A league that schedules mostly back-to-back home games for the Victoria Royals, ostensibly because of the ferries, has no hesitation sending the Royals on a crazy cross-country trip back and forth across the width of Washington state.
The Royals, 6-3 losers to the Tri-City Americans on Wednesday night in Kennewick in eastern Washington, are in Kent in western Washington Friday night to meet the Seattle Thunderbirds, before heading back east across the state to play the Spokane Chiefs on Saturday.
The easy, two-hour Spokane-Kennewick jaunt is the usual back-to-back double for most Western Hockey League teams visiting eastern Washington. It does not usually include this lengthy and bizarre triangulation of having Puget Sound thrown right smack into the middle of the eastern Washington bookends.
鈥淲e鈥檙e just using it as good experience for the playoffs, where travel and short turn-arounds are the norm,鈥� said Victoria head coach Dan Price.
When Price is not juggling travel this week, he鈥檚 handling a rotating roster.
The Royals (33-26-4) have clinched home-ice advantage for the first-round of the playoffs, beginning March 22 at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre. There are five regular-season games remaining for Victoria, so the Royals are wary of deploying their resources unwisely over what is largely a meaningless stretch drive into the post-season.
The Royals sat out veteran defencemen Scott Walford and Ralph Jarratt on Wednesday in Kennewick and called up affiliated blue-liners Kaden Reinders and Noah Lamb from Alberta Midget Hockey League.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a chance to get [Reinders and Lamb] important minutes at the WHL level,鈥� said Price.
For Royal-watchers monitoring the team鈥檚 injury situation with the playoffs looming, leading forwards Kaid Oliver and Kody McDonald and top-four defenceman Matthew Smith did not play Wednesday. McDonald is day-to-day and Oliver week-to-week, both with upper body issues. Smith is listed as out one week with an upper-body injury. Also out are forwards Sean Gulka, day-to-day, and Tyus Gent, listed as indefinite.
鈥淲e鈥檒l monitor the situation day-by-day,鈥� said Price, about filling out his roster sheet for the weekend games in Kent and Spokane.
None of the Royals鈥� 20-year-olds 鈥� McDonald, Jarratt and goaltender Griffen Outhouse 鈥� saw ice time Wednesday.
At the other end of the scale, Price said he was happy with his Midget call-up defencemen: 鈥淩einders has bite to his game and Lamb is also aggressive and is physical and loves to mix it up and was getting under the skins of some of the Tri-City forwards.鈥�
Meanwhile, Phillip Schultz, who has represented Denmark in the last two IIHF world junior championships, has been in fine form of late and enters Friday night with five goals and seven point in the last four games for Victoria.
鈥淧hillip is doing nothing different. He is working hard and sticking to the process, and that pays off, and eventually you will be rewarded and the puck will start going in for you,鈥� said Price.
Friday鈥檚 opponent, Seattle (26-28-8), has yet to clinch a playoff berth. Saturday鈥檚 opponent, Spokane (35-20-7), has clinched a spot in the post-season dance.
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