Training Camp Day 1

In case you all were wondering (because... I'm sure you were). I wasn't able to attend training camp last night due to my softball team playing in the NW National Championships. I will be in attendance tonight and I will be able to take some notes on the happenings.

Armed with the knowledge that I wouldn't be able to attend I asked a fan that I trust to take some notes. Without further ado... here they are.

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The headline of tonight’s scrimmage should be

“Vets return to the ice for the first time, and it looked like it”

The vets were back on the ice, but only a few really stood out.

Overall, you could tell it was the vets first time on the ice in a game situation.

Not a lot of great passing and flow.

Lots of them just blended in, and did nothing to make me take notice.

By rough count, this is the breakdown by age
15 – 12
16 – 11
17 – 9
18 – 12
19 – 5
20 – 1

One notable missing was (Ryan) Armbruster.
3rd round pick in 2008.

New additions (older new players)

Thomas Stuart-Dant (forward - 91) (Winnipeg boy that played last season NCAA Minot State, listed as 6’0, 180)
http://achahockey.org/player_profile.php?player_id=228493&team_id=12913
Looks like he played at Lake Superior State before that

Matt Krahn (goalie, and no relation to Brent - 91)
http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php?pid=112234
Met him last night, big broad shoulder kid)

Cody Brown (defense – 93)
Was in PG’s camp last season

Connor Sanvido (forward - 93)
Zach Walker (defense – 93)

New additions (older players not really with team last season)

Jacob Doty (forward – 93)
Frank Austin (defense – 93)
Dave Sutter (defense – 92)
Austin Baecker (defense – 92)

Injuries
Marcel Noebels (shoulder)
Branden Troock (migraine headache)


Returnees that looked good
Colin Jacobs – constant hustle, nice goal, hitting people
Brenden Dillon – not afraid to rush the puck, got back to play defence, laid out a couple nice hits
Burke Gallimore – all over the ice, flying, worked hard, skated hard


Returnees that were ok
Chance Lund – hustled a lot, used size, found the net once, but all other shots were wide, just like last year
Charles Wells – had one good show of his speed, but that was about all
Brendan Rouse – good passing, and generally hustled and hit
Luke Lockhart – Showed some speed and a great shot. Passed well

Returnees I had to check my paper to see if they were on the ice
Mitch Elliot
Tyler Alos – huge, easy to find on the ice, but that was about it
Brennan Tutt
Brenden Silvester
Scott Ramsay
Tanner Muth
Ryan Aasman – had one rush that made me take note
Erik Bonsor
Erik Fleming

1150 KKNW Coverage Map

Ask and you shall receive. This is the nighttime coverage map for KKNW 1150 AM and the coverage map for KFNK 104.9 The Monkey. It looks like the reception should be pretty good but might be a little weak in parts of the east hill. It will almost certainly be better for most people with the exception of some people to the South and East of the Kent area.

New Radio Network... sorta

Tbirds General Manager Russ Farwell is on ESPN Radio Seattle 710am with Brock and Salk right now announcing that the Tbirds will have "some" of their games broadcast on ESPN 710am. They haven't mentioned yet how many of the games will be on 710 but quite frankly it doesn't matter... this is a good announcement no matter what.

Getting some games on a much bigger network is a huge move for the Tbirds and the added mention of the games by the on air hosts should be a boost as well.

EDIT: The Monkey is out. After TWO seasons on 104.9 the Monkey the Tbirds will be moving back to 1150 KKNW for most (52) of their games.

ESPN 710 AM will broadcast 20 regular season games and the other 52 will return to KKNW 1150 AM.

Official Press Release is here.

Live Blogging Training Camp

Last week I put in a request to the front office for a wireless conncection to be allowed to live chat from training camp, providing fans who cannot attend the chance to talk about the team and find out in real time how things were going over at ShoWare.

My request was rejected.

So instead... Yesterday the team announced that you can tune in to Thom Beuning and Ian Henry doing a live blog by visiting the website here.

Goodall Returns

The Tbirds announced yesterday that Glen Goodall will return for the Opening Night festivities.

I can't begin to explain to you how excited I am to see this happen. I'm probably one of only a few die hard Tbird fans remaining who saw Goodall play and it will be a real treat to see him back in Seattle with the team.

Goodall has been playing professionally in Germany for the past 10 seasons.

You could make a pretty strong argument that Goodall wasn't the best player in franchise history. Fan sentiment seems to lean towards Patrick Marleau as the winner of that honor but nobody can argue that Goodall had the greatest impact on the franchise.

To recap... Goodall holds the WHL record for regular season games played at 399 and most goals scored at 262. He played 59 games and had 26 points for the Breakers at the age of 14 and "only" 41 points the following year as a 15 year old before busting out for 63 goals and 112 points as a 16 year old.

His biggest season came as a 19 year old playing with sidekick Victor Gervais he notched 76 goals and 163 points leading the Thunderbirds to a 52-17-3 record with a home record of 33-2-1 at Mercer Arena. Shockingly good for only 2nd in the conference behind those damn Kamloops Blazers. Unfortunately, he appeared in only 10 of the Tbirds 13 playoff games notching 14 points and the Tbirds lost in the 2nd round of the playoffs 5 games to 1 to the Blazers.

(Quick side note... for those who haven't been following the team that far back. The rivalry with Kamloops was as strong as any rivalry. Portland of course... but Kamloops was at least a close 2nd due unfortunately to the fact that Kamloops always seemed to eliminate Seattle in the playoffs each year.)

At 5'8" and 170 pounds he was always my favorite player for being so good while being such a relatively small player (I'm only 5'8" as well). Many fans have slightly dismissed his WHL records pointing to his involvement as a 14 and 15 year old but many fail to admit that while he did have 67 points in those two seasons he did not play in the league as a 20 year old and a vast majority of his points were still accumulated between his 16-19 year old seasons.

It will be with pride and excitement that I wear my customized Goodall jersey to Opening Night to welcome back number 10.

News Dump - ShoWare Video board edition

A few news items I thought were worthy.

- Kent City Counsil voted 6-0 to spend a cool 225k to build a video board that will sit outside of ShoWare Center. This is awesome news and should help the building promote the Thunderbirds and their other events.

- Spokane Chiefs announced yesterday that they will hold an outdoor game against Kootenay. I personally think the outdoor game concept is starting to get worn out but I still think this is pretty cool. Dave Trimmer has the story on the game.

- Portland is thinking about where they are going to play after the 2013 season and people are already speculating about the possibility of them moving to Victoria should a plan to improve the Memorial Coliseum fail. Let's all hope that doesn't happen.

Training Camp Schedule

I was sent the Training Camp Schedule just moments ago.

Here are the times. All skates will be held at ShoWare unless specifically specified.

Prospect Camp:

Thursday, August 26th: 5:00pm - 7:00pm
Friday, August 27th: 8:00am - 10:00am AND
Friday, August 27th: 4:30pm - 6:30pm at Kent Valley Ice Centre
Saturday, August 28th: 10:00am - 12:00 noon

Main Camp:

Saturday, August 28th: 6:00pm - 8:30pm
Sunday, August 29th: 6:00pm - 8:30pm
Monday, August 30th: 6:00pm - 8:30pm

20 Year Old Situation

As many of you know, Seattle has only one 20 year old player returning from last season and that would be defensemen Brenden Dillon, who is a virtual lock to be back and make this roster this season.

This leaves the Thunderbirds with the ability to add two 20 year old players to the roster.... if they want.

One thing I see as a very real possibility is the Tbirds carrying only two 20 year olds on the roster instead of the maximum allowed three.

Why would Seattle do this? Quite simply, playing time. Take one look at this roster and you'll see a roster loaded with young players. Seattle already has 6 defensemen returning from last season that saw significant playing time in the form of Dillon, Bonsor, Fleming, Aasman, Ramsay and Muth. If you include Austin Frank and newly acquired import Dave Sutter in that mix you'd have 8.

Up front you have 10 likely returners in Troock, Rouse, Silvester, Gallimore, Lund, Wells, Jacobs, Lockhart, Elliot and Alos. Add to that Noebels and possibly Sanvido and that number grows to 12 forwards and 20 total players.

I don't have much doubt that any 20 year old player acquired would likely be an upgrade over the players at the bottom of this roster. Adding a quality player would most certainly improve this team in the short term. The real question lies in how that acquired player would possibly adversely affect the playing time and development of a younger player.

Put it this way...

Let's say this team is still 4th or 5th in what looks like a very tough U.S. Division. Wouldn't you rather see Alos, Elliot and Troock on your 1st or 2nd Power Play unit instead of a 20 year old player that won't be around for what appears to be a pivotal 2011-12 season?

Given that, I still believe that Seattle will go get one 20 year old. I just wouldn't hold your breath waiting for Russ Farwell to go out and get two of them.

Let's take a look at what might be out there.

Brandon: Darren Bestland, Jordan Hale, Mark Schneider, David Toews and Shayne Wiebe.

Brandon has a ton of 20 year olds and they have more than I have even bothered to list here. Jacob DeSerres and Andrew Hayes are also 20, but neither are coming to Seattle. Bestland and Schneider are defensemen and I don't think Seattle is going in that direction. This leaves Shayne Wiebe, Jordan Hale and David Toews as possibilities. My guess would be that Brandon keeps Toews, making Hale and Wiebe available... with Wiebe carrying a higher price tag than Hale.

Everett might have someone like Daniel Iwanski available but trades within the division are always tough so I wouldn't look for any deal like that to happen.

Medicine Hat will also likely have several forwards available as they will probably only keep one of a group that includes Joey Frazer, Taylor Gal, Tristin King and Matt MacKay. You could pick a name out of a hat... I'm not sure any of the 4 would specifically appeal to Seattle. King is the tallest of the bunch at 6'0" so I'll say maybe they would have the highest interest in him.

Moose Jaw will have a few players available including former Tbird Spencer Edwards, along with Thomas Frazee and Dylan Hood. Moose Jaw could do any number of things, but in a situation where they would keep Bosch and Rowinski they would only keep either Frazee or Hood. Frazee is 6'4" and had 55 points last year. Gee... you think they might be interested in a 6'4" Center who had 55 points last season. I'm thinking they do... but they could also go after Hood as well.

Prince Albert could have Colin Redden or Jordan Hickmott available.

Red Deer... you're looking at maybe Brett Ferguson.

Saskatoon has several choices... including Sena Acolatse and Jeremy Boyer who might find themselves looking for a job. They also have Randy McNaught (6'5") and Travis Toomey (6'4") who are big tough forwards.

Don't get too attached to this very loose "breakdown" of the 20 year old situation as things are pretty fluid and they are changing all the time.

UPDATE: I don't think this changes Seattle's situation at all but to show just how fluid the situation really is... Kelowna just acquired Brendon Wall reducing their number to 4. Reddin or Hickmott could still conceivably be a target.

Schedule Breakdown

By comparison, this season's tentative schedule is much better for the team.

Last season, Seattle had some difficult travel sets like the November 6-8th stretch where they played in Kent on Friday the 6th, Portland on Saturday the 7th and Chilliwack on Sunday the 8th.

Or the very next weekend where they went Kamloops to Everett and back to Vancouver in a 3 day stretch.

Travel is obviously a part of Junior Hockey so I'm not making an excuses for the team.... The only point here is that the schedule in 2010-11 is much easier.

In addition, I believe last season they had somewhere between 9 and 11 "3 in 3's" (I didn't look it up) and this season they only have 6 stretches where they play 3 games in 3 nights.

The toughest stretch, as far as number of games, appears to be at the end of December and January where starting on December 28th the Tbirds will play 18 games in just 35 days.

Overall... this is probably as close to ideal as Seattle could get. Now all they have to do is go out and start winning some games... gulp.

The Schedule is out

Link to the schedule can be found here.

Counting very quickly...

Home games by day of the week:

Tuesday - 7
Wednesday - 2
Friday - 7
Saturday - 14
Sunday - 6

I'm going to take a good hard look at the schedule a little further and come back to break it down later.