All right, catching up on some things from the past few days …
First off, congratulations to Jonathan Harty, who was named the Tips’ captain for the 2007-08 season. If you’d asked me in April who Everett’s captain for the 2007-08 season was going to be, I’d have rattled off Harty’s name without hesitation, and he’s done everything since to reinforce his credentials. It wasn’t a slam dunk as others, most notably Brennan Sonne, have really stepped up to the leadership role. But it’s about time the leadership reins were turned over to that bantam draft class of 2003 that’s meant so much to the organization. What do you think, should the leadership have been turned over to the 88s last season?
Secondly, I’m not sure how to interpret Saturday’s 5-3 victory in Portland. Is it more encouraging that the Tips were able to dig out of a two-goal third-period deficit to pull out the victory in dramatic fashion? Or is it more discouraging that Everett was 15 minutes away from being swept in its home-an-home weekend against a team that hadn’t won all season?
The Tips came back thanks to three straight power-play goals by Jordan Mistelbacher, the first goals of his WHL career (how’s that for a way to open one’s scoring ledger). Fourteen of Everett’s 21 goals have now been scored on the power play. This is interesting. One of the criticisms of last season’s team was that it was too dependent on its power play to score goals. Opening up the offense this season was supposed to increase Everett’s five-on-five offense, but if anything the Tips have been even more reliant on the power play so far. This is unexpected.
Anyway, here’s some notes from today’s practice:
– Matt Ius has joined Zack Dailey on the shelf because of a concussion. Ius suffered his early in Saturday’s game when he laid out by Portland defenseman Bo Montgomery. Both Dailey and Ius suffered concussions on clean hits (keep those heads up guys). However, both are progressing well as both suited up and took part minimally in today’s practice. Coach John Becanic said both could be ready in time for Friday’s home game against Kamloops.
– Also sighted on the ice today was goaltender David Reekie. Reekie, who has been sidelined with mononucleosis, took full part today. He’s apparently still a long way away from being ready for a game, so he’ll still be exempted from Thursday’s overager deadline. But clearly he’s well on his way to recovery. As soon as he’s ready the Tips will have to make an overager move.
– I met Dave Ahlers, who’s taking over radio broadcasting duties while Jon Rosen is attending to family business. Ahlers is a knowledgable guy and he will be calling both games this weekend. He’s got a lot of experience, spending the previous two seasons with the AHL’s Omaha Ak-sar-ben Knights, and before that nine seasons with the AHL’s Portland Pirates. He was an unfortunate victim when the Calgary Flames decided to take their AHL operations to Quad Cities, which is why he was available on short notice. Rosen is expected back next week.
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