T-Birds Gone Wild

 Another weekend in which the Thunderbirds play just one game.  It was a good one though, as they defeated the Wenatchee Wild for the second time this season, a 4-2 victory behind a three-point game (1g, 2a) from Jeremy Hanzel. 

After just four games over the first three weeks of the season the schedule begins to pick up now.  Seattle is set to play seven game between now and the end of October, or seven games in twelve days. It begins at home Tuesday against Brandon, then the team embarks for a six game road trip through the Central Division.

A few things stood out from last Friday's win over the Wild. First, Seattle played the game with just five healthy defensemen. Braeden Wynne and Sawyer Mynio are both on the shelf with injuries. The T-birds got big minutes from Hanzel, Owen Boucher, Bryce Pickord and Hyde Davidson but don't discount the play of rookie Kaleb Hartmann. I thought he played well in a pressure situation and provided some valuable shifts.

Secondly, the win was the 200th regular season win for Matt O'Dette as T-birds head coach. When the season began, he needed three wins to hit that milestone and with a team featuring a lot of new and young players, there was no telling if he'd hit the milestone early or later on.  The fact he got to the 200th win in the first four games says a lot about how he prepares his team to play, no matter who is on the roster.

O'Dette has been with the organization since the 2013-14 season, when he came on board as an assistant to then head coach Steve Konowalchuk.  In the ten plus seasons he's been on the bench with the franchise, the T-Birds have won 370 regular season games, two U.S. Division banners, four Western Conference Championships and two Ed Chynoweth Cups.  I think it is safe to call his tenure with the team thus far a Decade of Excellence and the best ten year stretch in the 40-plus years the team has been around.

O'Dette said something post game that stuck out. He said when the team is playing the right way, when they are playing T-Birds hockey, they can sense it one the bench. Not just the coaches, but the players too. He said they got that feeling through most of the first two periods Friday and much of the third period as well. There was a bit of a lapse the final two minutes of the second period. But looking back on the game, it did remind me of the formula of so many T-Birds games from last season.

By the way, O'Dette needs three more wins to surpass Don Nachbaur for second all time in coaching wins in franchise history.  Twnety more wins moves him past Konowalchuk. With 38 ore wins behind the bench, he be first in franchise history, surpassing Rob Sumner (237).

It's just four games but it has to be a good sign going forward that the third youngest team in the WHL (only Spokane and Calgary are younger) has done a very good job of staying out of the penalty box. Through four games Seattle has only been shorthanded eleven times. That's under three times per game, right around where the coaches would like it to be.  Better yet, they've killed off 10 of the 11 penalties.

The power play was going to be an asset with Kevin Korchinski quarterbacking it.  But I think it is safe to say that is not going to happen, at least not anytime soon as Korchinski is fitting in quite nicely with the NHL's Chicago Blackhawks.  

But even without him here, the man advantage has looked dangerous.  Hanzel is showing he can handle the puck at the blue line. When healthy Sawyer Mynio will get considerable power play time, as will Jordan Gustafson, but with Sam Popowich, Nico Myatovic, Braeden Cootes, Coster Dunn and Gracyn Sawchyn it looks like the T-Birds power play is going to be okay. They are clicking at 23-percent (3/13) but with players back from NHL camps and getting more time together, they should only improve in that category.

Samuel Charko came oh-so-close to his first WHL goal Friday only to be robbed on the doorstep on a great save by the Wenatchee goalie.  Kazden Mathies earned his first WHL point with a first period assist.  So, that leaves only Charko, Hartmann and Nishaan Parmar as young T-Birds still in search of their first WHL point.  

Owen Boucher goes into that special category of under the radar pick up by GM Bil LaForge.  Obtained just before the start of the season from Price Albert, he seems to be finding his groove with the T-Birds. At 19 years old he was the second oldest of the five defenseman on the ice for Seattle Friday and his experience in the league was so valuable to getting that win. Outside of the the 20 year old Hanzel, the other d-men were two 17 year olds and a 16 year old rookie.  

My T-Birds Three Stars for the Wild Win:

Third Star:  LW Nico Myatovic. Picked up one assist but was so noticeable up and down the ice. A year older and a more physically mature player, he's using his size more now I think, than he did in the past. One of the best penalty killers in the league and that was on display against Wenatchee. I think as the season moves along he will start to drive more of the offense for Seattle.

Second Star: C Sam Popowich.  A career best four game point streak and a career best four game goal scoring streak.  Need a key faceoff win? Call Sam. Need a game winning goal? He's got two. Like Myatovic his penalty killing is top notch.  Maybe Seattle's most versatile player.

First Star: D Jeremy Hanzel. He looked right at home on the first unit power play, quaterbacking it from the blue line. We know his one timer is deadly and he' still dialing that in early this season.  His goal Friday was just a smart play, taking advantage of space and time to skate into the slot and snap one home. Very cerebral player in the d-zone as he rarely makes the wrong decision when moving the puck up ice.  He knew he was going to play a lot of minutes but he seemed as fresh at the end as he did at the beginning.

Piecing it Together

When sixteen of the players who made up your 2023 championship roster are either no longer with you or not currently available, you go into the lab and and start mixing together a new batch of formula.  For the Thunderbirds it isn't creating a new recipe, it's just mixing in new ingredients. 

Now, the T-birds know at some point they'll get a few ingredients from last season's team back.  Jordan Gustafson is about a month away from returning from offseason surgery. Sawyer Mynio was hurt last week but he too will return. The mystery ingredient is Kevin Korchinski.Will he return or will he remain in the NHL with the Chicago Blackhawks? The answer is out of their hands.

So, you go with what you know, the players who are here.  You mix in the returning players with the newcomers and you get baking.  Hopefully, it doesn't take long for the cake to rise. Friday in Spokane, we saw what that work in the kitchen looks like.

The T-Birds added three new players to the fold. Defenseman Braeden Wynne, a 19 year old, came over from Medicine Hat but had perviously played for Edmonton. He played 43-games with the Oil Kings in the 2021-22 season, the year they beat Seattle in the league final. Unfortunatley his debut was cut short when he was injured in the first period and did not return. It's hard to gauge his effectiveness on such a short sample size.

Another acquisition from Medicine Hat is Cru Hanas.  The 18 year old left winger got into a couple of practices last week and then made his debut Friday in Spokane. It was a slow start as he got comfortable with his new linemates. But as the game progressed, he became more effective, more assertive and by the third period he was making a difference on the ice.  

The third player thrown into the mix was Eric Alarie.  Alarie came to the T-Birds in a deal with Moose Jaw. The 20 year old is a former first round pick in the WHL Prospects Draft, taken 22nd overall by the Warriors in 2018. Alarie was brought in for his offense. He scored nineteen goals a season ago and was a 25-goal scorer in 2021-22. With his size and offensive ability, he reminds me of Colton Dach.

Friday in Spokane he showed why Seattle went out and got him.  He was affective from his very first shift, drawing a penalty with his strong, physical play.  In the third period he delivered the goods, scoring the game winning goal.  Not bad for someone who had been driving two days from Moose Jaw to meet the team just in time for puck drop.

To bring in Alarie, Seattle had to release two 20-year olds who were part of last year's Chynowth Cup winning squad.  Both Mekai Sanders and Ashton McNelly were waived to get Seattle down to the limit of three 20 year old players.  That's the business side of the WHL. The ultimate goal is winning and to win you need to score.  

In his four seasons with Seattle, Sanders had scored just 20 goals and over half of those, twelve, came in the 2021-22 season. It was that season where Sanders was injured. A significant knee injury that cost him nearly a season of hockey. Before that injury he had produced twelve goals and fifteen assists in 56-games that season. Since his return from the injury he had accumulated just eleven points (5g, 6a) in 58 games and was a healthy scratch the last few games of the Memorial Cup. Only Mekai knows but I wonder how much that injury affected his game.  

McNelly was never brought in here to be a goal scorer. He was brought in for his grit and physicality.  He was the perfect third/fourth line guy on a deep team. He knew his role and he was a great teammate. You can accept that role from a 19-year old. But on a team lacking in offense, that is a luxury you can't afford.  Seattle lost over 175 goals from last year's team.  They needed an Alarie to pick up some of that offense.

With the addition of those three players, plus 19-year old defenseman Owen Boucher, who was acquired from Prince Albert a week earlier, and Luca Hauf, obtained in the offseason from Edmonton, the T-Birds have some new ingredients to mix into their recipe.  There are also eight rookies new to the WHL this season. Thirteen new faces added to the team in the last three months. You also have four second year players moving into expanded roles this season. 

That leaves just six players who have been with the T-Birds for two-plus seasons and two of them, Gustafson and Mynio are currently on the shelf. This doesn't include Korchinski because we don't know if he's coming back.  So, it might be a slow cook to get the team all on the same page.

My Three T-Birds Stars for Friday's win in Spokane:

Third Star: G Scott Ratzlaff.  The first goal he allowed was an ugly one. No question he was at fault. A minute later a second one gets by him and all of a sudden Seattle is in a 2-0 hole. A fragile psychy could have crumbled.  But Ratzlaff buckled down and shut the door on the Chiefs the rest of the way. He started to look like the Ratzlaff of last December who was named WHL Goaltender of the Month. Many of his saves, especially in the third period, were highlight worthy stops. He finished with 28-saves to earn his first win of the season.

Second Star: LW Eric Alarie. Instant impact for the T-birds newest player. In addition to his offense, he was a physical presence, winning puck battles along the boards.  Just missed scoring a couple more times but his first goal as a T-Birds was memorable as he drove the net and redirected a Gracyn Sawchyn pass up and under the bar for the game winner. In the few minutes I spent talking with him I think you can see he's going to be a part of the leadership group as well.

First Star: C Sam Popowich.  What a start to the season for Poppy with goals in each of the first three games. He added two assists versus Spokane as well. His power play goal late in period one was huge, cutting the T-Birds deficit to 2-1 before the period ended.  He then made a perfect pass to spring Antonio Martorana as he came out of the penalty box early in the second period for the tying goal.  Remember, Popowich was on the ice at that time killing off a penalty, something he excels in.  He added a second assist on the Nico Myatovic empty net goal.  

We're All day to Day

 A .500 record after the first two games of the season with a roster comprised of nearly a dozen new faces? I'll take it. Just not sure I like the way the team got there.

Just like not all wins are created equal, neither are all losses.  Saturday's 6-1 home loss to Portland is something we haven't seen from this team in a while. Seattle was outplayed in all aspects of the game but the one area that stings the most is in the effort department. 

Every loss is disappointing. You go out there for the puck drop and expect to win.  We know that won't happen every night though.  Even last year's team dropped a few along the way to their historic 54-win campaign.  But one thing they did every game last season was put in the effort for sixty minutes, or more if needed.

Unfortunately last night was not the case. A good first half of the first perioed.  It was a fairly evenly played game to that point. But a quick two goals by Portland and the T-Birds didn't handle the resulting adversity very well. Does a having a young roster play into that? It does to a point. But Seattle had enough returning players who've gone through the rigors of two championship type seasons to know how to handle that kind of adversity.

I think that was the second part of the frustation equation. Retuning players now in leadership roles learning how to lead. Returning players being put in position to do what they haven't done yet at this level, lead the younger players through the rough patches. That might have been the most disappointing aspect of the loss.  It wasn't just the new faces, the young rookies, who didn't handle the adversity well.  Neither did the ones entering their second or third year in the league.

So, growing pains all around.  Of course part of the leadership group wasn't on the ice.  Jordan Gustafson was named captain but he's out rehabbing an injury from last season and won't play until November at the earliest. But naming him captain, even though he is in that situation, tells you all you need to know about what the coaching staff thinks of his character.  

Coaches can accept losses if a good effort was put forth. That didn't happen Saturday. There are still 66 games to go and that's plenty of time to respond to what was a hard lesson learned. Let's see how they bounce back beginning next Friday in Spokane. 

How do you pick three T-Birds stars out of that game?  Well, I'm just gonna repeat last week's trio. But first, I think the T-birds have found a player in Antonio Martorana.  The 16-year old rookie forward has shown flashed through the first two games.  He has good speed and can play physical even though he is listed at just 5'8".   He's built a little like Nolan Volcan but maybe a bit thicker.  He's someone who can be part of a core to build around.

Third Star: G Spencer Michnik.  He came in to start the third period.  The game was pretty much over by that point, so you could argue there's no pressure. But he faced some early high leverage shots and made some very athletic saves.  It kept the game from getting uglier than it was. Through four periods of hockey this season he has stopped 35 of 37 shots, has a .946 SVPCT and a 1.50 GAA.  

Second Star: D Bryce Pickford. A couple of bouncing pucks (there were a lot of them Saturday) prevented him from finishing what might have been some good scoring opportunities. He's going to produce some offense this season. He's still young and wasn't perfect Saturday (who was) but effort is not his issue. I saw a scouting report that says he needs to improve his skating and that well may be, but I'll bet money he's going to put in the time to do just that.

First Star: C Sam Popowich.  Poppy came into the season having scored 18 career WHL goals in this first three seasons. He's on pace for 68 this season with two goals through the first two games.  Now, we know that won't happend but I think he can hit the 20-goal plateau and the T-Birds will need that because they lost a lot of offense from last season's team.