Everett winger Cody Fowlie was given a major penalty and game misconduct for his hit on Tri-City defenseman Michal Plutnar late in Saturday’s 5-1 loss at Comcast Arena. Usually major penalties come with a minimum of a one-game suspension. This means the league looked at the tape and decided the hit wasn’t worthy of a major. I talked to Tips coach Mark Ferner about the hit after practice today, and he said after watching the video he wasn’t sure it even warranted a penalty. Apparently the reason why Plutnar was injured is because the visor of his helmet came down and cut him across the bridge of the nose after Fowlie rubbed him out into the boards.
So in the space of three days, Everett twice had players tossed from games when they shouldn’t have been. Granted, Fowlie’s penalty came late in a game that was already decided, so it really didn’t affect anything. But when Everett leading scorer Josh Birkholz was mistakenly given the boot in the first three minutes of last Wednesday’s game at Kamloops, one can make the argument that it determined the outcome as the Tips lost Birkholz for 57-plus minutes, and the Blazers scored twice during the resulting power play. Why does it seem stuff like this only happens to teams that are struggling?
Speaking of Birkholz, you might have noticed he was wearing the “C” on his jersey Saturday. It turns out that was his predecessor Ryan Murray’s idea. Check tomorrow’s paper for the whole story on that one.
The Tips will be gaining one player and losing another following Wednesday’s game at Spokane. Winger Vladimir Dolnik departs Thursday for Slovakia’s camp for the World Junior Hockey Championships. Meanwhile, winger Jesse Mychan will finally be released from purgatory as his 10-game suspension for a checking-to-the-head major penalty finally comes to an end. Everett will be without winger Carson Samoridny for Wednesday and probably Friday after Samoridny had his bell rung in Saturday’s game.
Finally, both of Everett’s wounded soldiers made an appearance on the ice at practice today. Center Manraj Hayer, who’s been out since breaking a fibula during training camp, had been skating on his own. Today he participated in a few drills, too. Meanwhile, winger Zach McPhee, who is recovering from knee surgery, also made a brief appearance. Frankly, I couldn’t believe McPhee was on the ice given the way he was limping around over the weekend, so good for him.
Oh, and tomorrow morning Murray learns his fate with Team Canada. Will he be ringing in the new year at World Juniors or with the Tips?
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