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Kevin Brown, Sports Editor kbrown@heraldnet.com

Silvertips' season was quite a ride

By Nick Patterson
Herald Writer

EVERETT -- The 2007-08 season held so much promise for the Everett Silvertips.

Instead it ended in bitter disappointment.

A maddeningly inconsistent season came to close when the Tips were swept out of the first round of the playoffs Friday by the Spokane Chiefs.

And the consensus among the players was that the Tips underachieved this season.

"It was definitely a roller coaster, a lot of ups and downs," goaltender Leland Irving said while the players went through exit meetings Monday. "As far as the guys in that room I think we enjoyed each other's company and were still able to have fun with it.

"As far as the hockey itself goes we obviously would have liked to have done a lot better. I think we were capable of a lot more, but for whatever reason I don't think we played up to our potential."

Superficially, Everett's accomplishments were acceptable. The Tips finished 39-30-0-3, giving Everett winning records in each of its five seasons of existence. The Tips also continued their streak of making the playoffs in every season, and although they lost in the first round for the first time, they were beaten by the team with the second-best record in the league.

And Everett improved as the regular season progressed, going 21-14-0-1 over the final 36 games as opposed to 18-16-0-2 over the first 36.

"I think our goal as an organization every year is to make the playoffs, and we did that," said general manager Doug Soetaert, who chose to accentuate the positives. "We've had very high standards the last four years when we've been very successful. We're disappointed with the way things turned out in the playoffs, but I believe we had a pretty good season."

However, the Tips fell short of of what many predicted. Everett had a strong core of returning players from the previous season's team, which won the Scotty Munro Trophy for the league's best record. That core included a pair of first-round NHL draft picks in returning WHL scoring champion Zach Hamill and all-star goaltender Irving, as well as a future first rounder in power forward Kyle Beach.

In the Canadian Hockey League's preseason poll Everett was ranked No. 1.

But with the team adjusting to new head coach John Becanic's more-aggressive style, things never completely came together, and the season ended on a low point as the Tips lost their final nine games -- five to end the regular season followed by the four-game sweep by Spokane.

"Not even close," defenseman Dane Crowley answered when asked if the Tips achieved what they were capable of this season. "With our team we could have at least got through a couple rounds (of the playoffs). Unfortunately that's the way we were eliminated. With all the talent we had we should have gone a lot further, but that's the way it goes."

What made the season particularly frustrating was that on several occasions the Tips looked like they were turning the corner. Four times Everett had winning streaks of four games or longer, and at one point during the second half the Tips won 21 of 29.

But interspersed with those winning streaks were repeated losing skids. The Tips also had four losing streaks of four games or longer, usually coming right on the heels of a winning streak. The Tips never did solve their inconsistency.

"If we knew what was causing it we would have fixed it and not had that roller-coaster season." leading scorer Dan Gendur said. "Sometimes we didn't have our best effort and we lost, and sometimes we played really good and the other team was just a little bit better. If we could put a finger on it we definitely wouldn't have been so inconsistent."

Everett also picked the wrong year for inconsistency, considering two of the best teams in the entire CHL (Tri-City and Spokane) played in the same division and a third (Vancouver) played in the same conference. Everett's 81 points would have won the U.S. Division in 2003-04, and would have been good for second in 2004-05 and 2005-06. But with the increased level of play in the division this season, 81 points was only good enough for fourth.

"I think we all started out being optimistic and positive," Becanic said. "You looked at some of the players we returned and thought we had an opportunity to be fairly successful. I thought it was a respectable year, but with Tri-City and Vancouver and Spoke really strong, and with Seattle also winning a fair share of games, there wasn't a large margin for error."

So those Tips who return next season will try to learn from this year's experience.

"Obviously we wish we would have finished a bit higher in the standings, and it was a bit of a disappointment in the playoffs as well," Beach said. "But we should take the positives out of it now and look forward to next year."