I have said this before, writing about this team is pretty
difficult right now. You do have some good moments like the 3-0 win over the
Silvertips on Saturday night at Showare Center, but
then you fall right back to reality with the 5-1 and 3-1
losses to the Americans in the past 3 days.
I tweeted last night and will reiterate what I said: I think this team is going to have a very hard time making the
playoffs. Calvin Pickard
clearly has some kind of injury, and one of your most solid defenders,
Cason Machacek, has been suspended for 8 (not 7) games. Machacek should return
for the final 3 games of the season and you have to hope that Seattle will
still be alive for those games. As for Pickard, I had to assume that when
Daniel Cotton started on Sunday that coach Konowalchuk was using the game as an
opportunity to give Pickard a rare rest before the final games of the season.
With Cotton starting last night in Tri-City, you have to assume that
something is wrong. He might play again on Friday and he might not... your
guess is as good as mine but clearly something is wrong. Combine that
with the fact that Seattle has only 4 home games left and 6 games on the road
and the formula just doesn't look very good for earning that 8th seed. I
realize that they still hold a 1 point lead over Everett and they do host
Everett 2 more times before the end of the season but I'm just not feeling very
optimistic at this moment. Seattle travels to Everett on Friday, then to Portland on Saturday. You have to expect that Seattle would be lucky to get any points in Portland and the EEC
will likely be rocking on Friday night. Seattle then hits the road for Prince
George for two absolutely critical games against the Cougars
- I don't want to spend very much time talking officials
because it is a waste of my energy but I'll summarize by saying that the
officials in Sunday's game against Tri-City were really bad. It was a
poorly called game and I'm surprised that Coach K didn't choose to bust
out a little bit of cash and use the opportunity to get thrown out of a
game. Having said that, I heard a fan say that Coach K "Has got
to get kicked out of this game." Really? Let's think about this.
Coach K sees another call he disagrees with and pitches a fit and let's
say... throws a couple of water bottles on the ice and gets tossed from
the game. The fans all feel better and the players might feel a
little bit better but at the end of the day it doesn't actually have any
effect on the game and you're lighter in the wallet. I just don't feel
that it works the same way as it does in a sport like Basketball and by 3
minutes into the 3rd period the team was already losing 5-0. Getting
tossed sounds like fun but I don't think it actually serves any real
purpose.
- Daniel Cotton got the call in the last two games and
despite looking slightly uncomfortable, I think he has played pretty well
and I would still feel pretty comfortable with him as the goaltender next
season. He hasn't had a lot of game experience (16 games now and only 9
starts) and I think some of the discomfort will go away as he sees more
playing time. His breakaway stop on Shinnimin last night was a thing
of beauty. The league's leading scoring and hottest goal scorer in the
league is bearing down on you on the Penalty Kill and you solidly stuff
the guy at the right post. What a big stop.
- Connor Sanvido was back on the ice last night and
whipped in a goal with under 2 minutes to play in the game. Sanvido also
had a fight earlier in the game against Topping that didn't go quite so
well. Props to any guy willing to drop the gloves and Seattle had plenty
of fight last night against a team that has owned them lately.
- Something I had never seen before happened last night: Lukas Walter took his gloves off and got
ready to start a fight with Evan Wardley when suddenly Wardley didn't drop
his gloves and Jacob Doty decided he would just step in a take the fight.
I'm sure Walter was a little surprised at the change of opponent from
Wardley to Doty.
- With just 10 games to play Seattle's leading scorer is
Burke Gallimore with 37 points. In the 2005-06 season Aaron Gagnon led the
team in points with just 45 points in 62 games. I researched back to the
1996-97 season and I think that given the offensive nature of the league
before that time, I can safely say that at the current pace, this team
would break the team record for lowest scoring leader in franchise
history. Unless, of course, Gallimore can catch fire a little bit and
tally 9 more points before the season is over.
Lastly, I just want to thank everyone for helping me make
the Hockey Challenge 2012 such a big success. I did a radio interview with
Bruce during the Sunday game and hopefully a few of you heard me give all the
Tbirds fans a shout for their contributions. The Celebrity game was a lot of
fun and you can even see me make an appearance a few times in the video that
Ryan Gibbons put together as he was wearing the GoPro helmet cam. You can find
the video here. My team raised over
$30,000 dollars and at last count we were the highest fundraising team in the
Challenge for the 2nd year in a row. My donations approached $1,500 and
hopefully next season I can get things closer to $2,000 and wind up in the
Celebrity game again. Thanks again to everyone.
23 comments :
Who's a better matchup in the playoffs for the Birds? Portland, Tri-City, or Kamloops. Do you think there's a chance the Birds could pull off a surprise if they get to the playoffs? It sure seems hard to envision beating one of these teams 4 out of 7 times.
If I worked for the team... I would say there is a chance. Since I'm in the business of being honest I don't think they have a prayer against any of those three teams.
I think you are right Tyler. This team doesn't have the guns to go head to head with any of those teams. All we can hope for is a couple games of experience for next years team. But it's an uphill battle even to get that far.
Good point .... but if Pickard gets HOT!! They can carry a series. It happens every year. When the playoffs start, Portland, Kamloops andTri-Cities won;t be scoring 5 or 6 goals a game, so anything can happened.
But Tyler, I love your post. How conifident are you really in Daniel Cotton between the pipes next year for the T-Birds instead of Calvin? Calvin Pickard has been the winning goalie the last 50 wins for the T-Birds. That is an AMAZING fact!!!
Have a great day.
Brian in Sherwood
It's really not that amazing. If he had played in just 70 games in that span and another goalie/goalies had played the other 70 or so games, then it would be amazing. But Pickard has pretty much been the starter for 95 percent of the games.
It is amazing when you look at the defense he has had in front of him for those wins
Amazing that he even has 50 wins yes. Amazing he's the goalie of record in the team's last 50 wins, no.
You guys need to take off those Pickard colored glasses. Its has been over 2 calendar years since a goalie not named Calvin Pickard win a game for the T-birds. How can you be conifident when Pickard is gone? Yes he plays a lot of games but NOT 72 every year?
Jeez, I been saying this for the past two years. Last year I attended game after game hoping to see Salmon in goal. This year the games decreased but still the hope to see the other goalie in net was still alive.
The only reason for Salmon or Cotton to get playing time was to relieve Pickard from a difficult situation, either struggling in goal last year and this year or playing a tough team this year where Cotton received the start.
I don't know a single T-birds fan that has ever stated they are confident with Pickard gone...I can hardly think of a T-bird fan that is confident we will win with him in net.... But as for the future goalies come and go in this league, Carey Price saved the Americans many times but what did he ever win in the WHL nada. A goalie can win you games, but without a team in front of him it isn't going to do you much good.
So where was the passion tonight? Where was the fight in the t birds? This team is sad with no heart! I just don't get this team!
Wait until next year...no wait I mean the year after that...on third thought wait unitl 2015-2016 and maybe then the team and franchise will be able to compete.
If Troock isn't injured and coach is trying to teach him a lesson, make him clean toilets. Give us fans a chance will ya?
"Wait until next year...no wait I mean the year after that...on third thought wait unitl 2015-2016 and maybe then the team and franchise will be able to compete."
Don't get our hopes up!
It's not too late. We could get the first pick in the draft!
So while Vic is beating Van, Evt is beating Tri and PG is beating Spoke, we are getting blown out by Portland. This is called heart, who has it? Those teams stepped up to beat better teams while we fold like a deck of cards and quit. Like I said, it's called heart. Talent? I don't think so, don't point to that because all those teams I mention above that got beat, Van,Tri, and Spoke have more talent than the other team.Not all but some of these T Birds kids want to go home!
I don't know why anyone cares that much, the players don't just be glad you aren't wasting money on extra playoff games
I have to agree. Amazing with the defense that Pick had in front of him that he had any wins. However, Pick has had bad nights like his bobble head night where it appeared that he threw the puck into his own goal. Pickard is an amazing goalie and should go far after moving away from this team. This team, and lack of defense, probably gave him the best training than any camp could give him.
Tri City has three players with 100 points. Our top three players don't even total 100 points! What a sucky year.
I sure hope they can get Gropp to sign, they need skill up front ASAP.Other then Wolf has Seattle signed anybody from the previous draft?
Come on Tyler, break out of this slump. You, like us, are depressed about this teams actions but you alone, to include the lack of the local media, are the one reporting active reporting about this team. We have found your reports enternatining and accurate...though I disagree with Pickard. Keep the posts coming...
Come on Tyler, break out of this slump. You, like us, are depressed about this teams actions but you alone, to include the lack of the local media, are the one reporting active reporting about this team. We have found your reports enternatining and accurate...though I disagree with Pickard. Keep the posts coming...
Don't worry... I'm back today.
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