The Tips used an interesting reward/punishment technique during practice today.
Everett finished off practice with a power-play drill. Coach Craig Hartsburg had the two power-play units competing against one another, with the units receiving alternating two-minute periods to score as many goals as they could. The winners were rewarded with orange wedges. The losers were punished with lemon wedges. That made for some wonderful scrunched-up and squinty faces when it was over.
Anyway, moving on, there’s some notable stuff surrounding Wednesday’s home game against Kelowna. The Rockets come in as the hottest team in the league, having won nine straight. Therefore, the Tips reverse their role from their recent 14-game winning streak as this time they have the chance to play spoiler.
Also, it’s possible the Tips will be able to clinch a playoff spot Wednesday. Everett is currently 34 points ahead of ninth-place Seattle. The T-birds have 18 games remaining, including a road game tonight against conference-leading Tri-City. If Seattle loses in regulation tonight, the Tips can clinch a playoff spot with a point Wednesday. If Seattle wins tonight the Tips can’t clinch a playoff spot against Kelowna — though a victory would mean the T-birds could only catch Everett in the standings, not pass the Tips. It should also be pointed out that there are still five weeks remaining in the regular season, so the actual clinching moment isn’t that big a deal.
One player who won’t be taking part is left wing Dan Iwanski as there is no change in his status. Iwanski is still skating on his own and has not rejoined practices yet, so it appears doubtful he’ll return from his knee injury this week.
Finally, I’ve received little response to yesterday’s post on whether fans are doing anything special for Friday’s televised home game against Spokane. Unless I hear from people soon I’m afraid the story will have to be scrapped.
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