What to watch: T-Birds in Everett preseason tournament

For many, Labor Day weekend signifies the end of the summer, the start of the college football season and Bumbershoot. In the Puget Sound hockey world, it means WHL preseason hockey in Everett.

After a week of skating against themselves, the Seattle Thunderbirds will get to see some enemy sweaters as they take part in the annual Everett Holiday Preseason Tournament this coming weekend. The team will be in action Friday night against the host Silvertips, Saturday afternoon against Tri City and Sunday against the Spokane Chiefs.

The tournament, which is really a showcase as there are no trophies or champion crowned, will also feature the Portland Winterhawks as well as the B.C. Division’s Vancouver Giants and Victoria Royals.

The games don’t count but this will be the first chance for head coach Steve Konowalchuk to see his guys in game action against a real opponent.

There are a lot of things to learn and watch for this weekend, here are seven of them:

• Winning

The games may not count but don’t think for a second that Konowalchuk doesn’t want to win them. He’s a highly competitive guy and any time his team takes the ice – no matter the setting – he’s expecting to win. With some younger players in camp still, this weekend is a great time to begin instilling that competitive edge. Training camp saw some heated moments in scrimmages so it would seem that the T-Birds are ready to take on other teams.

• Goalies

With three games over the weekend we can assume that all three goalies on the roster will get a start. Logan Flodell is the No. 1 guy but Ryan Gilchrist and Carl Stankowski are both after the backup spot. All three guys have played well in limited scrimmage time and it will be good to see a full 60 minutes out of each. These games won’t make or break anyone but it will give the team’s staff a more complete look at their progression so far.

• Finns a plenty

Finland’s junior hockey program has been on a roll of late. From success at the World Junior Championships to having two players selected in the top five of June’s NHL Draft, they are producing a lot of hockey talent. Seattle’s Finn, Sami Moilanen, has been impressive at camp and this weekend he’ll be competing against three of his countrymen. Portland drafted Henri Jokiharju in the import draft and are expecting big things out of the defenseman who is in his NHL Draft year. Everett took Calgary Flames sixth-round draft pick Eetu Tuulola with their import pick and there are high expectations for the big winger who fashions himself after Milan Lucic. This weekend we will get to see how all three Finns are adapting to North American hockey.

• Stacking up against the division

With all five U.S. Division teams in action it will give us a glimpse of what the other teams have to offer. Keep in mind that preseason games are made up of a combination of roster players and prospects so like in every other sport, don’t get too carried away with the results. However, we will get a look at what Portland looks like with new-old head coach Mike Johnston. We can see if Everett has been able to find some needed scoring and whether or not Spokane’s young guns are the real deal. We also will hopefully see if Black Diamond resident Evan Sarthou looks like he’s in for a rebound season with Tri City.

• Lines

The games this weekend will be the only preseason games in which Konowalchuk will have a full roster for. After the weekend, guys like Ethan Bear, Keegan Kolesar, Scott Eansor and Turner Ottenbreit will leave for NHL camps, so this is a chance for the coach to get a look at the chemistry some guys might have on the ice. Last week the line of Moilanen, Alexander True and Luke Ormsby showed some strong potential and it will be interesting to see what mix Konowalchuk throws out during the three games.

• Youngsters

The T-Birds will release a preseason roster on Thursday but expect some of their prospects will see ice time in the Everett tournament. We know that Stankowski will get a look this weekend and it would be safe to assume that 2016 first-round pick Jake Lee will get his first taste of WHL action. It will be a big weekend for guys like MacKenzie Wight, Reese Harsch and Kabir Gill, three guys who are trying to earn a roster spot. We didn’t see Wyatt Bear or Jared Pelechaty in camp due to lower-body injuries and their statuses are unclear for the weekend, but they are also looking to secure a roster spot.

• New rules

The WHL has installed a couple of major new rule changes that we will get to see in action for the first time. First, they have gone away from the no-touch icing and converted to the hybrid-icing that the NHL and AHL use. The other, and slightly more controversial, rule change is that there will no longer be a video review if a player kicks the puck in while standing outside the crease. This essentially makes it legal for a goal to be scored on a kicked puck, as long as the kick happened outside the crease. Here’s hoping we see a goal kicked in.

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