Two things can be true. Seattle has played the fewest home games (18) of any team in the WHL to this point of the season and Seattle has the best home ice winning percentage of any team in the WHL to this point in the season. With a pair of home wins this weekend at the accesso ShoWare Center, Seattle now sports a home record of 16-1-1-0.The sixteen home wins is only the third most in the WHL, but the home ice winning percentage of .917 is tops in the league.
The Thunderbirds have not lost a home game in regulation since a, 5-3, November 5th loss to Portland. If you remember, that was the game the Winterhawks went 4-for-7 on the power play and Seattle was just 1-for-10. The Thunderbirds last loss of any kind at home was a 2-1 overtime setback to Calgary on November 12th. That was another game where Seattle's power play (0-for-8) cost them big time as they outshot the Hitmen that night 33-21. Since then, the Thunderbirds have reeled off eleven straight home wins.
But those two losses, to Portland and to Calgary, are it as far as Seattle not getting the W on home ice. A regulation loss and an overtime loss in the span of eight days in November, all because they went 1-18 with the man advantage in back-to-back home games.
What's the significance? Well, two-fold. Of the Thunderbirds remaining 27 games, 16 will be at the ShoWare Center. If Seattle has designs on the top seed in the Western Conference, if they have their sites set on the Scotty Munro Trophy (best regular season record in the WHL), then keeping up that winning pace on home ice will be crucial. Secondly, you want that home ice in the postseason, especially in a building where the home crowd gives you a decided advantage.
Coming off their six game road trip to the Eastern Division, Seattle has essentially played two games without, what would arguably be a top line for any of the WHL's other 21 teams, available to them. Brad Lambert is getting his U.S. visa sorted out and Jordan Gustafson and Colten Dach are dealing with long term upper body injuries. Those are three high NHL draft picks out of the lineup and yet Seattle went 2-0, outscoring their two opponents 9-4 and outshooting them 76-38.
The Thunderbirds got through the first half of the season relatively unscathed. They did lose Luke Prokop for an eleven game span with a lower body injury but otherwise stayed healthy. It's been a bit different the past three weeks. Obviously there were the four players away at World Juniors. But then on their road trip the T-birds added a couple players to the roster who weren't immediately available (Lambert, Dach). To make those moves they sent a couple players (Hurley/Mittelsteadt) out. Additionlly Tij iginla missed three games due to illness. That left Seattle with a short bench.
Then, they lost Lucas Ciona to a two-game suspension, although the reality is they were without him for three games because the suspension was the result of a five minute major/game misconduct in the fist period in Winnipeg. Reid Schaefer missed half the game in Prince Albert after getting hit by friendly fire. Finally, they've played the last three games without Gustafson, who was hurt early in the game in Saskatoon and Lambert has been missing because of bureaucracy.
Seattle dropped a couple of close games on that road trip with a less then full roster. Injuries, suspensions, illnes, they're all part of the game but you gotta think with a full boat the T-Birds might have a couple more wins under their belts.
My T-Birds Three Stars for the Weekend:
Third Star: G Scott Ratzlaff. Ratzlaff carried the load in goal for the Thunderbirds for just over a month, starting 14 of 18 games with Thomas Milic at World Juniors plus his week's rest to recover. The last start for Ratzlaff in that stretch was Friday against Lethbridge. Did he face a lot of shots? No, but the shots he did face were high quality, especially in the first period. Stopping eight of nine shots in the opening period kept the T-Birds in the hunt in a game they eventually came back to win in overtime.
Second Star: C Gracyn Sawchyn. He's been good from opening night way back in September when he won the game for Seattle in Vancouver with his shootout goal, but it's been fun to watch him get better and better with each game played. He's a prime example that your best work doesn't always end up on the scoresheet. I'm just eyeballing but he probably wins 80-percent of his 50/50 puck battles. He had just two assists on the weekend but his ability to win faceoffs set up a number of the T-Birds goals. Over his last four games he is 44-of-74 in the faceoff circle, including 25-of-41 this weekend. At one point Saturday night he was 10-of-14 on faceoffs against Everett and Seattle had a 6-0 lead and that's no coincidence.
First Star: D Jeremy Hanzel. Hanzel is sort of that middle child, who doesn't get all the attention but still does all his chores without complaint, and does them well. On a team with three highly drafted NHL picks on the blueline, it's easy to overlook his contribution to the team's success but he's a key cog on the backend. He's pretty adept at keeping pucks in at the line in the offensive zone. I liked that this weekend it seemed he was making a more concerted effort to put more shots towards the net. He was rewarded with a three assist night against Everett. He finished Satruday's game at +3 improving his league leading plus/minus rating to +39.
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