Thoughts on the two games this weekend

Overall, a good weekend in the standings, but I thought a somewhat pour weekend on the ice.
Any time you can take 3 out of 4 points against a rival, including 2 points in their building, it has to be good.  But of course in true US division (and western conference) form, the teams they are fighting against also picked up 2 to 4 points.

Personally, based on play alone, I thought Seattle should have lost Friday night, and won Saturday.
The team didn't play close to a full 60 minutes either night.

The one thing Seattle did do well over both games was hit, hit, and hit some more.
Virtually any chance the players got to finish a check, they did, with quite a few that would rate huge on a check meter.  By the 2nd and 3rd periods on Saturday night, you could tell Everett players were taking an extra little second to see if a hit was coming or not.

I talked to a Seattle non-suit player Friday night during warmups, and he said Thoedore was in a zone, and boy was that true this weekend.  He logged a ton of ice item, and joined the rush whenever he got the chance.  I did think at times he was looking a little too offensive as opposed to making the safe play.

Troock once again looked like a beast out there.  So many strong plays with the puck, and with speed.  He only had one point this weekend, but had so many other chances.  At times looked like the Troock of past, trying to do too much on his own.  But in fairness to him, quite a few of those times he had to do that because he didn't have anyone on a rush with him.

Austin Douglas's injury must be healed, as he got back into both games.  He filled in on the 4th line up front both nights.  For the few shifts he got, he filled in well, got a couple checks in, and skated hard, not looking out of place.  Must feel great for him to get back in action and see some game time speed.

Friday night

• Myles looked very scary during warmups, letting in quite a few easy shots, but was the opposite once game time hit.
• This is easy to say, but Seattle controlled play in the 1st, got dominated in the 2nd, and played well in the 3rd.
• Some great saves by both goaltenders in this one.
• And some even better saves by defenders helping out their goaltenders
• But the biggest saves had to go to the posts, as both teams had a couple.
• I am pretty sure that Seattle's 3rd goal was scored on a 4 on 1, but it may have actually been a 5 on 1.  Talk about joining the rush.
• All 3 Seattle goals were top shelf water bottles.
• One fight, DeRoose started strong, Wardly finished strong.
• With Everett on a 6 on 4 PP with time running down, the ref's went upstairs to figure out how much time was left on the clock.  It seemed like it took 3 to 4 minutes to add 1.5 seconds back.  Not a good ratio for a somewhat easy task.
• Great crowd in Everett on cowbell night.  But, I must admit, the noise wasn't that bad.
• Everett goaltender (and former TBird) Daniel Cotton had a Go Pro Camera on his helmet during warm-ups.  I am going to try to get some footage of this once it is posted.

Saturday night

• Mumaugh looked very shaky all night long, but also had a few huge saves to make up for it.
• There were a couple where he had to do the splits, and man can he do them.
• A couple of goals I am sure he would like back, but also a couple saves he would say he shouldn't have made, so maybe those equal out.
• At one point in the 3rd period, Seattle went on a 14-0 run on shots (I think)
• Seattle's powerplay looked very good tonight, compared to Friday nights (that wouldn't be very hard)
• But, Everett's powerplay also looked a lot better.
• Maybe this means the teams penalty killers did a great job Friday, and were very bad Saturday.  Hmmmmmmm.
• Some questionable calls by the officials had both coaches angry.  First time in a while we have seen coach K get visibly angry with the officials.  After the second period, he spent a long time near the exit to the ice having a discussion with both of them.
• Seattle's opening powerplay goal was a set play that was so nice.  Great tip at the blueline on a long breakout play to Lips coming in with speed.
• Great crowd this time in Kent.  Loud and behind the team.  Quite a few Tip fans made the trek down.