Everblades relish home before trip
As the Florida Everblades prepare for a two-game set Friday and Saturday nights with the Augusta Lynx at Germain Arena, they do so knowing their longest road trip of the season lies ahead — a nine-game stint that will keep them away from Southwest Florida for nearly three weeks.
With such a lengthy road trip ahead, this weekend’s games perhaps could be considered more important than others. Not so, according to Blades coach Malcolm Cameron.
“Not really,” he said. “Games are games no matter where you play them, whether on the road or not. The only thing is we would like to go out on the road trip with some good momentum.”
Veteran Earnie Hartlieb mostly agrees, but takes this view:
“I think every home game is important and we want to try to win every one … The motto is you want to win at least 50 percent of your games on the road. Of course, we want to win more than that, but wins at home are most important and we want to try to win every one of them.”
On the flip side, Cameron is glad the long road trip is so early in the year and actually is looking forward to it.
“I’m glad we are doing the long trip early in the year,” he said. “While guys haven’t gone through the season blues — the grind that the regular season gets to be in January or February — it will be nice to get a quarter of our road games out of the way in one stretch, so I’m looking forward to it.”
With everything Cameron has to prepare the Blades for over the next month, he isn’t looking past the Lynx. His focus remains not on what the Lynx may bring to the Blades, but how the Blades will bring it to the Lynx.
“We are worried about our game right now,” he said. “We are just trying to improve our own systems, make sure we are sharp and make sure everybody is on the same page. For the first 20-25 games you worry more about how your team is playing rather than what you need to do to counteract another team’s system. We will be prepared and ready to go this Friday.”
To that end, Cameron is very pleased with the way his team has practiced recently.
“We’ve had a real good week of practice. The guys are ready to go this weekend,” he said of the preparations.
Blades fans will be hoping that effort translates to an extension of a current four-game winning streak.
Paiement called up: Blades defenseman Jonathan Paiement was recalled Wednesday to the American Hockey League’s Albany River Rats.
Paiement, 23, who participated in training camp with the River Rats and began the regular season there, heads back to the AHL having played in all nine Everblades games this season.
NHL makes call: Former Everblades goaltender Tyler Plante was called up to the National Hockey League’s Florida Panthers Wednesday. Plante will back up Panthers starting goaltender Craig Anderson.
When Plante ends up participating in an NHL game, he would become the 15th player to dress in an Everblades jersey and play in the NHL.
As a rookie in 2007-08, Plante played in 10 games with the Everblades, compiling a record of 4-5-1 with a 2.81 goals-against average and a .921 save percentage. The former second round draft pick (32nd overall) by the Panthers in 2005 also saw time in Rochester of he American Hockey League last season, going 6-16-1 with a 3.56 GAA in 25 games.