Chiefs prepare for final bow
For the second year in a row, the Spokane Chiefs are on the outside looking in on the Western Hockey League playoff picture and are instead focusing on the future.
But before they do, they will look back one last time tonight before their final home game of the season. The team will honor its top players in extensive pregame ceremonies, including injured captain Jeff Lynch and fellow 20-year-old Brad Erickson.
Lynch, a five-year Chiefs veteran, has been home in Vancouver, British Columbia, rehabilitating from a severe shoulder injury which has kept him off the ice since mid-January. But he will be on hand tonight for a look back at a career which was spent solely as a Chief and has him near the top of several Chiefs all-time lists.
Lynch is the third of four brothers to play with the franchise and it’s a coincidental end to his WHL career, since it’s the same situation that befell his brother Scott one year ago.
“It sucks to see any 20-year-old not to end his career playing and not to end his career making playoffs,” said younger brother Jason Lynch, a Chiefs defenseman. “You know, it’s unfortunate that both the 20-year-olds the past two years happened to be my brothers. It’s tough to see them go and it’s a lot harder for them to go home and see all their buddies still going to school and they’re just rehabbing, doing nothing.”
Chiefs coach Bill Peters has called the mid-January week of the season in which Lynch was lost and a trade with Saskatoon gutted this year’s roster as one of the hardest for him.
At the trade deadline, the team sent away its leading scorer and two of its top defensemen only to have a string of injuries deplete any remaining team depth.
“It’s really funny how it goes,” said Jason Lynch. “We go four or five months without one injury on the entire team, then Jeff gets injured and everyone gets injured. … It’s just something you’ve got to deal with.”
The trades immediately made the Chiefs younger and turned over the leadership to a new group of players. The youth was apparent both up front, where the team struggled to score, and back on the blue line.
The Chiefs lost 12 straight games at one point and fell out of playoff contention in the five-team U.S. Division of the Western Conference for am unprecedented second straight season.
“We’ve handled it the best we can,” said Peters. “I know the guys have went through a tough time – and we’ve went through it together – and nobody wants to repeat it. I can guarantee that.”
Peters said the positives are that the team’s goaltending is in better shape than it’s been in a long time and the extended playing time for younger players has accelerated their development.
The team has also seen the emergence of offensive stars such as Michael Grabner, Adam Hobson and Derek Ryan, many of whom form the team’s new leadership core along with players such as Chris Bruton, Evan Haw and Jason Lynch.
Spokane may end up with the top picks in the upcoming European and Bantam drafts, which will allow the Chiefs to get an impact player or two on the front line. Spokane will lose a player to Chilliwack in the league’s expansion draft and trades are likely as the franchise tries to retool itself with bigger, stronger, faster skill players.
But that’s next year. As the team wraps up its season tonight and tomorrow with a home-and-home series with Kootenay, Peters said his team should have plenty of motivation.
“I think it’s important for the guys to play well for their billets that are going to be honored that night and all the awards that will be handed out, and to play hard for our fans one last time in ‘05-06,” he said.