Seattle vs. Portland 10/22/05

Classic Portland/Seattle game tonight! The Thunderbirds took the game, 3-1. But there was all sorts of intensity out there. Something that I hadn't seen by both teams in any game this season. Brian Woolger opened the scoring in the first period for Portland. For the most part, the Winterhawks controlled the game. They outshot Seattle 34-26 for the game. But after that first goal, Bryan Bridges was about as solid in net as you could ask for. Seattle's first goal came rather unexpectedly...on the power play! Scott Jackson let one rip from the top of the slot to make it 1-1 after the first period. Then a couple minutes into the second period, Seattle's Roman Tomanek made this wicked drag move around Portland's Garth Collins and shot the puck past Dustin Butler to give the Thunderbirds a 2-1 lead. And then with a little over a minute to go in the 3rd, Ladislav Skurko shot one from center ice into the empty net.

Then the fun began (lol). Three fights in the final 19 seconds of the game. The last of which I have quite a bit to comment on...with both the T-Birds, Winterhawks and the referee. The first one began when Portland's Cameron Cepek tried to get Yashar Farmanara to drop the gloves after the whistle blew. Farmanara is probably the favorite target for Seattle's opponents simply because he's the softest guy in the west. So just before the next draw, T-Bird defenseman Bretton Stamler swapped places with whoever was lined up on the left wing and went at it with Cepek. A decent scrap...I called it a draw. Not too long after that, Clayton Barthel of Seattle went at it with Frazer McLaren. McLaren is one of the tougher guys in the league. But Barthel isn't much of a push-over, either. But I had to give the slight edge to McLaren in that one.

Now for the most interesting one. There are two ways I can start with this. Now I'm thinking of a good way to do it fairly (lol). Okay...after the first fight there in the final 19 seconds, Portland coach Mike Williamson decided to put his enforcers out there on the ice; McLaren and Garth Collins. Seattle just went with what basically was their 3rd line out there. After the McLaren/Barthel scrap, there were no line changes outside of replacing the two who got into the fight. Collins was out there jawing at anyone in a different colored jersey. After the puck dropped, he went after Farmanara (no suprise there...lol) and then out to the point where Eli Grossman was. Basically, he just pinned Grossman to the boards and started pounding on him. Grossman is another softy. And, to be frank, it was a gutless thing for Collins to do.

But with that being said, I also have an issue with the way the Seattle bench handled that situation. It was pretty obvious to anyone with a clue what Portland was doing out there. And I had nothing wrong with that...at the end of rivalry games, if things are gonna be settled, better to do by dropping the mitts instead of someone going Bertuzzi on another player. But why didn't Farwell/Knox/McTaggart (who the hell is officially in charge of that bench right now, anyway?) send James McEwan out there? Granted, McEwan has a past of doing stupid things himself in those same situations (re: Everett last year and in the pre-season against Everett, too). But you gotta stand up for yourself in that situation. One of those non-fighters could have gotten hurt out there. And that can send a bad message to the players you're coaching.

And here's the statement that'll get everyone's gander up (lol). I thought that referee Devin Klein did the right thing throughout that entire situation. He understands what that rivalry is all about. He understood that the game had been chippy. So he let them do their thing. And he also did something that he'll probably get into trouble with the league over but made me glad to see; he didn't give Collins an instigator in that "fight" with Grossman (even though even I had to think that he should have gotten one). He just flipped a giant middle finger to that stupid new instigator rule that's been put in the books for this year. Now, if you get an instigator in a fight in the last 5 minutes of a game, you get an automatic game misconduct. Instead, he just gave Collins a roughing minor. Even if that was a text book "instigator" penalty (lol).

So now, along with Peter Mueller being my favorite player to watch, Devin Klein is my new favorite referee. He's the first ref to be so honored since it's an award I just thought up of here a couple minutes ago (lol).

On to other things. Kelly bought this goofy-looking octopus hat at Fred Meyer. She seemed rather proud of it (lol). The fan of the night was sitting in front of me. It was given to some guy who they thanked for all his service in the Coast Guard. The only problem was the guy was nowhere to be found. So they gave this kid who couldn't have been older than 4 that was sitting in the winning seat a can of Almond Roca. He didn't exactly look like the burley sea-weathered type (lol).

Kind of funny during warmups. At some point, Kristi had snuck down to the boards and put up these pro-Portland signs. When I first noticed what was going on, her friend Jackie was down there ripping them up. Kristi was trying to stop her. But her efforts were futile. I also gave Kristi the stuff I bought her in St. Louis. She seemed to really like the puck I picked out. And I guess she liked the shot glass. She also flipped me shit about not taking her to Spokane the night before like we had originally planned. I told her earlier in the week that I wanted to make it up to her somehow. So she just had me buy her a beer (lol). So that was a first for me...buying a beer for a minor (lol). Oh, I had bought it for her before. But that was up in Canada...where she's legal (lol). And while I was up there buying it for her, I couldn't get out of my mind what someone told me not too long ago. They said that when she turns 21, I'll pretty much be obsolete to her (lol). I hope that's not true. But I'm sure that one of my uses will be out the door (haha).

Seahawks game against Dallas tomorrow. It'll be interesting to see how the Hawks cope without Ken Hamlin in the free safety position. I just hope they don't lose by too much (lol).