Published: Friday, March 27, 2009
Silvertips' offense skating on very thin ice
Everett's suffering because injuries have the team down to basically one line.
EVERETT -- The Everett Silvertips' offense is looking a bit top-heavy.
Three games into its first-round playoff series against Tri-City and Everett has been reduced to one offensive line because of injuries. That makes the Tips' task all the more difficult against a team with an abundance of offensive firepower like the Americans, who lead the best-of-seven series two games to one.
"It's what we have," Everett coach John Becanic said. "I can't close my eyes, click my heels three times and hope we have another scoring line."
Because of injuries, Everett was forced to put all its offensive eggs in one basket. The Tips, thin up front to begin with, already were playing with a limited Daniel Bartek, whose broken hand greatly reduces his offensive effectiveness. The pickings became even slimmer when Kellan Tochkin, the team's leading scorer during the regular season, went down early in Game 2 with an upper-body injury.
With offensive resources dwindling, Everett dealt with the situation by putting Shane Harper, Byron Froese and Tyler Maxwell on a line together, thus reducing the Tips to essentially one offensive line.
It's worked out all right for that line. Maxwell has scored five goals in the first three games, with Harper and Froese each dishing out three assists. All three have a plus-2 rating, the only Everett forwards in positive territory.
"It's nice that I'm scoring, but it would be even better to see other guys putting the puck in the net," Maxwell said. "It's always nice to see other people who don't usually score put the puck in the net. It always pumps the team up when they produce."
However, bunching all of the offensive players on one line also makes things easier for the opposition. With the Tips relying on one line, it's allowed the Americans to focus their defensive attentions.
"(Tri-City defenseman Tyler) Schmidt plays like the whole game and he's a really good player, and him and (Mitch) McColm are out there most of the time with us," Harper said. "When you're out there with the top D like that it's harder to get things going."
Relying on one line is nothing new for the Tips. An injury-riddled second half often saw the Tips limited to one offensive line -- and Everett's record suffered because of it. But the Tips have had plenty of opportunities to experiment with how to best to employ a single offensive line.
"The first half of the year we had a healthy Bartek and he was really strong, and we had two pretty good scoring lines, which allowed us to do a little bit more," Becanic said. "We don't have that, so you change your game a little as a coach and say, 'This is what we have, how do we win the series?' It's not how we'd choose to play 72 games, but it's how you have to choose to play with what you have.
"It's not going to be a pretty series," Becanic added. "We're not going to out-finesse this team, we're going to have to grind it out and be greasy and dirty."
But it hasn't been a lost cause for Everett offensively beyond the Harper-Froese-Maxwell line. Tips captain Zack Dailey, though he has just one goal in the series, has created problems for the Tri-City defense. Everett also has received unexpected offensive contributions from checkers Ryan White (two goals) and Jesse Burt (two assists).
And the Tips are close to being able to shed their one-line image. Becanic said Tochkin will return sometime this weekend, although he did not know whether it would be in tonight's Game 4 or Saturday's Game 5. When Tochkin returns he'll presumably slot back in beside Froese and Maxwell, freeing up Harper to be the focal point of a second scoring line.
Even when Tochkin returns, Everett still has some work to do to get its offense fully up to speed, but spreading the wealth would be one step in the right direction.
"I think we can be better in a couple areas," Becanic said. "We need to establish more of a forecheck and really wear down their D. If we start to do that we can start to turn the series in our favor."
Nick Patterson's Silvertips blog: http://www.heraldnet.com/silvertipsblog
Three games into its first-round playoff series against Tri-City and Everett has been reduced to one offensive line because of injuries. That makes the Tips' task all the more difficult against a team with an abundance of offensive firepower like the Americans, who lead the best-of-seven series two games to one.
"It's what we have," Everett coach John Becanic said. "I can't close my eyes, click my heels three times and hope we have another scoring line."
Because of injuries, Everett was forced to put all its offensive eggs in one basket. The Tips, thin up front to begin with, already were playing with a limited Daniel Bartek, whose broken hand greatly reduces his offensive effectiveness. The pickings became even slimmer when Kellan Tochkin, the team's leading scorer during the regular season, went down early in Game 2 with an upper-body injury.
With offensive resources dwindling, Everett dealt with the situation by putting Shane Harper, Byron Froese and Tyler Maxwell on a line together, thus reducing the Tips to essentially one offensive line.
It's worked out all right for that line. Maxwell has scored five goals in the first three games, with Harper and Froese each dishing out three assists. All three have a plus-2 rating, the only Everett forwards in positive territory.
"It's nice that I'm scoring, but it would be even better to see other guys putting the puck in the net," Maxwell said. "It's always nice to see other people who don't usually score put the puck in the net. It always pumps the team up when they produce."
However, bunching all of the offensive players on one line also makes things easier for the opposition. With the Tips relying on one line, it's allowed the Americans to focus their defensive attentions.
"(Tri-City defenseman Tyler) Schmidt plays like the whole game and he's a really good player, and him and (Mitch) McColm are out there most of the time with us," Harper said. "When you're out there with the top D like that it's harder to get things going."
Relying on one line is nothing new for the Tips. An injury-riddled second half often saw the Tips limited to one offensive line -- and Everett's record suffered because of it. But the Tips have had plenty of opportunities to experiment with how to best to employ a single offensive line.
"The first half of the year we had a healthy Bartek and he was really strong, and we had two pretty good scoring lines, which allowed us to do a little bit more," Becanic said. "We don't have that, so you change your game a little as a coach and say, 'This is what we have, how do we win the series?' It's not how we'd choose to play 72 games, but it's how you have to choose to play with what you have.
"It's not going to be a pretty series," Becanic added. "We're not going to out-finesse this team, we're going to have to grind it out and be greasy and dirty."
But it hasn't been a lost cause for Everett offensively beyond the Harper-Froese-Maxwell line. Tips captain Zack Dailey, though he has just one goal in the series, has created problems for the Tri-City defense. Everett also has received unexpected offensive contributions from checkers Ryan White (two goals) and Jesse Burt (two assists).
And the Tips are close to being able to shed their one-line image. Becanic said Tochkin will return sometime this weekend, although he did not know whether it would be in tonight's Game 4 or Saturday's Game 5. When Tochkin returns he'll presumably slot back in beside Froese and Maxwell, freeing up Harper to be the focal point of a second scoring line.
Even when Tochkin returns, Everett still has some work to do to get its offense fully up to speed, but spreading the wealth would be one step in the right direction.
"I think we can be better in a couple areas," Becanic said. "We need to establish more of a forecheck and really wear down their D. If we start to do that we can start to turn the series in our favor."
Nick Patterson's Silvertips blog: http://www.heraldnet.com/silvertipsblog
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