In case you missed it, the Florida Everblades made the playoffs for the 10th straight year. Thanks to changes made by the ECHL at the beginning of the year, Florida must survive through three rounds within their own division before reaching the American Conference Finals.

The Blades (39-25-8) start their run at the Kelly Cup Wednesday night at Germain Arena against the Columbia Inferno.

“We measure up well against (the Inferno),” assistant coach Jason Nobili said after Monday’s practice. “Of course, we have a lot of respect for them. They are a good team. We are the fourth seed and (Columbia) is the fifth seed and there is always a narrow margin between those two, but overall I think we match up well.”

The Everblades have plenty of game film to view in preparing for the Inferno. The teams faced each other eight times during the regular season with Florida enjoying the edge 4-3-1.

More importantly, the Blades have the home ice advantage where they were 3-1 against the Inferno this season.

It’s not home ice that is the Blades’ biggest advantage in the playoffs — key acquisitions and the experience gained by players on last year’s team will make the most difference.

Among those is Adam Taylor, who joined the Blades part way through last season and rejoined them again this year.

Injuries and call-ups to the AHL limited Taylor’s production, but he thinks this year’s team has the ability to go a long way in the playoffs.

“We have a real good team,” said the second-year veteran, “We have three lines that we can go to for scoring and we added guys with more grit or to fill certain roles that we lacked on last year’s team.”

Among those added to bring more grit for the playoffs are former NFL defenseman Brad Brown.

Brown, 32, was called up six weeks ago to the AHL, but is excited to be returning in time for a playoff run.

“We are all expecting a good playoff drive here,” said Brown. “We are all excited. You can feel it in the air — its playoff time.”

The Blades will need Brown’s leadership and experience if they hope to go farther in the playoffs than the American Conference Finals , where they lost to the Dayton Bombers last season.

The second game of the best-of-five series at Germain Arena is Friday night. After shifting to Columbia for games three and four, if necessary, the series returns to Germain Arena for the fifth game April 16.