EVERETT —The start to Sean Richards’ final season in the Western Hockey League was both suboptimal and frustrating.
The overage forward struggled to find his footing offensively, going scoreless and chipping in two assists over his first five games. It was then compounded by Richards committing a check-to-the-head major on Oct. 5 against Seattle and subsquently being slapped with a five-game suspension.
But lately, Richards, an alternate captain, has since shaken off the partly self-induced adversity and has helped power Everett’s most productive line in recent games.
He chipped in two assists, his linemates Riley Sutter and Dawson Butt added a goal and an assist each and Dustin Wolf posted his second shutout of the season by stopping all 26 shots he faced, and the Everett Silvertips blanked the Calgary Hitmen 4-0 on Tuesday at Angel of the Winds Arena.
“It was really tough at the start of the year,” Richards said. “It was just a little bit of adversity I had to get past and I thought I handled it really well.”
The challenge for Richards moving forward is to strike a balance, especially with Richards rightfully earning a reputation for discipline-worthy plays — he’s a repeat offender with three prior suspensions. But there’s an edge and grit to Richards’ game that embodies who he is as a forward.
Richards says he’s made progress after his hiccup to start the season.
“I’ve learned from past experiences,” Richards said. “I just have to know when to hit and when to not. I think I’ve really learnt that over the past couple of years and the couple times (I’ve been suspended). I can’t take that out of my game completely, I just have to be smarter with when and where I hit.”
The St. Albert, Alberta native came out buzzing in his first game back and notched his first goal of the season against his former team, Regina, on the first game back from his suspension on Oct. 21.
Since then, and especially lately, Richards has found his offensive groove, posting five points in his last four games and averaging a point over his last nine.
The left-handed winger subsequently unlocked an exciting part of his game that led to his uptick in production: His speed. Richards credits his linemates for helping accentuate that facet of his game in recent games.
“I got great linemates here, and they see that I have great speed,” Richards said. “Dawson is making unbelievable plays and so is Riley. I can’t do it without them.”
Sutter put the Silvertips (17-7-1-0) on the board with his 10th goal of the season at the 12:44 mark of the first period. Butt and Richards were credited with assists as Butt beat his man to the left corner and fed a precision pass to Sutter, who elevated the shot over Calgary goaltender Jake McNaughton’s leg pad.
🚨 SUTTER 🚨
🍏 Richards, Butt pic.twitter.com/VDCyuRDNnT
— Everett Silvertips (@WHLsilvertips) November 21, 2018
That line struck again just 22 seconds into the third period as Butt crashed the net and tapped in a pass from Richards for the 19-year-old winger’s sixth goal of the season and to put Everett up 2-0. Sutter was tagged with the secondary assist.
🚨 BUTT 🚨
🍏 Richards, Sutter pic.twitter.com/uyPAVE10LW
— Everett Silvertips (@WHLsilvertips) November 21, 2018
“You look at those goals, all three went hard to the net and they get rewarded,” Everett head coach Dennis Williams said. “Up to that point, we were playing perimeter, soft hockey. That’s what I thought. And that kind of changed it for us.”
The combination has accounted for 13 of the Silvertips’ 22 even-strength’s points over the team’s last three games.
What makes the line tick? It’s a yin-and-yang of corresponding and complimentary strengths.
“I think you have a little bit of everything on it,” Williams said. “You have speed by (Richards), good centerman by (Sutter), winning draws and heavy on sticks and (Butt) doing his thing, going up and down, hitting guys and getting on puck touches and getting first in the corners and making space for those guys.
“They just play an honest game. They’re smart with puck management, get pucks deep and play their strengths and normally have success. They’re a big, heavy line for us.”
Sutter, a third-round pick from the Capitals in the 2018 NHL Draft, is the heartbeat of the line with high-caliber playmaking skills and . What’s more, he’s a proven faceoff winner, having bested his opposition in 52.1 percent of 674 faceoffs taken.
Then there’s Butt, who is experiencing a personal renaissance this season. The Buckley, Washington native was not much else but a checking-line contributor and enforcer last season, but Butt has more than tripled his point total from last season. He finished with just a goal and two assists last year in 45 games and already has 11 points (six goals, five assists) in 22 this year.
“He’s gained a lot of confidence lately,” Richards said. “I had to talk to him a couple games back and tell him, ‘keep stretching, keep flipping them up there, I’ll be there. He’s kept doing it and it’s kept working out. He’s just got to play his game well.”
That confidence was on full display on Saturday at Vancouver, as Butt flipped a pass up to Richards for a highlight-reel goal.
🎥 WHL Highlight of the Night 🎥
November 17, 2018Dawson Butt ➡ Sean Richards of the @WHLsilvertips #WHLHoN pic.twitter.com/c6fnNvGdkv
— The WHL (@TheWHL) November 18, 2018
It was the evolution of both Butt and Everett’s most imposing line encapsulated in one play.
Everett’s Martin Fasko-Rudas tallied his fourth goal of the season off an assist from Byrce Kindopp with 16:24 remaining in the third. Kindopp added a short-handed goal at the 11:58 mark as the Hitmen blew a defensive assignment and allowed Kindopp to corral the puck off the faceoff in their offensive zone, and Kindopp sniped a wrist shot past McNaughton for his fifth goal of the season.
🚨 KINDOPP 🚨
Unassisted AND short-handed pic.twitter.com/D1na9UI1Y0
— Everett Silvertips (@WHLsilvertips) November 21, 2018
Sutter, Butt and Kindopp each finished with a goal and an assist. Richards chipped in two assists.
🚨 FASKO-RUDAS 🚨
🍏 Kindopp, Christiansen pic.twitter.com/ijL9EvNa8u
— Everett Silvertips (@WHLsilvertips) November 21, 2018
Calgary forward Hunter Campbell, an Everett native and a product of Everett youth hockey, made his WHL debut in his home rink Tuesday. A sizable cheering section was on hand to watch his homecoming.
Everett snapped Calgary’s three-game winning streak on Tuesday. The Hitmen outscored their opponents 17-4 over that three-game stretch. The Silvertips ended a five-games-in-seven-days stretch 3-1-1-0. Everett will have three off days before hosting Kelowna on Saturday.
Everett will take some much needed rest and practice time over the Thanksgiving holiday — even though most of the players celebrate Canadian Thanksgiving, which was over a month ago.
But the win on Tuesday left a pretty sweet taste in their mouths.
“I thought it was a pretty great effort,” Williams said. “This is a pretty tough stretch we’re in with not a lot of games and not a lot of rest for our group. That’s a pretty good hockey team. They’re 3-0 in their last three and they’ve scored I think 17 goals in those (wins), so to hold them off the score sheet and to be able to get one on the weekday, those are a big two points for our group. I was really proud of our effort.”
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