T-Birds news and notes: Healthy roster, role players and a hot Eansor

The big news from the Thunderbirds this week was the return of Mathew Barzal and Jamal Watson. The two players were returned by their respective pro teams this past Sunday and finally, Seattle has all its pieces in place.

As Seattle heads into its weekend schedule the only real question is whether or not Ryan Gropp will be back from his lower body injury. After Sunday’s game with the Tri City Americans, head coach Steve Konowalchuk classified Gropp’s status as “close” so it is still not clear if he’ll be in the lineup.

If Gropp is able to play this weekend it will be the first time that Konowalchuk has had his full roster available to him in quite some time. In fact, the last time that Konowalchuk had all his forces was Oct. 5, 2013, when the T-Birds played the Lethbridge Hurricanes. Connor Honey was injured in that game and missed the rest of the season. Last year, the T-Birds never had a full roster as Barzal, Shea Theodore, Alexander True and Keegan Kolesar all missed significant time.

Seattle has managed to do well despite all those injuries. In the 138 games since that game, the T-Birds have gone an impressive 73-49-7-9. How good can they be when fully healthy?

Here’s more news surrounding the team:

Holowko filling a role

The T-Birds roster is loaded with high-end marquee type players this year. Those players are the reason for the optimism surrounding the club, but every team needs its share of role players to really hold things together. Seattle has a handful of those types of players, including Nick Holowko.

Holowko might have been a surprise to make the roster last year, but the Burnaby, B.C. native not only made the team but played in 63 games. His contributions may not always show up on the scoresheet but he played a lot of minutes in several different roles for the team.

This year he is off to a great start. He scored a big goal opening night to tie the game in the third period and Saturday he set up Seattle’s first goal with a nice pass from down low. As the season wears on, Holowko may not lead the team in scoring but he will be a contributor in many other ways.

“I think Holowko has played a couple of pretty good games for us,” Konowalchuk said Saturday night. “He’s being more patient on the cycle, he’s a hard guy to tie up down below the goal line and he’s slippery down there.”

Last year Holowko played on almost every line, even at times on the top line with Barzal. The two have some history as they both played with the Burnaby Winter Club together during their Bantam years. Expect the same out of him this year as well, some nights he might be mucking it up with the fourth liners, and others he might be skating on a line with more skill.

“He’s a guy who can play on any line and help any line,” Konowalchuk said. “He can dig the puck out, if we need more skill on lines he can dig the puck out and crash the net. The big thing for him is when he’s physically engaged he’s a good hockey player.”

After Saturday’s win against Prince George, Holowko wore evidence of his physical play as he sported a gash over his right eye. Being able to play physical is key for Holowko and the winger says he spent his summer working to do just that.

“I just put my head down and trained all summer as hard as I can,” he said. “I feel really good and it’s paid off out there. I feel like I’m not as panicky with the puck.”

Eansor off to a hot start

How good as Eansor been so far this season? So good that he picked up an assist on Wednesday without even playing. A scoring correction was made to Saturday’s game against Prince George and Eansor now has two goals and three assists in the team’s first three games.

While Eansor has built himself into one of if not the best defensive centers in the league, his offense continues to improve. It’s early still but he’s scoring much quicker than ever before. He didn’t score his second goal last year until game 12 and this year in game two. It took him 13 games to reach five points last season – something he’s done now in the club’s first three games.

With Watson back in Seattle, Eansor figures to see some of those totals rise even more. Playing with Nolan Volcan, Eansor and Watson should be a force moving forward for the T-Birds and it’s a safe bet that Eansor will surpass his career high in goals and points.

The weekend ahead

Just as they did last weekend, the T-Birds find themselves with a Friday evening off. They are back in action on Saturday night when they will host the Prince Albert Raiders. Sunday they will head south for their first look at the Portland Winterhawks.

Prince Albert is off to a hot start, leading the East Division with a 4-1-0-0 record. The Raiders are led by a couple of players that the T-Birds should be somewhat familiar with. After two big trades last year with Kelowna, the Raiders ended up with Austin Glover and Jesse Lees. Forward Reid Gardiner is coming off a big week that earned him WHL Player of the Week honors and he leads the Raiders in scoring.

Much like this past Sunday when Seattle faced a desperate Tri City team looking for its first win, Seattle will face another team in the same situation this Sunday. Portland is off to a slow start, going 0-3 to start the year and you can bet they would like nothing more than to get their first win against Seattle. The Winterhawks look different than they have in years past. Gone are Nic Petan and Oliver Bjorkstrand and they look to be a stronger defensive club than last year. Paul Bittner leads them up front and two newcomers on the blue line in Caleb Jones and Jack Dougherty lead the way defensively.

Follow Andy Eide on Twitter @andyeide.

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