Game 17 Recap at Kooteney

I had come conflicts last night and was only able to catch the radio portion of the 3rd period and OT.

My general feelings is that it sounded like the Tbirds started the game strong, had a strong forecheck and in the 3rd period was very unfortunate not to gain the go ahead goal.

At the end of the day... Kooteney had been playing much better of late and Seattle still earns a point in a road game. I know these Shootout and OT losses are tough for fans and it would be nice to gain TWO points instead of one... its still a point on the road. This is a hallmark of the Rob Sumner Tbirds to play games close enough to not get beat in regulation and grind out points on the road.

The not so good news is that Seattle went 0/7 on the Power Play again and the unit is beginning to look like the same unit from years previous.

Seattle is off today and play former Tbird Mitch Fadden tomorrow in Lethbridge.

With the OTL Seattle falls to 8-5-4 good for 20 points in 17 games which is a pace for about 85 points.

Game 16 vs. Portland Recap

Seattle wins tonight 3-1 over the visiting Winterhawks who drop to a league low 3-16. As a die hard long time Tbird fan I can't believe I am going to say this... but its just not as fun to chant "Portland Sucks" when you know they actually DO suck. Portland is obviously in rebuilding mode and I'm sure 7 new players trying to mesh with 18 old ones didn't help things. In addition, their backup goaltender Mark Guggenberger was apparently sent home for violating team conduct code.

It is a lot more fun to chant "Portland Sucks" when you are beating them and they are a quality team. Let's hope Portland turns it around in the next year or two.

On the plus side... Seattle played with a very solid forecheck that hounded the 'Hawks all night long and forced Kurtis Mucha to stop 53 of the 56 shots launched his way. Needless to say the shots on goal were a season high and the whoever picks the 3 stars should be ashamed of themselves for not including Mucha as at least the 3rd star. Those 3 stars stunk of home town favoritism and I don't like it when Everett does it... so I won't like it when we do it.

Also on the plus side was a 2 goal effort from Bud Holloway (and almost a 3rd for his 2nd hat trick), a 2 assist night from Prab Rai who now leads the team with 13 of them and a much needed goal from Ian McKenzie who has struggled of late but was able to bury a rebound in the 3rd period for the 3rd and final Tbird tally. Let's hope that goal from Ian gets his confidence back and gets him headed in the right direction.

Seattle now hops on a bus (they are on it right now I would assume probably around Ellensburg on their way to Cranbrook for a meeting with Kooteney tomorrow night at 5pm.

Let's Go Birds Blog Three Stars of the Game:

1. Bud Holloway, had the tying goal and the GWG.
2. Prab Rai, 2 more assists for Prab tonight.
3. Kurtis Mucha, ummm 53 saves... in 56 shots...

Honorable Mention: Ian McKenzie, Thomas Hickey, Keith Voytechek

In the Rink stars:

1. McKenzie
2. Holloway
3. Rai

Comment Answer

Question was asked about the start time for the game tomorrow and my comment about scheduling.

The way the WHL scheduling works is that teams request dates and opponents in an orderly fashion. I've obviously never sat in on this process so I can't tell you exactly how it would go.

Home games vs. Portland are obviously big for the TBirds because they can draw a much bigger crowd than a different opponent or a different day. So they would like to play Saturday home games against Portland as much as possible.

Additionally.... they wouldn't have wanted to give up a Saturday home date vs. Portland because the Huskies are on the road (just another draw away from hockey). They also wouldn't have wanted to start the game at 7:05 with a 466 mile bus ride to Cranbook facing them before a 5:00 game the next day. If you assume the bus ride is about 8 or 9 hours it would have been a pretty tough trip to leave at 11pm from the Key and arrive in Cranbrook around 8am on the same day as a game. The 2:05 start just gives them plenty of time to make it to Cranbrook and give the boys a decent night's rest before Sunday's game.

Hope that answers the question.

Weekend Games

This weekend proves to be an interesting one for Seattle.

They begin the weekend with a rare 2:05 afternoon start time vs. the Portland Winterhawks. Seattle needed to start this game at 2:05 to avoid losing a Saturday home game in November vs. their I-5 rival. They are then scheduled to hit the bus directly following the game and head to Cranbrook where they play Kooteney in Cranbrook at 5pm on Sunday evening. Tough turn around...

I would expect to see some 15 year old call-up's on this eastern road swing with 6 games in 8 days. Seattle is off on Monday and Thursday on the trip.

Also interesting is the fact that we will all need a brand new roster sheet in order to tell who is playing for Portland tomorrow night as they traded away 5 players yesterday in exchange for 7 new players.

Let's hope the boys can get the trip started right with a home win over the 3-15 Winterhawks and circle the wagons on their 8 day Alberta swing.

Will Farwell make a move? Injury update, Reekie update

Yesterday's big news (besides Kamloops firing their coach/G.M.) was the Blazers trading their 1st round NHL draft pick Keaton Ellerby to Moose Jaw for former Silvertip Brady Calla. The swap of 19 year olds made some sense for the Blazers after Ellerby was a healthy scratch for the struggling Blazers the other day.

Why is Seattle not in on this deal? My suspicion is that they were but for whatever reason Moose Jaw's offer of Calla was better than whatever Seattle wanted to offer.

Something has to give as Seattle still has only 5 D on the active roster and Scott Jackson not expected back until after the conclusion of the Road Swing.

No update yet on the injury to Josh Schappert but the fear is that it might be more serious than initially thought. How long will he be out?? I don't know... but it appears that he will not play this weekend at the very least.

Also... it appears that Everett will be given a week to figure out their O/A situation with David Reekie set to come off the 60 day Disabled List tomorrow. Personally... I don't understand why Everett is allowed extra time. 60 days isn't enough time to figure out what to do with him? This means that Everett will be allowed 4 O/A players for a full 7 days longer (actively) than any other WHL team and I think that is a poor decision on the leagues part.

Why should the Silvertips be afforded the luxury of an extra week when teams have known for several weeks now that Reekie was healthy. Comments?

Edit: Everett has apparently placed Reekie on waivers and this has been confirmed by Nick Patterson's Blog http://www.heraldnet.com/section/BLOG12

Tuesday Morning Update

I'm going to steal a few items from other bloggers around the league... but they are nice items and I wanted to share.

Alan Caldwell did a quick study of winning percentage as it relates to the average age of the teams in the WHL. One would think that age would have a correlation to winning percentage (and for Seattle that is the case) where older teams have better records... There are however a few exceptions such as Vancouver and Tri City. I knew the Tbirds were a bit on the young side, I had no idea they were the 2nd youngest team in the league. This probably explains a lot about the inconsistency thus far.

http://smallatlarge.blogspot.com/2007/11/tuesday-notes.html

The numbers: (number in brackets after age and win% is league rank in that category)
Spokane: Avg age: 18.087 (7); Win%: 0.806 (1)
Vancouver: Avg age: 17.875 (19); Win%: 0.725 (2)
Tri-City: Avg age: 17.875 (18); Win%: 0.722 (3)
Medicine Hat: Avg age: 18.077 (11); Win%: 0.684 (4)
Swift Current: Avg age: 18.091 (5); Win%: 0.658 (5)
Regina: Avg age: 18.083 (8); Win%: 0.650 (6)
Moose Jaw: Avg age: 18.042 (14); Win%: 0.647 (7)
Calgary: Avg age: 18.08 (9); Win%: 0.625 (8)
Chilliwack: Avg age: 18.125 (3); Win%: 0.611 (9)
Brandon: Avg age: 18 (15); Win%: 0.605 (10)
Everett: Avg age: 18.217 (1); Win%: 0.588 (11)
Lethbridge: Avg age: 18.043 (12); Win%: 0.579 (12)
Seattle: Avg age: 17.826 (21); Win%: 0.567 (13)
Kelowna: Avg age: 17.783 (22); Win%: 0.529 (14)
Edmonton: Avg age: 18.19 (2); Win%: 0.528 (15)
Prince George: Avg age: 18.125 (4); Win%: 0.5 (16)
Kootenay: Avg age: 17.958 (16); Win%: 0.476 (17)
Kamloops: Avg age: 18.087 (6); Win%: 0.406 (18)
Prince Albert: Avg age: 18.043 (13); Win%: 0.368 (19)
Saskatoon: Avg age: 17.913 (17); Win%: 0.324 (20)
Red Deer: Avg age: 17.826 (20); Win%: 0.286 (21)
Portland: Avg age: 18.08 (10); Win%: 0.167 (22)

Also out today was the weekly WHL Rankings: Seattle was voted 13th which is also probably about right at this point. Rankings are courtesy of Gregg Drinnan http://gdrinnan.blogspot.com/2007/11/mondays-notes.html

The Western Major Junior Hockey Writers weekly rankings of WHL teams, showing last week’s ranking, first-place votes and total points (22 points for first-place vote, 21 for second and so on):

1. (2) Spokane Chiefs (15) 393
2. (1) Vancouver Giants (3) 378
3. (4) Tri-City Americans 360
4. (3) Medicine Hat Tigers 331
5. (6) Regina Pats 326
6. (8) Swift Current Broncos 297
7. (5) Calgary Hitmen 289
8. (9) Moose Jaw Warriors 255
9. (12) Brandon Wheat Kings 249
10. (11) Everett Silvertips 235
11. (7) Chilliwack Bruins 224
12. (13) Lethbridge Hurricanes 199
13. (10) Seattle Thunderbirds 196
14. (15) Kelowna Rockets 152
15. (18) Prince George Cougars 143
16. (16) Kootenay Ice 138
17. (17) Edmonton Oil Kings 105
18. (14) Kamloops Blazers 95
19. (19) Prince Albert Raiders 73
20. (21) Saskatoon Blades 57
21. (20) Red Deer Rebels 40
22. (22) Portland Winter Hawks 19

(Voters: Everett Herald, Seattle Times, Spokane Spokesman-Review, Chilliwack Progress, Kamloops Daily News, Kelowna Capital News, Kelowna Daily Courier, Kootenay NewsAdvertiser, Calgary Sun, Red Deer Advocate, Lethbridge Herald, Swift Current Prairie Post, Saskatoon StarPhoenix, Prince Albert Daily Herald, Brandon Sun, Moose Jaw Times-Herald, Prince George Citizen, Medicine Hat News.)

Game 15 Recap vs. Spokane

Make it a perfect 3-0 for the Spokane Chiefs as the Thunderbirds fall tonight to Spokane 5-3.

The good news is that Seattle finally scored on Dustin Tokarski and it only took them :55 seconds to do so. Ian McKenzie made a nice little "extra pass" to Jim O'Brien who nets his 3rd of the year and an early 1-0 lead for Seattle.

Spokane answered at the 9:07 mark in a sign of what was to come scoring a Power Play goal to tie the game at 1-1. Mitch Wahl got the goal as Spokane did a really nice job getting the puck in deep on Seattle and putting a lot of pressure on Helenius in the crease and at the goal-mouth.

Bruton then converted his first of two goals and the second PP goal for spokane at the 11:35 mark of the 1st.

Seattle answered with a nice PP goal by Lindsey Nielsen who flicked a Greg Scott pass up over the shoulder of Tokarski to tie the game at 2-2 at the 19:38 mark of the 1st period. Spokane outshot Seattle 12-7 in the 1st period.

Spokane then spent nearly the entire period in the Seattle zone and if not for several very good saves by Helenius the game could have been out of control. Instead Spokane managed only the go-ahead goal by Bruton, his 9th of the year, at the 5:21 mark of the 2nd period.

Spokane outshot seattle 16-2 in the 2nd period and held a 28-9 advantage through two periods.

Spokane comes at you in waves as they have numerous good scorers and playmakers and a very solid D core.

Seattle managed to tie the game at the 10:19 on a goal by Jeremy Boyer who managed to power in a rebound past Tokarski as he was caught out of position trying to play a wrap behind the net.

With 9 minutes to play it looked as though Seattle might be able to manage a point out of a game they really had no business being in but Spokane changed that only about a minute later when Drayson Bowman was able to make Seattle pay for a 5-3 Power Play opportunity at the 11:33 mark of the 3rd. Bowman got clear in the slot and wired in a sweet wrist shot into the very top corner of the net over the glove hand of Helenius.

Ulmer then made it elementary with the first goal of his WHL career on a slap shot from the right point over the blocker shoulder of Helenius at the 16:18 mark of the 3rd.

Normally when a goalie is being beaten this many times over his shoulders and into the top corners it means that he is being pushed back into his net and isn't able to successfully cut down the shooting angle. This is normally a sign of generally poor defending from both the D-men AND the wingers.

Spokane finished with a 40-16 advantage in shots on goal. Helenius finishes 35/40 and Tokarski 13/16.

With the 5-3 win, Spokane moves to 13-2-3, 29 points and a .806 point percentage and that is good for 1st in all of the WHL. Seattle falls to 7-5-3, 17 points and a .567 point percentage which is good for only 3rd in the U.S. Division. Suddenly the Silvertips have closed on Seattle with a point percentage of .562 they are nearly tied for 3rd. Fortunately for both Everett and Seattle there appears to be no race for the 4th spot as Portland is now 3-15 with 6 points and would need to really turn things around to contend for that 4th and final spot.

Final thoughts.... I just think that at this point in the season Spokane is a much better hockey team than Seattle and it showed in both games this weekend. The TBirds game is to be a fast team that uses their skating to play solid D and create a few chances and Spokane really beat them at their own game by looking like the better skating team.

I'm not saying that Seattle can't close the gap, but I would say Spokane is at least as good if not better than Vancouver in teams I have seen this season and I would think those two would be the top two teams in the Western Conference and maybe the WHL right now.

Let's Go Birds Three Stars of the Game:

1. Drayson Bowman, 1 goal and 3 assists and had the game winner.
2. Mitch Wahl, 1 goal and 3 assists also in the win.
3. Chris Bruton, 2 goals in the win.

Honorable Mention.... Greg Scott, 2 assists in the losing effort and that line of Nielsen, Holloway and Scott looked good again tonight. Riku Helenius, tried his best to keep Seattle in it and there were just too many shots and chances to succeed.

Absent this list is Thomas Hickey for the first time all year and I thought he struggled for the first time all year. I have to wonder aloud whether the number of minutes he is being asked to log each weekend is starting to take its toll in the 3rd game in 3 nights. Seattle has 11! 3 game weekends this year that is more than the 9 they had in 06-07 and I can't think Seattle can afford to go on this roadtrip without picking up some 15's or 16's D-men to help out on the trip.

Stars in the Arena:
1. Bowman
2. Bruton
3. Wahl

Game 14 vs. Tri City Recap

Tbirds win tonight in dramatic fashion and what better way to break a 3 game losing streak than to break it in this way.

For 40 minutes tonight this game looked like the exact blueprint for a Rob Sumner type victory.... and then the 3rd period happened and Seattle won in a very not Rob Sumner system type of game.

Seattle took the lead at the 3:33 mark of the 1st period when Ian McKenzie made a nice move into the American zone and put a shot on goal to the right of Chet Pickard, the rebound went to the sharp angle where Thomas Hickey swooped in and poked a shot towards the near post that snuck between the post and Pickard's right shoulder and into the net.

Bud Holloway made it 2-0 Seattle at the :31 second mark of the 2nd period on a beautiful exchange between Scott and Holloway. Holloway brought the puck into the zone on a criss-cross with Scott to the left hand side and flipped a pass to the far post where Scott (on his backside) managed to slide the puck back to the other post where Holloway snuck it in on the sharp angle.

Tri then got on the scoreboard with a goal by Procyshen at the 13:33 mark, is was his 11th of the year.

Procyshen then tied the game at 7:02 of the 3rd period when Seattle got caught in a bad line change and Procyshen went in all alone on DeSerres for the game tying goal. A horrible breakdown by the Tbirds at the worst possible moment.

Seattle then battled back and took the lead at the 8:15 mark of the 3rd period on a goal by Greg Scott. Holloway made another great play in the American zone and managed to get the puck to Lindsey Nielsen who fed it across the slot to Scott for the go-ahead marker.

Tri City tied it nearly 3 minutes later on a goal by Colton Yellow Horn who snapped in the tying goal over the right shoulder of DeSerres at the 11:16 mark of the 3rd.

Yellow Horn then put Tri City in front with little over 3:30 minutes to play with a deflection goal coming off the pass of Kruise Reddick. Yellow Horn's 2nd of the night and 7th of the year game Tri City their first lead of the game.

Holloway and the Tbirds then started their march back at the 17:15 mark of the 3rd when Nielsen brought the puck to the right circle where the Am defender took him off the puck but lost it to Holloway who deposited a quicker wrister under the glove of Pickard to tie the score.

Seattle looked headed to OT (as usual) until Thomas Hickey brought the puck from his own blue line down the left hand side of the rink and around the American D where he puck a quick, hard and low shot to the low glove side of Pickard. The rebounded bounded out to a streaking Holloway who completed the Hat Trick by burying the puck into the back of the net and giving the Tbirds a 5-4 lead with :33 seconds to play.

Holloway then completed his night and the game with an empty net marker with :05 seconds to play on a pass from Lindsey Nielsen. His 4th of the night (and also a natural Hat Trick) gave Holloway 4 goals for the game, 5 points for the night and 14 for the season, completing the Thunderbird comeback and an end to the 3 game losing streak.

Seattle finished with an edge in shots on goal 25-22 over Tri City for the game.

Jacob DeSerres finishes 18/22 and Chet Pickard finishes 20/25 (even though the WHL scoreboard says 19/25 and apparently did not accurately record the empty net goal, I know feel Andy Kemper's complaint).

Needless to say this was a pretty big win for Seattle. I never want to say that a game at the #14 mark is THAT big of a win but to stop a 3 game losing streak on home ice against the team in 1st place in your division is a big win early in the season. Couple that with the fact that you had the lead, lost it, and regained to take the game is an important thing.

An added note... this was a horribly officiated game. I don't say that from a one sided prospective. This was, on both sides, horrible. Seattle wa called for ONE minor and Tri City for TWO minors, one of which was the over the glass DOG call. Seriously Matt Kirk... I just saw a WHL game where only two penalties were committed all game? Seriously? Horribly called game. There were at least 2 high sticking calls on each side that were missed. Simply horrible.

Seattle moves to 7-4-3, 17 pts, .607 good for 3rd in the U.S. Division.

Let's Go Birds Three Stars of the Game:

1. Bud Holloway, 4 goals and 1 assist and a +5 rating and was simple a force all over the ice tonight.
2. Colton Yellow Horn, his 2 goals were more important than Procyshen's so I give him the 2nd star.
3. Greg Scott, 1 goal and 2 assists and had a great game on the Holloway, Nielsen line.

Honorable Mention: Procychen, had 2 goals and could have very easily been #2 or #3. Lindsey Nielsen, 3 assists and had his best game at a Tbird on that line. Thomas Hickey, 1 goal and 2 assist for the best D-man I have seen in the league this year.

Game 13 Recap

Last night's game was so frustrating that honestly I didn't have the heart to do any live updates.

Tbirds lose again last night 3-0 to Spokane and if this were Soccer they would be down 5-0 on aggregate (ask me if you don't understand that one).

Seattle is now officially in a slump having lost 3 straight and scored only two goals in their last 180 minutes of hockey.

I am a big defender of coach Rob Sumner's style of play... I think it allows the team to stay competitive in almost every single game and at the end of the season allows you to accumulate more points based on the number of games that Seattle manages to get to overtime and earn an extra point. The problem is that this system hinges on being able to play solid D, good goaltender play and timely scoring and if those things aren't happening you see a lot of low scoring losses like we have seen in the past three.

Seattle isn't playing particularly good D right now having surrendered another 40+ shots to an opponent last night. They are getting good goaltending as you can't really fault Riku Helenius for any of the goals except perhaps the 2nd goal. As for timely scoring... well obviously there is nearly none right now.

I'm hoping the team is just going through a bit of a slump right now, but perhaps they aren't as good as we thought they were? Spokane looked awfully solid last night at home in winning their 9th game in a row. The next two games loom as pretty big with Tri City and Spokane coming in for two home games. Hopefully the team can turn it around on home ice.

Game 13 Preview at Spokane

I'll have the video feed up and running on the T.V. tonight so I should be able to provide some live game updates as we go along.

Seattle is 6-3-3, 15 pts. (.625) which is good for 3rd in the U.S. Division and 5th in the Western Conference. Spokane enters the contest 11-2-2, 24 pts. (.800) which is good for 1st in both the U.S. Division and Western Conference. They are also undefeated in regulation on their home ice at 5-0-1. They have won 8 games in a row including a 2-0 victory in Spokane last weekend over the T-Birds. Seattle is losers of 2 straight.

I would expect to see Riku Helenius in goal for Seattle, but I have no idea on the goaltender for Spokane as Kevin Armstrong would technically be their #1 with Dustin Tokarski coming off a shutout over Seattle last weekend.

Spokane is lead by Drayson Bowman (10-8-18), Chris Bruton (5-11-16) and Mitch Wahl (4-12-16). Jared Spurgeon leads the team with a +11 rating followed by Jared Cowen at +11 as a rookie.

Seattle is lead by Thomas Hickey (5-7-12) who is averaging a point per game. Hickey had a point streak of 10 games (to start the season) snapped in Spokane last week with the 2-0 shutout. Prab Rai (0-9-9) and Bud Holloway (3-6-9) are tied for 2nd in points for Seattle. Hickey also leads the team with a +4 rating.

As usual Special Teams will be critical to the outcome of the game. Seattle ranks 21st out of 22 teams on the Power Play in the WHL. After showing some Power Play success through the first 7 games Seattle is now 12/89 good for 13.5% on the power play. Is it really as bad as the numbers seem to indicate?

I did a little number crunching research and Seattle still ranks #2 in the league at earning PP chances at 7.417 chances per game. Only Everett earns more per game at 7.467 per game.

They also rank #14 in PP goals per game. So the numbers may not be quite as bad as the #21 ranked PP would suggest, but there is no question that Seattle isn't capitalizing on their numerous opportunities.

Spokane ranks 10th on the PP having converted 16/85 for 18.8% but rank 16th in earning chances and 12th in PP goals per game. I would contend that Spokane's PP hasn't been much more of a factor than Seattle's.

Seattle ranks 4th in the WHL at killing PP's. They have killed 62/72 for 86.1%.
Spokane ranks 7th in the WHL at killing PP's. They have killed 67/79 for 84.8%.

About equal there.

I have one and only one key to the game.

-Seattle MUST get off to a fast start and earn the lead at the end of the 1st period. Spokane is 8-0 when leading after the 1st and 8-0 when leading after the 2nd.

Prediction: Seattle cannot be expected to win this game on the road against a team that is super hot and unbeaten (in Reg.) at home. At the risk of sounding like a complete homer though, I'm going to predict that Seattle bounces back from a disappointing end to last weekend and gets out of Spokane with a tight 3-1 victory.