T-Birds notebook: Consistent lines and answers to your questions

While we all shake off our Super Bowl malaise, the Thunderbirds prepare for another big week of hockey.

BY ANDY EIDE

Feb 5, 2015, 7:05 AM Updated: 12:56 pm

While we all shake off our Super Bowl malaise, the Thunderbirds prepare for another big week of hockey.

The T-Birds will busy in the coming week as they will play four games over five days beginning Friday with a visit from the Portland Winterhawks. Seattle is coming off two solid wins in Prince George but the competition gets tougher with a Portland squad that has won eight in a row and is pushing Everett for the top spot in the U.S. Division.

The T-Birds have their own designs of moving up in the division and since they trail Portland by nine points, this game on Friday is an important one.

Here’s the latest from the T-Birds.

Building some lines

The T-Birds are as healthy as they have been all season and we have started to see head coach Steve Konowalchuk put together some consistent lines. With the return of Mathew Barzal, Konowalchuk has put Roberts Lipsbergs and Nick Holowko on his wings. The three have started to develop a good deal of chemistry and have combined for four goals and 10 assists over the last four games.

This shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise. Lipsbergs played with Barzal at the beginning of last season and during the 2011-2012 season, Holowko was a teammate of Barzal’s with the Burnaby Winter Club. Barzal had 98 assists that year and you would guess Holowko was the beneficiary of some of those.

Konowalchuk has also put Ryan Gropp on a line with Keegan Kolesar and Scott Eansor to form another potent scoring line. Those three have combined for five goals and eight assists over the last four games.

If these two lines can continue to produce Seattle will be able to create some nice matchup problems moving forward. Early in the year the T-Birds struggled a bit at times by only having one credible scoring lines. They have two now. If you’re an opposing coach you now have a choice to make. Do you match up your shut-down players against Barzal or Gropp? Either way, the T-Birds should be able to generate offense more consistently than they have.

Seattle has also been getting contributions from a line of Calvin Spencer, Donovan Neuls and Nolan Volcan. Those three are pure energy, can play defense and should serve as a pretty credible shut-down line.

The T-Birds will have a good problem coming soon when Lane Pederson returns from his injury. Konowlachuk has some choices as to where he wants to play Pederson. Needless to say, this is a much better problem than the T-Birds had early in the season when just finding 12 forwards was a challenge.

Twitter mailbag

We’ve solicited some questions from you, the readers, on Twitter and promised you answers. Here they are:

@thenwchica asks “Is the Seattle-Everett rivalry as big as it gets played or do the Birds have a bigger one?”

Without a doubt the Seattle-Portland rivalry is a bigger one. In fact, the original I-5 clash may be the best rivalry in all of junior hockey. The dislike between the T-Birds and the Winterhawks is real, it goes back a long way and is much more intense than any other rivalry that Seattle has in hockey. It’s amazing how every year, with new players coming in, the teams form a natural burn for each other.

The Everett-Seattle rivalry is obviously much newer but there is some juice to it. Playing in the playoffs last year will help it grow for sure but for now it’s second fiddle to the Portland-Seattle rivalry. At the end of their first-round playoff series last year the Seattle players and coaches were very complimentary of the Silvertips, their coaches, players and way they played the game. There is a mutual respect there it feels like.

To the T-Birds, the Silvertips are more like a sibling you want to best at every turn. It’s intense but at the end of the day, you’re going to slap them on the back and say “well done.” Portland is more like that arch nemesis who has gotten over on you more than you care to admit and just the sight of their sweaters makes your blood boil.

@BunkeredFaun asks “who’s your favorite player/coach to interview, most fun, etc.?”

This is a tough one to answer. It’s impressive how poised so many of these players are with the media, especially when you consider you young they are. I can’t imagine what I’d spit out if someone put a recorder in my face at 17 years old. Seattle has had some good interviews over the past few years. Justin Hickman always told it like it was and Mathew Barzal is pretty good and will give you more than a simple cliché when asked questions. Connor Honey was always a good interview as well, while he was in Seattle.

One of the funniest moments was last year when Roberts Lipsbergs translated for Alex Delnov during the postgame scrum. It didn’t go too well but both of those players are pretty funny characters, so while we couldn’t run much of anything they said, it was a pretty fun moment.

Another great moment this year was when we asked Keegan Kolesar who was going to win the U.S.-Canada game at the World Junior Championships. He said Canada, then smiled and added: “Is that even a real question?” He did it all with a smile on his face and, of course, Canada did beat the U.S. on its way to a gold medal.

@BigHarve asks “Does this team have enough talent to win the U.S. Division?”

This is a good question and one that we will know the answer to over the next couple of months. Up until six games ago the T-Birds had yet to see their best two players on the ice at the same time. With Barzal back and Shea Theodore playing as well as he is, Seattle will be tough down the stretch. Ryan Gropp and Keegan Kolesar are playing great hockey as well and the T-Birds now have some good scoring depth that will keep them competitive with the top two teams in the division. It won’t be easy. Portland is playing well and has as good a top line as anyone in the league while Everett makes you earn every inch of the ice.

The T-Birds have a tough battle if they want to catch those teams and it would have been nice to see where Seattle would be with a healthy lineup all season. It will be fun to watch, that’s for sure.

@ericaberry2001 asks “Do you ever get asked to go on the road with the team?”

I’m assuming you mean on the bus, with the team. No, the T-Birds have yet to ask either Tim or myself to join them on a road trip. I wonder if they have our numbers?

Thank you all for your Twitter questions and we hope to be able to answer some more before the playoffs are here.