Sunday, March 1, 2020

Well, That Was Pointless

Disappointing weekend for the Thunderbirds as they drop both games while being outscored 15 to 5. Maybe the 9-2 loss in Spokane can be explained. The team was shorthanded to start the game and then lost a key player, Max Patterson, to injury in the first period. The Thunderbirds ended the game with just 16 available skaters. And Spokane has just had Seattle's number all season. In the Chiefs five wins over Seattle, they've outscored the T-birds 27-8. Even in Seattle's lone win over Spokane, the T-birds still surrendered five goals. It seems to be a case where, when facing Spokane, the Chiefs bury every scoring chance while Seattle misses on too many of their own opportunities.

The Saturday loss at home to Portland was the more frustrating setback. The frustration wasn't that Seattle lost the game. The series with Portland has been a back and fourth affair. The T-birds entered Saturday's game with a 4-4-0-1 record against the Winterhawks, so they've had their share of defeats to their rivals. But Seattle has been uber competitive against Portland this season. Even in games they've lost and been widely outshot, Seattle has used their grit and energy to battle and stay within striking distance. It's how they earned three shootout wins.

Saturday that energy wasn't there for the full sixty minutes. It sort of ebbed and flowed. It showed up in their comeback in the third period when they came from three down to pull within one at 4-3. I thought it was missing in the second period after they had cut a Portland 2-0 lead to 2-1. They didn't seize the momentum and by the end of the period were down, 4-1. The T-birds didn't take advantage of a Portland team missing their best defenseman and captain. They didn't take advantage of an opponent missing it's second leading scorer. They didn't manage the puck well enough to force the Winterhawks, a team without two of their top six defenseman, to have to play below their own goal line consistently and the T-birds made too many mental mistakes.

When the T-birds did finally start playing with desperation, when they flipped momentum their direction and had Portland on their heels the second half of the third period, they killed that momentum themselves with an ill advised break out pass. The unforced error or the old "self-inflicted wound". It was like drawing the string back on your bow, setting your sights on the bullseye then shooting the arrow in to your own foot.

Despite the two losses, Seattle's magic number to clinch a playoff spot was whittled down by four points, thanks to Prince George also dropping a pair of games on the weekend. The T-birds will go into a three-in-three weekend next week with a magic number of eight to claim the 8th seed, seven to earn at least a play-in game. But Seattle doesn't want to rely on the kindness of strangers to claim that postseason spot, they want to earn it. With eight games left they want to pick up some wins to go into the postseason playing good, winning hockey. It starts Friday in Kelowna.

The return of Henrik Rybinski to the lineup after a nine game absence should help. Rybinski was the driving force behind the third period comeback attempt against Portland. The T-birds also need to get some of their top scorers scoring again. It was nice to see Conner Bruggen-Cate knock one home after a seven game pointless streak. Kelti Jeri-Leon may be the most frustrated T-bird. While he has assists in four straight games, its been 12 games since he potted a goal and he has just two in his last 18 games. Even Rybinski was snake bitten in the offensive zone with only three points (one goal) in 13 game prior to the injury. The best case scenario is that they all heat up in these last eight games and carry that into the playoffs.

My T-birds three stars for the lost weekend:

Third Star: C/W Jared Davidson. Davidson is reminding me a bit of Scott Eansor when he was 17. Tentative start to the season but was going full throttle by season's end. Plays both ends of the ice, wins faceoffs and helps set up the offense by winning puck battles. He's versatile and can play up and down the lineup.

Second Star: C Henrik Rybinski. His return should help kick start the offense. You could see that in the third period against Portland. He had one assist and set up a couple more chances that the T-birds failed to capitalize on. There was some rust early after missing nearly three weeks, but he was up to speed late in the game.

First Star: C/W Payton Mount. In the absence of Rybinski, it was Mount who was driving the T-birds offense. He has been their most consistent player the past month. Mount is similar to Davidson in that they both let their play on the ice do their talking. And like Davidson, Mount can play up and down the line up. He can center a line or play on the wing. His play on the half wall helped breathe a little life into the T-birds moribund power play. We talk about the experience being gained by the 16 year olds on the roster, but those 17 year olds are just as key to the team's future and Seattle has four very good 17 year old forwards to build around in Mount, Davidson, Matt Rempe and Brendan Williamson.