Among the Toledo Blade’s Mark Monroe’s “Walleye Weigh-In” notes:
Despite fielding a seriously depleted roster, the Walleye swept a three-game weekend series at the Huntington Center and moved back into first place in the Central Division.
The Walleye were down to 15 skaters for their third game in three days on Sunday. Toledo was missing three players due to injury (Alden Hirschfeld, Connor Crisp, and Patrick McCarron) and one to bereavement leave (Kevin Gibson). The team also is without four players due to call-ups to the American Hockey League (Zach Nastasiuk, Mike Esposito, Christian Hilbrich, and goalie Matej Machovsky).
“It’s hard. It was a tough weekend,” Watson said. “To grind out [Saturday’s] win was the hardest one. We put a lot of stress of these guys. We had some tired guys today but they pushed through it.”
The Walleye had six defensemen and nine forwards in Sunday’s 5-2 win over Greenville.
Fortunately, forward Mike Borkowski and defensemen Beau Schmitz were back in the lineup after stints on the injured reserve.
Watson said was the key to earning six out of six points with decimated roster was getting to the net and getting shots on goal with better puck management.
Also:
Walleye coach Dan Watson said the trade today of D Davis Vandane to Atlanta for F Colin Jacobs was needs based: “We have been playing short up front for the past couple weeks. I certainly want to thank Davis for his contributions to the team and wish him nothing but the best.”
— Mark Monroe (@MonroeBlade) February 27, 2018
Dan Watson on forward Colin Jacobs, who has 22 points (9 G, 13 A) in 39 games for Atlanta: “We expect Colin to come in and help complement the forward group already in place. He’s a big body who is highly skilled, plays center and wing, and has a good compete level.” https://t.co/3ZipSr6d3D
— Mark Monroe (@MonroeBlade) February 27, 2018
