Published: Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Count the Silvertips' season a success
The end was disappointing, but overall, Everett — with its modest talent pool — performed well
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Jennifer Buchanan / The Herald
Silvertips head coach Craig Hartsburg (right) and his son and assistant head coach Chris Hartsburg (left) watch the team perform during an early season game. Craig Hartsburg played a big role in the Silvertips’ transformation this season.
EVERETT — The surprise for the 2009-10 Everett Silvertips wasn’t that the team was upset in the first round of the playoffs.
The surprise was that the Tips were in a position to be upset in the first place.
Everett’s season came to an end Monday when the Tips were beaten by the Kelowna Rockets in Game 7 of their first-round Western Hockey League playoff series. The victory gave Kelowna, the No. 6 seed in the Western Conference, a 4-3 series victory over the third-seeded Tips. Everett was favored, given the Tips tied with Tri-City for the best record in the conference and finished 21 points ahead of the Rockets in the standings, so it was a disappointing end.
But the real story of Everett’s season wasn’t about a first-round playoff loss. The real story was about a team that overachieved, as well as a franchise that got itself back on the right track.
“The U.S. Division is a tough division,” Everett general manager Doug Soetaert said. “You’re playing against teams every night that got between 90 and 100 points. For us to finish with 97 points is pretty darn good. We beat a lot of good hockey teams all year long.”
Everett came into the season off back-to-back disappointing campaigns. That included a 2008-09 season that saw the Tips finish with a losing record for the first time in franchise history.
The Silvertips brought Craig Hartsburg in to turn things around. The first-year head coach had limited resources to draw upon. Everett had a modest talent pool, with just two NHL draft picks on the roster at season’s end — and neither center Byron Froese nor defenseman Rasmus Rissanen was selected before the fourth round. The Tips as a whole were neither big nor fast.
Yet, Hartsburg completely transformed the way the team played. For six seasons, Everett was known more as a defense-first team that sat back and slowed the game down. Hartsburg installed an aggressive style based around creating pressure on the forecheck.
It took a while for the players to adjust, and at the midpoint Everett was hovering around the .500 mark. But something clicked during a magical January. The Tips rattled off a franchise-record 14-game winning streak, winning 10 of those by a single goal, and transformed into a contender.
“That month of January really helped, not just in the standings but with everybody’s mood,” Everett captain Zack Dailey said. “Everybody was happy and having fun and I think we carried that through the rest of the year.”
The Tips eventually caught Tri-City for first, but couldn’t pass the Americans, and Everett lost out on the division championship and the top seed in the playoffs on the tiebreaker. That proved costly. The Tips were bumped down to the No. 3 seed and drew defending league champion Kelowna in the first round. The Rockets were plagued by injuries during the regular season, but got healthy toward the end and were hot heading into the playoffs.
Then it was the Tips’ turn to suffer injuries. A shoulder injury knocked Radko Gudas, the team’s defensive talisman, out in the second game of the series. Fellow defenseman Chris de la Lande was lost to injury in Game 4. Everett tried to compensate, but the loss of two of the team’s top four defenseman was difficult to overcome, and the Tips fell 2-1 in a hard-fought Game 7. It was the third straight year Everett exited in the first round.
“We did everything except score,” Soetaert said of Game 7. “We controlled the game. It’s unfortunate because I thought our players played extremely hard and were deserving of advancing, but it didn’t happen. Obviously, there are lessons to learn. We had them down three times in the series in their building and couldn’t shut the door. I’m pretty sure that if we had our top four defensemen in place it might have been a different result. But that’s hockey, you have injuries.”
Not everything went perfect for the Tips during the season. Everett struggled in some areas, most notably on the penalty kill. The Tips were toward the bottom of the league in penalty killing throughout the regular season, and those struggles carried over into the playoffs. Everett only killed off 63.2 percent of Kelowna’s power plays in the playoffs, and that played a substantial role in the Tips’ demise.
But overall the positives far outweighed the negatives. Among those:
Overage winger Shane Harper became the franchise’s greatest ever goal scorer, setting records for both goals in a season (42) and goals in a career (100).
Everett’s goaltending tandem of Thomas Heemskerk and Kent Simpson was the most effective in the league as they finished 1-2 in save percentage.
Gudas, imported from the Czech Republic, became the most feared hitter in the conference.
Rookie defenseman Ryan Murray turned in a brilliant season for a 16-year-old.
And most importantly, the players bought into Hartsburg’s message about work ethic and a team concept. As a result, the Tips maximized their potential.
“I felt (Hartsburg) got the most out of the players,” Soetaert said. “He made the players understand what it would take to be successful. It took a team to be successful. Individualism was worked out of the dressing room and it became more of a team concept.
“I’m proud of the players and proud of the organization,” Soetaert added. “I think we’ve bounced back.”
Slap shots
Everett had two players selected to represent Canada at the U-18 World Championships. Simpson and Murray will be joining the team for the tournament that takes place April 13-20 in Belarus. Tips defenseman Alex Theriau may also be added to the roster, depending on the outcome of other playoff series around the Canadian Hockey League this week. ... Harper will begin his professional career later this week. Harper, who signed a contract with the NHL’s Philadelphia Flyers earlier this year, is joining Philadelphia’s American Hockey League affiliate, the Adirondack Phantoms.
Nick Patterson’s Silvertips blog: http://www.heraldnet.com/silvertipsblog
The surprise was that the Tips were in a position to be upset in the first place.
Everett’s season came to an end Monday when the Tips were beaten by the Kelowna Rockets in Game 7 of their first-round Western Hockey League playoff series. The victory gave Kelowna, the No. 6 seed in the Western Conference, a 4-3 series victory over the third-seeded Tips. Everett was favored, given the Tips tied with Tri-City for the best record in the conference and finished 21 points ahead of the Rockets in the standings, so it was a disappointing end.
But the real story of Everett’s season wasn’t about a first-round playoff loss. The real story was about a team that overachieved, as well as a franchise that got itself back on the right track.
“The U.S. Division is a tough division,” Everett general manager Doug Soetaert said. “You’re playing against teams every night that got between 90 and 100 points. For us to finish with 97 points is pretty darn good. We beat a lot of good hockey teams all year long.”
Everett came into the season off back-to-back disappointing campaigns. That included a 2008-09 season that saw the Tips finish with a losing record for the first time in franchise history.
The Silvertips brought Craig Hartsburg in to turn things around. The first-year head coach had limited resources to draw upon. Everett had a modest talent pool, with just two NHL draft picks on the roster at season’s end — and neither center Byron Froese nor defenseman Rasmus Rissanen was selected before the fourth round. The Tips as a whole were neither big nor fast.
Yet, Hartsburg completely transformed the way the team played. For six seasons, Everett was known more as a defense-first team that sat back and slowed the game down. Hartsburg installed an aggressive style based around creating pressure on the forecheck.
It took a while for the players to adjust, and at the midpoint Everett was hovering around the .500 mark. But something clicked during a magical January. The Tips rattled off a franchise-record 14-game winning streak, winning 10 of those by a single goal, and transformed into a contender.
“That month of January really helped, not just in the standings but with everybody’s mood,” Everett captain Zack Dailey said. “Everybody was happy and having fun and I think we carried that through the rest of the year.”
The Tips eventually caught Tri-City for first, but couldn’t pass the Americans, and Everett lost out on the division championship and the top seed in the playoffs on the tiebreaker. That proved costly. The Tips were bumped down to the No. 3 seed and drew defending league champion Kelowna in the first round. The Rockets were plagued by injuries during the regular season, but got healthy toward the end and were hot heading into the playoffs.
Then it was the Tips’ turn to suffer injuries. A shoulder injury knocked Radko Gudas, the team’s defensive talisman, out in the second game of the series. Fellow defenseman Chris de la Lande was lost to injury in Game 4. Everett tried to compensate, but the loss of two of the team’s top four defenseman was difficult to overcome, and the Tips fell 2-1 in a hard-fought Game 7. It was the third straight year Everett exited in the first round.
“We did everything except score,” Soetaert said of Game 7. “We controlled the game. It’s unfortunate because I thought our players played extremely hard and were deserving of advancing, but it didn’t happen. Obviously, there are lessons to learn. We had them down three times in the series in their building and couldn’t shut the door. I’m pretty sure that if we had our top four defensemen in place it might have been a different result. But that’s hockey, you have injuries.”
Not everything went perfect for the Tips during the season. Everett struggled in some areas, most notably on the penalty kill. The Tips were toward the bottom of the league in penalty killing throughout the regular season, and those struggles carried over into the playoffs. Everett only killed off 63.2 percent of Kelowna’s power plays in the playoffs, and that played a substantial role in the Tips’ demise.
But overall the positives far outweighed the negatives. Among those:
And most importantly, the players bought into Hartsburg’s message about work ethic and a team concept. As a result, the Tips maximized their potential.
“I felt (Hartsburg) got the most out of the players,” Soetaert said. “He made the players understand what it would take to be successful. It took a team to be successful. Individualism was worked out of the dressing room and it became more of a team concept.
“I’m proud of the players and proud of the organization,” Soetaert added. “I think we’ve bounced back.”
Slap shots
Everett had two players selected to represent Canada at the U-18 World Championships. Simpson and Murray will be joining the team for the tournament that takes place April 13-20 in Belarus. Tips defenseman Alex Theriau may also be added to the roster, depending on the outcome of other playoff series around the Canadian Hockey League this week. ... Harper will begin his professional career later this week. Harper, who signed a contract with the NHL’s Philadelphia Flyers earlier this year, is joining Philadelphia’s American Hockey League affiliate, the Adirondack Phantoms.
Nick Patterson’s Silvertips blog: http://www.heraldnet.com/silvertipsblog
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