ShoWare Arena at the Kent Events Center?

The city of Kent has signed a 10 year 3.175 million dollar deal to name the new Arena after VisionOne's ShoWare ticketing service.

The deal is not as lucrative as the previous 20 year 10 million dollar deal that the city of Kent had with Amiga last year. That deal was voided after the city of Kent said that Amiga failed to complete the terms of the agreement.

Story can be found here.

Tribune Article

Nice article in the Tribune this morning... hopefully this will be the first of many.

Can be found here.

Greg Scott update

I had an anonymous fan send me a message that Greg Scott is coming back to Seattle. I cannot find anything, anywhere that will confirm this... so let's not get too far ahead of ourselves here and we'll just call this a rumor for now.

If Scott is indeed coming back to Seattle... the Tbirds would have 4 O/A players and would have a decision to make on one of them before the deadline which I believe is in about a week and a half.

EDIT - CONFIRMED

Greg Scott is returning to Seattle. The link to the Press Release can be found right here.

Somebody at the Kings just wants to make me look bad...

How long ago was it that I waited to post that I hadn't found anything???

Hickey is coming back to Seattle... while we all were rooting for Thomas, we are all happy to have him back as well and we know he has a very bright future.

http://www.insidesocal.com/kings/

Hickey Update

I've looked around and checked with a few people and I don't really have any news to report other than what is already out there.

Thomas has only played in two exhibition games for the Kings and those came in the first two games of the exhibition season. That made me guess that he would be sent back to Seattle today... however... the Kings have made some moves that would indicate that they are prepared to start the season with Hickey and give him a chance to see what he can do since they can always call up an older player from the "A" if/when they decide Hickey is not ready quite yet.

So my guess was wrong and it looks like we might have a wait possibly a lot longer before knowing about Hickey's status.

Home is where the winning is... I guess...

Tbirds pick up their first win of the season and they do it over a really high quality opponent tonight in Spokane.

I'm not going to B.S. you guys, my loyal readers... My wife and I had to attend a charity event over at the EMP tonight and we were only able to take in the first 10 minutes of the game because they didn't drop the puck until nearly 7:30. The charity is a very important cause to our friends and family and I encourage people to visit the website at www.hearseehope.com. Hear See Hope raises money for research into a cure for Usher Syndrome. I won't spend any more time writing about it but we are very proud to support this cause.

Back to hockey... Jeremy Boyer is the only one to score in the shootout and the Tbirds get a huge 3-2 win over Spokane.

Boyer also scored in the first period to give the Tbirds a 1-0 lead that was erased by Mr. Drayson Bowman who scored twice to give the Chefs (no spelling error there) the 2-1 lead. Lindsay Nielsen then tied the game at 2-2 in the 3rd period on a feed from Boyer and the game eventually landed in the shootout.

Jacob DeSerres had 30 saves and more importantly stopped all 4 of Spokane's attempts in the shootout.

The Tbirds are now 1-5 but have a tough 3 in 3 road weekend coming up starting in Everett Friday, down to Portland Saturday and back up to Chilliwack Sunday. Crazy... but those are 3 winnable games.

September 20, 2002

The last time the Thunderbirds gave up 10 goals in a game was September 20th, 2002 at Kamloops to start the 2002-03 season. Box score here...

The good news is... that team actually won the U.S. Division that season and finished with 94 points. Not only that... but they started the season 1-6-1 before turning things around and winning the division.

The lesson her is that 5 games is only 5 games and it is still really early in the season.

Having said that.... This is a team that has made defense their trademark under Rob Sumner and the defense is absolutely horribly right now. I don't know what the Los Angeles Kings are doing but if Thomas Hickey isn't going to make the opening day roster he needs to come back to Seattle right now, this team is totally lost without him. The strange part is... I have this feeling that when/if Hickey comes back you can automatically plug him in for 30 minutes of ice time or more and I could see this team running off a series of wins. I know that sounds crazy... but I compare it to baseball where a team gets their closer back from the DL and everyone else falls back into their proper roles on the team. With Hickey back... the minutes are spread out a lot more appropriately and everyone can calm down and fulfill their role without the added pressure.

My point...? Yeah it is bad... it's real bad and my guess is that some people in the front office are a little freaked out by this start.... BUT.... there is no need to panic and there are 67 games left to turn things around and this team might look entirely different with Thomas Hickey back in the lineup.

Relax people... the Tbirds finally come home tomorrow night... come out to Key Arena to see Guyle Fielder and see the final home opener at Key Arena and hopefully the boys will turn things around against what I think is the top team in the WHL the Spokane Chiefs. Home ice or not... if the Tbirds win tomorrow night... it will be a big win.

and....

the extra point is up... and it is good... only need a Touchdown to get back into this game. Ugh. Seriously boys... seriously...

Update...

Hickey was not listed in the box score tonight for Los Angeles... my guess is that he will be back by next week.

Hickey News... or at least speculation

I have been trying to gather as much information I can from the little news that comes out of LA Kings camp about what the Kings might be thinking about doing with Hickey and there are a few things I have noticed here in the last couple of days.

1) We have known for some time that the biggest reason (other than talent) that Hickey could end up staying with the Kings is the fact that they were very thing on the blue line. Most who speculated thought that there was possibly one or perhaps two spots left on the roster with Thomas competing with Drew Doughty to make the final roster. Well, the Kings the other day acquired veteran defenseman Sean O'Donnell from the Ducks which one would think locks up another one of those spots.

2) In addition to the added competition for a roster spot, it appears to me that Hickey has only seen action in 2 of 4 possible games (the Kings have played 5 but the first set of games were played with a split squad, is this baseball?) and he did not log any action in their most recent game last night.

This would lead me to believe there is a strong chance he is coming back and perhaps sooner than later. I don't think this means they have ruled him out... I'm just thinking at this time they are probably leaning towards sending him back to Seattle over keeping him on the roster. All of this of course could be thrown out the window if he plays again tonight.

The question is... if they are leaning towards sending him back to Seattle, how long will they make the Tbirds twist in the wind waiting for him to come back? My best guess at an answer... they won't make them wait much longer.

Here is my over under... I think if he doesn't play again tonight (unless he is banged up... and if he is I couldn't find it anywhere) I think he comes back on Monday the 6th which is the day after the last exhibition game.