Red, White and Blue Report: Week of returns

It was all about returns in the U.S. Division this past week. Most of the division’s clubs saw their top players returned to them from NHL camps.

Everett got goalie Carter Hart and defenseman Noah Juulsen back, while Seattle saw the return of Ethan Bear to their blue line. Portland saw Rodrigo Abols returned to them from the Vancouver Canucks in a move that puts them in need of another move as they now have three imports on their roster.

Abols is also an overager, furthering the theory that he is on the trade block. He should garner some interest, although the Winterhawks will have to find a team willing to add a two-spotter on their roster. With their other imports – Joachim Blichfeld and Henri Jokiharju – both younger and impressive looking, Abols will end up in a new sweater soon.

Here’s the latest from the Red, White and Blue division:

Silvertips stay hot

Everett knocked off Tri-City on Wednesday to improve its record to 4-0-1-0 which is the best start the Tips have had since the 2006-07 season. Everett would go on to win 54 games that year for then-head coach Kevin Constantine … who of course is the current head coach. Playing the Silvertips is still a race to three goals. After a seven-goal explosion in their opening tilt they have not scored more than three in any of the next four games. In their one blemish, an overtime loss to Tri-City, they only scored twice. Get to three before them and you have a shot at winning, but if you don’t, good luck. There was some bad news in Everett as import forward Eetu Tuulola is sidelined with an upper-body injury. He’s listed week-to-week.

Portland hits the road

The Winterhawks hit the road this week for their Eastern swing and opened up with a game in Swift Current. Portland has a young squad and we have seen the ups and downs that come with that youth. Portland has big wins against Seattle — twice — and Tri-City. But they were also stifled by Everett and blown out 7-3 against the Broncos after allowing six markers in the second period. Portland bounced back with a 5-3 win in Prince Albert on Wednesday, but almost blew a 4-0 lead. Young teams experience up and downs and that’s what may be in store for the Winterhawks this season.  The road swing continues this week with a Friday game in Moose Jaw before heading to Saskatoon for a game with the Blades on Saturday. Cody Glass continued his hot start and leads the WHL in scoring at the moment with three goals and nine assists.

Cody Glass is off to a great start for the Portland Winterhawks (Brian Liesse, Thunderbirds photo)
Cody Glass is off to a great start for the Portland Winterhawks (Brian Liesse, Thunderbirds photo)

Banged up Americans

With the ugliness of the current U.S. election, most Americans are feeling like they should be listed week-to-week, but the Tri-City Americans actually have some real injuries to deal with. They suffered through a number of injuries last season and when this week’s injury report came out there were seven players listed. Most notable are goalie Evan Sarthou, who has yet to play this season, and forward Jordan Topping. Both are out with the dreaded (and secretive) lower-body injury and listed as week-to-week. The Americans did get some good news as forward Michael Rasmussen and defenseman Juuso Valimaki were listed as ‘A’ prospects on the NHL Central Scouting futures list. Rasmussen is off to a six-goal start to the season, and with two potential top NHL picks, the Americans could be a handful this season.

Are the Chiefs still in the league?

With a quirky start to the WHL schedule, the Spokane Chiefs have only played two games so far. That is the fewest in the league, so there is a pretty small sample size from which to learn anything about them. They’re 1-1 and both games were against their Eastern Washington rivals, Tri-City. They’re about to make up for lost time, however, as starting Friday they will play four games in six days. Good thing they have some fresh legs. They did land five players on the NHL Central Scouting list, led by Kailer Yamamoto who was given an ‘A’ rating. The Chiefs are one of the more exciting teams in the division and league so it is a good thing that they’re finally going to play some games.

Seattle special teams not so special

The Thunderbirds have only played one more game than Spokane and so far are struggling with their special teams. They had the No. 1 penalty kill last season, but are currently the worst penalty-killing team with only a 40 percent success rate. After allowing four power-play goals on Saturday in a 6-1 loss to Portland, captain Scott Eansor pulled no punches, saying “Our special teams were terrible, bottom line.” To make things tougher for Seattle, it has yet to find the back of the net on its own power play. The T-Birds are missing a great deal of firepower from the unit that ranked third in the WHL last season. The biggest missing piece continues to be Mathew Barzal, who has had a good preseason with the New York Islanders so far. But has it been good enough to stick? The Thunderbirds are still waiting to find out.