ECHL: Focus the key for Blades on long trip

Head coach Gerry Fleming cannot afford any distractions this week as his team tries to stay close to the top of the Eastern Conference's Southern Division. At 4-1-2 (10 points), Florida is in the middle of a brutal stretch of seven games in 10 days that continues tonight (10:05) at the Orleans Arena. Fleming wants to make sure his players are focused on those numbers and not the ones spinning on the slot machines.

"We made sure to get in a practice shortly after we arrived in Las Vegas (Monday)," Fleming said. "We needed to get some of the kinks out from the long flights and after the two games over the weekend, we obviously had some things to work on."

The Everblades dropped two overtime games to the Gwinnett Gladiators at TECO Arena, falling 4-3 in a shootout the first night and 3-2 in overtime. It wasn't quite the way Fleming wanted to end the homestand, especially not with facing four teams this week that they never have faced before (Las Vegas, the Long Beach (Ca.) Ice Dogs, the San Diego Gulls and the Bakersfield Condors).

First up are the expansion Las Vegas Wranglers (6-1-1), who just happen to lead the Western Conference's Pacific Division with 13 points. Two former Everblades will be in uniform for Las Vegas, goaltender Marc Magliarditi (6-0-0, 2.31 GAA, .933 save percentage) and forward Tom Nelson (one assist).

"I hope to get a chance to face 'Mags,'" said Everblades goalie Rob Zepp, who started the last three games for Fleming after Jeff Maund went down with a groin injury. "That will be a challenge and also will be pretty fun. But we do need to be careful during our down time because it's easy to lose a lot of coin out there."

Fleming hopes to have the services of a couple of banged up players, forward Keith Anderson and defenseman Peter Reynolds. Anderson pulled his hamstring in the second period of last Friday night's game with Gwinnett, and Reynolds bruised his ribs in the same game. Both players practiced Monday and will be a game-time decision.

Maund, according to Fleming, is day-to-day.

As far as the teams Florida will be facing on this West Coast swing, Fleming said he didn't know much but he had some idea of what to expect.

"Las Vegas is strong defensively and in nets and they're a tight group," he said. "San Diego I heard is physical with skill and Long Beach and Bakersfield are competitive."

After tonight's game, Florida heads to Long Beach for a 10 p.m. face-off Wednesday, then to San Diego for back-to-back games Friday and Saturday and finally to Bakersfield for a Sunday afternoon game. Fleming said he hasn't heard anything from the league regarding how the wildfires in the San Diego area might affect those games.