I’m headed up to the CHL Top Prospects Game in Vancouver Wednesday, so Tuesday was my only chance to see the Tips practice this week.
Everett goaltender Carter Hart and equipment manager James Stucky left the arena for Vancouver prior to practice as both are scheduled to participate in the event.
It turns out the Tips were hit hard by injuries last week. Defenseman Mackenzie Dwyer is done for the season after tearing his ACL during the Saskatoon game last week Monday. He will likely have surgery in February.
It’s a difficult end to the season for the 18-year-old D-man, who really began to progress as a player as the season wore on.
“He had come on in many ways,” Everett head coach Kevin Constantine said. “I thought he had learned a lot about the game and I think he learned some things about himself. I thought he matured as a person and as a player in such a way that he was starting to be a productive contributor to our team, so it’s very tough for him and a loss for us.”
In addition, 16-year-old forward Riley Sutter broke his right tibia while blocking a puck at Edmonton on Friday and is out for at least a month. He was in a boot and on crutches Tuesday at Xfinity Arena.
Constantine doesn’t anticipate any call-ups in the immediate future unless additional players go down. In the meantime, 16-year-old Jake Christiansen will continue to get time on defense, while the Tips will go with 13 forwards.
You might recall this article I linked yesterday about morning skates going away from the NHL. I asked Constantine (himself a former NHL coach) about morning skates. As usual, he has many thought-out and well-articulated reasons for his opinion of the practice:
“I’ve been a forever hater of morning skates,” he said. “I have never been on one for 25 years… The No. 1 reason I don’t like them is because I don’t like a practice where you don’t do things (with) equal or more energy than you would put into a game. If you go watch morning skates, they’re casual, go throw the puck around, nothing at game pace, nothing at game intensity…(It’s) 20 minutes of forming habits that work against you in games.”
He also said he didn’t want to interfere if a morning skate was part of a particular player’s ritual in getting ready for games, but reiterated that he never chose to participate.
Lastly, be sure to check out my story on Graham Millar who is playing with a heavy heart.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
