EVERETT – The Everett Silvertips couldn’t have timed it any better.
This season the Western Hockey League, following the lead of the NHL, has implemented a number of rule changes designed to open the game up and increase the amount of offense.
For a team like Everett, which has lived off its defense the previous two years, the rule changes could have been a huge impediment to success.
However, the changes happen to come just as the Silvertips are transitioning from being a defensive team to being more of an offensive team. So, what many thought would hurt the Silvertips, might actually help them this season.
“If there was a year to have the change, this was the year to do it,” Everett’s leading scorer from last season, Torrie Wheat, said. “Last year it might not have been quite so good for us. But this year it definitely won’t hurt.”
Among this season’s new rules are the removal of the red line and subsequent elimination of the two-line offsides pass; the institution of a tag-up rule on delayed offsides; the addition of a goaltender crease behind the net, limiting the area in which the goalie can handle the puck; shootouts to break ties after overtime; and a general tightening of standards on penalties.
Two other new rules, some opponents might say, were designed specifically with Everett in mind. There’s a new icing rule, in which a team that ices the puck from its defensive zone is not allowed a line change. A two-minute minor penalty has been added for putting the puck into the stands from the defensive zone.
But with the addition of offensive players Peter Mueller, John Lammers and Ondrej Fiala, as well as the continuing development of skilled second-year players Zach Hamill and Brady Calla, Everett appears to have the personnel to take advantage of the new rules.
“Allowing cross-checks and slashing and holding, and keeping the red line in place, I think those things favor a team with less talent,” Everett coach Kevin Constantine said. “It neutralizes a lot of the other team’s offense and gives both teams a more-equal chance in a game. The more these rules create power plays and open up ice, the more you need offense to take advantage of that. Hopefully we’ve arrived, if not this year then by next year, to be on par or above average with the rest of the league in the offensive side. So maybe these rules have come at the perfect time. We’ll have to wait and see.”
Having had five exhibition games to experience the new rules, the players have gotten the opportunity to evaluate their effect. So far, none of Everett’s offensive players are complaining.
“There’s been a lot of penalties called, that’s obviously the one thing you notice the most,” Hamill said. “I like the no red line, it spreads the game out some more for the offensive guys. I guess it’s tougher for the defensemen.”
The elimination of the red line opens up the neutral zone, allows for more home-run passes and works in favor of players who have speed. Calla, who has speed in abundance, in particular should benefit from that rule.
Meanwhile, the increase in the number of penalties called seems to play right into Everett’s hands. The Silvertips had a solid power play last season, ranking ninth in the league with a respectable 18 percent success rate. Everett’s always had a strong penalty kill, ranking first in the entire Canadian Hockey League last season at 88.8 percent kill rate. And for two straight seasons the Silvertips were the least-penalized team in the WHL.
Of course, the big question is whether the penalties will be called once the season begins and if so, whether those penalties will continued to be called throughout the entire season.
“In the past hockey has tried to tighten the rules and two or three months into the season they’ve kind of backed off,” Constantine said. “I hope that doesn’t happen.”
If it doesn’t, expect the Silvertips to be able to take advantage as much as anyone.
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