EVERETT — The big question dogging the Everett Silvertips entering the 2014-15 season was whether they would be able to generate goals.
It’s just four weeks into the season, but so far the answer is an emphatic, ‘Yes.’
Everett is finding the net with regularity in the early going, and it’s a big reason why the Tips’ record is 5-0-2-0.
“We’re actually doing pretty well right now,” said winger Carson Stadnyk, who leads the team in scoring with 12 points (six goals, six assists). “All the lines are contributing — we don’t have a top line. All four lines can play against any of the team’s opposing top lines, which opens things up for the more-skilled guys to go against their weaker guys.
“The whole team is pitching in for points and goals, and it’s just nice.”
The offensive concerns loomed large coming into the season because Everett was not a high-scoring team a year ago. The Tips’ 215 goals last season equalled a modest 3.0 per game average, which ranked 16th among the Western Hockey League’s 22 teams. Everett then lost four of its top five scorers from that team, including winger Joshua Winquist, whose 93 points were 34 more than any other Tips player.
Some of the offensive concerns lingered during the preseason, particularly when Everett managed just four goals in its first three exhibition games. However, the Tips have calmed those concerns thus far in the regular season.
It’s a small sample size of seven games, but the Tips haven’t just matched last season’s rate, they’ve surpassed it. Everett scored 29 goals in its first seven contests, an average of 4.1 per game, which is an improvement of more than a goal per game. The Tips scored five or more goals in four of those seven games, something Everett accomplished just 13 times in 72 contests last season.
“The last games have been nice, in that we’ve produced goals,” Everett coach Kevin Constantine said. “My guess is that we’re slightly better than what we did in the preseason, but we’re probably not going to produce the numbers we did in the last games. When you even it out over a 72-game schedule, we’re probably somewhere in the middle of that. But we’ll take them. Goals are hard to come by in this business, and we’ll take them while we can get them.”
A significant reason for the increase is the addition of Nikita Scherbak. The winger from Russia, acquired from Saskatoon in a blockbuster trade designed specifically to address Everett’s offensive issues, has been everything he was advertised to be. He’s scored four goals and contributed four assists in his first four games with the Tips. He’s been aided by Stadnyk and center Ivan Nikolishin, who both are averaging more than a point per game and who both already have earned WHL Player of the Week honors this season.
“I think Scherbak is a little bit of that,” Constantine said about the offensive uptick. “He’s got eight points in four games, so that’s eight goals he’s been a part of. If you take that out we’re probably right back where we were, so he’s been a positive influence. But other guys like Ivan and Stadnyk have chipped in, too.”
More subtle, but perhaps equally important, has been the contribution by Everett’s defensemen.
Last season, the Tips were reliant on overager Matt Pufahl to generate offense from the blue line, as he tallied 15 goals and 35 assists in 62 games. No other Everett defenseman managed more than 27 points.
So far this season, the Tips are getting significant offensive contributions from multiple defensemen. Noah Juulsen is at a point-per-game pace with a goal and six assists in Everett’s first seven games. He’s followed closely by Kevin Davis and Cole MacDonald, who each have two goals and four assists. Those are huge rate increases as last season MacDonald had 17 points in 63 games, Juulsen had 10 points in 59 games and Davis had just nine in 65 games.
“It looks like us D-men have been putting up points,” Davis said. “We just have to keep it up, because we’re playing well as a team.”
Getting the defensemen involved in the offensive side of the game is something Constantine has emphasized ever since he returned to Everett at the beginning of last season.
“I think to be an effective attack team you have to have four people involved, so automatically you have to include one of the two D on the ice in your attacks to generate scoring chances,” Constantine explained. “When they shortened the neutral zone and made the offensive zone bigger, the room they created was out at the blue line. Teams defend by collapsing bodies near the net where goals are scored, which opens up the top of the offensive zone. Now a lot of your offense moves that way because that’s where the open ice is, so you have to have defensemen who can generate something from up there.
“The game has just changed in a way where the defense has become much bigger (in scoring contributions) than it was 10, 15 years ago. We’ve gotten nice contributions from some of our D this year, and we’ll have to continue to get that to be a successful offensive team.”
What’s been the key to the increase in production from the defense?
“I think it’s just experience,” Constantine answered. “Everybody who’s playing here has been in the style of the team for a year-and-a-half now, not just a month or two. Juulsen and Davis are 17 instead of 16. But in the case of the whole team, a little bit of it is having to do a little less thinking on the ice because you know our style, or know your teammates, or know your details. I think that always makes you a little more offensive because you’re thinking less. It’s a combination of the athletes and it’s a combination of the team being together under this style of play for a year-and-a-quarter.”
It remains to be seen whether the Tips can maintain this offensive pace. But for the time being Everett’s offense is running smoothly, and it’s silencing the questions that hung over the team before the season began.
Check out Nick Patterson’s Silvertips blog at http://www.heraldnet.com/silvertipsblog, and follow him on Twitter at @NickHPatterson.
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