The first two games for Seattle fit that almost perfectly.
Here were some opposites I noticed
A win.
A loss.
A road win.
A home loss.
This one goes a little below the belt, but a championship banner raised.
No banner raised.
A great drive (or ride in my case) home.
A grumpy and terrible drive home.
Shots on net.
Shots wide of net.
Shots attempted.
Looking for the perfect shot.
Shots picking corners.
Shots hitting the center of the goalie (give him lots of credit).
A powerplay that worked.
A powerplay that struggled.
Now to be fair, here are some thoughts on what didn't change between the two nights
A very bad slow start by Seattle.
Kolesar knows how to hit and fight.
Kozun looked good.
Seattle has an energy line, and when they come out, the hit, hit, and hit.
Coach K changed the lines up in the middle of the game.
Large loud crowds.
Big 50-50 pots.
My father pointed out after the game to me, just to try and cheer me up that Seattle's goals against average is 1.0 and Seattle's goals for average is 2.0.
If you continue that the entire season, you will win every game.
22 comments :
I don't like making judgement calls this early in the season, but I think Friday's game in Tri could turn out to be a decent sized tell for the direction this team will take (at least during the first quarter or half of the season).
It seems like a fairly agreed upon consensus among the "experts" that Tri will be a par or sub-par team this season (now it is too early to confirm or deny this... but their is fairly strong evidence that this will be the case).
HOWEVER, Tri will also be backed by one of the best (if not the best) goalie in the league with Comrie.
From looking at all the opinions (and trying to develop my own), it seems like what we saw with Everett could turn into a potential problem for Seattle (at least to start the season).
Seattle is faster then in recent memory, has the best overall hands throughout the team that we've seen in a VERY LONG TIME (and some could even argue ever, but that is for another time), and despite being much smaller than in recent memory as well, they still don't shy away from the physical part of the game and in many cases still seek it out.
The problem will be the finish.
With such a young roster, despite controlling or even dominating games, if you can't finish you won't get the results you are looking for.
I've always felt that a coach is vital to a teams success. Although they don't actually play during the game, they (attempt to) "control enough controllables" to try and put their team in the best position to win.
Well I think this year Coach K will be even more important than ever. If we have more games like we saw with Everett (and I'm unfortunately expecting it to happen at least a few more times), the team could get frustrated and as a result it could start effecting our on-ice play. If Coach K is able to corral that and turn it into a learning experience I think we are good to go. If he doesn't, I think it could snowball very easily (especially with having the expectations they already do, despite being one of the youngest (and after dropping two more 20's, maybe the youngest) team in the league).
Now coming back full circle to talking about Tri... Seattle should be able to control most of the game on Friday. The question will then turn to whether or not they can finish against Comrie. If we can have another 4 - 1 game (or similar) I think our questions should turn from ability to finish to ability to be consistent (which I still think is a question to ask this early in the season). But if we have another 1 - 0 game, I'm really going to focusing my attention on Coach K and his ability to hold things together until we finally find our finishing touch.
Don't get me wrong... I believe it will come... In fact I KNOW it will come. And based on our roster once it comes I think we should have it for years to come... But when it will come is what we've really got to be asking ourselves.
Sam McKechnie traded to Saskatoon for a 6th rd pick.
Gotta learn to finish chances.
My honest response to this would be... what chances?
Tbirds need Theo and Wardley back so damn bad... Theo will create scoring chances every shift, and Wardley will open a lot more room for the skilled forwards... they are HUGE pieces missing
Henry will be gone if Wardley is back hey?... I think Wardley is way too damn valuable to the team. HOWEVER on the other hand, it seems like next year Seattle will be a huge force in the league, so does Tbirds trade Wardley for pieces that will help them next year?.. Out of Wardley and Henry, it is Wardley that will get a real good return in a trade. Geeze Russ has some tough decisions if Wardley is retruned
Looks like they might need someone to score. Just stating the obvious
As much as we have not lived up to potential yet, I have to say that I take a great deal of joy in reading through the sheer panic that is the Oregonlive winter hawks page. Even with most of their missing guys back now, that team is in total disarray. Make no mistake though; when Petan and Bjork come back, Portland will start to win a few games. They might be 7-6 and 8-6 wins, but they will come.
In past years they were able to rely on depth but defensively they do not have it this year. Not yet anyhow.
starting of the season is always a mess... teams that shouldn't be good are doing well and vice versa. By around the 20 game mark everything will be flipflopped around. Was hoping Tbirds would have been off to a better start but the team will do a 180 once Theo is back. The PP will be absolutely sick this year.
well Portland fans will be starting to turn their frowns upside down now... Bjorkstrand has been reassigned back to Portland from CBJ
Just a prediction.. I do predict a trade on the way, some time between now and Halloween. Either Hauf or Smith along with picks in exchange for a proven scoring threat.
great news is that Wardley is coming back.. Habs just released him.... Im thinking a Henry trade here very soon
as for the above comment, I could actually see Hauf getting traded too now that Wardley is back... Tbirds could fetch a real good return for Hauf
With Wardley being returned we will be seeing a trade for a 20 year old not a 19. We have 4 20's and can only carry 3. We only have until October 16th to carry them all unless one of them is injured.
For me though, I'm more curious why we are still carrying 3 goalies. Flodell is our "goalie of the future" so what is the deal with Kozun and Mumaugh. Are we showcasing Kozun at the moment? Are we trying to trade Danny? Are we sending Flodell down? To me that is the most intriguing.
If we do trade an experienced 20 D though I'm curious how much we can get for that though to be honest I'm still not sold on us keeping Kozun (I like him on our team but if Mumaugh and Flodell benefit more getting playing time this year don't you want to play them for the run next year?)
In any case will be fun to watch.
So is Everett actually this good or Portland suddenly this bad?
Long story short, I think we'll be seeing both a trade of a 20 and 19. Trading 20's is a great way to stock up on draft picks in future drafts but very rarely results in receiving a player in exchange. They got a 3rd round pick for Yakubowski, a conditional 6th rounder for McKechnie, and will more than likely get only a draft pick for the final 20 that they trade. In order to get players that can help on offense right now, it's going to take a Hauf/Smith/Mumaugh + draft pick(s) type deal in order to get that done. I think we'll see that happen.
As for Portland, the goaltending sucks and they're still missing Petan and Bjorkstrand. We'll have to wait and see what they're made of when everything comes together for them.
Portland will turn it around unfortuunately once Petan and Bjorkstrand come back(I saw Bjorkstrand is on his way back now)... thats having Crosby and Malkin both gone and wondering why the Penguins would be doing bad haha
Trade Henry for picks, package up Hauf/Flodell/picks for Brayden Point.
Roll with Hickman, Wardley, Kozun as 20 year olds.
Seattle has horrible depth at the 96 born forwards. Brayden Point would be a perfect fit for this year and next. I strongly feel next year is their season to win it all. Give up the goalie of the future in a deal to get him. Barzal-Hickman-Gropp....Kolesar-Point-Pederson? as top 2 lines.
Use Kozun and Mumaugh this year.. and then asses the goalie situation next year(maybe trade for a 20 year old goalie if Mumaugh cant handle the load)
I love the idea of trying to land Brayden Point but I don't think Moose Jaw is in a place right now where Hauf would mean anything in a trade for their young star. Flodell might, but I am not sure he represents a sure thing as a prospect right now. If we were to go out and get Point I think we would end up paying with draft picks and possibly with a 97 or 98 born forward.
Now I agree that either Hauf or Smith should be traded this year if we can obtain a decent return. At the same time, what I think really needs to happen is that we go out and get a scorer without sacrificing on Defense. I think the key to beating Portland this year will be defense.
Also, I am not sold on Wardley quite yet. His penchant for taking bad penalties and sometimes crossing the line physically is a problem. Defensively he has improved a lot over the years but right now I am still leaning toward keeping Henry who plays hard, keeps it clean, and stays out of the box. Also look at Henry's offensive numbers. With Theo out, he is our top offensive defenseman unless Bear starts to step it up to the next level.
I disagree with the above. Tbirds will have Theo back soon and wont need Henry. Wardley is a extremely intimidating presence on the ice and opponents are terrified of him. Other teams will think twice about trying to rough up the Tbirds skilled guys while Wardley is wearing a Thunderbirds jersey. I really do think Henry is the odd man out too.
Prince George gave up a ton of goals their last 3 games, they have got to be in the market for a goalie!
What makes you think Theodore will be back soon? The prognosis was 4-to-6 weeks and we saw last year with Honey those guesstimates are often wrong. Either way, 4-6 weeks is not soon. That's 14-20 games. Then when he does get healthy he most likely gets an invite to attend Canada's WJC camp in early to Mid-December and if he makes the team, he misses another month. Doesn't that make it more sensible to keep Henry?
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