Blades’ hopes take a hit
The Florida Everblades have just three games left in the regular season. Three games to secure a spot in the ECHL Kelly Cup playoffs. A situation they were hoping to avoid heading into this week’s three-game serieswith the Wheeling Nailers at Germain Arena.
Entering the series, Everblades coach Greg Poss said the team’s goal was To win two of three games each of the last two weeks of the regular season. After winning Friday night’s matchup with the Nailers, all the Blades had to do was win and they were in the playoffs. From the opening drop of the puck Saturday night, the 5-0 shutout loss at Germain Arena, the Everblades never seemed ready to make hockey’s second season.
“We need to straighten some things out,” said frustrated Blades coach Greg Poss. “First off, when the effort isn’t there, the execution is’t going to be there. It’s not like we do this every night, it’s about being consistent.”
Consistency has been at the core of the Everblades problems all season. One night they play like they could win the Kelly Cup, and follow a performance like that with one like Saturday night where nothing works because the team didn’t give the effort.
“We’re not talking about whether or not 100 percent effort, we are talking about guys giving 98 or 99 percent and that one percent can make a big difference.”
Though Poss said he reserved his anger for after the first period Saturday night, he kept the team in the locker room for 45 minutes before opening the locker room to the media. What happened behind closed doors can only be speculated on, but according to Poss he opened the discussion to everyone.
One of the topics – where the team is heading as they try to make the playoffs.
“We talked about where are we going with the postseason,” said Poss. “Because this is what we are doing and this is how we are playing. We can beat any team in this league, but we can lose to any team in this league. We got (beat) tonight, we have to learn from this.”
If there is a lesson to be learned, the Everblades (36-28-4) have to learn it quickly as they prepare to face the South Carolina Stingraysin the final three-game series with their playoff hopes still in the air. The season-ending series against Stingrays begins Wednesday.