For ECHL rookies the biggest adjustment to life as a pro hockey player often is the irregular schedule that varies wildly from week to week.

Last week, the Walleye played just one game. This week Toledo will play four times in seven days, including two morning games. Many weekends include the dreaded three games in two-and-a-half days with lengthy travel by sleeper bus as an added “bonus.”

“So far it's been a unique schedule,” said first-year forward Tyler Spezia, who is only a few months removed from a much more routine schedule at Bowling Green State University. “In college, you only have weekend games. You have the week off. There have been quite a few turnarounds here already. We've been on quite a few bus trips already.”

The Walleye played at Brampton in Ontario on Sunday before traveling to Wheeling. W.Va., on Monday for a morning game on Tuesday. Toledo will play the first of two special home “School Celebration Days” on Thursday at 10:35 a.m. at the Huntington Center. It is the third of four games the Walleye will play before noon this season.

“It's definitely different,” Spezia said. “Some guys have certain routines. But both teams are going through it. You just have to move the clock up.”

Spezia, who also played in a morning game at Kalamazoo in October, said the noise level from the crowd packed with excited school children creates energy on the bench.

“They are always loud and packed,” he said. “That gets our mind into it. You're playing for a bunch of kids who are excited to be there.”

MISSED MOMENT: In what was truly a dream come true, Spezia had the fortune to score his first pro goal with a group of friends and family in attendance.

When Spezia lit the lamp in the first period of the Walleye's home game against Idaho on Nov. 3, his mom, girlfriend, and friends were all on hand at the Huntington Center to witness the grand moment.

With one slight wrinkle.

“My mom was in the line at the concession stand,” Spezia said, chuckling. “She saw it on TV when she was in line.”

His mom Kelly, who was an athlete in her own right having played softball at Oakland University, still relished the milestone. She took pictures with her son on the ice at the Huntington Center after the game.

And her son also gave her the prized puck. She has it at the family's home in Clinton Township, Mich.

As a cherry on top, Spezia scored the momentous goal against his former BG teammate. Idaho goalie Tomas Sholl, who was with the Falcons from 2013-17, was the unlucky tender that night.

The former college teammates had had dinner the night before at a local restaurant and Spezia had warned Sholl that he would get one by him.

“If I could have picked a guy to score my first goal on it would have been him,” Spezia said. “He texted me later and he was real classy about it.”

The Michigander also grew up a huge Red Wings fan and said it's another dream come true to play for the storied organization.

“I grew up a huge Pavel Datsyuk fan,” he said. “It's great to be a couple steps below in the same organization. It's a team I still root for. It's been very humbling.”

EARLY SIGNS: Growing up in western Canada, Walleye D-man Brenden Kotyk was part of a community that lived and breathed hockey. Coming from an athletic family, Kotyk said his father would always be a willing partner for some pick-up hockey in the backyard in Regina, Saskatchewan.

His dad had played football and his mother played basketball. The father learned very early on that his son — who is now 6-foot-6 and 225 pounds — had a heavy slap shot.

“My dad would come home and throw the goalie pads on and I'd shoot as hard as I could. I remember knocking his glasses off one time,” Kotyk said.

HIDDEN TALENTS: Like many young pro players, Kotyk and his teammates often fill their free time watching movies and playing video games. He favors comedies and loves the war film Behind Enemy Lines. But Kotyk also has developed a special talent.

“I'm very good at remembering movie quotes,” he said. “If that was a degree in college, I would have been very successful at it.”

Fellow big man Ben Storm (6-7, 230) also enjoys a hobby that is popular among a lot of minor league athletes.

“I really enjoy playing the acoustic guitar,” he said. “I like to listen to rock and roll and just about any kind of music. But when I play guitar, I like to play country.”

Among the other pastimes for Storm are watching football and playing golf. He also likes to fish in the summers in his hometown in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. But is he practicing cannibalism now?

“We catch a lot of walleye up there in the U.P.,” he said. “It's a blast walleye fishing up there.”

Contact Mark Monroe at mmonroe@theblade.com, 419-724-6354, or on Twitter @MonroeBlade.

First Published November 15, 2018, 12:15 p.m.