EVERETT — With the Seattle Seahawks on their bye week, this weekend seemed the perfect opportunity to check in on my former beat, the Everett Silvertips.
Therefore, I found myself back at Xfinity Arena on Friday night to catch the Tips taking on the Prince George Cougars, and I came with the intention of finding out first-hand the answer to one single question:
How are these Silvertips winning games?
This is an Everett team that had a disastrous offseason. This is an Everett team that hasn’t been able to score goals. Yet when the puck dropped Friday night the Tips possessed the second-best winning percentage in the WHL’s U.S. Division and the fourth-best winning percentage in the Western Conference.
I wanted to know why.
As I settled into my seat in the press area I reflected on how the Tips found themselves in this situation. Sure, Everett was coming off a U.S. Division title. But the team that took the ice Friday bore little resemblance to the team that held off Portland at the finish line last season, at least up front. Leading scorer Nikita Scherbak was lost to the professional ranks, while leading goal scorer Kohl Bauml graduated as an overager. Then an offseason ensued in which every headline was a bad one for the Tips:
• Ivan Nikolishin, the team’s third-leading scorer and best playmaker, asked out and was subsequently traded to Red Deer.
• Everett’s top recruiting targets, elite forwards Auston Matthews, Tyson Jost and Patrick Khodorenko, all chose different paths, with Matthews deciding to spend his NHL draft year playing professionally in Switzerland, Jost committing to the University of North Dakota, and Khodorenko choosing to finish out his eligibility with the U.S. National Team Development Program.
• Matthews’ decision seemed to sway two of Everett’s better forward prospects as 16-year-old Carson Dimoff and 15-year-old Ryan Savage, who like Matthews hail from Arizona, also headed to Europe to play U-18 hockey in Austria.
• Everett’s top pick in the CHL import draft, Russian defenseman Alexander Scherbakov, who was supposed to provide offense from the blue line, reported to camp out of shape, then suffered a season-ending shoulder injury.
• The Tips weren’t even able to leverage veteran goaltender Austin Lotz into forward help. Lotz was dangled on the trade wire, but the Tips received no bites, and Everett was forced for release Lotz at the overage deadline.
Everett coach Kevin Constantine acknowledged that the team’s biggest concern coming into the season was whether it could generate enough offense, and six weeks in those concerns have proven justified. Going into Friday the Tips were scoring a paltry 2.2 goals per game, which was the lowest number in the league by far. It was also way down from last season’s average of 3.4 goals per game, when Everett was a decent offensive team, but hardly a juggernaut.
Yet there was Everett, with the fewest regulation losses of any team in the conference.
Glancing over Friday’s lineup it was easy to see why the Tips have been able to keep the puck out of their own net. Five of the six defensemen dressed were regulars last season, so there’s plenty of experience at the back. And in goal was 17-year-old wunderkind Carter Hart, making his 12th start in Everett’s 12 games this season. They’re the main reason why the Tips had allowed the second-fewest goals per game in the league (2.2).
But where would the goals come from?
Early on Friday the answer was, “Nowhere.” As the Tips played a scoreless first period in which they had plenty of shots on goal, but few premium scoring chances, I recalled that Constantine said while this season’s team may not have the offensive capabilities of last season’s team, this edition works harder and has more grit than its predecessor.
Hmmm. Limited offensively, but hard working and committed to the cause. Sound familiar? Yep, that’s the formula the Tips used during their Cinderella run to the WHL finals as an expansion team in 2003-04. So it’s been done before.
But the game has changed since 2004 in a way that makes it more difficult to regularly win games 2-1. Putting the puck over the glass from the defensive zone is now a penalty instead of a way to stop play. Icing the puck may get a team out of trouble, but it can no longer get fresh bodies on the ice for the ensuing faceoff. Getting in the way of opposing players after losing a faceoff has been largely eradicated. If there’s a coach who can figure out how to win low-scoring games in today’s hockey environment, it’s Constantine. But it’s going to be harder than it was a decade ago.
Everett finally put the puck in PG’s net late in the second period, only to have it waived off because of a quick whistle by the referee, and it remained scoreless. The Tips aren’t a team that can afford to have goals taken away by the officials.
Everett general manager Garry Davidson told me he’s explored the possibility of adding offense via trade. But adding impact offensive players in the WHL is not easily done, and it usually comes with a hefty price tag. Acquiring Scherbak last season required not only surrendering a lot of resources, it needed unique circumstances where a rebuilding Saskatoon had too many Euros and Everett had an import opening because Swiss defenseman Mirco Mueller was unexpectedly kept by the NHL’s San Jose Sharks. Those type of circumstances don’t appear available to the Tips this season.
Everett was kind enough to treat me to my first taste of three-on-three overtime Friday, and the Tips won it when Kevin Davis’ centering feed was ushered into the goal by Prince George’s Brad Morrison, who was frantically diving to try and break up a two-on-one. Everett prevailed by the inevitable score of 2-1, and perhaps fittingly the winning goal was scored on something that wasn’t even a shot.
The Silvertips team I saw Friday night was everything I’d been told. Everett worked hard and outshot its opponent. But the offense didn’t come easy, and I’m not sure anything I witnessed convinced me that will change anytime soon.
So it’s a difficult path the Tips find themselves on, as the limited offense means there’s no margin for error. Everett has rode that fine line successfully so far, but it’ll take some serious fortitude from the Tips to remain in that saddle the entire season.
Check out Nick Patterson’s Seattle Sidelines blog at http://www.heraldnet.com/seattlesidelines, and follow him on Twitter at @NickHPatterson.
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