THUNDERBIRDS

T-Birds home opener a time for reflection and transition

Sep 18, 2017, 12:49 PM | Updated: 12:50 pm

The Thunderbirds will raise a championship banner for the first time in franchise history Saturday ...

The Thunderbirds will raise a championship banner for the first time in franchise history Saturday night (Keith Hershmiller)

(Keith Hershmiller)

Saturday night the Seattle Thunderbirds will have an opening night like they’ve never experienced before.

It will start out the same as all the home openers that came years prior. There will be a light show, a packed ShoWare Center and the players will line up on the blue line after being individually introduced.

But before the lights come back on and the national anthem is sung, they will be raising a WHL Championship banner for the first time in the 41-year history of the franchise. This is uncharted water for the Thunderbirds.

“Probably get some chills going,” defenseman Austin Strand said about what it will be like to watch that banner get raised.

For the returning players who were part of last year’s exciting run to the championship, Saturday will be another chance to relive a magical season. Since Seattle won the title on the road in Regina, it will be the first time the club will get a chance to be recognized by the full throat of a loud crowd.

It’s something that is not lost on players like Donovan Neuls.

“We all thought two years ago after losing to Brandon that it was pretty cool (the next year) but this will be special,” he said in anticipation of Saturday. “Standing there with this group of guys, Seattle and we will always remember it.”

Neuls was a big part of the playoff run last spring. He scored some big goals, including the finals Game 1 overtime winner in Regina. Junior hockey is unique in that there is always a roster turnover from one year to the next. While Neuls will be standing on the blue line Saturday, many of last year’s core players won’t be.

With that turnover, the Thunderbirds are transitioning into a younger team, a greener team and will have to try to focus on the coming season after celebrating the last.

“We’ve had both tastes in our mouths,” Nolan Volcan said. “We came back after losing the finals, you have to get over that. It’s the exact same thing with winning it, you have to forget about it and move on and you have to look at it as a new opportunity.”

Volcan, who spent the past couple of weeks in camp with the NHL’s Pittsburgh Penguins, is one player with a new opportunity in front of him.

He, along with Neuls, will jump up to be Seattle’s first line this coming season. The speedy winger has had success in the WHL and now will be looked at as a leader on the team. He will be one of the veteran players that the younger guys will look to.

Some of those younger players were part of the team last year, but watched most of the heroics from the bench or the press box. It’s their turn now as the junior hockey cycle churns on.

Whether they had a big role last year or not, the current Thunderbirds will have to put the Championship behind them and focus on the present. Saturday’s opponents, the Tri City Americans, have banner-raising expectations themselves and aren’t going to take it easy on the Thunderbirds.

Finding a way to move on will be key.

“Had all summer to take that feeling in and be a champion so now it’s getting back to the grind,” Strand said. “Brand new season so we’ll see what we can do here.”

It is a brand new season and the old cliché of every team being in first place on opening night is apt for Saturday. The Thunderbirds have a tough task ahead of them, with a younger roster and a tough division.

There will plenty of time to dissect and analyze the coming season but for a few moments before Saturday’s puck drop, it will be fun to think back to that magic moment when Alexander True’s shot won the whole thing for the Thunderbirds.

“To win that with the group of guys we had last year is special,” Volcan said. “It’s a memory we’re going to have for the rest of our lives and probably going to have some chills. It just gets you more excited to get this season going.”

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