The old sports adage of not being able to tell the players without a uniform was never more apropos than on Friday night.
The Victoria Royals, with seven scratches, were beaten 2-1 by the Seattle Thunderbirds in Western Hockey League action before 5,305 fans at Accesso ShoWare Center in Kent, Washington.
Neither of the Royals鈥� 20-year-olds 鈥� Kody McDonald (injury), Ralph Jarratt (healthy scratch) and goaltender Griffen Outhouse (backing up rookie Brock Gould) 鈥� saw ice time Friday for a second consecutive loss.
Joining Jarratt as a healthy scratch on the Victoria blue line was Scott Walford, a third-round NHL draft pick of the Montreal Canadiens. Victoria call-ups for the game from the Midget ranks included affiliated blue-liners Kaden Reinders, Parker Malchuk and Noah Lamb.
The Royals (33-27-4) have clinched home-ice advantage for the first-round of the playoffs, beginning March 22 at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre. There are four regular-season games remaining for Victoria, so the Royals are pretty much playing out the string in a mostly meaningless stretch drive into the post-season.
But not all of Victoria鈥檚 absentees were coaches鈥� choices.
For Royal-watchers monitoring the team鈥檚 injury situation with the playoffs looming, top forwards McDonald and Kaid Oliver and top-four defenceman Matthew Smith did not play Friday. McDonald is day-today and Oliver week-to-week, both with upper body injuries. Smith is listed as out one week with an upper-body situation. Also out were forwards Sean Gulka, day-to-day, and Tyus Gent, listed as indefinite.
Seattle (27-28-8), meanwhile, has yet to clinch a playoff berth so had all to play for at home.
Victoria is in Spokane tonight to play a Chiefs team (36-20-7) that has clinched playoff berth and beat sa国际传媒 Division-champion Vancouver Giants 4-1 on Friday night.
鈥淲e鈥檒l monitor the situation day-by-day,鈥� said Royals head coach Dan Price Price, about filling out his roster sheets for the weekend games against the Thunderbirds and Chiefs.
