Rookie defensemen make their mark

Published 11:22 pm Tuesday, February 12, 2008

EVERETT — Chris de la Lande has spent many a night at Comcast Arena watching from the stands.

The Everett Silvertips’ rookie 17-year-old defenseman has often been one of the odd men out, a healthy scratch in favor of Everett’s veterans.

However, when the Tips suddenly found themselves faced with an injury crisis at the back, opportunity presented itself for de la Lande and the rest of Everett’s rookie defensemen. And their efforts helped the Tips avert potential disaster.

“It’s great, it feels really good,” de la Lande said about getting his shot. “I’ve been waiting for it for a while. I’ve just got to make the most of it now.”

The Tips have needed their depth players lately. Everett lost regular defensemen Taylor Ellington (foot) and Mike Alexander (shoulder) to serious injuries in the space of a week. Then when Graham Potuer contracted the flu, Everett found itself faced with a stretch of four games in five nights with just two veteran defensemen — Jonathan Harty and Dane Crowley — available.

That placed a heavy burden on rookies de la Lande, Tyler Kieffer and Jeff Regier. It was an especially stark change of role for de la Lande and the 1991-born Regier, both of whom appeared in about half of Everett’s games. Even when they were in the lineup they usually saw limited ice time.

But taking a regular shift for virtually the first time this season, both de la Lande and Regier showed they can play, and Everett won three of the four games despite its inexperienced defense.

“They’ve done really well,” Crowley said of the rookies. “They handled everything Kamloops’ pressure threw at them (in a 2-1 overtime victory Sunday). De la Lande is a great defense partner, Regier stepped up and so has Kieffer. I think all of them have done well.”

De la Lande in particular impressed. Not only did the Winnipeg, Manitoba, native hold his own defensively despite his small 5-foot-11, 160-pound frame, he also was effective when given power-play time. Over the four games de la Lande had a goal, an assist and was a plus-2.

“After playing a lot I’ve got lots of confidence,” de la Lande said.

“I think me, Regier and Kieffer have been doing a really good job so far,” de la Lande added. “We’ve just got to keep that up until we get our veteran D back.”

And in the process, perhaps they’re catching coach John Becanic’s eye.

“Hopefully he notices,” de la Lande said.

Stephen departs: Defenseman Brenden Stephen, who the Tips called up to help fill in during Everett’s injury crisis at the back, has returned to his regular team, the Princeton Posse of the Junior B Kootenay International Junior Hockey League.

Stephen, the 1990-born behemoth standing 6-foot-7, played in all three of last weekend’s games while the Tips were missing their three veteran defensemen. But with Potuer expected to return in time for this weekend’s games, Stephen’s services were no longer required.

Stephen saw limited action, but he did enough to impress Crowley, who described Stephen’s play as “by far the best first three games I’ve ever seen anyone play.”

“I thought he did pretty good,” Becanic said. “It’s the hardest position to come in completely out of the cold and play. It’s a lot easier to come in as a winger and play, there’s not a lot of details you have to know. I thought he did a real good job. He takes advantage of his reach and every game he got a little bit better and adjusted to the pace.”

Schedule break: After a busy stretch that saw Everett play 23 games in 46 days, the Tips have it pretty easy the next three weeks. Everett plays just six games in the next 20 days, two games per week.

“It’s definitely nice,” Crowley said. “January and December were crazy, and it wears on your body with three defensemen out. It’s about time we had a break.”

Said Becanic: “We love it. We’re going to do some teaching and get back to a lot of fundamentals. We’re going to kind of treat these next three weeks like it’s the start of the season again, go over everything in review and prepare ourselves for the playoffs. It’s also a chance to rest up some injuries as some guys have been playing banged up, and it’s a nice mental break for the players.”

Nick Patterson’s Silvertips blog: http://www.heraldnet.com/silvertipsblog