It was the proverbial tale of two cities for the Florida Everblades in their season-opening series against the Charlotte Checkers at Germain Arena.

Make that a tale of two teams.

In their opening night 6-3 victory, the Blades looked every bit of the offensive juggernaut that coach Malcolm Cameron and Team President Craig Brush put together this offseason.

Their second game didn’t go quite as smoothly, as they skated to a disappointing 3-1 loss Saturday night.

“We didn’t get the breaks (in game two) that’s for sure,” Cameron said. “The first period we really came out smoking, played hard, created some chances and played our style of hockey, but in the second period, I don’t know who was out there playing but it sure didn’t seem like my style of hockey team.”

In the second game, Cameron’s assessment was dead on.

Ernie Hartlieb scored for the Everblades within the first two minutes of the contest, giving Florida an early one-goal lead and it looked as if the Blades would be off and running with yet another victory.

Unlike game one, though, that would be all the offense that the Everblades would generate.

Despite a 36-20 edge in shots for the contest, the Checkers seemed to get every bounce of the puck throughout the remainder of the contest in route to scoring three unanswered goals.

“Maybe guys were thinking they could take some time off and still have the ability to score,” said a stern Cameron of his teams play, “but the Charlotte Checkers are a heck of hockey team. They are a very good team and their goaltender played well.”

Cameron went on to emphasize that it’s a long season and that with the south division now condensed to just six teams, there will be no easy matchups for Florida this season.

“Whether you win tonight and didn’t play well, that’s almost worse than losing and not playing great. It’s a good lesson to learn because we are going to play another good team in South Carolina next week.”

The lesson which Cameron spoke of was the need to play 60 full minutes of hockey.

In his assessment, Florida only played 35 “or so” minutes worth of hockey, which was something Cameron was not pleased about.

Regardless of the outcome in game two, Cameron was happy with how his teamed played, but he did see some things that he felt needed some work.

“There are some guys who have to bring their fitness level up to where it needs to be,” he said, “Another thing is that we have to focus on the beginnings of every period and stop taking multiple penalties. You just dig yourself an early hole (when you do that) and with the speed we have there is no reason why we should be taking hooking and holding penalties, it’s just lazy.”

The Everblades (1-1-0-0) continue their season at home this weekend when they host the South Carolina Stingrays (1-1-0-0) Friday and Saturday at Germain Arena.