Tbirds beat Blades, demand to be ranked #5 in silly CHL poll

One of the reasons why my writing sucked so much last year (hey I can admit it...) was because the Thunderbirds of the last two years were supremely boring to write about.  That shouldn't really be much of an excuse, but quite frankly I never considered myself much of a writer even before starting this blog a touch over 4 years ago and I still don't really consider myself much of a writer these days. This years team (so far) is so much more enjoyable to write about and it isn't only because of the now .500 record.  Recall that Seattle got off to a good start last year but I really didn't have very many positive things to say outside of the obvious (Pickard rocks, too many shots, defense isn't good, Dillon is a beast... etc.) I got up at 4am this morning to compete in a Bass fishing tournament.  I'm exhausted. I really want to go to bed... but Seattle's 3rd win in a row tonight has my adrenaline pumping just enough to bang this thing out and talk about a great and surprising win for the team. Bullet holes? Yes, please.

• I just talked about how boring obvious observations are and I'm going to lead with some obvious ones.  Burke Gallimore and Marcel Noebels each notched 2 goals tonight and it was great to see the "usual suspects" chip in with some points. Both have been off to relatively slow starts and there is no way Seattle can continue to win without these guys putting points on the board.  Noebels scored on a breakaway off a beaut of a stretch pass from Kyle Verdino to give Seattle the lead and added an empty net goal to close the scoring. Gallimore had a nifty little seeing-eye sniper in the final two minutes of the 1st period that really seemed to change momentum and also added a sneaky little PP goal, scoring from a sharp angle off a rebound from off the end board behind the net.
• The story of the game tonight was the Penalty Kill of the Tbirds.  The shot totals were lopsided due to the 6-3 edge the Blades had in PP chances in addition to the Birds scoring within 5 seconds on their PP chance in the 3rd period. Saskatoon came into the game converting on 24.4% of their chances while Seattle came into the game ranked dead last in the WHL, killing just 63.2%.  The 6/6 boosts the Tbirds all the way up to 20th!! and up to 72%.
• Saskatoon's all-world D-man Duncan Siemens, who nearly made the opening day roster for the Colorado Avalanche, had no points, was -3 and got briefly pummeled by Mitch Elliot. Siemens hadn't been -3 in a game since February 3rd, 2010 when he was -3 against the Prince Albert Raiders.
• Early in the 3rd period, Siemens, who is also the Blades Captain, stood up for teammate Ryan Olsen by taking on Mitch Elliot for a hit that Siemens didn't like.  On one hand I really commend Siemens for taking on that fight.  He's sticking up for a teammate and he isn't exactly a slouch at 6'3" and 205 lbs.  On the other hand... at the time, the Blades were down 3-1 and now they lose their Captain and arguably their best player for 5 minutes.  Tough call but sometimes those things are worth it when you have to be a leader.
• Speaking of fighters. Jacob Doty spent more time in the box tonight (10 mins +) than he did on the ice. I shouldn't pretend to speak for Coach K or know what is going on in his head with regards to Doty... but my guess is that Doty is in the proverbial "doghouse" right now and he is going to have to change his game a little bit to get out and start making an impact.  Doty could be a very useful forechecking power forward... but right now he is spending just a little too much time focused on fights.
• Brad Deagle and Braeden Laroque were great last night in Vancouver... not so great tonight. Overall, I'm starting to like what I see.
• Verdino with the assist on the Noebels goal and was +2. Easy to forget that this was only his 3rd game of the season but already he has 3 points in those 3 games.
• One thing Seattle has had for the last two seasons... is size... and it looks like they are learning to use it. Saskatoon has some pretty decent sized players and when the game got tough in the 3rd period the Blades tried to get physical with the Tbirds and Seattle just kept dumping them on their butts. That is the kind of physical presence that will pay off down the road for the Birds.
• Blades goaltender Andrey Makarov took his first WHL loss tonight.  Makarov still boasts very good numbers at 6-1 with a 2.13 GAA and .934 Sv%
• Calvin Pickard was up to his usual tricks stopping 43 of 45 shots to earn the win.  Pickard will no doubt lament the puck exchange behind the net that lead to the Blades 2nd goal but overall he was very good and his new trapper was in fine form.
• The Alos-Troock-Rouse line wound up with no points on the night but had some great chemistry going and had numerous chances.  Those chances will eventually convert into points.

Quite a bit more I could probably say but I'm running out of gas here. Very tough to give out stars tonight and stars are stupid but I'll do it anyways.

Let's Go Birds 3 Stars of the Game:

1. Verdino - #2 was a rock tonight for the Birds, added a beautiful assist and was +2

2. Gallimore - His goal towards the end of the 1st period changed momentum and his PP goal in the 3rd made it very tough for the Bladed to comeback.

3. Michael Burns (Sask) - Burns had two goals for the Blades and nearly tied it.

Honorable mention - Pickard - It felt weird not giving him mention for 43 stops. Hickman - Another solid game with an assist and +2. Dave Sutter - Quiet night for Sutter but be made a couple of very fine defensive plays and he had an assist and +2 as well. Noebels - Gave Seattle the lead and the eventual icing on the cake.

Game 5 Recap

I have to be up at 4am tomorrow morning so I'm going to make this short and sweet.

• Big win by the Tbirds tonight.  Vancouver has looked like a pretty good team early in the season and they went into their barn and dominated the game for the better part of 50 minutes of the game.  For about 10 minutes of the 3rd period, Seattle lost their way a little bit but they were able to survive and Kyle Verdino buries a long rebound off a Justin Hickman shot to give the Birds the 3-2 win.
• Great game by Justin Hickman tonight.  Hickman won the battle over two Giant players that led to the puck squirting out to the front of the net where Lund tapped it in for the 2nd goal of the game.  He didn't technically get the assist, but he caused it.  He did get the assist on the GWG as he worked a pass from Verdino into a hard and low shot that kicked out to the right of Morrison where Verdino took care of the rest.  Excellent game from Hickman.
• Also an excellent game from Braeden Laroque and Brad Deagle.  The newest Tbirds were instrumental in Seattle giving up only 20 shots and Laroque added a PP goal in the 1st period that tied the score.
• Overall it was a great effort by the Seattle defense. I can't remember the last time the Tbirds dominated the shots on goal in the way that they did (37-20).
• Chance Lund with another solid game.  He had a great game last week and didn't get a point and was rewarded by the hockey gods with a tap-in.
• Connor Sanvido had a couple of really excellent shifts that gave the Giants fits, especially on the PP and earned the assist on the 1st goal by Laroque.
• Shea Theodore has been kind of quiet to begin the season but added two assists tonight and the Vancouver radio guys were glowing about him.
• Seattle holds Brendan Gallagher to just 1 point on the night... that is how you beat the Giants in Vancity.
• Kind of a quiet game from Branden Troock but the toe-drag in the 3rd period was absolutely sick and almost wound up being the go-ahead goal.
• I honestly didn't think Verdino was having a very great game as he had drawn two penalties earlier in the action but his GWG makes everything better... a thing of beauty.
• Calvin Pickard... must have been bored.  It's ok Calvin, it probably won't last.  He still made a couple of very clutch saves that were needed to preserve the victory.

My 3 stars of the game:

1. Hickman

2. Sanvido

3. Adam Morrison (Van)

I'm off to bed... I apologize for the relative brevity.  See you all tomorrow night as the Birds host the Saskatoon Blades.

Game 4 Recap

Seattle is in the win column with a 5-4 victory over the Victoria Royals on Saturday night.  The game was notable for several reasons so lets get right to the bullet holes.

• Most important in my mind was the game played by Branden Troock and probably not because he scored 2 goals in the 3rd period, including the game winner.  The most important aspect was that he was checked from behind, head first by Jesse Pauls and had to be helped off the ice to the bench. But, he didn't miss a shift and appeared to emerge from the play without injury.  Justin Hickman came to his defense and promptly checked Pauls from behind right behind him.  Troock recovered enough to score two 3rd period goals, including the winner when the Royal defender coughed up the puck in his own zone.
• Also notable... Marcel Noebels was a healthy scratch on Saturday night.  I'm just guessing, but Coach K talked about the team needing to play "together" more and it looked to me like Noebels was just simply trying too hard to do it himself on Friday night.  Hopefully this won't become an ongoing issue but everyone knows that Noebels didn't really want to be here this season.  My impression of Marcel is that he isn't the type of player to pout about this and will re-dedicate himself to playing the game the way Coach K expects.
• I'm pretty quickly starting to believe in Chance Lund.  Lund was -1 and didn't have a point in the game but that is exactly why you can't always judge a game based solely on the stats.  Lund is flashing speed that I never never seen from him. He is pulling away from forwards and skating around defensemen, and not just a time or two... I counted 4 different times he just blew by defenders on the edge and either drew a penalty, should have drawn a penalty or got a chance on net.  This can't just be confidence.  This is a player who is physically faster than he was before and with his size it is becoming a huge weapon.  His finishing skills still leave something to be desired, but the more chances he gets the better finisher he will become.
• Dave Sutter also had a decent game but is still making some mistakes that need to be tightened up. His goal bounced off a Royals defender and one of the goals against Seattle (I think) was redirected off his skate and into the net.  He is playing with a lot more confidence and I think this season will be another where he will improve a lot as the season goes on.
• Pickard was excellent again and stuffed several chances that likely would have changed the game.  The mistakes in the defensive end are still glaring and if it wasn't for Pickard things would be even worse than they have been. Pickard struggled a little bit after not making team Canada last year and even though the stats don't reflect it... he is off to a very solid start this season.
• Scoring was spread out pretty nicely with Elliot, Hickman, Troock, Alos, Rouse, Sutter, Lockhart and Gallimore all getting at least one point.
• Deagle and Theodore didn't have any points but both were +2.
• I don't recall Doty seeing much ice time after his 10 minute misconduct. Doty needs to learn to pick better spots for his fights and altercations and until he does... he's going to have his butt parked on the bench.  The 10 he got served no purpose... as he got 10 for jawing Traber.

Seattle gets another week of practice before heading to Vancouver on Friday night and returning home for Saskatoon on Saturday.

Game 3 Recap

Seattle drops to 0-3 with a 5-0 drubbing at the hands of the visiting Prince Albert Raiders.

Believe it or not, I didn't think the Tbirds played "that" bad.  Seattle started hot in the first period, posting 21 shots but they weren't able to sneak anything past Raider goaltender Eric Williams.  I counted at least 2 or 3 post shots and the Birds just didn't seem to catch a break.  Adding to the frustration, Williams came into the game struggling a bit as he had given up 14 goals in 3 games. Late in the period, Connor Sanvido was called for Interference, PA cashed in with a pretty backdoor Power Play goal and suddenly the Raiders led 1-0 after Seattle had dominated the 1st period action and it seemed to break the back of the home squad.

Calvin Pickard was excellent again and did extremely well to keep the score from being a lot worse.  Too many breakdowns defensively as Seattle is showing some of the same issues that they have had for 2+ seasons now.

And now some bullet holes... because I'm lazy.

• Branden Troock played for the first time since his 15 year old season and while he didn't play a complete game, he had some very good flashes.  The most important thing was that he took a few hits and seemed to make it through the game without getting hurt.  That is a huge plus for Seattle going forward.  The overall skill and depth of the team is so much better with him on the ice and playing well.
• I've seen the comments that Burke Gallimore looks like he is "going through the motions".  I just don't believe that is the case.  I think when players struggle there is a tendency by fans to think they don't care but I think quite simply it just means they are struggling. I can assure you that the veterans on this team definitely care about winning and they aren't just out there going through the motions.  Gallimore has always been a guy who is going to get a lot of his points via the Power Play and Seattle is now 0 for 9 on the PP.  I'm still not worried... but both him and Lockhart need to snap out of it pretty quick.
• One player who surprised me a lot was Mitch Guiel.  He's a small player but he skates well and has pretty good speed.  Wearing #14, I honestly thought I was looking at the 17 year old version of Charles Wells.  Something to watch.
• Chance Lund has been off to a good start to the season, scoring in the first two games and I said at the time I really needed to see more of it to truly believe it.  Last night made me wonder whether his good start might be for real.  True he didn't score (nobody did) but Lund flashed some wheels I hadn't seen from him in previous seasons. For a player who is that big to also have some speed is a dangerous combination.
• The true downside of last night's game was that there were far too many players who I barely noticed making a true impact on the game.  That isn't good and Seattle just isn't talented enough for players to have off nights and that is why they are 0-3.
• The positive from last night was that they were able to get really good pressure at times and they were downright unlucky to have not scored at all.
• Daniel Cotton relieved Pickard and played just over 9 minutes, making 6 saves and looking sharp.

Tbirds are back at home tonight to host the Victoria Royals for the first time.

Moves

Brad Deagle is in, Taylor Green and Stefan Burzan are out.

Honestly... I don't really get it.  I understand that Green needs to play.  He needs to play and get ice time and it probably doesn't matter where it comes from. But, the team had to go out and trade for a couple of healthy bodies just to field a roster this weekend and suddenly we are sending two of our healthy bodies away.

Green heads back to Port Coquitlam where I have to assume for now that he will play for the Vancouver NE Chiefs again... but I'm not sure.

Burzan's rights were traded from the Fernie Ghostriders to the Kimberly Dynamiters over the summer... so for now I will assume that he will probably be playing for Kimberly.

Brad Deagle, on the other hand, is in.  Deagle, 19, was acquired from Red Deer in exchange for a conditional 7th round bantam choice.  He mesures 6'0" and 188 and played in 55 games for the Rebels last season notching 12 assists and a +12 rating. He also has 3 fights last year.

I'm back... let's do this

I'm back from vacation and I'm pumped to watch some hockey this weekend.  I'm still pretty slammed at work trying to get caught up but I wanted to make sure I got a post up today with some updates and a few quick thoughts. So here come some bullet holes.

• In case anyone was curious... my softball team went 0-2 at the World Series in Florida.  We played about as bad as we have played all year and the result was deserved.  It was a great experience though... had a lot of fun outside of the actual game results.
• While I was away the Tbirds added two players.  Mitch Guiel is a short forward from Langley, BC who is listed at 5'8" and 190 lbs and is a 1994 born player.  That makes him the only Tbird I am probably taller than, which also means that I immediately like this kid. Guiel was acquired from Lethbridge. They also acquired Braeden Laroque from Edmonton.  Seattle has a number of injuries right now including Verdino, Hauf, Wardley and Fleming to go along with the suspension of Machacek that was just announced today.  I don't have to crunch any numbers to tell you that Seattle is very short in healthy bodies on the blue line and that necessitated the trade for Laroque.  Braeden, 19, is listed at 6'1" and 198 lbs. He played in 54 games for Edmonton last season registering 2 goals and 4 assists.
• Already I have seen several people calling for trades and being generally really negative about this team. The team has played TWO games.  I know that it looks like it will probably be another long season in Seattle but I don't think it would be prudent to waive the white flag after two games and go around trading Pickard and Lockhart because we lost two games to Portland that both included empty net goals (yielding a true goal differential of -3 instead of 5).  I'm not very bullish on this team either but holy crap people... give the coaching staff and the players just a little bit of time here.
• Michael Salmon was re-assigned to the Canmore Eagles of the AJHL.  By all accounts, Michael was a great kid who worked extremely hard on his game and his conditioning.  His departure is bittersweet as he leaves the WHL but will likely get a chance to play a lot more with Canmore.  The coaching staff clearly liked what they saw out of Daniel Cotton, enough to feel comfortable having him backup Pickard at this point.
• Chance Lund is off to a nice start with 3 points in 2 games. Lund is about the last player I expected to start hot and two games isn't really enough to change my perspective... but hey... a good start is a good start and maybe this is the breakthrough year we have all been looking for out of Lund. His 3 points are already nearly 25% of his total for all of last season. Even better than his 3 points... is the 3 points to go along with a +2 rating, which is best on the team.
• Burke Gallimore has 0 points and he is -4.  I'm not worried.
• Luke Lockhart has 0 points and he is -3. I'm not worried.
• Calvin Pickard has 0 points. I'm really disappointed Calvin... pick it up.
• These guys are going to play better and get their points, which is another reason why it is way too early to panic.
• As mentioned earlier the Birds are really banged up.  They easily have the longest injury report in the league right now. Here are the updates directly from the WHL update an additional comments. Verdino, 1 week - I would be a little surprised if he didn't play this weekend. Hauf, day to day - I didn't realize he was this close to playing, so hopefully we will see him this weekend. I heard 6-8 weeks though and this would only put the injury around 4 weeks.  My guess... no Hauf this weekend but possibly by the following. Wardley, 2 weeks - I don't expect to see him for at least 2 weeks. Troock, day to day - Aren't we all "day to day"?? Jacobs, 1 month - I've heard anywhere from the end of October to the end of December. Your guess is as good as mine.  You can bet Jacobs is itching to play. Fleming, 1 week - No idea what happened to Fleming, hopefully it isn't serious.
• Cason Machacek was suspended for the 2 games over the weekend for being the 3rd man into a fight down in Portland.  Machacek was noted as being a "repeat offender" which earned him the 2nd game.
• Healthy D guys for Seattle this weekend... ummm... Laroque, Theodore, Sutter, Frank, Green and Verdino? Hauf? Fleming? Wow they are short.
• I was asked to get this out and I am happy to do so. Scott Ramsay played 87 games for the T-Birds between 2009-20110 before being traded to Medicine Hat.  Scott has a brother, Kody, who was diagnosed with a rare type of lymphoma last year. Kody is just 19 years old and has undergone many rounds of chemo, radiation, etc. Currently, he is very sick and still battling this cancer. Kody was hard to miss when his brother was playing for Seattle, he was always loud and cheering for his brother. Scott, his former Billet, and friends believe it is now their turn to cheer on Kody. They have already raised 4,638 dollars for this cause, but are trying to reach $5,000.00 in the next few days. To donate and help them meet their goal in honor of Kody, or to learn more about the organization they are raising money for, please go to http://pages.lightthenight.org/wa/SeattleL11/TeamKody. I would love to help push them up to that $5,000 mark.

That is it for now. It's nice to be back and into the swing of things.  Let's hope this team can get healthy (and better) real soon.

Exhibition Game and Season Preview

I took in the first two periods of the exhibition game last Saturday night at ShoWare Center.  To be quite honest... nothing really jumped out at me.  Seattle's play we decent at times and poor at others and that general malaise led to the eventual 4-1 defeat to the Silvertips. A Tbirds team without Lockhart, Jacobs, Noebels and Pickard isn't really something that I'm going to spend too much time worrying about.  Here are a couple of observations I made.

- I like Justin Hickman's fore-checking, but he needs help.  Too often I found him to be the only one willing to aggressively get into the offensive zone and make life tough for a defender by dishing out a check behind the net or in the corners.  People often look at the size of the Tbirds and wonder why Portland is so effective with their size and Seattle isn't.  Well... I believe that is true, in part, because the Tbirds have far too many "big guys" who aren't willing to use their size to really punish people on the fore-check.  The goal isn't to "hurt" the other team... but the goal should be to make a defender less comfortable behind the net and in the corners.  When players are uncomfortable, they make mistakes and when they make mistakes you create offensive chances that result in goals.  Seattle struggles to score in 5 on 5 situations last year and I think this is one of the primary reasons why.

- Michael Salmon looked ok in net.  One goal wasn't hit fault, while the other he should have made the save. Daniel Cotton (listed as Michael Cotton on the rosters) played just fine while I was there and eventually gave up 2 in the third. One fan I talked to said they thought he looked good in net.

- Troock, Wardley, Hauf and Jacobs are all out with injuries.

- Doty got into a "fight" with Everett newcomer Jesse Mychan.  It wasn't much of a fight as Mychan basically jumped Doty after acting like he was going to decline the fight.  A really weak move in my opinion.  If you don't want to fight, decline the fight.  If you do want to fight, take the fight, square off and get going.  Don't act like you aren't going to fight and then basically take a running leap at a guy.  I hope Mychan makes the Silvertips, because I think we'll be in for at least one good rematch with Doty.

- Luke Siemens had a very solid game for the Silvertips.  Despite the fact that I wasn't too excited about the play of the Thunderbirds, you could argue that they could have held a 2-1 or 3-1 lead in the 2nd period and they didn't in large part because of Siemens.

Onto the preview...

But first a quick note.  I will be missing my first Season Opener in many years this Saturday.  My softball team which is sponsored by the great Gators Sports Bar & Grill in Kent... will be playing in the World Championships along with 215 other teams from around the country this weekend.  I hate missing Tbirds games, but this is one of the few exceptions I will need to make.  If we get done in time I will try to dial up the game from the hotel to keep tabs.

As usual... in order to piece together a sensible "preview" and prediction about the season, it is important that we take a look at what happened last season.

Seattle scored 195 goals and gave up 264 goals. In 2009-2010 they scored 172 and gave up 255.  Last year, my belief was that Seattle would score more (check) and they would give up slightly fewer goals (oops).  There is no question that in order for Seattle to be more successful in the win/loss column in 2011-12 they will need to bring the goals against down. 264 goals represents 3.67 goals against per game, a number that is very difficult for just about any team to overcome.

My belief is that Seattle will score more goals this season.  I don't think they will score 250 goals but I do think they will manage better than 195.  This is based on the number of older forwards that have returned this season.  Travis Toomey was a solid hockey player and an outstanding leader but his 22 goals and 17 assists can be replaced.  The 51 assists and 59 points from Dillon probably will be difficult to replace... but everyone else returns with higher expectations.

Gallimore should be able to repeat his 34-36 and I think you can safely pencil him in for another 70 points. Noebels had 28 goals and 26 assists and I expect both of those numbers to go up.  I don't think it is unreasonable to expect Marcel to crack the 30 goal mark and he should be able to improve on the 26 assists.  I think 30-30 is a safe floor for the German. Lockhart made the jump from 16 to 48 points last season and while I wouldn't expect another 32 point jump I also wouldn't be surprised to see another 20 point jump.  I think he is another guy who could threaten 30 goals and 30 assists and that would give Seattle three players with 60 or more points for the first time since the 2008-09 season when Greg Scott, Prab Rai and Jim O'Brien all had over 60.

Colin Jacobs should be able to improve on his 22-22 campaign from last year, but it really depends on how quickly he is ready to play.  Jacobs has bundles of talent... that probably won't get fully tapped until Coach K can teach him how to get in front of the net and pick up 20 garbage points to go along with 40 "skill" points.  Only then will he top the 60 point mark as well. The rest is going to have to come from guys taking things to the next level.  Alos, Lund, Elliot, Sutter, Doty, Sanvido, Hickman all need to get better and take a step up in production for the offense to safely get over the 200 goal mark.  If any of these players takes a significant step forward... Seattle might have something.

Seattle ranked 10th in PP last season finishing at 21.2%. That was less than 1% point from being 5th in the league.  Seattle should continue to be solid on the PP this season. The PK unit started the year decent but wound up 19th in the league at 77.4%.  Call me optimistic, but that should improve this season.  Seattle has plenty of forwards with experience now and with Pickard in net the Birds should get closer to middle of the pack.

Based on all of this... I see the offense being somewhat similar to that of the Chilliwack Bruins now Victoria Royals who were very top heavy with Howse, Horak and Sundher leading the way. Projection: 225 GF.

Last season I said that the defense couldn't possibly be worse and then Seattle went out and gave up 9 more goals than the season before.

Let's try this again... the defense can't possibly be worse, so I'm just going to ballpark things at 240 goals against.

225 goals for and 240 goals against puts projected team points at 67 points.  Last season, Everett had 67 points and finished in 8th place in the conference.  Now, keep in mind that I have purposely tried to be conservative with these projections.  If the Seattle defense takes a HUGE step forward under Coach K and Coach Rumble you could see things be a lot better than that.  At the same time... this projection has both the offense and the defense getting better and there is a very real possibility that both or either one of those things happen. Without Troock helping the offense get to the next level, I'm just not sure it would be prudent to expect a lot more than this.  Once again... I hope I'm wrong.

What do you guys think??

Quick Update

Quick update today before I head up to Everett to catch the first Pre-Season game. I won't be around on Sunday so I wanted to make sure I caught this game.

I will be tweeting some thoughts and updates from the game, @TylerHunnex.

Seattle has updated their roster for the game today... and there are a few things to note.

Connor Honey is not listed. I don't know this for sure but I would guess that this means he wants to keep his NCAA options open and decided not to sign with the Tbirds at this time. Btw... so much for being a "lock"... gotta love Anonymous comments.

Daniel Wray is still around and might be a sleeper to make the team. Right now he is the only 16 year old forward listed.

Michal Holub is still here as a 15 year old... which is cool. If he plays that would obviously mean he has signed a deal with Seattle. Once again... it is worth nothing that Gropp is not here, which almost certainly means that the Tbirds have NOT signed their top pick. Makes me very nervous...

Carter Struthers is still around... that is good news in my book. Taylor Green is still around but probably needs to impress quickly to make the team since 11 defenders are still listed.

Seattle still carrying 4 goaltenders with Cotten and Myles still around.

Camp Thoughts, Round 2

Couple more random thoughts from the camp scrimmage last night. Again in no particular order.

- Teams were paired down to just Team Blue and Team Grey last night with roughly 50 players left.

- Connor Honey was playing with Lockhart and Noebels last night. I'm not so sure he is a "lock" to make the team like the Anonymous comment indicated but I think there are some strong indications that he might be here to stay.

- Stefan Burzan suffered an injury at some point Sunday and sat out last night. I didn't see anything happen to him, did anyone else?

- Taylor Green is still listed as injured but there are indications that he is close to skating and playing.

- The Troock, Rouse, Alos line had a particularly good game with Troock getting two goals and Rouse getting one on the night.

- Kevin Wolf was back one day after taking a hit to the knee and being helped off. Good to see that he is ok. He looks to be a keeper for a 15 year old and should have a decent chance to make the team next year.

- Not much else stood out. I got the feeling that the legs are starting to get a little bit tired and most of the players didn't quite have the jump and focus they might have had in the first few days.

Camp Thoughts, Round 1

Some camp thoughts after the first round of scrimmages yesterday. These are in no particular order, I'm just going to work my way through the sheet of lines.

- The line of Branden Troock, Andrew Taverner and Michael Holub was really clicking during their two scrimmages. Holub wasn't nearly as physical as he was during rookie camp and I would love to see him get back to running around smashing people but the line itself seemed to have some great chemistry.

- Saw a couple of decent shifts out of Igor Stakic.

- I'm still not entirely sure that Erik Fleming makes this team but his goal yesterday was a thing of beauty over the shoulder of Rebaliati.

- Shea Theodore is no worse than your 2nd best PP defender. His skill is far beyond where a 16 year old's should be and I can't believe we got him in the 3rd round. Great pick.

- Our first rounder in that draft also looks pretty good. Hauf has a really long reach and uses his stick well to defend. He is going to need more time to refine his offensive game but he could be a pretty decent defender right away for the club.

- Zach Douglas had a few good moments and a few not so great moments. I think he is very much on the fence to make the squad, but I liked some of his offensive game.

- Nolan Kruizenga actually looked pretty decent in net and I liked what I saw... with the exception of not getting his skate guards off before coming out for his second game. Rookies... (shaking my head)

- Stefan Burzan looks like he might be a keeper. I liked the speed that he flashed on a few rushes and he has decent size.

- Dylan Gambrell is another invite/list player who probably never plays for the Birds but he sure seemed to be around the puck a LOT.

- Sutter had moments where he flashed some serious skill and then moments where he turned the puck over and looked horrible and sometimes they came within the same play.

- Daniel Cotton was decent but needed the post twice to keep the puck out of the net. I need to see more to be convinced that he could back up Pickard.

- I really don't have any idea where Connor Honey came from but I kind of liked what I saw out of him. Flashed some speed and make a really nice pass for an assist. The problem is... this team just has a ton of forwards and I can't see how he makes the team but I'm most definitely intrigued.

- Carter Folk and Hauf had a nice little exchange of hits/incidents.

- Austin Frank looks like he has improved enough that I'm pretty comfortable with him fitting in at the back end of the defensive rotation.

- Carter Struthers is an 18 year old from Weyburn who looks to be headed to Penticton to play with the Vees but he has very good size and has looked pretty capable on defense. With the shortage of defenders... I really wouldn't mind seeing him playing for the Birds.

- Reid Fritzke was drafted in the 8th round and Austin Douglas was drafted in the 2nd round. What what I have seen so far Fritzke is solidly better than Douglas. I'm not sure how these things happen. The only thing I can think of is that Douglas is hurt, because he isn't playing with any kind of urgency or purpose.

- Ryan Gropp was noticeably absent from Main Camp. I've heard several theories but i would prefer not to speculate at this moment. Let's just call it "strange" that Gropp played so well in rookie camp and wasn't around for the first Main scrimmage.

- Taylor Green was listed in the pairings for Team Grey but did not skate. Hopefully we will see him today or tomorrow.

I'm getting into this Twitter thing so if you want quicker updates, give me a follow @TylerHunnex.