Boxing Day goodies

The Seattle Thunderbirds got a belated Christmas present Friday. Jim Riley reports for the Seattle Times that they skated on the ice at the ShoWare Centre, their new home in Kent. Wash., for the first time. The Thunderbirds, who are scheduled to play 28 of their final 38 games in the new facility, play their first home game there on Jan. 3. "It's like an NHL building without the upper bowl," forward David Richard told Riley. "The boards and glass are really good and it's really a big step up from KeyArena. A lot of people are going to be pleased the way it turned out. We should be able to get a lot of momentum from the home crowd." . . . The new building seats 6,133 for hockey. . . . According to Riley, fewer than 200 tickets remain for the Jan. 3 game against the Everett Silvertips.
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The WHL’s trade moratorium is off and you can bet that there will be some action between now and the trade deadline of Jan. 10. Some people are wondering, for example, if the Everett Silvertips will move LW Kyle Beach. "(Other teams) got all the high draft picks by losing for two years and then turned it around," Everett GM Doug Soetaert told Nick Patterson of the Everett Herald. "I don't like doing that. We're here to win every year. That's our goal, that's our mandate, and we want to go as far as possible every year. If we have to make moves to do that we will make moves. But we're not going to do something that doesn't make sense, both now and long-term." . . . So will he move Beach in exchange for help down the road? "Right now that's not in our plans," Soetaert told Patterson. "Kyle's an 18-year-old, there's a chance he could be back here next (season) and be a part of our hockey club again. As good as Kyle is when he wants to be, the National Hockey League is a big step. He's a big part of our hockey club. He knows that, he wants to play for the Everett Silvertips, we've indicated to him we want him to be an Everett Silvertip. So life is good."
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JUST NOTES: The Seattle Thunderbirds, who play the Portland Winter Hawks in KeyArena on Saturday, should have F Prab Rai (groin) and F Lindsay Nielsen (shoulder) back in the lineup. . . . The Red Deer Rebels take a three-game winning streak into a game with the visiting Calgary Hitmen on Saturday. Calgary has won six in a row. Red Deer expects to have D Cullen Morin (ankle), D Justin Weller (wrist) and F Carter Smith (abdomen) back in action. . . . The Kelowna Rockets should have D Tyson Barrie (concussion) back when they play the visiting Kamloops Blazers on Saturday. Barrie missed the club’s last three games before the Christmas break. Kelowna F Kyle St. Denis, however, remains out with a broken scaphoid. St. Denis should be back sometime in January. . . . The Medicine Hat Tigers are without LW Travis Dunstall (shoulder) as the schedule resumes. They are at home to the Swift Current Broncos on Saturday. Dunstall, injured Dec. 14, may return Jan. 2 in Swift Current. The Tigers have added F Sam Dezman, 17, an eighth-round pick in the 2006 bantam draft who has 24 points in 27 games with the AJHL’s Spruce Grove Saints. He also has 61 penalty minutes. . . . Former Vancouver Giants G Kraymer Barnstable, 18, has joined the Everett Silvertips to back up starter Shayne Barrie. Kent Simpson, 16, is with Team Pacific at the U-17 World Hockey Challenge. . . . While Everett D Trevor Bauer (shoulder) has been cleared to play, D Shayne Brown (hip) is still on the shelf.
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Doyle Potenteau of the Kelowna Daily Courier reports that the Rockets continue to work on acquiring the services of Swedish F Mikael Backlund, who was a first-round selection by the Calgary Flames in the NHL’s 2007 draft. He presently is playing for Sweden in the World Junior Championship in Ottawa. There has been speculation that Backlund’s team in the Swedish Elite League won’t be welcoming him back. “We’re working on it,” Rockets president/GM Bruce Hamilton told Potenteau. “The story broke out in Sweden and he was under a microscope. Right now, (Backlund) is trying to focus on the tournament.” . . . Hamilton plans on being in Calgary to scout the Mac’s midget tournament. While there, you can bet he will be exchanging more than season's greetings with Flames GM Darryl Sutter.