EVERETT — David Reekie was the unfortunate victim of circumstance. As a result, the Everett Silvertips goaltender has been forced into a waiting game.
Reekie is now free of the mononucleosis that afflicted him during the preseason and the first weeks of the regular season. However, he’ll have to wait another three-plus weeks before he can get into a game, and probably just as long to learn his fate.
“Personally I feel really good, I’m healthy to play and healthy to go,” Reekie said. “I’ve just got to wait for Nov. 9 now.”
Reekie was one of six players competing for Everett’s three overager slots. With Leland Irving entrenched as Everett’s No. 1, Reekie seemed a likely candidate to be dealt prior to last Thursday’s overager deadline.
But Reekie contracted mono at an inconvenient time, especially considering the unpredictablility of how long mono lasts. Everett placed Reekie on the 60-day injured list, which exempts him from all roster limits, but also restricts Reekie from playing until his 60 days are up.
Reekie’s received the results of his follow-up blood tests just before the overager deadline and they showed him free of mono, making it a brief outbreak. But by then it was too late to do anything at the deadline as Reekie was already on the 60-day injured list.
So now Reekie waits until Nov. 9 to come off the list.
“That was brutal, probably the worst timing possible,” Reekie said of the mono. “But things like that happen all the time and there’s nothing anybody can do about it but train to get back in shape and hopefully play a game in this league again.”
Everett general manager Doug Soetaert said he still had to check with the league to find out what happens once Reekie comes off the list. He needs to know whether the Tips will have to make an immediate overager move or if they’ll receive some leeway. Forwards Dan Gendur and Brennan Sonne and defenseman Dane Crowley are Everett’s active overagers.
Reekie can be traded while on the 60-day injured list, but Soetaert said it’s unlikely anything will be done until Reekie is eligible to play, as other teams wouldn’t want to disrupt their current overage situations prematurely.
“I just want to play somewhere in the league, be a starter, play some games,” Reekie said. “I want to play my 20-year-old year, for sure, here in the WHL somewhere. I’d love to stay in Everett — that would be the best — but that’s up in the air.”
Dailey snaps back: Watching Zack Dailey in his return to the lineup last Saturday against Portland, it was impossible to tell that the Everett center had been knocked all the way to the hospital 10 days earlier.
Dailey had to be taken off the ice on a stretcher after a devastating hit by Spokane’s Justin Falk on Oct. 3. The hit left Dailey convulsing on the ice, forced him to remain hospitalized overnight and left him with a concussion.
“All I remember is waking up in the ambulance and talking to those guys,” said Dailey, who had no recollection of encouraging the crowd to cheer as his stretcher was being slid off the ice.
“I was lucky,” Dailey added. “I didn’t have any symptoms the night after the hit and all the tests went well.”
When he returned to the lineup following a three-game layoff, Dailey was the same player he’s always been, throwing his body around with reckless abandon despite his diminutive size and showing no signs that the hit affected him at all.
“That’s my kind of game,” Dailey said. “If I don’t play like that then I’m not effective.
“I felt great,” he added. “Friday morning (Kyle) Beach and I went out on the ice and he was hitting me against the boards, just making sure my head was OK for contact. Then Saturday I felt great.”
Slap shots: Tips broadcaster Jon Rosen has returned to Everett and will be back calling play-by-play for Friday’s game in Kelowna. Rosen spent the previous 10 days in California with his mother, who passed away after battling cancer. … Former Tip Peter Mueller’s NHL career hasn’t exactly gotten off to a flying start. Mueller has yet to record a point in his first four games with the Phoenix Coyotes, he saw his ice time diminish to 6 minutes, 9 seconds in his last game, and he was a healthy scratch when Phoenix hosted his native Minnesota Wild last Saturday. It’s unknown whether his slow start increases the chances of his being returned to Everett this season.
Nick Patterson’s Silvertips blog: http://www.heraldnet.com/silvertipsblog
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