Is the ship sinking?

Tbirds get totally out played by Spokane last night and lose 4-0. Seattle was without their Captain Thomas Hickey, Jim O'Brien and Calvin Pickard but Spokane was without Drayson Bowman, Mitch Wahl, Tyler Johnson and Dustin Tokarski.

Seattle was also missing Greg Scott who was suspended for his Match Penalty for stepping on the leg of Tayler Jordan of the Winterhawks in the game on Saturday. I didn't see the game Saturday so I don't know what it looked like... Scott has said that he did step on the leg of Jordan but that it was an accident and there was no intent on his part. The league has not yet posted on the website how long he will be suspended.

Regardless... Seattle played horribly for what I understand was the second night in a row. I just didn't see any fire or fight in most of the players. Everyone seems to be on cruise control or wishing they were back home or resigned to their fate this season.... which is ridiculous when you consider that the season is only half over.

Jacob DeSerres was incredible for most of the game keeping Spokane to one goal on 24 shots over half way through the second period before giving up an unfortunately soft goal to Kenton Miller to make it 2-0. I was a little bit concerned about how DeSerres would respond after the soft goal but he played relatively well the rest of the way. DeSerres ended the night with 39 saves on 43 shots and you certainly cannot fault him in any way for the loss.

Spokane added two more goals in the 3rd period, both coming from the blue line on the power play. I couldn't see the angle but both beat DeSerres cleanly which would suggest that he was screened at least partially on both.

At the other end of the ice... Seattle really wasn't much better as they only managed to get 25 shots on net and really only generated what I would consider to be about 4 or 5 good scoring chances with James Reid flashing a really good glove on several saves. Reid's shutout was his 3rd this season, two of which have come against the Thunderbirds. He received the 1st star in the building but I really didn't think his 25 saves were particularly difficult. I would have probably given him the 2nd star and made Trevor Glass the 1st star. Glass chipped in his 5th goal of the season in the 1st period on the power play before assisting on Ulmer's PP goal in the 3rd period. Glass was also very solid defending and ended the night +1 being on the ice for 3 of the 4 Spokane goals.

The Tbirds are sinking fast after this disastrous weekend. It isn't too late to turn this thing around and make a run at the 4th or 5th spot in the conference, but if they play like they did last night they might find themselves fighting with Chilliwack and Prince George for the 8th spot in the conference.

Last Key Arena game ever is on Tuesday against Chillwack, which might either be an opportunity to get things right again or a reason to fear this team's place in the playoff picture.

Do not forget at all......... The opening game of the ShoWare Center on Saturday! I'm going to try to attend part of the grand opening on Friday and of course coverage of the game on Saturday. I'm going to try to take as many good pictures as I can and put them up here over the weekend.