EVERETT — Everett Silvertips coach Craig Hartsburg is paging Mike Wallace and Andy Rooney.
He’s looking for 60 minutes.
Everett is hoping to snap a four-game skid when the Tips play host to the Tri-City Americans tonight, and Hartsburg believes his team’s inability to maintain consistency over the course of a full 60 minutes has been the main source of the losing streak.
“You have to play 60 minutes,” Hartsburg said. “You’re not going to be perfect, momentum flows all the time. But our game can’t go in such extremes, and that’s where we’re falling into trouble.”
Everett surged out of the gate this season, winning its first four games. At that point the Tips were the only team in the WHL that hadn’t lost.
However, the Tips were having difficulty putting a complete game together, and during the second half of their season-opening eight-game homestand they accumulated just four points from four games.
Everett hit the road and the inconsistency caught up to the Tips. Everett lost each of its first four road games, earning only one point in the process. Penalties were a constant source of frustration as the Tips gave the opposition 28 power-play opportunities while drawing just 12.
“What we’ve seen on the road is kind of a consistency problem more than anything,” Hartsburg said. “Inconsistency leads to breakdowns, which leads to turnovers, and they all kind of lead to penalties because you’re in the wrong position. It’s unfortunate because we’ve had really good first periods and didn’t follow up with very good second periods.”
The consistency problem has showed up most on offense. The Tips didn’t allow more than three goals in any of the four defeats. However, Everett managed just five goals during the skid, three of those coming in one game. The Tips have been particularly poor on the power play, converting just four of their past 43 opportunities.
“I think we just need to be a little more tenacious around the net,” Tips playmaker Kellan Tochkin said. “Especially our power play, our power play is real lackadaisical. But we’ve had a few really good days of working on it, so I think (tonight) it’s going to be a new-look power play. I think a lot of people are going to be surprised how hungry we are to score.
“I think one of the biggest reasons why we haven’t been scoring is our power play hasn’t been working,” Tochkin continued. “Things better start looking up or there’s going to be 10 brand-new guys on the power play.”
Inconsistency at the start of the season is nothing new for the Tips. Everett was inconsistent throughout the first half of last season, and the Tips were treading .500 when January rolled around. That’s when things finally clicked and Everett found consistency. The Tips promptly embarked on a 14-game winning streak, and eventually Everett finished tied for first in the U.S. Division with Tri-City, losing out on the title on a tiebreaker.
“We’re not that far away, but it seems like we’re far away at times because we don’t stay with it,” Hartsburg said. “You see the first periods and ask, ‘What’s the difference?’ There’s not a big difference other than the commitment to stay with the team plan. It’s something we battled with last year early, and it seems we’re battling it again this year.”
Hartsburg hopes consistency settles in a little quicker this season.
Slap shots
Everett is getting healthier. Defenseman Alex Theriau, who sat out the previous three games because of a groin strain, practiced at full speed this week and should be available tonight. Center Clayton Cumiskey and winger Markus McCrea, who have missed nine and three games, respectively, because of concussions, have also resumed practicing and could be available tonight. … Fox Sports Northwest released its WHL broadcast schedule Thursday, and the Tips will appear in four of the network’s 10 games. Everett will be shown on Jan. 14 at Seattle, Feb. 2 at Kamloops, Feb. 25 at home against Portland and Mar. 18 at Portland. The Kamloops game will be tape delayed, but the other three will be shown live.
Nick Patterson’s Silvertips blog: http://www.heraldnet.com/silvertipsblog
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