Tbirds fall to 2-8-1

Seattle loses again to night, this time at home to the Kelowna Rockets who had lost the previous night on the road in Everett giving up 8 goals in the process.

I don't think there is any way to sugar coat this loss at all. The Tbirds showed a few stretches where they looked like the team we thought they would be at the start of the year but far too many stretches where they looked downright ordinary, slow and generally unmotivated during a home game.

While I do think Kelowna is still a quality opponent, with Luke Schenn looking like he is going to stick in Toronto and Tyson Dowzak signing with the New York Rangers, this team is not the same team we thought they might be at the start of the season. You simply cannot lose a home game to a team on their second night of back to back road games and call yourself anything other than a 2-8-1 team right now. I'm not trying to go out of my way to bad mouth the kids or the team but I have to call it like I see it and right now this team is either under achieving or simply just not that good. I still believe they are just under achieving.

A few bright spots in the game....

I thought at times Greg Scott looked simply dominant. I remember last season thinking that Jim O'Brien was the consistently fastest game skater the Tbirds had and so far from what I have seen Greg Scott is faster. On numerous occasions he simply skated around and past Kelowna defenders and I thought the 3 stars of the game were totally wrong and it was simply ridiculous that he wasn't one of the three stars. In the first 10 minutes of the game Scott had 3 big hits, drew a penalty and then drew the assist on the goal during the Power Play he created.

Calvin Pickard again looked very good and solid but also looked like a 16 year old goaltender at times. Yes... I know he miss played the puck in the 1st period that gave the Rockets a 2-1 lead but he also made 27 saves and kept his team in the game and gave them a chance to win, which is all you can ask of a goaltender. On the flip side... he looked like a rookie on the goal by Colin Long... but Long is also the reigning #2 scorer in the league. I also thought the goal (ahem, shot) that was reviewed in the 2nd period certainly looked like a goal from my vantage point (I could totally be wrong about that) and that was a big break for Seattle.... but most of the time Pickard controlled rebounds and came up with a few huge saves to keep Kelowna at bay at times when they could have buried the game. This is where the struggles of Jake DeSerres is really killing the Tbirds. Pickard is playing admirably but a team just cannot lean on a 16 year old goaltender and expect to contend. The problem is that at 2-8-1 this team doesn't have much wiggle room to wait for Jake to get his confidence back.

Also good... the Tbirds continue to get really good shifts out of players like Luke Lockhart, Brenden Silvester and Colin Haas.

Lindsay Nielsen was a scratch tonight and I also did not see him in the stands (on the bench?) so I'm curious to know about his status.

I thought the 3 stars were way off base and I thought stars were more deserving for Dylan Hood for Kelowna and Greg Scott for Seattle. Long obviously did score a goal, O'Brien had a nice goal and Boyer had a nice assist on the Chris Cloud shorthanded goal so I'm not saying they didn't have some nice moments.

Tbirds get right back to action Wednesday night in Kamloops before heading to Spokane on Friday and back home for Everett on Saturday... so things do not get much easier.

I'm just going to throw this out there...

How long do we wait until we decide this team might just not be that good?

I realize this is another road game against a good team... but your #1 goaltender gives up 4 first period goals and 6 overall up to this point.

How long do we wait to pass judgement considering the circumstances of the schedule?

Pickard is CHL Goalie of the Week

Official story from the Tbirds is not up on the website yet so I will paste it in here.

Kent, WA, Ocotber 16, 2008 - The Canadian Hockey League today announced Seattle Thunderbirds goaltender Calvin Pickard has been named the ADT CHL Goaltender of the Week.

Pickard, a 16-year-old from Winnipeg, Manitoba, is in his first WHL season. This past week he posted a 1- 0-0-1 record with a 0.480 goals-against-average and a .978 save percentage. His 20 saves on Saturday, October 11, backstopped the Thunderbirds to a 4-0 road win against division rival Portland Winter Hawks. With his first WHL career shutout, Pickard was named the game's first star. On Sunday, October 12, he made 24 saves in a 2-1 shootout loss against the Chilliwack Bruins and was named second star of the game. Calvin is the younger brother of 2007-08 WHL and CHL Goaltender of the Year Chet Pickard.

Maxim Gougeon of the Rimouski Oceanic went 3-0-0- 0 this past week including a 4-0 shutout win over the Montreal Juniors to represent the QMJHL nominee for the award this week. Peter Di Salvo of the Barrie Colts was the OHL nominee. Di Salvo made 32 saves in a big 3-0 shutout win over the Sudbury Wolves on Friday night. The 17-year-old Di Salvo was named the first star of the game with his second shutout of the season.

Celebrating its 134th anniversary, ADT Security Services, Inc., a unit of Tyco Fire & Security, is the largest provider of electronic security services to more than six million commercial, federal and residential customers throughout North America. ADT's total security solutions include intrusion, fire protection, closed circuit television, access control, critical condition monitoring, electronic article surveillance, radio frequency identification (RFID) and integrated systems. ADT's web site addresses are www.adt.com or www.adt.ca.

2008-09 ADT CHL Goaltender of the Week
Oct. 14 - Calvin Pickard, Seattle Thunderbirds
Oct. 7 - Olivier Roy, Cape Breton Screaming Eagles
Sept. 30 - Andrew Engelage, Windsor Spitfires
Sept. 23 - Jamie Tucker, Vancouver Giants

The T-Birds take on the Tri-City Americans on Friday, October 17, in Kennewick at 7:05 p.m. They are back home on Saturday, October 18, to face the Kelowna Rockets at 7:05 p.m. at KeyArena.

T-Birds season tickets are currently on sale. Season tickets can be purchased by calling the T-Birds office at 253-239-7825. Purchasing a season ticket will ensure fans can attend the T-Birds first game in their new home, the Kent Events Center.

Thursday Morning

Not a whole lot to write about in Tbird land the last couple of days.

I'm working on crunching some numbers about the first set of games. Obviously they have not gone well for the Tbirds but there were signs this weekend that this team is getting back on track towards surviving the difficult road schedule to start the season.

In news from around the league.

Everett had put in a bid to host the 2010 Memorial Cup, but it was awarded to Brandon. I think a Cup will eventually make it to Everett but it is pretty understandable that there is more advertising dollars available in Canada for the Cup than there is here in the states. I wouldn't hold your breath waiting for a Cup to come back to Seattle, though with the new building there is at least a chance. Alan Caldwell has reported that Brandon was the first city to present their proposal and after they did Everett and Brandon both decided not to and endorsed Brandon.

The sale of the Winterhawks was approved by the Board of Governors though the sale is not quite final. Personally... I have quit chanting "Portland Sucks" at games because it just isn't fun to do so anymore, so I hope this sale gets the Winterhawks back on track to being competitive, so that the rivalry can get back to what it once was.

Today is the O/A deadline for all teams to be down to three 20 year old players. Some moves have already been made today and Tri-City and Calgary still have deals to make with 4 players.

Tbirds lose in a shootout to Chilliwack

Only listened to the game tonight after getting home from that UGLY Seahawks game. Sounded to me like the Tbirds played really well and even got 26 shots on goal. They unfortunately only managed to score once however as Lucas Gore was able to hold the Tbirds at bay after Thomas Hickey scored his first of the season in the first period.

Chilliwack finally scored to tie the game at 1-1 with 2 minutes left in the game and scored the only goal in the shootout to pick up the extra points.

Seattle killed numerous penalties in the 2nd period and it sounded like the Bruins were the recipient of a little home cooking.

All in all... I think it was a disappointing weekend to come away with only 3 points out of a possible 6 but there were signs that the team is improving. At 2-6-1 all hope is not lost and I am reminded again that the Tbirds really only need to survive the first half of the season before spending virtually the entire second half of the season at home.

Tbirds get their first road win...

Tbirds defeat the Winterhawks in Portland tonight 4-0 to get their first road win and improve to 2-6 on the season.

The game tonight was relatively uneventful despite being an important win for Seattle. Prab Rai had two goals, Greg Scott added a shorthanded breakaway goal and Calvin Pickard picked up his first WHL victory and shutout in the same night.

My comments about the game last night in Everett are far more important.

Ugh... first off... I hate going to Everett... some beast of a woman who appropriately had a cowbell hung around her neck (too mean?) taunted me in my Glen Goodall jersey before I had even sat down and I then proceeded to watch the Tbirds come out flat, see Jake DeSerres give up a ton of rebounds and the team give the game away in the first 20 minutes.

Look... Everett is a tough place to play even though the fair weather fans (already?) of Everett couldn't even sell the house out for a Seattle game on a Friday night. Still... 7100 people clanging cowbells after being down 3-0 early in the game is pretty tough to come back from. I still can't figure out why the defense is playing so poorly... I know the defense was obviously better in Portland tonight but come on... its Portland. DeSerres played poorly but his defense did not help him out on more than one occasion. The defense has to start getting better... that's the bottom line. With Hickey back... this defense has to be at least average to decent, not average to horrible and I still believe things will turn around.

Seattle nearly got back into the game as they cut the score to 3-2 on a sweet end to end rush by Hickey and then had numerous chances before Chaffin took and unfortunate extra penalty in a scrum with everyone's favorite Silvertip Kyle Beach. Everett took advantage with the Power Play goal, the 4-2 lead and never looked back.

I know this sounds strange and would have sounded a lot more prophetic earlier today... but this team will improve and I think they can dig out of this hole. The game tomorrow night in Chilliwack is a nice chance to get 2 more points and finish the weekend with 4 out of 6 points on the road.

Jared Jagow

Somewhat expected... Jared Jagow has gone home and is awaiting a possible trade. Seattle had 4 O/A players and something had to give. This has been confirmed by Gregg Drinnan at Taking Note.

I'll have more on the game last night later...

FYI

In case anyone was wondering... today is the deadline for teams to get down to 25 players and Seattle has 26 players on the current roster. However... injured players are not counted as part of the 25 so with Jeremy Schappert still injured the Tbirds will not need to make a move. I would imagine that since the Tbirds also still have 4 O/A players that they can use that as a chance to get down to the number once Schappert is ready to return.

Weekend Preview

Tonight Seattle plays in Everett and if history is any indication... I am going to the game tonight in Everett and I have never seen a TBird win in the EEC (maybe I should stay home?). It would be silly to elevate the importance of tonight's game to anything higher than say a 2 or a 3 on a scale of 1-10... but this game tonight is a little more important than a normal regular season game. With the road schedule that faces this team in the first half... this weekend poses three games in three nights that all can be won on the road.

Everett looked great in the first meeting against the Tbirds but we all know that Everett will not be contending for a WHL Championship this year. A win tonight by the Tbirds sets the stage for 5 or possibly 6 points this weekend with games in Portland and Chilliwack to follow. Portland, as we know, is still in the grips of rebuilding and Chilliwack was a decent team last year that lost scoring champion Mark Santorelli to graduation (where he is currently assigned to Milwaukee with Ian McKenzie) and Oscar Moller, who for now, remains with the Los Angeles Kings.

It has been well documented how the schedule sets up for Seattle in the first half of the season... but weekends like this provide an opportunity for the team to chip away at the daunting road schedule and grab some early season points. With Greg Scott and Thomas Hickey returning to Seattle I would be really disappointed if this team comes away with less than 4 points for the weekend. It is time for this train to pull out of the station or I fear that at some point it becomes derailed for the entire season over the road schedule.

Suggestion Box

Some of you may notice that I tweaked the layout of the blog a little bit.

I'm curious to know if anyone has any suggestions about the blog... I can't promise that I will follow any of them but I do promise to read and consider all of them.

Different look? Different content? etc...

If you think I stink... haha... here is your chance to let me know.