Remembering 03-04

Published 12:57 pm Thursday, November 1, 2007

With the Silvertips taking on Edmonton, the team’s newest expansion team, tonight, I figured it was a good time to reminisce about Everett’s expansion year.

Let me begin by saying that even now, five years later, I still can’t believe what I witnessed that first season. Here I was, a small-time reporter. Who had been to one hockey game my entire life. Who was hired a week before the season began, only because I happened to live close enough to start right away. And I end up essentially writing the script for the sequal to “Miracle.” Go figure.

Anyway, I’m sure many of you got to experience the wonders of that season first-hand, so I won’t bother with all the details. But what I figured I would do is recall some of the little personal moments that stick out in my memory from that inaugural season:

– Trying desperately to figure out feature ideas heading into the first game when I had no idea who anyone was or what they looked like.

– Having the check engine light go off in my car the day before I had to drive out for the season opener in Kamloops.

– After the first weeknight home game, when the team never announced the attendance but you could probably have counted the crowd yourself, wondering whether this team was going to make it.

– Learning that trade deadline day probably isn’t the best day to write a feature about a player (John Dahl was a nervous wreck at the beginning of the interview, thank god he wasn’t traded).

– The emergence of the cowbells and the small role I may have unwittingly played in that development (don’t ask how many times I’ve had to explain that).

– Listening to the team singing “Living on a Prayer” in the locker room after winning the division title at Tri-City, something I had to get used to over the years.

– Complete relief that every single one of the overtime playoff games ended within minutes, saving my deadline.

– John Becanic telling me how he kept having to change the date of his plane ticket for his flight back home to Pittsburgh because of the team’s unexpected playoff progress.

– Being unable to effectively conduct interviews following Game 7 in Kelowna because every time an Everett player poked his head out of the locker room 200 Tips fans began cheering and ringing their cowbells, making it impossible to hear myself talk, let alone the player I was trying to interview.

– Finding out on the drive back from Kelowna I was going to have to head out the first thing the next morning for the drive to Medicine Hat (the original plan was to fly out a day later), and feeling like I should just throw myself out the door of the car right there and leave my body by the side of the road.

– The complete lack of security at the arena in Medicine Hat. Photographer Michael O’Leary and I showed up about two hours early to the game and just walked up to the front door, let ourselves in and began wandering around the concourse looking for someone official to tell us where to go. Not exactly post 9/11 U.S. level security.

Anyway, thanks for joining me for this walk down memory lane. I’ll leave thoughts about Mueller until tomorrow.