Ringo Starr once sang: “It don’t come easy.”
It sure doesn’t.
For the first time in the 41-year history of the Seattle Thunderbirds (formerly Breakers), the franchise comes onto Blanshard Street as the defending champion of the Western Hockey League.
Victoria is in its 29th year of WHL major-junior, after 22 seasons with the Cougars and now seven with the Royals, and also has only one WHL title on its ledger.
Championships are as rare as they are fleeting.
The Thunderbirds, who meet the Royals tonight and Saturday at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre, are finding that out as they face their post-title season without the graduated likes of Mathew Barzal (New York Islanders), Ryan Gropp, Ethan Bear, Alexander True (all in the AHL) and Keegan Kolesar (AHL/ECHL).
Yet, the youthful Thunderbirds (11-9-2) have held up well and are on a two-game winning streak, including a 6-3 home victory Wednesday over the Regina Pats in a rematch of the 2016 WHL final, won in six games by Seattle.
“The Thunderbirds are a very quick team with good ability,” said Victoria head coach Dan Price.
“Player development is so important. Seattle is a good example of that.”
Indeed, it does appear the Thunderbirds have restocked well.
As for Tuesday night’s humbling 10-4 setback on Blanshard against a Lethbridge Hurricanes team that had lost it previous eight games, the less said the better, said the Royals.
Time to move on from what the 16-8-1 team believes was an aberration.
“It’s about correcting bad habits and you do that in practices,” said Price.
“With good habits, come good fundamentals.”
The Royals spent a lot of time in practice Thursday working on a penalty kill that allowed six Lethbridge power-play goals. The solution is simple, noted Price: Don’t take so many penalties.
“We took 11 penalties against Lethbridge and that many penalties puts a lot of pressure on your penalty kill. We have to limit those chances against us,” said the Royals bench boss.
Victoria will be looking for a reignition this weekend.
“This is a huge weekend for us,” said Royals defenceman Chaz Reddekopp, a 20-year-old signed to an NHL entry-level contract by the Los Angeles Kings.
“It’s a chance for us to regroup and redeem ourselves. We need to focus more. With the start we had to the season, maybe complacency seeped in.”
Ten goals allowed in a game, six on your penalty kill, will certainly slap that attitude out of any defensive corps.
“Our penalty kill can be a lot better, especially in terms of getting in front of shots,” said Reddekopp.
The absence of veteran Royals defenceman Ralph Jarratt the past four games has been noticeable, with some of the younger Victoria blue-liners showing their lack of experience.
“This is an opportunity for the youngers guys to seize the moment,” said Reddekopp.
Meanwhile, veteran Royals forward Tyler Soy enters the weekend one point adrift of Brandon Magee’s all-time franchise record for career points. Soy has 263 points on 124 goals and 139 assists over 277 games with Victoria. Magee, now in U Sports with his hometown University of Alberta Golden Bears, amassed 264 points on 113 goals and 151 assists over 318 games in four seasons with the Royals and one with the predecessor Chilliwack Bruins.
“It’s a cool feeling because it’s not every day you get to break a franchise record,” said Soy, an unsigned draft pick of the Anaheim Ducks, who saw AHL action last spring.
“I’ve worked hard. But I can’t take all of the credit. Good teammates supported me. I’ve played with some great [linemates] over the years here in Victoria like Jack Walker, Greg Chase, Vladimir Bobylev and Matthew Phillips, and also had Joe [Hicketts] on the back end of our power play for several years.”
Magee was also a teammate during the first two of Soy’s five seasons in Victoria.
“I may send [Magee] a text if I get a few points this weekend,” said Soy, with a smile.
