It's early. Very early. We're not yet ten games into the season. There's lots of hockey to be played still. And through eight games I'm not sure what this version of the T-Birds is going to be.
We've seen stretches of good play but, we've also seen some hockey that's been, how will we say, not up to par. The quest is to bring the level of good play up and bring the stretches of poor play down. Somewhere between that is T-Birds hockey.
Reality can be two things here. The Thunderbirds have been playing with less than a full deck. For much of the first eight games no Cootes, no Mrtka and no Cumby. They've dealt with some self inflicted wounds with suspensions to Hartmann and Lovsin. The other reality is, that is life in the WHL. Your stars may just not return. It's a possibility they stick at a higher level, afterall, that is what you are grooming them for. Maybe it's just for a few games as in the case of Cootes. Maybe it is for much longer as appears to be the case with Mrtka. Maybe they come back, maybe they don't. You have to play the hand your dealt.
Matt O'Dette said since day one of the season that you can't wait for players to come back, because there is no quarentee they will. The players who are here have to step up. In that regard it has been an inconsistent performance by those players.
Now that Cootes and Cumby have returned, the T-Birds are fairly whole. It's not out of the possibility that Mrtka stays the season in the AHL. If you're waiting for him to come walking through the door, you're not focused on your job. Now, I don't think that's the case. Rather, Seattle has some young defenseman seeing significant minutes in the WHL for the first time. It's an adjustment. It takes time.
Seattle has had a travel heavy first month of the season. By the time we get to November, the T-Birds will be done with the vast majority of their road games in British Columbia. After two early games there, they don't return to Kamloops again until early March. By the end of next week, they'll have put Prince George in the rearview mirror. By the end of November they'll be through with road trips to Penticton and Victoria. What's left after that beside that March foray to Kamloops? Three games in February. One more in Kelowna and two short jaunts up I-5 to Langley to face the Vancouver Giants.
Yes, they have their yearly trip out to the east, a five game road trip to Alberta in early January,. But everything else is "local", that is, road trips within the U.S. Division. In December, the fartherst they travel is one trip to Kennewick. Outside of the trip east, the longest road trip of January is Wenatchee. In February it's that last Kelowna road game while in March it's the aforemention drive up to Kamloops.
So for Seattle, it's all about getting through this next month and a half. It should help that ten of the next 15 games are on home ice. They've just about survived this rough travel patch. They have Cootes and Cumby back in the fold. Now, it's time to got to work.
Watching Tai Riley play the point on the power play, and seeing him get a lot of his shot attempts blocked, was reminding me of something. I've seen that before. Then it hit me. That was Shea Theodore who as a 16 year old went through the same thing. But the coaches kept tossing Theo out there and eventually, the shots started getting through and he became a lethal power play weapon. There was a little bit of that with Kevin Korchinski too. I'm not saying that is what Riley will become but the more opportunities he gets, the better he will become. I really think at some point it will start clicking for him. The coaches wouldn't continue to put him in that spot if they didn't believe in him.
Too many avoidable penalties. Under Matt O'Dette the Thunderbirds have always been a solid penalty killing team, but if you're shorthanded six times per game, eventually the opposition is likely to find the back of the net and the T-Birds have now allowed at least one power play goal against in every game this season. There are penalties the coaches are willing to accept but the avoidable stick infractions, the hooks, the slashes, the trips, are the ones hurting the T-Birds. Just an area that needs to be, and can be cleaned up. O'Dette said that was a point of emphasis at practice all week.
As always, defensive zone play isn't always about how your defensemen play inside your blueline or the saves your goalies make. Defense is a team concept. Forwards coming back on the back check is integral. Better yet, spend less time in your own end. That means winning races to the puck in the O zone. It's winning board battles and having clean offensive zone entries. All that should improve with the return of Cootes but it has to be more than one player committed to that concept.
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