EVERETT — The Portland Winterhawks are the four-time defending Western Hockey League Western Conference champions. They’re known for a high-powered offense that led the league in goals each of the past three seasons. Once again they are predicted to be the class of the U.S. Division.
And the Everett Silvertips are about to get a heavy dose of them.
Everett is going to get very familiar with Portland during the next two weeks. The Tips play four of their next five games against the Winterhawks, including two this weekend in Portland.
“It will be a good early test for our team,” said overage defenseman Ben Betker, who’s set to make his season debut after missing the season-opening 1-0 victory at Seattle while at camp with the NHL’s Edmonton Oilers. “We play them quite a bit this first couple months of the season, so I know we’re excited, we’re preparing, and I’m excited to see everyone in action, including myself.”
The schedule makers created an unusual situation for Everett to start the season. First, Everett plays back-to-back games in Portland on Saturday and Sunday, a nearly unheard of situation. U.S. Division teams often play one another on back-to-back nights, but those almost always are home-and-home sets. The U.S. teams usually play road games on consecutive nights at Prince George, but that’s because of the long travel distance. Playing a doubleheader in one location within the division is a rare occurrence.
“It’s a little different,” Everett goaltender Austin Lotz said. “We don’t usually stay in Portland, but I think we’ll be staying there Saturday night after the game, which is kind of different. It will be nice to get a good rivalry going with them for the rest of the season.”
That’s only part of the oddity. Four of Everett’s first six games this season are against the Winterhawks, including home games on Oct. 4 and Oct 10. The frequency with which the teams play in the early going almost creates the feel of a playoff series — with the postseason still six months away.
“We’re going to get to know them pretty well, I guess,” Lotz said. “It works well for both teams. We get to study each other more with our off-ice meetings, and they’ll be doing the same thing. At the end of the day, it’s just a hockey game and we’re excited to play it.”
But while playing Portland is a daunting task no matter when it occurs, could this be the best possible time to be playing the Winterhawks on multiple occasions?
One of the consequences of Portland’s success is that a large number of its players have been drafted into the NHL. Those players attend training camps with their NHL teams, and sometimes those players are kept for NHL preseason games and even regular season games. While they’re taking part in those NHL games, they’re unavailable for their WHL games.
Last weekend showed how much of a difference that can make. Portland had seven of its best players unavailable for the opening weekend because they were still at NHL camps. As a result, the Winterhawks dropped both of their games, losing their opener 4-1 to Seattle and falling 6-3 to Prince George the next night, both at home.
Most of the players who were missing last weekend have since returned. However, Portland’s two biggest names, 19-year-old forwards Nicolas Petan (Winnipeg) and Oliver Bjorkstrand (Columbus), were still with their NHL teams as of Friday evening. Those two finished 2-3 in the league scoring race last season, and they seem highly unlikely to be there for Portland this weekend. Should either player be deemed worthy of getting into an NHL regular season game, it would probably knock him out of the games in Everett, too, as the NHL season begins Oct. 8.
All of this is happening as the Winterhawks adjust to new head coach Jamie Kompon, who took over for the departed Mike Johnston.
So advantage Everett, right?
Not so fast. The Tips are having none of that.
“It doesn’t matter if Petan and Bjorkstrand are back or not,” Everett coach Kevin Constantine said. “They have a lot of offensive talent. They’re deep and that’s why they’ve been such a good team. Obviously, Petan and Bjorkstrand are big pluses for their team, but they’re a deep team without those two.”
Said Betker: “I’d rather play against those players. I think it’s just a better test. We obviously want to win, but I would rather win with those players in the lineup.”
Everett also will be without its top offensive player, even though that player has never actually appeared in a Silvertips jersey. Winger Nikita Scherbak, whom Everett acquired from Saskatoon on Monday, remains at camp with the NHL’s Montreal Canadiens.
But regardless of who’s available to play for either side, the Tips know they face a stiff challenge in the Winterhawks.
“We obviously know how they play,” Betker said. “They look a little bit different this year, they’ve lost some guys, have some new guys and a new coach. But I don’t expect much different, probably that high-powered offense they like to bring every game. It will be up to us to shut those guys down and score more goals.”
Check out Nick Patterson’s Silvertips blog at http://www.heraldnet.com/silvertipsblog, and follow him on Twitter at NickHPatterson.
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