EVERETT – Beginning at 7:05 p.m. tonight, the jungle is officially back open for business.
The Everett Silvertips face the Portland Winter Hawks in their 2004-05 home opener tonight, and once again the Everett Events Center is expected to be rocking and rolling, thanks to some of the most enthusiastic fans in the Western Hockey League.
“It’s going to be nuts, it’s going to be amazing,” Everett winger Curtis Billsten said. “When we said we had the best fans in the league, we weren’t kidding, and it will be proven (tonight).”
Four months after watching the Silvertips make an improbable run to the WHL Championship Series as an expansion team, the Everett fans finally get their chance to watch their team play another meaningful game. That pent-up enthusiasm is expected to be unleashed in full force.
“Home openers are always fun,” Everett coach Kevin Constantine said. “The important thing for our guys is to make sure we’re focusing on what we need to do as a team and not get too concerned about the hype. Our job is to go out and do our jobs. But it’s always fun. I think the fans will be excited to have hockey back in the arena, so we’re really looking forward to it. Now we just have to stay with our game plan and not worry too much about the fact it’s our home opener.”
More than 7,000 tickets have been sold for tonight’s game – about 1,000 tickets were still available Thursday. Emotions are expected to run high, and the Silvertips are anxious to see their fans again.
“We all feed off the crowd,” Billsten said. “Games will be going slow and we’ll get one big hit and all of a sudden our fans just start going nuts. We want to have a good game for them, we want to show them a good time. So it fires us up and brings out the best games in the boys.”
There should be a different type of excitement at this season’s home opener. Last year, Everett was an 0-3-1 expansion team in its home opener and the buzz was based on the curiosity surrounding a new team, a new sport and a new building.
But after last season’s success and the way the fans embraced the team – and the fact the Silvertips come into this home opener 2-0 after wins at Kelowna and Kamloops last weekend – this year’s excitement is more about supporting a contending team. That sentiment will be enhanced tonight by a pregame ceremony that includes the raising of banners for winning the U.S. Division championship and the Western Conference championship.
“In a way (the home opener will feel more comfortable than last season) and in a way it won’t,” Everett captain Mitch Love said. “You have to expect there’s going to be a lot more pressure on us this year after the season we had last year. The fans will expect a lot more, where last year the fans didn’t know what they were going to see or what to expect. So in that regard, there’s more pressure. But hopefully we’ll come out here and have a good first five minutes and set the tone for the game.”
And Everett’s success last season has just added fuel to the fire. More than 3,000 season tickets have been sold, which is about 900 more than the team sold at this point last season, and the Silvertips received enthusiastic feedback during the offseason.
“We’ve had tremendous feedback with regards to support from our local fans and the surrounding area,” Everett general manager Doug Soetaert said. “We’ve increased our season-ticket base and increased our corporate sales. It’s been a very, very positive step in year one and we feel very good about what we were able to do last year. But last year was last year. Now we’ve got to move on to this upcoming year. But obviously the fans are the ones who can remember what went on here and want to be a part of what’s going to happen again this year.”
Everett has 10 rookies on its roster this season, so tonight many of the Silvertips will be experiencing the Everett Events Center for the first time.
“They’ve heard a lot of stories,” Billsten said of the rookies. “We talk about our fans all the time and they’ve seen the highlight tape we have, and after seeing that I think they might be even more nervous now after seeing how our fans react. But they’re going to be fine.”
Most importantly, the Silvertips want to use the home opener as a springboard to yet another winning season.
“We have to establish that again this year,” Love said. “It’s a new season and we have new personnel for the fans to cheer on. This is our team for the 2004-05 season and we’re going to try to bring them another run like we did last year.”
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