Hockey returns to Hooterville!

When I was young, Labor Day weekend meant that the days were beginning to get progressively shorter, the mornings started to become crisp with a warm and sunny afternoon, my sister and I would beg our parents to let us stay up all night with Jerry Lewis; and something that would fill us with dread: summer vacation was coming to a close and school was starting in a few days.

These days, Labor Day weekend is not just the start of the road to fall; but it's also means the return of hockey! For those of us here in the city of Everett and the surrounding communities, we are fortunate enough to have hockey here in our own home town. While it's not the big names and bright lights of an NHL city, there are times where it is actually a better thing. We get to see boys come into our town as 15, 16 and 17 year old teenagers; and we get to watch them grow up and become young men.

Junior hockey is a funny thing... you can have a boy who seems to have all the talent in the world when they come through the bantam draft; but if he doesn't get the right coach or the right mix of teammates, he can be written off as a failure or even shipped home. However even just a change of scenery has helped some boys that were cast aside due to bad chemistry or bad coaching or something went wrong; including a few that have landed in Everett and amazing things have happened. Just ask Dan Gendur in the Canucks system. :)

And this Labor Day delivered again with last weekend's annual Silvertips tournament which was a good time for all. As usual, I was there for each and every game; and all that action was worth every penny. Even more than the games themselves is the people watching both up on the concourse and in the stands. It's usually pretty sparse, consisting of parents of boys on the team as well as some hardcore fans; but the amount of love shown is pretty strong. The best game of all was the 6-5 shootout win on Saturday morning by the Portland Winterhawks. It came after a blitz in the last five minutes of the third period. This game also had some NHL ties as the younger brother of Dion Phaneuf was playing for Prince George; and Gasper Kopitar, little bro of Anze, was part of the Portland offense.

Not to forget my hometown boys, they played in the 3 evening games, and there were some flashes of brilliance not only from the team but from the coaches. After two years of huggy and soft kind of coaching, it was good to see some discipline back with Craig Hartsburg. What was even more interesting was the dynamics with his assistants, one of whom is his son. With Jay Varady, who is the associate head coach and runs the defense, he pretty much was left alone; but with Chris, there was a little more interaction. I'm not sure if this is because Chris is newer to the coaching ranks or what, but I'll keep my eye on this as the season progresses.

There is still a long way to go for this squad, especially with various new boys to the squad, both young ones and vets who were picked up over the summer. Also there were a handful of them missing due to being invited to NHL camps. It is a bumper crop for the Tips with Tyler Maxwell and Radko Gudas going to LA as invites of the Kings, Thomas Heemskerk was asked to play with the Sharks; then there are the draftees Cameron Abney in Edmonton, Byron Froese and the Blackhawks, Rasmus Rissanen out in Carolina, and Kellan Tochkin up in Vancouver after he was signed with the Canucks this summer.

So, after picking up my season tickets last night, I really feel like hockey season is beginning. But first up is the NHL game here in town; then Opening night is the 26th and then the big boys start. It's like your birthday and Christmas all rolled into one; and I can't wait!

Hope you all had a good holiday and Go Tips! :)