EVERETT — The Everett Silvertips coaching staff has been grilling the team’s players on basic math skills. But the players are still earning failing grades.
During the past week, Everett’s had a serious issue with the simple task of putting the right number of players out on the ice. That inability to master basic counting has led to frequent penalties for too many men on the ice, and those penalties have proved costly.
And head coach John Becanic is fed up with the unnecessary mistakes.
“To be blunt, it’s stupidity on our players’ part,” Becanic said. “They know that when they’re coming on the ice they can’t touch the puck until the other player has gone off.
“It’s frustrating,” Becanic added. “It’s not like the players aren’t educated on how to do a line change. We pride ourselves on working every detail, but this has been happening the last few games.”
Everett’s been dinged for having too many men on the ice six times in the past four games. That’s included instances at the most inopportune times. Twice Everett has been called for too many men in the final two minutes of one-goal games. In Saturday’s 2-1 victory over Vancouver, the Tips had to fend off a lengthy six-on-four power play as the Giants pulled their goaltender for an extra attacker. Then in Tuesday’s 6-4 loss to Kamloops a late too-many-men penalty prevented the Tips from pulling their own goaltender for an extra attacker when they were just one goal down.
The problem really came to a head at Kamloops when the Tips were called three times for too many men. The Blazers scored twice on the resulting power plays, rallying from a two-goal deficit.
“It would be different if we thought they were questionable calls, but they made the right call all three times,” Becanic said. “The frustrating part was when we were ahead 4-2, we were in complete control and Kamloops was kind of dead in the water. Then we shot ourselves in the foot.”
Becanic said he’s not sure why the Tips have suddenly been afflicted by a disease that seems easily preventable.
“It’s certainly not from a lack of awareness,” Becanic said. “I don’t know if guys are going on the ice and are so focused on what they’re trying to do that they don’t think about the line change. We’ve tried to fix the problem, but there’s no button you can push to prevent a player from touching the puck.
“We’re going to have to find a punishment suitable for taking stupid penalties.”
Slap shots: Everett will be without defenseman Dane Crowley for this weekend’s games. Crowley suffered facial cuts and a concussion after being hit by Kamloops defenseman Mike Gauthier during Tuesday’s 6-4 loss. Although no penalty was called on the play, Becanic said the team was considering sending a tape of the hit to the league for review. … Crowley joins a lengthening list of key players on Everett’s injury list. Becanic said both right wing Dan Gendur (shoulder) and center Zack Dailey (wrist) are close to returning.
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