2014-15 Schedule Released

The basics.

Seattle has exactly 36 home games, and 36 road games.  Amazing how that works out.
Seattle plays Portland 12 times, Everett 10 times, Tri Cities 8 times, and Spokane 10 times.
The schedule is very even across the board, with each month having 10 to 13 games.
They have 17 home games before Christmas, and 16 away games.
February is the month of homes games, with 9.
While January is the month of road games with only 9 road games.
There are 8 Tuesday night games, so one would assume Two for Tuesday is back.

Confirming what we already knew, Seattle opens in Portland, and gets the fun time of watching them raise their Western Conference Championship banner.
The home opener is September 20th, against Everett.

What is very unusual, is that Seattle plays IN Portland 3 times in the opening month. It could be good to get those out of the way while Portland has some guys away at camps, and a new head coach.

Seattle and Spokane will be really sick of each other during the first part of the season, as they play 4 times in October, and 2 more in November.

After taking a year off, Seattle once again returns to Portland for New Years eve.

The Eastern Swing takes Seattle on the road the first part of November, from the 7th to the 16th, with only 1 week night game.  Long time on the prairie for 6 games.

Back to Back to Back

Seattle plays 5 - 3 in 3's,  and 4 times they will play 4 games in 5 days.
Seattle has 5 home and home series', 2 with Everett, and one each with Tri, Spokane, and Vancouver.

Longest streaks

The longest homestand is a huge 6 games in February.  The longest road trip is the eastern swing at 6 games.  Otherwise, Seattle plays 4 road games in Spokane, Followed by Kamloops, and PG twice at the end of January.

Some unusual games

Seattle gets a very rare Thursday night at home, the day before Halloween.
The last day of the eastern road swing has a 2pm start.
Seattle has two games in Vancouver, both with 2pm starts.

Overall

The schedule is way too balanced for my liking.  From January 28th to the end of the season, Seattle plays 25 games, only 10 of those games are against US Division opponents.  9 home games in February sounds great, but then you learn that is one more then you have in the entire months of January and March together.

T-Birds sign Sahvan Khaira

Seattle just announced the signing of Sahvan Khaira.

Khaira's brother Jujhar played for Everett last year.

Khaira is a big kid and everyone, including myself, liked what they saw out of him at training camp last year. This is a pretty good get for the Tbirds after they were shunned by Dante Fabbro. Khaira will essentially get the opportunity that Fabbro would have been given for minutes this year.

Khaira had 2 goals and 20 assists for the Okanagan Hockey Academy last year.

Edit: I just realized that this is the 1000th post that we've had on Let's Go Birds. I cannot believe I (and Jon) have hit the Publish button 1000 times on this thing. Thanks to everyone who reads us.

Seattle opens in Portland Friday September 19th

Portland has said their home opener is against Seattle on Friday September 19th.
On a note, my birthday is September 16th, so if anyone goes to the game with me, please buy me a beer while they raise their banner.

Home opener announced

The Birds just announced that the home opener will be Saturday, September 20, against the Everett Silvertips.  Now we all have something to put on our calendars and look forward to.

According to my calculations, that is in 102 days.
It also comes exactly 175 days after the TBirds won game 5 over Everett in their first ever playoff series.

I was going to come up with a big analysis of how huge this game will be, but even I can't be that sarcastic right now.