Silvertips’ Irving is a survivor

Published 9:00 pm Thursday, March 22, 2007

EVERETT – Flash back to mid-February.

Everett Silvertips goaltender Leland Irving was in the midst of something Western Hockey League followers had never seen before.

He was in a slump.

Irving was letting in goals on shots he usually gobbles up like an afternoon snack. He was putting passes right onto the sticks of opponents as if he was trying to boost his assist total. He was even pulled less than eight minutes into a game.

This was unfathomable from Irving, a first-round NHL draft pick who is the calmest, steadiest and most even-keeled member of the team. Observers weren’t sure what to make of it. There were even whispers of a possible goaltending controversy.

But on Irving’s adversity scale, a rough patch in goal barely warrants mention.

Adversity? Try more than a year’s worth of chemotherapy at the tender age of 8.

As a cancer survivor, Irving has overcome far greater challenges than giving up a few soft goals. And the way he sorted out his game heading into the playoffs bears just the tiniest bit of resemblance to the child who overcame that life-threatening disease.

“I’m almost thankful for being able to experience that and come through a survivor in that situation,” Irving said. “It lets you see a whole different perspective. You kind of look at life through a bigger picture, and when you come upon different points of adversity you’re able to overcome them easier, it seems.”

Irving faced his greatest challenge when he was 7. His parents found a small bump above his left ear that they originally thought was some sort of insect bite. But when it didn’t go away, they had it checked out by doctors.

Irving was subsequently diagnosed with rhabdomyosarcoma, a form of childhood cancer, and the bump turned out to be a marble-sized tumor. The survival rate for rhabdomyosarcoma is about 70 percent.

What ensued was surgery to remove the lump and 13 months of chemotherapy treatments to ensure all the cancerous tissue was gone.

That’s a lot to heap on the shoulders of a young child.

“It was tough,” Irving recalled. “A lot of sick nights and days where you’re not very strong at all. But I had my family and friends supporting me all the time.

“Being that young, I didn’t fully understand what was going on,” Irving added. “I was able to keep a smile on my face and live life almost like any other 8-year-old. It wasn’t until I was in my high school years when I did a school project on it that I realized what could have become of that. I’m very thankful they were able to catch it soon enough.”

During that time Irving displayed many of the traits that now make him such a successful goaltender: courage, calmness under pressure, the ability to bounce back.

“I couldn’t have asked for a better kid to go through that with,” Irving’s mother, Karen, said. “I’m still amazed at how well he handled everything thrown at him. As long as we were able to explain everything they were doing to him, he took it in stride.”

It was also during this period that Irving’s dedication to hockey became apparent. Despite ongoing chemotherapy, Irving insisted on continuing to play hockey.

“You could see that he was weaker, so I tried to talk him into doing something other than hockey,” Karen Irving said. “But I couldn’t talk him out of it.”

That season he missed just one game and one practice because of low blood counts, and at the end of the season he was named the team’s MVP because of his dedication to the cause. All of which illustrates why it’s no surprise Irving was able to snap back into form in time for the playoffs.

For a while that was in doubt. In eight starts between Feb. 10 and March 2, Irving went 3-3-1-0. He gave up 26 goals during that period, a rate nearly double his goals against average for the rest of the season. That stretch culminated with being pulled just 7 minutes, 24 seconds into a home loss against Portland, the shortest start of his Everett career.

“As a goaltender, if you’re struggling you’re going to know about it,” Irving said. “It’s a position where everybody sees your mistake. Through stretches like that you’ve just got to battle through it and keep working hard. For me it was just a matter of time before things got back together. I don’t feel I changed a lot, I kept my routine the same. It’s just some nights you don’t get the bounces.”

Irving busted out of his slump with a shutout against first-round opponent Spokane on March 3. Since then he’s been back to his normal reliable self, giving up just four goals in his final five starts, including three shutouts.

“During the course of every lifetime and every athletic career, it’s impossible to be perfect,” mused Everett coach Kevin Constantine, who said he was never concerned with Irving’s performance. “But he’s as close as they come in terms of what he’s been able to do for us. If you look at people’s past it’s a pretty good predictor of the future, and over three-and-a-half years with us he’s been pretty consistent.”

And for Irving, a slump just isn’t that big a challenge to overcome.

“All in all it’s just a game,” Irving said. “It’s one we all play very passionately and take a lot of pride in each and every shift. But there’s way bigger things in life you have to get over.”