Red, White and Blue Report: Tips and Hawks start on fire

What an exciting week down in the States. We got to see bitter rivals trading blows, some of them low, for our entertainment and abject horror.

No, we’re not talking about Trump and Hillary, we’re talking about the U.S. Division in the Western Hockey League.

All of the U.S. teams got into action over the opening weekend and two teams that many thought might be at the bottom of the standings made some early statements. Portland and Everett both won two games and piled up a lot of goals in the process. The Winterhawks posted two seven-goal efforts in wins over Seattle and Tri-City while Everett wasn’t very nice to the Vancouver Giants.

Despite the offensive outburst in Portland, the Silvertips are our first Champions of the Week because they also scored off the ice.

Here’s all you need to know about what is happening in the U.S. Division.

With a 2-0 start and a big trade, the Everett Silvertips had a good week
With a 2-0 start and a big trade, the Everett Silvertips had a good week

Silvertips dealing

The most common narrative surrounding the Everett Silvertips coming into this season was their need for goal scoring. Despite the seven-spot they hung on Vancouver opening night, the Silvertips didn’t have much and were looking at another season of leaning heavily on the defense and goalie Carter Hart. They had an open 20-year-old slot and they filled it in a big way this past week. The Silvertips sent a 2017 third-round bantam pick to Spokane for Austrian import Dominic Zwerger. Coming off a 27-goal season, Zwerger instantly becomes the Silvertips best offensive weapon and gives them a legit and proven goal scorer. Of course, they had to move an import player which meant the Mario Mucka era is over in Silvertips country.

Winterhawks on fire

With two opening weekend wins and 14 goals, the early returns for Mike Johnston Chapter Two are all positive. When you add the 5-0-0-1 preseason Portland posted, Johnston has yet to lose a game in regulation in his second Rose City go-around. So far the Winterhawks look like what you’d expect a Johnston-coached team to play like. They’ve played uptempo and showed off their team speed. Cody Glass and Ryan Hughes are both off to hot starts and seem to be gelling with the new coach. Is this start real? Will the Winterhawks come back to Earth? We’ll learn a little more this weekend as they will get to host Everett on Friday night.

It’s Mr. Rasmussen in Tri City

Tri-City’s Michael Rasmussen is good. The 6-foot-5 Surrey, B.C., native scored 18 times last year as a 16-year-old and that got him on a lot of NHL draft boards for this coming spring. He made a pretty impressive statement in the opening weekend by potting five goals in Tri City’s two games. He started the year right by scoring a natural hat trick on opening night on his way to a four-goal effort in an 8-3 win over rival Spokane. Rasmussen lit the lamp one more time the next night in a loss to Portland and he is on his way to what could be a spectacular season. Will that get him into the first round of the NHL Draft? It just might.

Hurting Thunderbirds

Seattle stumbled on opening night by allowing four late third-period goals to turn a 3-3 barn burner into a 7-3 blowout loss in Portland. They got some good news during the week as defenseman Ethan Bear was returned by the Edmonton Oilers. While they still wait on pins and needles to see what happens with Mathew Barzal, their offense took a big blow from the Midwest. Winger Keegan Kolesar will be out for six weeks after suffering from supraumbilical hernia — which sounds pretty nasty — while in camp with the Blue Jackets. That’s a lot of goals out of the lineup so the Thunderbirds will need their younger players to step up for the first half of the season.

Goalies coming and going in Spokane

New Chiefs general manager Scott Carter got a third-round pick for Zwerger and there were some message board complaints that they should have received more for such an offensive player. It’s hard to imagine how though. Not many teams around the league are in position to take on a two-spotter as they would need both an open overage slot and an import position. That limited the trading partners which makes a third-round pick look pretty good. The Zwerger deal wasn’t the only transaction that Carter made as they brought in goalie Dawson Weatherill in exchange for goalie Tyson Verhelst and a third-round pick in 2017.