Weekend Preview

I can't even remember now but I believe I stated that if the Tbirds could get 5 or 6 points out of this latest stretch of 6 games before the Christmas break I would be fairly happy about it.

Road games against Tri, Portland, Vancouver and Spokane around one home game with Calgary is a gauntlet of games. Vancouver and Calgary lead their conferences, Tri leads the US Division and Spokane has now won 3 straight and is still the defending Memorial Cup Champs. You could make the argument that Portland isn't a very tough game, but the Winterhawks have been pretty frisky under their new management so far.

In order to actually make it to 5 or 6 points over this stretch... the Tbirds have to pick up points in both games in Spokane this weekend, no easy task for sure.

Thom rumored that Lindsay Nielsen might be back for this weekend... from my point of view I have no idea why they would risk it. With 13 days off before they play Portland at Key Arena on the 27th I would rather they just let Lindsay heal than to risk anything for 2 tough road games in Spokane, just my two cents.

No doubt most or all of you have learned that the Tbirds will open the ShoWare center on January 3rd vs. the Everett Silvertips. Personally... I'm a little disappointed. I wanted Portland to be the first game in the new arena for the sake of tradition... oh well. Regardless... the opening of the new arena is tremendously exciting and I think this is going to usher in a very exciting era of Tbirds hockey.

Don't forget... the Tbirds will be without Captain Thomas Hickey over the weekend as he attends the Canadian World Junior camp. Hickey is almost a lock to make the squad and the rumor is he might even be the teams captain. We will have to wait and see. This of course makes the back to back games in Spokane that much tougher.