Patterson: Local hockey community thrilled to see nation’s best

EVERETT — I was standing in the hallway in the bowels of Angel of the Winds Arena on Saturday morning when the impact of the moment appeared before my eyes.

USA Hockey’s National Junior Team was getting ready to begin its three-day training camp in Everett, and I was awaiting the start of the first practice session. The Great Northwest 18U Challenge, a youth hockey tournament featuring teams from Washington, Oregon and British Columbia, happened to be taking place simultaneously next door at the Community Ice Rink, and those teams were using locker rooms adjoining USA Hockey’s.

I watched as three members of one of the tournament teams, dressed in street clothes, crossed paths with a warming-up member of the U.S. team. The trio’s eyes went wide in amazement, and as soon as the U.S. player was out of earshot they began excitedly whispering to one another.

Yeah, this event mattered.

The U.S. National Junior Team wrapped up its time in Everett on Monday afternoon, but those three days are something people in the local hockey community won’t soon forget.

“It’s just exciting,” said Ross Kruse of Edmonds, who attended Saturday’s session accompanied by his son Max, a member of the Mountlake Terrace-based Seattle Junior Hockey Association’s 14U A1 team. “The tournament coming up is a big deal in the hockey world, and the chance to see these kids try to earn a spot is a really unique and unusual opportunity.”

The U.S. National Junior Team held four on-ice sessions Saturday through Monday at Angel of the Winds Arena as it prepared for the 2019 World Junior Hockey Championships, which take place Dec. 26-Jan. 5 in Vancouver and Victoria, British Columbia. The camp, which happened in Everett thanks to the machinations of the Everett Silvertips, will help USA Hockey determine which of the 29 players in attendance — the best under-20 hockey players the nation has to offer — will make the final 23-man roster.

All the sessions were open free to the public, and the local hockey community jumped at the opportunity. Several hundred spectators joined me in the stands Saturday morning, a remarkable turnout to watch a hockey practice. There were several pockets of youth hockey teammates, including one row filled by kids in Seattle Junior jerseys who oohed and aahed at every play, as well as scores of parents with their hockey-playing children in tow.

“I was honestly surprised,” U.S. National Junior Team forward Ryan Poehling, one of five returning players from last year’s World Juniors team, said about the crowd. “I didn’t know people were going to come out, so to come out here and see some fans enjoying our practice was pretty cool to see.”

It was a knowledgeable crowd, too, as I overheard plenty of discussion among spectators trying to pick out Jack Hughes, the presumptive first-overall pick in the 2019 NHL draft. The fact the players were wearing numberless jerseys made that task all the more difficult — U.S. coach Mike Hastings joked afterwards that even the USA Hockey evaluators found the lack of jersey numbers challenging.

The lack of numbers didn’t dampen the enthusiasm of the crowd, however, as there was no shortage of cell phone photos or videos taken.

“I think it’s great,” said Jeff Bray of Marysville, who attended with his son Kian, who plays for the Everett Youth Hockey 8U Kodiaks. “With the NHL coming to Seattle this is just another way to show the rest of the country what kind of support the Northwest can give to the NHL and hockey in general.”

Another group that attended Saturday was the quartet of Zack Douglass, Evan Bodenstab, Josh Jones and Bryce Peters, who were teammates on the Everett Junior Silvertips 18U A1 team last season.

“This is world-class hockey out here, literally the best guys our age in the entire country, so it was a crazy opportunity,” Bodenstab said about why they came out.

“And we got to see it for free, we didn’t have to pay to get in, and that’s awesome,” Douglass added.

All four talked about the way they’ve seen hockey grow in the region since they began playing. Jones, who’s originally from Colorado, sees hockey starting to grow locally the way it grew in Colorado. Peters, who works at Play It Again Sports in Lynnwood, has witnessed the passion for hockey increase among customers.

“Minnesota is known for hockey, Boston is known for hockey, and Seattle isn’t really known for hockey,” Douglass said. “When people find out I play hockey they ask where I’m from, and when I say Seattle they’re like, ‘Oh, they play hockey there?’ Yeah, we do, and it’s nice to get on that national stage.”

With the U.S. National Junior Team now moving to Kamloops, British Columbia, for exhibition games, the region has to step off that stage for now. But with two strong major-junior organizations in the area, the NHL arriving in 2021 and talk of World Juniors possibly coming in 2025, it won’t be long before the region mounts the national hockey stage again.

Follow Nick Patterson on Twitter at @NickHPatterson.