EVERETT — The Everett Silvertips survived the long, hard road. Now their attentions shift to home.
Everett emerged from its difficult stretch of playing 12 of 14 games on the road in largely the same position as when it started. The Tips’ reward is playing 11 of their next 16 contests within the friendly confines of Xfinity Arena.
“They were pretty long,” Everett captain Kohl Bauml said of the two long January road trips that are now in the books. “There are a lot of tired guys battling some flu bugs. So it’s nice to be in our own beds, not traveling six or seven hours a night, and getting some home-cooked meals in our bellies. It was fun while it lasted, but it’s nice to be home.”
When Everett departed for its game at Seattle on Dec. 30, which kicked off the long road trip through the WHL’s East Division, the Tips were in first place in the U.S. Division, just three points ahead of the Spokane Chiefs.
Everett ended up going 9-5 in its past 14 games, and the Tips remain in first place in the division. Everett’s lead is even the same three points, only the identity of the chasing team has changed as now it’s Portland in hot pursuit. The rest of the division has fallen 12 points back.
Everett coach Kevin Constantine said the Tips came through the challenging 14-game stretch, which included a six-game swing through the East Division and a four-games-in-five-nights trip through Prince George and Kelowna, “all right.”
“We had a nice trip out east (when the Tips went 5-1 against the East Division) and got some points, and we got some points in (two wins at Prince George), then got our butts handed to us in Kelowna (two losses), so it wasn’t perfect,” Constantine said. “But we wanted to get through that and set the stage for a run at a division title, and that still sits there available for us.”
Everett is seeking to hang its first banner since 2007, when the Tips won both the U.S. Division and the Scotty Munro Trophy for the league’s best record. In order to hold off a surging Portland, which has won six straight to pull within three points of the Tips while having played three more games, Everett will have to take advantage of these games at home.
“We did our job on the road, now we’re coming home and we can’t let any teams walk into our rink and push us around,” Bauml said. “We have to take care of business on our home ice and get as many points as we can. Portland is playing good hockey right now, so this weekend (with Everett traveling to Portland on Saturday) could be a pivotal weekend.”
While the travel schedule gets significantly easier for Everett with so many upcoming games at home, it doesn’t guarantee an improvement in results. The Tips have just a slightly better record at home (14-5-3-0, .705 winning percentage) than on the road (16-9-0-1, .635 winning percentage).
“You’d always choose to be at home in front of your fans, and have the additional energy from not having to ride on a bus,” Constantine said. “But our home record is no better than our road record, so there’s no particular advantage. Especially if you assume that being at home is of some sort of advantage, then you’re really in trouble. The evidence right now is that we’re not necessarily a much better home team, so we’d be ill-advised to assume that because we’re at home things will just go easy for us. I think it’s going to be very hard and very challenging down the stretch, but I also think that if we stay to the gameplan that’s allowed us to be in the spot were at right now — if we’re smart enough to stay close to that — then we’re in pretty good shape for the home stretch.”
However, Everett begins this stretch of friendlier travel still trying to fully recover from its exertions on the road. The long bus rides and constant time together in close proximity caused illness to set in with the team, and several players missed practices this week. Everyone was back at practice Thursday except forward Ivan Nikolishin, but many players remain affected.
“I think guys are still a little sick,” Constantine said. “We had guys who weren’t out here today because of that, we have guys who left the practice today because of that. We’re not 100-percent healthy, but I don’t know if there is any team in the league that is right now. We’re in the dog days of February of a WHL season, and everyone is dealing with injuries and the wear and tear of the season. No, we’re not 100-percent healthy, but neither is anyone else, so we have to get after these games.”
But at least the Tips will be able to do a majority of it at home.
“After we came back from our Saskatchewan road trip the fans were awesome,” Bauml said. “(The games on Jan. 16 and 17 against Spokane and Seattle) were two of our biggest crowds of the year, we were playing good hockey, so we’re just going to try to feed off the crowd’s energy. We’re hoping for some big crowds over the next couple weeks, especially once the football saga is over here and people start coming out more. It’s good to be home and get into more of a routine, so we’re looking forward to it.”
Check out Nick Patterson’s Silvertips blog at http://www.heraldnet.com/silvertipsblog, and follow him on Twitter at @NickHPatterson.
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