With three games in three days on the horizon, the Moose Jaw Warriors are back at Mosaic Place this afternoon for practice.
The team took Monday off to rest up any bumps and bruises and will be back on the ice to make preparations for games later this week.
The tribe's backend has been dealing with a number of injuries throughout the season, the latest concern is with Morgan Rielly.
The sophomore defenceman was banged up in the third period of Sunday's game against Calgary. Head Coach Mike Stothers says there' no update available at this time, but hopes to have more information later today after a further evaluation.
"Really don't want to speculate on the nature on the injury or how long he's going to be out. It just seems that for whatever reason since August 24th when we started training camp and started this whole process, everyone kept saying we had good depth and the strength of our defence."
"They seem to be the guys getting hit, we seem to lose one every game. Joel (Edmundson) won't be long, Dylan (McIlrath) should be back shortly, and hopefully the news on Morgan will be better than we were expecting," added Stothers.
Stothers says Edmundson and McIlrath start the week listed as day to day after missing action last weekend. "They're getting closer, barring any set backs. I think there's a strong possibility that Dylan could be ready for Thursday, one never knows. We try to remain optimistic and see what we can get," said Stothers. "In the meantime, we've had the luxury of (Travis) Brown, (Braiden) Doucette, and (Shayne) Gwinner taking on bigger roles and added minutes."
As the team deals with their injuries and the rookies get added ice time, Stothers says veterans Dallas Ehrhardt and Kendall McFaull have also been playing strong. "They don't like the lime light, they don't like the focus, they just go about doing their jobs, and they do it very well."
"Dallas had some early struggles at the beginning of the season, he's a notorious slow starter and he's just rounding into his game. With Kendall, here's a guy that's just back from an injury and he's logging 32 minutes game and it doesn't seem to phase him," added Stothers.
As the Warrior practice today, they'll be getting ready for three games in three night which starts Thursday in Regina against the Pats. The team rolls in riding a season high five game winning streak, and Stothers says the players are keeping grounded and focusing on the games coming up.
"You know through it all our guys have been pretty even keeled. We didn't get to upset when we came back from that road trip 0-3, we just knew that we needed a little bit better, we weren't scoring goals at the time, but it was no need to panic. When you're winning you don't think things are going to be easy either. You go back to work, you prepare, you plan, you focus, and you work hard and get your little details done."
The Warriors schedule starts Thursday in Regina, the home and home series with the Pats shifts to Moose Jaw Friday, they close out the weekend Saturday with their first trip to Swift Current.
All three games can be heard on Country 100, DiscoverMooseJaw.com, and mjwarriors.ca, coverage will begin with the PreGame Show at 6:40pm all three nights.
Tuesday WHL schedule;
Calgary v Swift Current
Brandon v Saskatoon
Seattle v Medicine Hat
Edmonton v Victoria
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