So the Everett vs. Spokane series should be a rout, right? After all, it pits the first-place team from the U.S. Division against the fourth-place team, and those teams were separated by 23 points in the standings. Therefore, the Tips should breeze through, shouldn’t they?
Well, as Lee Corso likes to say, not so fast my friend.
Spokane finished with a pedestrian .500 record. But that’s largely because the Chiefs went through a bad patch in January when overage center Calder Brooks was out injured, and then lost their last five games when they had little left to play for. Brooks is back, and Spokane has plenty to play for in the playoffs, so these will be the Chiefs at their best rather than their worst.
Who were those Chiefs at their best? A team that held its own with the rest of the U.S. Division, including Everett. We can throw out the season-ending game between the two teams, in which both teams rested several top players. In the other seven games between the teams the Tips earned eight points and the Chiefs earned seven. The composite score of those games saw Everett outscore Spokane by just one goal. It just doesn’t get much closer than that.
What about shot totals? Spokane has given Everett fits all season long because of its aggressive forecheck, causing the Tips to turn the puck over in their own zone. That’s resulted in the Chiefs outshooting Everett in five of the seven games that mattered, and in one of the others it was dead even. That’s another indication the Tips will have their hands full.
Special teams are important in any hockey game or playoff series. How were the special teams in the season series between these two teams? Spokane dominated. The Chiefs converted on the power play at a blistering 34.8 percent. Meanwhile, Spokane’s penalty kill limed Everett’s power play, which was the third best in the league during the regular season, to a minuscule 16.1 percent.
And who’s been the best individual performer in the season series? It’s Spokane winger Adam Helewka, who had eight goals and seven assists in eight games. Everett has not found a way of slowing Helewka down, despite knowing full well who the danger man is for the Chiefs.
This isn’t to say Everett doesn’t have its advantages. The Tips have the advantage in goaltending, with Carter Hart leading the league in goals against average and Austin Lotz being a highly experienced option should Hart falter. The Tips also appear to have greater depth, with more players who seem to be genuine offensive threats.
Everett also has overcome a huge mental obstacle. Between March 14, 2010 and March 12, 2014 the Tips lost 18 straight games in Spokane. But the spell has been broken, with Everett winning three times in Spokane this season.
The Tips ended an eight-year banner drought when they won the U.S. Division championship — the last time Everett hung a banner was in 2007 when the Tips won both the division title and Scotty Munro Trophy for the league’s best record. Everett has another drought that’s run equally as long. Although the Tips made the playoffs in each of their 12 seasons, Everett hasn’t gotten out of the first round since that same 2006-07 season.
The identity of that last team Everett beat in the playoffs? None other than the Spokane Chiefs. The Tips got one monkey off their back this season by winning the division. Is it possible the Tips will shrug the other monkey off by coming full circle with playoff series wins? It has a certain poetry to it, doesn’t it?
But for that to happen Everett will have to overcome a team that is no cupcake, no matter what the standings may suggest.
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