TALKING POINTS
Bullet points …
– Solid win by Everett tonight in a game between two teams that had comparable players missing from their lineups. Seattle may have had a bit of an edge in possession, outshooting Everett 30-20. But it’s not like the Tips stole this one.
– Everett’s most prominent roster situation remaining is figuring out its overagers. The Tips have four players for three spots: forwards Kohl Bauml, Zane Jones and Brayden Low, and defenseman Ben Betker. Betker, who was unavailable tonight because he’s attending rookie training camp with the NHL’s Edmonton Oilers, is a lock for one spot. That leaves the three forwards battling for the two remaining spots. Well, all three found the net tonight, so game on.
This really is a fascinating situation. By all rights Low shouldn’t even be in the picture. This is a player Everett picked off the scrap heap midway through the 2012-13 season merely because the Tips were short on bodies because of injuries. He was long odds to make the team going into last season, but played so well during the preseason he forced himself onto the roster. On paper he seemed like the odd-man out again this season, but again he’s having a fantastic preseason, leading the team in scoring with six points in five games. Low brings a lot of intangibles to the table, too, as he’s reportedly an excellent influence in the locker room. I don’t know if he’s ultimately going to make the team, but he’s making it harder and harder for the Tips to cut him.
For the record, Low has two goals and four assists in five games, Bauml has two goals and two assists in four games, and Jones has a goal and an assist in four games.
– The other roster spot still up for grabs is Everett’s back-up goaltending position. Tonight Carter Hart entered the fray for the first time. The 16-year-old, who’s duking it out with 17-year-olds Nik Amundrud and Mario Petit, was sidelined for Everett’s first five preseason contests because of a groin strain. Because he’s behind in how much game action he’s received, he was allowed to go the distance tonight, and he certainly didn’t hurt his chances with a solid 29-save performance.
– Everett’s passing and puck movement haven’t been a thing of beauty for much of the preseason. But in the third period tonight we saw some good stuff in the offensive zone, the best I’ve seen out of the Tips so far in exhibition play.
– Everett’s Carson Stadnyk had an interesting three-minute stretch midway through the second period. First, he was hit from behind by Scott Eansor in a play that I was surprised wasn’t called a penalty. Stadnyk stayed down, then struggled to get off the ice as play continued. He sure seemed down for the count, and I was already typing up the injury for my game story. However, three minutes later he’s back on the ice, and he scores on the power play with a wrister from an impossibly tight angle. Tips team photographer Chris Mast got a shot of it:
Stadnyk’s goal goes just over Kozun’s shoulder pic.twitter.com/Tg01DqECuI
— Chris Mast (@MastImages) September 13, 2014
– I’m a little disappointed Everett didn’t maintain it’s geometric progression (tip of the hat to Highlander_Yank) and score 16 goals tonight, thus continuing the trend of scoring the same number of goals the Tips had scored in all their previous preseason games combined. Still, another four goals continues to ease the scoring concerns that Everett came into the season with, and were further reinforced when the Tips managed just four goals in three games at their preseason tournament.
BOX SCORE
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