The Tbirds announced yesterday that Glen Goodall will return for the Opening Night festivities.
I can't begin to explain to you how excited I am to see this happen. I'm probably one of only a few die hard Tbird fans remaining who saw Goodall play and it will be a real treat to see him back in Seattle with the team.
Goodall has been playing professionally in Germany for the past 10 seasons.
You could make a pretty strong argument that Goodall wasn't the best player in franchise history. Fan sentiment seems to lean towards Patrick Marleau as the winner of that honor but nobody can argue that Goodall had the greatest impact on the franchise.
To recap... Goodall holds the WHL record for regular season games played at 399 and most goals scored at 262. He played 59 games and had 26 points for the Breakers at the age of 14 and "only" 41 points the following year as a 15 year old before busting out for 63 goals and 112 points as a 16 year old.
His biggest season came as a 19 year old playing with sidekick Victor Gervais he notched 76 goals and 163 points leading the Thunderbirds to a 52-17-3 record with a home record of 33-2-1 at Mercer Arena. Shockingly good for only 2nd in the conference behind those damn Kamloops Blazers. Unfortunately, he appeared in only 10 of the Tbirds 13 playoff games notching 14 points and the Tbirds lost in the 2nd round of the playoffs 5 games to 1 to the Blazers.
(Quick side note... for those who haven't been following the team that far back. The rivalry with Kamloops was as strong as any rivalry. Portland of course... but Kamloops was at least a close 2nd due unfortunately to the fact that Kamloops always seemed to eliminate Seattle in the playoffs each year.)
At 5'8" and 170 pounds he was always my favorite player for being so good while being such a relatively small player (I'm only 5'8" as well). Many fans have slightly dismissed his WHL records pointing to his involvement as a 14 and 15 year old but many fail to admit that while he did have 67 points in those two seasons he did not play in the league as a 20 year old and a vast majority of his points were still accumulated between his 16-19 year old seasons.
It will be with pride and excitement that I wear my customized Goodall jersey to Opening Night to welcome back number 10.
6 comments :
The thing I disliked the most about the US division was the fact that we where no longer in the same division with the Blazers. It seemed to cut all the remaining ties to that old rivalry. As you said, it was a close second to Portland!
I totally agree. If you had asked me as a little kid who I hated the most I would have said Kamloops, not Portland.
I haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaated the Blazers. They even beat the Tbirds in the Round Robin and the Semi-Finals of the Memorial Cup here in Seattle in our only appearance. Man, I hated them back in the day.
thanks for the trip down memory lane Tyler. I'm excited to see Glen back in town. going to be a great night!
It's true about Kamloops. If you go way back, before the days of Calgary being in the league and the Rose Garden in Portland, Seattle held a lot of the attendance records. A few of those games, 11000+ in attendance, were against Kamloops. Everyone hated them but at the same time, as Little Montreal, respected them. The Blazers were always the measuring stick which is why that great season hurt because we were still second to Kamloops.
Great post Tyler. I can't wait to see Goodall again and i like the perspective you put on his records. Games played surely won't be broken because of age differences but he put up sick numbers for a number of seasons. He scored two goals the first t-bird game I attended in the Mercer. Through the years there has been lots of talk about other numbers the team could retire. Witt, Stevenson, Marleau, Rudkowsky, Johner, Bridges, Gagnon, Hickey...you can make arguments for all of them but in the end the fact that only number 10 hangs from the rafters says something. - juva
Spot on. Man, I hated Kamloops! They were like the NY Yankees. Reloaded with talent every year and they were a machine that couldn't be stopped. You just brought up some good memories of how much fun the Breakers and the WHL was back then. Seriously, the people who picked up hockey in the last 15 years have no idea how great hockey was back in the day.
-Dave in Poulsbo
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