that,” said Morrison.

“In a sense, it works the other way around in Vegas. Coaches are so concerned about their teams being in Vegas, and talk about it so much to the team, that the guys tend to go to bed earlier in Vegas than they

normally would.”

These aren’t wide-eyed juniors looking at the Strip for the first time.

“The players know this is their job and they are here for business,” said Morrison, who does not impose curfews.

“Vegas has always been good for us [in terms of results on the ice] and we’ve never had any issues [off the ice]. There is a time for some fun, if it’s earned on the ice, but everybody is acutely aware of our rules and our schedule.”

The Salmon Kings (6-11-1) are showing signs of resurgence at 5-2-1 in their last eight games after a 1-9 start. Las Vegas (6-12-1), farm team of the Phoenix Coyotes, is free-falling the other direction and is winless in its last seven games, including six regulation-time losses, and has eight regulation losses, an overtime loss and only one win in its last 10 games.

Victoria goaltender David Shantz, who stopped 47 of 48 shots in two home victories last weekend over the Los Angeles Kings-affiliate Ontario Reign for a 0.50 goals against average and .979 save percentage, will get the start tonight.

“I’ve made the mistake before [of replacing a hot goaltender]. We’re going to ride Shantz as long as he keeps rolling at the level he has been,” said Morrison.

ICE CHIPS: Vancouver Canucks-contracted forward Dan Gendur, a native Victorian recently released by the Salmon Kings, has been signed by the ECHL Chiefs of Johnstown, a town made iconic in minor-pro sports lore by the fictional Charlestown Chiefs in the film Slap Shot . . . Defenceman Noel Coultice, a graduate of the OHL Erie Otters, was released by Victoria yesterday without having played a game this season. “We kept Noel around as security as we gauged what was happening to our defence, and he never really got a fair crack at it,” said Morrison. “Because of our record, we could never get him in the lineup. Hopefully, we can find a place for him, perhaps in the

Central League.”