Thoughts on the two trades

The Birds have made two player moves.

The first one has sent 20 year old defender Jesse Forsberg to the Moose Jaw Warriors. In exchange, they get a 3rd round pick in the 2015 Bantam Draft.

This solves the 20 year old situation by cutting down to the number of 20's to 3 (all forwards). This was probably the easiest way to solve the 20 year old issue and the too many defenders situation in one move. A 3rd rounder coming back is about on par with the other 20 trades as of late.

What is interesting is that Moose Jaw already had 3 20's, so maybe not a location people might have expected. Forsberg is a good defender on the back end, and a tough player at that. But Evan Wardley is starting to turn into that as a 19, so possibly the team didn't need another one. Off the ice, Forsberg was a class act, and I personally wish him the best of luck in the future.

The second move caught me by surprise.

The Birds have moved 18 year old Griffin Foulk to Lethbridge. Coming back is a 19 year old defender in Adam Henry. With the trading of Forsberg I certainly didn't expect another trade involving another defender. Foulk was advertised as a puck moving smooth skating defender when he was acquired from Everett. At times he showed this, but others times he looked like just a 2nd / 3rd line defender out there and he only had 3 assists in 46 games last season for the Seattle.

GM Farwell described Adam Henry as "adds some additional offense from the back end and supports our forward group and developing style of play.” Which is basically the same exact quote that Farwell used for Foulk when we got him. I don't know much about Henry, but he is still a defender that has played 4 years the league.

The funny thing I find about these two trades is almost all fans and the coaches / GM said those two were the best defenders during the playoffs last year and now neither are on the team.

How fast times change.

Game one of a big road trip

Lets see if the Birds can rebound from two straight disappointing games (losses to Portland and Tri).

First up is Medicine Hat.  They are off to a nice start at 4-1, only giving up 10 goals.

I have been told that Mitch Elliot will be playing tonight, so how many people think tough guys, former teammates, and friends Jacob Doty and Mitch Elliot will have a go to see who is the better fighter.

My guess, the answer is no.

Hopefully a little time off after last Tuesday, all spent on the road, will get the team bonded together and kicked back in gear.

Mitch Elliot on his way back to Seattle

Mitch just posted on twitter

"Headed back to Seattle I would like to thank the @UticaComets for the great opportunity"

So whats everyone think will happen now?

Seattle drops to 3-1

Yes, I was away for the weekend and Jon did his best to cover things in my absence.

I'm catching the replay of the Portland game and had a few thoughts I would share.

• Early in the game, the effort by Seattle was there... the intelligent play wasn't. Some really undisciplined play that resulted in penalties by the Tbirds. It didn't hurt them initially but as the period wore on, it did. Shea Theodore doesn't play the body on the first goal and he combined with Connor Honey fail to back check and it results in a goal. On the second goal, someone (I believe Forsberg but could have been Smith) then misses on a PP pinch at the side boards that results in a shorthanded goal.
• Todd Vrooman and Andy Kemper seem like nice guys. I really don't have an ax to grind here but listening to them call games is very difficult.  They display very little objectivity and complain about nearly every single call that doesn't go the way of the Winterhawks. It reminds me that we're actually very lucky to have a guy like Thom Buening working our games. I think Thom is very even handed in his commentary.  It would be unfair for me to simply give this opinion (criticism) without offering at least a little bit of evidence... so here you go. 2nd period, Portland up 2-0 and Wardley throws this hit on Ethan Price:

The hit results in this:

It's a shoulder to shoulder check that Wardley wins and results in Price going face first into the boards. An unfortunate result for Price... to say the least... but also a very legal and clean check. I also have no problem with Seven Alldridge going after Wardley and sticking up for his teammate... stick tap to him for that.

Here is my problem and I will quote precisely. Vrooman's comment was "Pretty heavy hit in the corner, borderline, could have gone either way in my opinion on a call, but Steven Alldridge seeing the hit came to the defense of Ethan Price... It was shoulder to shoulder, give Wardley the benefit of the doubt on that one... fairly clean hit."

Yes... a shoulder to shoulder hit is usually considered a "fairly" clean hit. 

I'll repeat again, I have no ax to grind here and I'm not cherry picking this one situation. This happens all game long. It makes it very difficult to listen to Seattle games when they are down in Portland. I'm not going to make a habit of complaining about this. It's not hockey related, it isn't that important and I can guarantee that Vrooman and Kemper don't care what I think.

• Hopefully these games don't become a habit last season but I'm seeing a lot of the bad habits returning from the previous seasons. Guys that just aren't taking that extra amount of pride to ensure that a scoring chance isn't there for the other team. It's a combination of pride and attention to detail. Coaches will call it the "little things". Little things turn into big things and they also generally turn into goals into your own net.
• 2 periods into watching this replay and I'm finding it hard to blame Mumaugh for any of this mess.
• A summary of the night in one picture.  This is about as poor of a pinch decision as you're going to see in major junior hockey. Theodore is several steps from De Champlain and goes for a half-hearted pinch and the pass gets chipped to Chase De Leo who goes in on a 2 on 1 takes a shot and Oliver Bjorkstrand cleans up the rebound for an easy goal. A terrible decision and these things will just bury you against a team like Portland. I realize the score was already 7-0 at this point but I don't really care, you still can't do that stuff.

Overall, a pretty ugly effort from Seattle and Portland came out firing and with something to prove after getting beat pretty badly by Tri-City earlier in the week.  Let's hope this is just a bump in the road and isn't something that is going to become a habit.

A huge congrats to a TBird employee

Some of you may have noticed Tyler wasn't in attendance last night.

This is because some fool decided a weekend during hockey season was the best time to get married.  And in Spokane even.  No true hockey fan would let his bride pick a weekend like this for their big day.  What makes it even worse, is he is an employee of the Birds.  And Tyler gets to give a best man's speech in front of 300 people.

I stole this picture from Facebook of the wedding rehearsal last night.

Sean found the perfect female for him, and well, she had to settle for Sean <g>.

But to be serious for once, I couldn't be happier for these two.  They are a great couple, great friends, but most of all, great people that deserve each other.

Congratulation Sean and soon to be Elizabeth Runnels 

Make that 3 and 0

With 6 points, your TBirds are the #1 seed in the Western Conference.
That's home ice all the way to the Championship.
Spokane has the same record, but I guess we get first because, well because, SE comes before SP.

Last nights game

As you know, I started the season questioning the character of the team after those two losses to Everett.
Last night, the team showed me character.
Answering back twice after Tri scored.
Not getting down because of the penalty kills.
Not folding up and sending it in when Tri came on strong.

And speaking of character.
For the third straight game, no one was wearing the "C".
One would assume that means Hickman will get it starting tonight, but that is a huge assumption, just because he hasn't played in the three games.

This team has still not played their best hockey yet.  They have not strung together 60 full minutes.
The last ten minutes they went into some sort of defensive trap / shell.
Why oh why oh why.
They almost got away with it, but finally it caught up with them with a bad clearing attempt over the glass results in a penalty.

There were stretches of the game where players stopped working hard.
Either Lipsberg and Holub got hurt, or got benched starting in the 2nd period.
I suspect benched because both had 1 shift very late in the game, after sitting most of the period.
I actually thought Holub had a good first period, but maybe coach didn't think that.
Lipsberg I didn't notice much in the first.  However, he does get the shootout winner, so maybe made up for it a little.
Coach has once again shown he is not afraid to sit guys if they are not playing the system.  It must be nice for him to actually have the depth to do this.  You don't buy into the system, you will be replaced by someone that will.

Bullet notes from the game

• Theodore made his return tonight, showed the skating and puck handling that he had last season.
• Once again, Troock looked a beast out there.  His line could easily be the top line in the Western conference they way they are playing
• I thought Tri was really trying to stretch the Birds out, two or three times hitting on homerun passes to break a skater in behind the defense.
• Huge hard shot by Honey on his goal.  My guess is Comrie would want it back.
• Speaking of Comrie, I thought he was fighting the puck all night, leaving rebounds where he normally doesn't.  But in the shootout, he was all calm.
• And speaking of another goaltender, how about Myles for Seattle in the shootout.  Stops three of five.  Oh yeah, crossbar stopped two of two.  But he is very smooth, forcing the shooter to make the first move.  It appeared towards the end, Tri caught on to the fact he wasnt coming out of the net, and started going high quick shots instead of making moves.
• Foulk and Honey both left the second period at the 10 minute mark with Trainer Phil.  Honey came back 2 minutes later.  Foulk not until 2 minutes to go in the period.
• Tough break for Ethen Bear on Williams goal.  Losses his stick, then doesnt take Delnov's, and I think the puck went off him to a wide open Williams.
• What a move by Swenson on his goal.  Dips back and forth around two defenders, amazing flip pass to Barzal, and gets the rebound and puts in a really tough angle backhand over everyone.
• Those two shots off the post in the shootout by Tri were two of the harder crossbar shots I have seen in a while.
• Forsberg took warm ups, but of course did not play.

Tonight will be another great test early in the season.
Portland has struggled in their last two games.
They have given up 10 goals in those games.
Leipsec will be sitting out for a three game suspension.
The way the Birds are playing, they have made it very difficult for me not to take the drive down to PDX and watch.  But with 5 cm (like that Canadian readers) of rain expected today, the Husky game on TV, the fact I went to Vancouver on Wednesday, I am 99% sure I am staying home and watching on the big screen.

Jon's review of last nights game

Man do I love road trips like last night.  Sure makes the drive home so nice.
First 10 minutes were not good for Seattle.
But once they got that taken care of, it was complete domination from there on.
I would estimate Vancouver had 3 scoring chances the entire game.

Thanks to a very nice friend of ours, she won a prize of 4 tickets to the Red Rock Lounge.
So we sat front row, directly behind the goal judge at the end Seattle shoots at twice.
Very nice view.

As I mentioned, the first 10 minutes Seattle couldn't put any passes together.
So things looked really sloppy, choppy, and no flow.
But then something clicked, and Seattle started connecting on passes, skating, checking, and took control.
The rest of the game was basically all Seattle.

I personally thought the best line of Seattle's didn't even appear on the scoresheet (except penalties).
The Holub, Benoit, and Kolesar (I think that was other winger) line provided so much energy every time they hit the ice.  They got some good scoring chances also.

Because of Seattle's hustle and forecheck, Vancouver could never really get going.
They had no room to pass or skate, and any time they did, the defenders kept them so far to the outside, the shots were somewhat easy saves.
I will say that I thought Mumaugh was still a little wild in net, kind of flopping around.  But, it worked, he got the shutout, and congrats to him on that one.
The first 10 minutes he had to be good to keep the team in it, and he was up to the challenge.

There was a first period goal by Seattle that was waved off.  I was 5 feet away, and the goalies glove nailed the water bottle.  I cant see how that puck was not across the line.
Tyler has shown me screenshots of the video that make it appear very close.
But this is what I am going to say (and Tyler disagrees with me).
The call on the ice was goal, so you need definitive proof to overturn it.  And what I have seen, you can not be 100% sure.  So how do you overturn any call (even if you think it wasnt a goal).
But, even if you are going to overturn the call, the faceoff was dropped outside to Vancouver zone.  If the play is dead when the puck goes in the net, and the goal is overturned, then why is Seattle penalized by having the faceoff moved out.

A few bullet notes

• First goal by Honey was a snipers goal.  He picked the upper corner, and so hard a shot.
• Delnov's goal was all created by Troock knocking the puck out of mid air, and controlling it.  The puck he pulled down I dont even think it was supposed to go to him.
• The middle goals by Seattle were shots into wide open nets, off rebounds, or strange bounces.
• Swenson's goal was almost a thing of beauty, as he swung at a puck in mid air, and tried to baseball swing it in.  He missed, and got the second change, and put it in.
• Jared Hauf with a massive game.  A +4 on the scoresheet backed that up.
• Ethan Bear again looked very strong.  Working the powerplay, being very calm under pressure, and not afraid to shoot the puck.
• The penalty kill when Seattle was down 2 men, then when they were only down one man.  I'm not sure Vancouver even got a good shot.
• I have been very critical of Troock, and I will be the first to admit he is playing so well.  The fight was great to see, standing up for a teammate that was dumped in front of the net.  He deserved the instigator, but at that point in the game, it was worth it.
• Everyone will be happy to know that Barzal didn't get thrown out of the faceoffs as much as the first game.
• Erik Benoit looked a lot better and fitting in more then he did game one.
• Former Thunderbird Ryan Gibbons was a linesmen last night, and lets just say he started Movember in September.
• Luke Lockhart stopped by the game last night, was great seeing him there.
• So many parents were in attendance, wonderful chatting it up with them
• Speaking of parents, if Kevin Wolf's father is reading this, I have a question on Minnesota hockey, so please email me.
• Smallest crowd I have seen in a game up there.  They say 4000, and that is about right.
• The game was on Shaw, but wasn't delayed at all because of that.
• GM Farwell was interviewed during the 2nd intermission on Shaw.  I couldn't hear what they were asking, but would have loved to.
• The border was so easy.

One funny story, on the way up, we stopped by the duty free store.  One passenger purchased jolly rancher candy, chocolate candy, and a bottle of water.  When you purchase alcohol, you get in your car, drive to a window, and pick it up.  We had to do that for candy and water.  It was so strange, and seemed so useless.

Off to Vancouver

4 of us are headed up to the game tonight in Vancouver.
Unfortunately for Tyler, he is not one of them.
I will have my thoughts tomorrow morning on the first road game of the year.

In other news, last night, Tri Cities beat Portland 6-2.  Sunday night, Prince George beat Tri Cities 2-1.  Friday night, Portland beat PG 9-2.  So now I am really confused over who is better then the next.
Why do I mention this, well, Tri and Portland are Seattle's next two opponents after tonight.

1-0, Same Start as Last Year (oh wait)

Last year Seattle started the season with a 5-2 win in Portland and we all know that last season turned out so well that the team decided they should probably start the season 1-0 with a win over Portland again.

Obviously... I'm joking. The Tbirds get off to a nice start to the season by picking up a 4-3 shootout win over the Portland Winterhawks. The Hawks were coming off a 9 goal performance on opening night against the Prince George Cougars and many of you/us had to wonder whether we would see much of the same Saturday night at the Sho'. But Seattle played a stout defensive game and came out very strong in the first period to give themselves an early lead.

I saw some very good things and some things that will need some work. On to the bullet holes.

• Seattle's start was exactly what they needed. I immediately noticed a higher level of crisp passing and they were able to generate chances and sustain pressure in the Portland zone. My fears about being able to break the puck out didn't materialize early in the game.  Brendan Burke made 15 first period saves for the Winterhawks and if it weren't for him the score probably could have been 2 or 3-0.
• One of my keys to the season is the performance of Jared Hauf and as such I spent much of the game focusing my attention on his play whenever he was on the ice. His play along the wall to keep the puck in led to the first goal and it was a nice way for him to start the season.  I would still like to see Hauf make more of an impact at the offensive end of the ice and I'd like to see him be more physical but I thought he played a solid game and I only counted one real "minus" on the hooking call he took in the 3rd period. His long reach makes him very difficult to skate around for many forwards and I think he is getting better at playing a simple, solid, straightforward defensive game.  The problem is... when you aren't really chipping in very much on the offensive end, it puts a lot of pressure on a player to play flawlessly in their own zone. So far so good from what I saw, especially when I thought Smith had some moments that left Hauf alone to cover for him.
• I sent out a tweet early in the game about Griffin Foulk and his offensive zone pinches. I was picking on him at the time because it was bad and created an odd man break for Portland but this really goes towards the entire defensive crew. When people talk about playing a "simple" game (as I mentioned above with Hauf) this is what I think about first. Pinches are tempting and they must be done to keep up the offensive zone pressure - BUT - you better not miss. Seattle simple cannot afford to give up too many odd man rushes in any situation but especially one where you have an unproven goaltender.
• Speaking of which... let's talk about Justin Myles. I really liked what I saw. He's very fluid and never seems to get rattled or overly excited. The first two Portland goals were not his fault with the first being a fluky (but good) shot off the face-off from Ethan Price and the second goal being a tap-in by Oliver Bjorkstrand off a beautiful feed from Nic Petan. The 3rd goal I have a bit of an issue with despite the fact that Jarret Smith was trailing De Leo and arguably shouldn't have been able to get to a rebound. It was a shot Myles probably wanted back and obviously came at a bit of a bad time leading by a goal with under 8 minutes to play.  However, all's well that ends well as he stopped 2 of 3 in the shootout for the win.
• Erik Benoit and Ethan Bear were running the point on the first power play. Obviously, that changes when Shea Theodore returns but it will be interesting to see if Bear continues to get PP minutes. He seemed to hold his own and also logged minutes shorthanded. That's pretty impressive for a 16 year old playing in just his 2nd game against the defending WHL champions.
• Mike Campbell is a really poor official and needs a new profession. (My editor insisted on this being in Bold)
• Seth Swenson hammered one off the post and Riley Sheen made a great move only to be denied by Burke. Seattle could have easily had one or two more goals.
• Mathew Barzal looked [a little bit] like a 16 year old in his first WHL game but managed to get his first point after taking a smart rebound shot in the second period. He was the first out of the bench for the shootout and lost the puck before recovering and beating Burke with a backhand after what seemed like about 14 handles.  We have yet to see the best from Barzal... I doubt we will have to wait very long.
• Last note. Branden Troock was held off the scoresheet and was a -1 for the night but I really liked what I saw. Especially the part where he was throwing his body around and finishing checks. I realize he has been hurt several times but I truly believe that if you're going to play this game the right way you have to play without fear and it certainly looked to me like Troock had no fear of getting himself re-injured. It was a great sign and if he keeps finishing checks like that... the points are going to come in bunches.

That's all I have for now. 1-0... whatttttyaknow. Let's hope this is the start of some great things for this team and the fans.

Game One, Game Day

Based on last nights opening day results, we now know what not to do against Portland.
That would be to stay out of the box.

Last night, in Portland, the Winterhawks went 5 for 8 on the powerplay.

The Thunderbirds Foundation has guaranteed the 50-50 to be at least $2000.  That is a nice sum of money to be winning.  In 21 years of watching this team, I have NEVER won anything, so I don't bother buying tickets for it at all.  But with amounts like that, I might have to start again.


Hope to see a lot of you tonight.