Notebook: Thunderbirds prepare for rival Everett in second round

The Seattle Thunderbirds find themselves with a rare week off after sweeping through Price George in the first round of the WHL playoffs.

They haven’t played since last Wednesday’s Game 4 and won’t start their second-round series with the Everett Silvertips until Friday. Everett also completed a first-round sweep on Wednesday so neither club will be getting a rest advantage in this series.

What a series it will be.

Seattle and Everett played 10 times during the regular season and are well familiar with each other. These games will be close, they’ll be low scoring and will be the kind of edge-of-your-seat viewing you can expect from playoff hockey.

Here’s the latest from the club heading into the second round:

Short-handed Birds

The T-Birds will be short-handed when Game 1 faces off on Friday. Forward Keegan Kolesar will have to miss the opener as he serves the remainder of a two-game suspension he received for hitting Prince George defenseman Sam Ruopp. The hit only garnered a two-minute minor at the time, but after the league reviewed the tape they determined it was worthy of supplementary discipline.

Ruopp didn’t return to the game and did not play in Game 4. Interesting note about Ruopp and Kolesar is that they are both Columbus Blue Jackets prospects and have had encounters before. The potential future teammates also got into a scrap in a game on Dec. 15 at the ShoWare Center. Should make for an interesting training camp next fall in Columbus.

Seattle will also be without forward Ryan Gropp. The team’s leading goal scorer continues to nurse an upper-body injury and last week was listed as week-to-week. He did not practice with the club this past weekend so it should not be assumed that he will be ready for the start of the Everett series.

So, for Game 1 the T-Birds will be missing 68 goals from the lineup, but will get 30 of those back in the form of Kolesar for the remainder of the series. They will want to get off to a good start so, as they have over the past month, will need to find a way to win while missing key players.

Special teams are special

Seattle’s special teams were quite remarkable during the regular season and will be a big factor in determining how far it can go in the postseason. In the first round against Prince George, the power play struggled, however it did score a key goal to tie Game 4 in the third period.

Heading into the second round, the focus will once again be on the special teams.

Everett does not allow a lot of power-play chances so Seattle will have to cash in when it has the opportunities. This season, the T-Birds have the power play to do it.

They ended the regular season with a 23.7 percent success rate on the power play, which is the second highest recorded in franchise history (power play statistics prior to 1996 are not available in the team’s media guide). This Seattle team falls a bit short of the 1996-97 T-Birds team, whose power play hit the 28-percent mark. That Seattle team was led by Patrick Marleau and made it to the WHL Finals – something the current club would love to emulate.

The T-Birds of course, featured the league’s top penalty-killing unit during this past regular season and killed off an impressive 85.3 percent of their opponents’ power-play chances. That is third best recorded in franchise history, falling just behind the 2004-05 (86.9 percent) team and the 2006-07 (85.5 percent) clubs.

Upsets abound in the Eastern Conference

With no runaway powerhouse teams in the WHL this year, it felt like we were heading into a post-season that could feature lower seeds prevailing.

That has played out twice so far in the Eastern Conference. The biggest surprise was the Regina Pats’ upset of the Central’s top team, the Lethbridge Hurricanes. Not only was it an upset, but it wasn’t even close. The Pats took out what had been the season’s best feel-good story in only five games. They will now move on to take on the Red Deer Rebels in round 2.

The Moose Jaw Warriors were the third seed in the Central Division but they ousted the Prince Albert Raiders in five games and will now take on the winner of the Edmonton-Brandon series. The top-seeded Brandon Wheat Kings got an early scare from Edmonton, losing the first two games of the series, but have stormed back to win three straight and can end it Tuesday night in Game 6.

In the West, Kamloops has a chance to be the lone lower seed to win its opening round series. They take on the Kelowna Rockets in Game 7 Monday night with the winner moving on.

Second round previews

Stay tuned to the blog the rest of the week as we will get you ready for the T-Birds’ and Silvertips’ second-round series.

Follow Andy Eide on Twitter @andyeide.