Silvertips wrap up preseason slate this weekend vs. Seattle

Published 5:27 pm Thursday, September 15, 2016

EVERETT — The Everett Silvertips wrap up the 2016 preseason with a home-and-home series against the Seattle Thunderbirds this weekend.

Tonight’s game takes place at the ShoWare Center at 7:30 p.m. with the teams facing off against one another at Xfinity Arena beginning at 7 p.m. on Saturday.

The Tips (2-2-1 preseason) dropped a 3-1 decision at home to the T-Birds (3-2) at the Holiday Inn Classic on Sept. 2. Everett split two games at last week’s Tri-City Tournament as they fell to Spokane in overtime and defeated Portland in a shootout.

“It would be nice to try to figure a way to get our brains engaged earlier, sooner in the games because we’re not a very good starting team,” head coach Kevin Constantine said. “We’re young on ‘D.’ It means there is a lot of growth that has to happen for us to be able to defend in our end and get out of our end.”

Star defenseman Noah Juulsen, starting goalie Carter Hart and 2016 CHL import selection Eetu Tuulola are all away at their respective NHL camps, so this is the final chance for a number of younger Tips players to show that they should make this year’s roster.

With so many young players competing for limited spots this preseason, the Tips coaching staff has spent more time evaluating players than instituting a particular style of play then the coaches have in years past.

“We’re young and there are just players that we needed to get a good feel for in terms of moving forward,” Constantine said. “We sacrificed probably just a touch of putting systems in place or getting line combinations set or getting power play units set. So we’ve got to fairly quickly head toward that becoming an important priority for us.”

Indeed they do. The Tips open their 14th WHL season a week from tonight when they travel to the Langley Events Centre for a game against the Vancouver Giants. The teams return to Xfinity Arena the next evening.

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