EVERETT – As the second half of the Western Hockey League season begins tonight, the Everett Silvertips are searching for just one thing:
Consistency.
Everett returns from its Christmas break tonight with a home game against Spokane, and the Silvertips are seeking that consistent high level of play that often eluded them during the first half of the season.
“We’d like to see our guys be a little more consistent in terms of being interested in every little facet of what we’re trying to do in every single minute of every single game,” Everett coach Kevin Constantine said. “We’ve played pretty good at times, we’ve had lapses at times. I think we’re one of the better teams in the league, but I also think we’re not consistent enough yet to be of championship caliber. We just have to care more.”
In many ways the Silvertips are greatly improved from this stage last season. Everett is 17-10-6-2, an improved mark from this point last season, and entrenched in second place in the U.S. Division. The Tips have also shown a greater ability to compete the entire length of the ice, having to rely less on their goaltending.
And yet, the first half also had its share of frustrations. Everett has been unable to string more than three wins together, has at times had difficulty holding onto leads in the third period, and headed into the break on a five-game winless streak.
“We need more consistency,” echoed Everett captain Mitch Love. “We’re not a team that really puts big winning streaks together and I think we need to find that niche. We need to pick up our pace, work a lot harder in practice and pay more attention to our details, both on and off the ice.”
Finding that consistency may be a daunting task initially. Everett begins the second half severely depleted by international tournaments. Defenseman Ivan Baranka is playing for Slovakia at the World Junior Hockey Championships. Forwards Zach Hamill, Brady Calla and Brennan Zasitko, defenseman Jonathan Harty and goaltender Leland Irving are playing for various teams at the U-17 World Hockey Challenge. Those six players are expected to miss the first four games after the break, including a pair of matchups with division-leading Seattle.
With center Mark Kress also laid up with a fractured arm, Everett’s going to have to find a way to scratch out results in those four games.
“It’s more ice time for a lot of guys, young and old,” Love said. “They have to step up to the plate because these four games are very huge for us. We have to come out with our best efforts, probably of the season so far, if we want to stay within striking distance of Seattle.”
To address the temporary player shortage, the Tips have added five players to their roster for the next four games – four forwards and a goalie. The forwards are 18-year-old left wing Nick Brower, a Mill Creek resident, 17-year-old center Matt Sawa, who played 10 games with Regina last season, 16-year-old left wing Lenny Young, one of the team’s final cuts during the preseason, and 15-year-old center Mitchell Wall, the team’s fifth-round pick in the 2004 Bantam Draft. The goaltender is 15-year-old Shayne Barrie, Everett’s 11th-round pick in the 2004 Bantam Draft.
And with four regular forwards out, some of those guys are going to have to play.
“Normally we can put four lines out of guys with experience,” Constantine said. “Now we’re down to three lines with experience. So we have to find three forwards who can give us some steady shifts and give the other guys a breather. We don’t expect them to go play any significant role as far as scoring or carrying our power play or doing big penalty-kill stuff. But maybe five-on-five they can give some of our other guys a little bit of a rest.”
The second half promises to be both exciting and challenging for the Tips. Everett plays Seattle nine times, plays 25 games total against divisional foes, and six times plays three games in three days.
But the Tips have just one thing on their minds.
“Our goal is to win the division as the defending team in this division,” Love said. “We’re not satisfied with being in second place. We’re in a dogfight here and we have to play every game like it’s our last because we need these points.”
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