I don't think Seattle played that poorly... but that won't generally garner you wins and it especially won't garner you wins in this tough U.S. Division. Here are some general thoughts I had.
- Generally speaking, I think Brandon Glover has played well for the Tbirds this season and his numbers would back that up to a certain extent. 3.78 GAA and .897 SV% on a team that isn't very good defensively are not horrible numbers. However, for Seattle to make the playoffs or have any hopes of making any kind of noise in the playoffs, they are going to need more out of Glover. The goal scored by McCue on the first shot of the game was a shot that he probably needs to stop and while I was in the car listening at the time... it sounded like the goal by Stromwall was a shot he should have stopped as well. There probably isn't a more important member of the team than Glover for the rest of the season.
- Taylor Green played up front for the Tbirds last night, playing Center and looking pretty darn good doing it. The last thing Seattle needs is more skaters up front but Green might have a shot to fill the void left behind by Tyler Alos (not in terms of stats but in terms of the number of forwards). He had an especially nice rush where he took on 3 American players and got off a decent scoring chance.
- Eric Comrie was excellent last night and I think you could easily make the case that he won the game for the Ams. He made several stellar saves and kept his team in the game despite being out-shot in the first period 14-7.
- The pass Rouse made to Hickman on the PP for Seattle's only goal... what a beauty.
- I thought the overall team defense was definitely better last night. I saw a lot of situations where 1 or 2 forwards were joining defenders in the neutral zone to break up offensive rushed by the Americans. That is the sort of thing that will keep shot totals down and help to improve the overall defense. Especially if Glover can get his A-game back on track.
- Let's not forget that the Tbirds were without Lipsbergs, Delnov and still without Troock last night. All team's go through injury issues and I don't think anyone should use that as an excuse... but those 3 might be your top 3 scorers in a normal year and they are definitely in your top 5.
I still believe this team is capable of being "decent" this year but they need to start figuring things out pretty quickly after the Holiday break if they want to avoid the 2nd half struggles that have plagued them the past several seasons and that effort will need to be led by Brandon Glover and the return of Branden Troock.
9 comments :
I couldn't care less about the return of the injury-plagued Troock. I say trade him for somebody who can play a whole season.
Stats in case anybody forgot:
Season Team GP G A PTS +/- PIM
2012-13 Seattle Thunderbirds 7 2 3 5 -3 4
11-12 Reg Seattle Thunderbirds 58 14 12 26 -16 83
10-11 Reg Seattle Thunderbirds 0 0 0 0 0 0
09-10 Reg Seattle Thunderbirds 9 2 4 6 2 4
Total: 74 18 19 37 -17 91
74 games played TOTAL.
I was really hoping to see Mumaugh play on Tuesday, it sounded like he played really well in relief on Saturday. Glover needs to get a lot better, I think he is giving up too many soft goals for a 20 year old. I hope as the season goes on Myles can get some playing time so we can get out of this rut of not having a younger goalie with any experience.
I thought the team played well in the first on Tuesday and then they have flashes of good play in the second and third. They just couldn't get the pucks in the net.
I look forward to getting Troock back, if he is as injury plagued as anonymous thinks then how are you going to trade him, won't other teams laugh Farwell off the phone? He is a good player and the injuries are not related. He missed 10-11 due to headaches and it took all season to try the last resort effort that worked for him. I don't think all the games missed last year were due to injury, I thought he missed some due to a tournament. It's actually a good thing to have your players picked to go to tournaments. It sounds like he will be back this month when they get back from the break. That will give him half the season to really help booth the talent level of this team as we push for the playoffs.
If Green can cut it as a forward, then I say lets do it. We have 5 17 year old defensemen, unless they are planning on trading some of them then it seems like a lot for that age group where we only have one 17 year old forward.
Gotta agree with Marc. There is no way I'm trading Troock right now. He is a big difference maker when he is on the ice and someone we could use down the stretch to maybe steal a game or two from the Cheaterhawks. My only question is when he does come back, which line do you put him on?
I think it will be interesting to see what happen when he is healthy.
Most likely either replacing Sanvido on the Rouse-Swenson Line or Hickman with Sheen and Lockart.
(I don't think you should break the "DHL" line)
I wonder if anyone will be interested in a deal with Farwell before the deadline. There is certainly a few guys that could be trade material (and not impacting the team negatively)
The 5 game losing at the break was a real disapointment especially since the birds had that 4 game winning streak going. I hope when they come back on the 28th they have a real purpose and are motivated the second half of the year. We know what has happened the last three years, we don't need a repeat of that,unsigned draft picks won't want to look to the birds for their future developement and we will be in a constant state of mediocrity.
No, Tbirds gave the fans a big lump of coal
I agree with the two anonymous...this team showed so much promise and hit the skids like usual right before the Christmas break. I'm not sure we can visit again after seeing three ECHL games during our vacation. The team needs to show some commitment for our family to pay the prices Russ demands. If not, we can watch our favorite minor league team on the web for only $8.00 for all of us. We were overjoyed with the Dec 1st win...after that they stopped playing. The Tbirds have the talent but not the will to win right now. Bring back the will!
Merry Christmas too all and a Happy and healthy New Year! Lets go T-Birds!
BTW...my Christmas wish is to have Tyler back for more than a few games...I'll exchange my bowling ball for Tyler's analysis to be back. I can adapt but I can't see the T-birds like I want too. Thus I need Tyler's 7435 analysis.
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