Now Beach kicks sand in other faces

After practicing hockey on the eve of Saturday’s home opener, the Spokane Chiefs choreographed the ceremony to launch the franchise’s 25th season here, right down to the introduction of each and every player to an otherwise empty arena.

“Your newest Chief,” came the call, “No. 21, Kyle Beach!”

“Boooooooo!” hooted his teammates.

And then they laughed. All of them.

Probably.

As much as this was to tease Beach about the welcome he was expected to receive from a fan base (among many) that had deemed him to be Pure Evil – though during the for-real intros Saturday night, the cheer-to-jeer ratio was only about 60-40 – it was more to let him know in one more small way that he’s one of them now.

Naturally, the initial reaction to Chiefs general manager Tim Speltz trading for the gifted and grating Beach last week was something along the lines of finding a jabanero in your chocolate cake. Throw the sweater of the rival Tri-City Americans on any teenager with skates and he surrenders the benefit of the doubt here, but there’s been a special place for Beach in Spokane’s hall of villains regardless of uniform.

“Well, it was a shock,” admitted center Mitch Wahl. “We never thought he’d be on our side. But the past is water under the bridge and we’re happy to have him.”

You think?

Beach had two goals and an assist in Saturday’s 5-2 wipeout win, the second of those goals a startling charge up the middle where he bulled through the Ams’ Patrick Holland and had goaltender Drew Owsley bug-eyed. If anyone doubted the Chiefs’ designs on the Western Hockey League’s U.S. Division title before, they won’t now.

“He’s big, he’s physical, he’s skilled and he’s willing to pay the price,” said Speltz. “We haven’t had a net-front guy like that in forever. He loves being there. He is a package.”

And, yes, a piece of work.

Space does not permit detailing Beach’s rap sheet against the Chiefs – or any other team, really. Suffice it to say that in two and a half seasons with Everett he became the Silvertips’ career leader in penalty minutes, and that the runner-up highlight in Spokane’s 2008 Memorial Cup season was captain Chris Bruton delivering a one-punch knockout of Beach after a gratuitous facewash of Wahl.

Dealt to Lethbridge at the trade deadline last year, he quickly made new enemies in Medicine Hat, setting off a couple of brawls.

So what’s his story?

“I run my mouth,” he said, not even bothering with a shrug. “I chirp. I slash. At the same time, I’m the guy who’s going to hurt them on the scoreboard at the end of the night.”

And that’s it: He’s a first-round NHL draft choice, 25-goal guy who has a chance to score 40 on a line with Wahl and Levko Koper. Plus, his mouth and stick will now be directed elsewhere. It’s a hockey truism as worn as fighting’s-a-part-of-the- game: the players you hate to play against are the ones you want on your team.

“I always hated Donny (Dustin Donaghy) and Lettsy (Ryan Letts) – and we’re pretty much best friends in my first days here,” Beach said.

Speltz, however, wants to believe this is Beach 2.0, a 19-year-old matured by a couple of camp stays with Chicago – and a desire to start that NHL career as quickly as possible. One of his consults before the trade was with former Chiefs coach Bill Peters, now with the Blackhawks’ minor league in Rockford. He saw Beach in both camps and “had no problem recommending him” – and no one was more critical of Beach 1.0 than Peters.

Doesn’t mean everyone thinks he’s reformed. Beach was whistled for a hook just 46 seconds into his first game as a Chief.

“I doubt it’ll ever change,” Beach said.

Not exactly music to the ears – but Speltz isn’t running a finishing school, either.

“We’ve never been afraid to bring in guys that may be ‘challenging,’ ” he said. “David Rutherford was a perfect example. We got him for a fifth-round pick and he was worth a lot more than that but flat out there weren’t a lot of other teams interested, because of the stories about him. But we felt we had a strong leadership group here that could handle it and he couldn’t have been better for us.

“Guys like Kyle are competitive, emotional, on the edge – and there are going to be times it costs you. But at the end of the day, you don’t know how many times it helps you.”

At the end of Saturday, the Chiefs counted one. And from the grandstand, there were no more boos.