Loss Friday, Loss Saturday, Game Tonight

Unfortunately, I have a real job and that job has been killing me the past few days. I'm sorry for that and as a result this is going to be pretty short and sweet as well.

• Anyone who thought Seattle had become an elite team after wins (home) over Tri-City, Portland and Regina got a reality sized smack in the face on Friday and Saturday night. So what does all of this mean? Are the Tbirds bad? Are they good? Answer: Neither. What it means is that this team isn't terrible but it also isn't elite and you're going to get some really good games and some really ugly games.
• Let's take a look at Friday first. Prince George really isn't a very good team but Seattle didn't show the necessary amount of urgency and it eventually caught up to them.  Sure, the tying goal scored by the Cougars was extremely lucky but if Seattle had scored 3 or 4 goals it never would have been an issue.  Unfortunately, they showed a complete lack of urgency and allowed the Cougars to hang around in the game long enough to eventually get the game into overtime. Bad teams get rolled by bad teams at home. Good teams hammer bad teams at home and mediocre teams play just well enough to allow a fluky goal and a shootout to lose a point to bad teams.
• Saturday's game was just a complete bloodbath.  This was one of the worst performances of the season from the Tbirds.  The only consolation I can take away from this game is that Seattle drove through the night to get to Kamloops at 5:30am and the Blazers are a solid team.  The ingredients came together for a recipe of disaster.  Seattle spent nearly the entire game in their own end and Daniel Cotton could hardly be blamed for any of the 8 goals.  Shots were 50-19 in favor of the Blazers.  
• Injury added to insult, Troock was hit with an accidental high stick from Brenden Ranford that resulted in a trip to the hospital and a fractured "first rib" that will sideline him for about 4 weeks. 
• If THAT wasn't enough, Cason Machacek took a checking to the head major penalty and his suspension is still TBD as of 2:30 this afternoon.  Considering his previous discipline, I would not be surprised to see a 5 game suspension. That means that the experiment of having Kyle Verdino playing up front with the forwards will have to take a hiatus.
• One of the biggest things I kept noticing from Friday and Saturday was Marcel Noebels trying to do too much.  He must let the game come to him and quit trying to over play every situation. If you don't think there is a correlation between how he is playing and the -15 rating. That wouldn't be a big deal if the rest of the team were -15 or worse but his rating ranks last on the team with the closest being Luke Lockhart and Jared Hauf at -11.
• Speaking of plus/minus ratings. Seattle now has no player in positive territory and Brendan Rouse's 0 leads regulars.
• On a brighter note.  I like the way Tyler Alos has been playing lately and it seems like it has been a long time since I was able to single him out in a good way.

Everyone needs to take a deep breath (myself included) and realize that every season is going to have their ups and downs. Even the 19-6 Tri-City Americans got hammered by Spokane 7-2 and lost to the lowly Everett Silvertips 6-3 earlier in the season.  It is important to keep from focusing on one game or a just a handful of games and look at the bigger/overall picture.

Let's see how they bounce back against a very beatable Swift Current team tonight.