It has been a rough couple of weeks for the Florida Everblades, who return for a three-game series with the Reading Royals on home ice at Germain Arena starting Wednesday.

When last here, the Blades lost three straight games to the Cincinnati Cyclones, and looked bad doing it. That skid continued through the first two games of their recent road trip, making it a six-game slide before posting a pair of wins against division rivals Greenville and South Carolina.

As a result, the Blades return with a record of 23-18-2 and in second place, just two points behind division leading Greenville.

Despite the struggle, Blades coach Greg Poss believes the team has learned a good lesson from it.

“It was good for the team (going through the ups and downs in recent weeks),” he said. “It taught us how to scrap and claw for every point.”

Most of the recent problems can be directly attributed to injuries and call-ups of key players. Most recently, it was points leader Mitch Fadden who went down with a blood clot in his leg.

“With all of the injuries and call-ups we’ve had to go through recently, we had to have guys play positions they don’t normally play,” explained Poss. “Guys like Ross Carlson have been forced to play a lot of defense for us but, that experience-learning of having to do what it takes to scratch and claw for a win has been a good thing for us, I think. I think it is making us a better team.”

The bottom line is, despite the losing streak, the Everblades are still in contention to win their division. The down side is they have four games in hand over Greenville, which has played four fewer games than the Blades.

The first game of the home series is 7:30 p.m. Wednesday with the rematch games Friday and Saturday nights.