In Memorium

[Cougar Guy]

As a Flames fan its disappointing to see Irving getting pulled tonight. Were they bad goals or was it an attempt to send a message?

The first was a screened shot. Not a great goal to give up, but not an easy stop either. I don't think there was a goalie on planet earth who could've stopped Setoguchi's goal. He probably had 1-2 inches to put the puck in and he fired a wrist shot off with such velocity that I don't think Irving even saw it. I know I didn't really see it until it hit the back of the net. I suspect Irving was expecting him to pass so he may have given up a little more room that he would've if he was expecting a shot, but you simply don't expect guys to bury a puck from that angle. The problem is that this wasn't an ordinary player making that shot. It was simply an unbelievable shot.

[Rooselk]

Fire KC and the Tbirds will hire him before he hangs up the phone

You're right. Tipped Off is a passionate fan and I sincerley appreciate all he does here at this forum, but I couldn't disagree more with him about this. If it weren't for KC this team would not have known the success it has. Does KC need to rethink a few things? Sure. What we witnessed in the third period on Saturday night clearly makes that case. But in the last four years we have three divisional banners and one Western Conference banner hanging from the rafters of the EEC. Looking around the WHL I don't see too many other coaches that could have brought us that.

[Tipped Off]

I did say I thought KC was the perfect fit for years one and two. He is a great defensive minded coach who gets guys with less talent to overachieve. He has never taken a team with good offensive talent and turned them into a championship caliber team. As the coach of an expansion team, he is absolutely the right man for the job. As the coach of a 5 year old team with good offensive talent, I would feel better with someone else at the helm. Someone with some offensive thought.

[LinkGaetzFan]

I feel sorry for the players. They spent many formative years learning an antiquated style of play thanks to KC.

[catsfan]

As a Flames fan its disappointing to see Irving getting pulled tonight. Were they bad goals or was it an attempt to send a message?

It was a good season for the Tips.

They weren't weak goals by any standard. Both shots were bullets. Everett knew they had to do whatever it took to win and constantine thought putting Reekie in goal would help. The cougars just played to well to not the game.

[Tipped Off]

Great season
But lofty goals fall short

By Nick Patterson
Herald writer






EVERETT - The 2006-07 WHL season brought something the Everett Silvertips had never experienced before:

Disappointment from failing to meet expectations.

A franchise that spent its first three seasons of existence as the plucky overachiever, going above and beyond all expectations, finally suffered the sting of having a season come to a premature end.

The sting of that early exit, a second-round playoff upset at the hands of the Prince George Cougars that was finalized Monday, still lingered Wednesday as the players went through exit meetings. But it was tempered somewhat by the memory of the greatest regular season in franchise history.

"You can look at the regular season as a success, but the playoffs were definitely a disappointment," goaltender Leland Irving said. "We set our goals high, the Memorial Cup being our goal, and obviously we fell really short of that. We still had moments in games where we were the team we can be, but if you don't bring it all together it doesn't do much for you."

Everett accomplished more during the regular season than any other Silvertips team in the franchise's four-year history:

* Everett finished 54-15-1-2, shattering the team record for wins in a season and earning the franchise's first Scotty Munro Trophy for the league's best regular season record. Everett's 111 points were the most by any team in the Tips' four seasons in the league.

* The Tips earned their third U.S. Division title in four years.

* Zach Hamill became the first Tip to win the league scoring title, finishing with 93 points in 69 games.

* The Tips both began and ended the season as the top-ranked team in the entire Canadian Hockey League.

But given those regular-season accomplishments, as well as the expectations that accompanied them, does losing in the second round of the playoffs turn the season into a failure?

"Failure is so black and white," defenseman Jonathan Harty said. "We didn't accomplish our goals, but I think we learned lots and had a great season to go with it. Failure? I think that's the wrong term. It was a great season."

It certainly was during the regular season. The Tips were a machine during the regular season that didn't really have a bad stretch. Everett never lost back-to-back games until the season's final week - and that came after Everett already clinched the league's best record and was resting key regulars.

Individually Everett had many standouts. In addition to Hamill, center Peter Mueller led the league in points per game, tallying 78 in 51 games. Right wing Moises Gutierrez scored 35 goals and tied for the league lead in power-play markers with 24. Kyle Beach had a monster season for a 16-year-old, registering 29 goals and 32 assists. And the goaltending tandem of Irving (34-9-1-2, 1.86 goals against average, .929 save percentage) and David Reekie (20-6, 1.77 goals against average, .925 save percentage with Everett) gave the Tips the most reliable duo in the league.

"They were really consistent," Everett coach Kevin Constantine said of his players. "They never until the end of the year lost back-to-back games, and that's hard to do. They just never let themselves get into a stretch of games where they weren't pretty good."

But things changed just before the playoffs. Everett was just 6-6 in its final 12 games heading into the playoffs. That was accompanied by the loss of key forward Ondrej Fiala, who departed to undergo knee surgery. Everett still overcame Spokane in the first round in six games, but the signs of struggle were there as the Chiefs gave the Tips all they could handle.

Then came the series loss to Prince George, which was a hammer blow. Especially given the way it ended, the Tips losing a three-goal third-period lead in Game 5 to go down 3-2 in the series, then getting blown out 8-2 in the decisive Game 6, the team's worst defeat of the year.

"Right now it's kind of a tough pill to swallow, losing in the second round of the playoffs," Hamill said. "Being No. 1 in the CHL all year and then having that, it's definitely something we didn't want to happen. Right now it's tough to handle, but I think in a couple months it will settle in what we've accomplished. I think all-in-all it was a pretty good season."

And the Tips had their moments off the ice, too.

"I found it the most relaxing year I've had coaching this team in the sense that a lot of times when I felt it was time for me to say something to the guys, they were already saying it to each other," Constantine said. "So we had good leadership in that sense. I really respected our team this year in their approach and attitude.

"If you package the whole playoffs and regular season together, this team won more games than any other team in the history of the Silvertips and they hung two banners in the rink," Constantine concluded. "I think that's fantastic, I thought our guys did a great job."

Slap shots: Everett had a third member of the organization nominated as a finalist for a WHL award Wednesday as center Damir Alic received the Western Conference nomination for Scholastic Player of the Year. Alic joins Beach (Rookie of the Year) and Constantine (Coach of the Year) as Tip finalists. ... The league also announced the finalists for Player of the Year, with Seattle center Aaron Gagnon and Medicine Hat defenseman Kris Russell receiving the nod.

[Highlander_Yank]

On the upside: This is the first time the Silvertips haven't finished a season by getting swept in a playoff series.

I really don't feel all that bad about the Tips losing this one. As with the 2005 second-round playoff series against the Kootenay Ice, the Tips lost the Prince George series to a team that was playing better hockey, plain and simple. Nothing to get uppity about.

I'm certainly not pulling against the Cougars in the conference finals against the Vancouver Giants, and I wish the Cougars well for the rest of the playoffs and for next season. See ya next year!

[puckmam]

Thanks. The Tips showed real class at the last game in PG!

[Tipped Off]

They may not have been "Swept" out, but they have ended every season by losing 4 in a row.