EVERETT — The Everett Silvertips take the ice for the final time this preseason tonight, and with less than a week remaining before the start of the regular season the Tips are still playing the waiting game.
Everett takes on Seattle in their annual exhibition tilt at Kent Valley Ice Centre at 5:30 p.m. tonight, and because of absent players the Tips will have gone the entire preseason without fielding anything close to their expected first-choice lineup.
Everett still has 31 players on its roster, the most of any team in the league. But with seven players away at NHL camps and three others out with physical ailments, the Tips are still working with a skeleton crew.
And because it’s uncertain when or whether many of those players at NHL camps will return, the Tips are stuck until those situations are resolved.
“It’s frustrating for the coaches because we haven’t been able to practice together as a team,” Everett general manager Doug Soetaert said. “We’re implementing new systems, new forechecks and the way we’re going to compete. We’re waiting for people to come back to learn it, and there’s going to be some people who fall behind because they haven’t been here.”
Everett coach John Becanic took a philosophical approach to the situation.
“It is what it is,” Becanic said. “Every team has years they have to go through with this. I guess it’s the rebound effect from being successful. A lot of good things come from it, but one of the bad things is you lose your players for sometimes two or three weeks before the season starts.
“But it’s given our young guys a great opportunity, more opportunity than they would have gotten had those guys been back,” Becanic continued. “We’re finding out some of these young guys can kill penalties for us and play in key situations, so that’s the bonus of it. We’re going to look at the cup half full.”
But while it may have been a boon for the younger players, it’s still a pain for management as many of Everett’s most-pressing roster issues cannot be addressed.
For example, the Tips have six overagers on their roster — forwards Dan Gendur, Ondrej Fiala, Brennan Sonne and Brandon Campos, defenseman Dane Crowley and goaltender David Reekie. They can carry just three during the season. But Fiala and Crowley remain at NHL camps and decisions can’t be made until their status is known.
But wait, there’s more. No. 1 goaltender Leland Irving is also still at his NHL camp, so the Tips can’t make any decision regarding Reekie until it’s known when Irving is coming back.
Then add in the fact that Fiala would also take one of Everett’s two European slots, with the Tips already having two other viable Euros in forwards Lukas Vartovnik and Vitali Karamnov, and it becomes one big tangled mess that can’t be unwoven until all the loose ends are gathered.
“We’ve got scenarios for every situation,” Soetaert said. “But we’ll wait until we see the whites of everybody’s eyes and then we’ll make decisions on players. And we’ve talked to the 20-year-olds, they know the situation. We don’t know what’s going to happen, but we’ve got all our bases covered. We just have to wait and see what direction things go.”
Until then, the Tips will just have to deal with what they’ve got.
“Hopefully we’ll start hearing Tuesday or Wednesday next week about guys coming back,” Becanic said. “But right now we’ve got to prepare to play Tri-City and Vancouver (on opening weekend) with the guys we have here right now and have them play to the best of their abilities so we can try to get wins next weekend.”
As for tonight’s game, Reekie will not travel with the team because of illness, meaning Shayne Barrie will go the distance in goal. Also, forwards Jordan Mistelbacher (concussion) and Carter Smith (knee) are still recovering from injuries and will not play. Therefore the Tips will have just 21 players available.
Nick Patterson’s Silvertips blog: http://www.heraldnet.com/section/BLOG12
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