Banged-up Everblades back home
The Florida Everblades return to Germain Arena Wednesday night after a tough three-game road trip through divisional opponents culminating in a 4-1 defeat Friday at the hands of the Gwinnett Gladiators.
Despite the loss, the third-place Blades managed to earn three points on the trip. All things being equal, coach Malcolm Cameron is pleased with his team’s overall play.
“We played really well (considering) we were beat up,” he said, “We were missing Milan Gajic and Brandon Buck among others, but the team worked hard. The effort was there.”
One of the brightest spots of the trip was the return of Jacob Micflikier, who rejoined the team in time for Wednesday’s game at Charlotte. The next night Micflikier posted a career night with an impressive hat trick to go along with three assists, carrying the Blades to a 7-0 blow out win.
“He is one of the top offensive guys in the league,” said Cameron. “He brought a lot of life back into our offense, and really helped us in overcoming the injury bug that is hitting us right now.”
The injury bug seems to be a dominating theme right now. Besides Gajic and Buck, team captain Kevin Baker and D-man Peter Metcalf are nursing injuries, as well as rookie forward Elgin Reid on injured reserve.
All told, it’s a fair assessment that the Blades are hurting, but Cameron sees this as a good thing.
“Every team goes through stretches were a lot of guys are banged up, and we are no exception to that,” he said. “The good thing is, hopefully, we are getting ours out of the way early while other teams still have yet to go through it.”
The Blades return home for a six-game stand against North Division foes, beginning with the Toledo Walleye, who beat the Blades twice in three games at the start of the year.
The Everblades and Walleye begin a three-game series at 7:30 p.m. at Germain Arena Wednesday night.