PORTLAND — The Seattle-Portland hockey rivalry goes back a century. But Winterhawks defenseman Adam Henry does not need to look back far to have a unique perspective on it.
Henry began this season with the Seattle Thunderbirds and was a member of the 2013-14 Seattle team that made the second round of the Western Hockey League playoffs.
But his junior hockey career will conclude as a member of the Portland Winterhawks — a significant contributor for a franchise aiming to win a fifth consecutive conference championship.
“It’s a little bit surreal really to think that at the start of the season I was there and now I’m finishing my 20-year-old season playing in a playoff series against them,” Henry said.
That best-of-7 series begins at 6 p.m. Saturday at Veterans Memorial Coliseum.
Henry’s WHL journey began in Lethbridge. The Winnipeg native was traded last season to Seattle, playing in 73 games between the regular season and playoffs. It was his first playoff experience in the WHL.
Seattle beat Everett in the first round then was swept by Kelowna. Henry said inexperience was a factor against the Rockets.
Henry had an assist on Seattle’s first goal of this season, helping the Thunderbirds to a 4-1 win in the season opener at the Moda Center. He played in two more games before another trade sent him to Saskatoon.
The Winterhawks acquired Henry on Jan. 6 and he has become an important contributor, including his first career hat trick in a March 18 game at Spokane and two goals in a March 11 game at Everett.
“I get to play my style and jump up on the play and get the puck to some pretty skilled forwards and jump in behind them,” Henry said. “Down the stretch I got a little more confident with my play with the puck. When you’re playing confident things start going your way.”
The Winterhawks have plenty of confidence entering the playoffs. That happens when a club reaches the league finals four years in a row. And the Winterhawks have historically dominated Seattle in the playoffs.
This is the eighth time Portland and Seattle have met in the WHL playoffs. The Winterhawks have won five of six best-of-7 series and eliminated Seattle once as part of a round-robin format.
That history doesn’t mean much to the players in this series. But might Henry’s connection to the Thunderbirds help the Hawks?
“It might give us a little edge, I don’t know — the fact that I played with them and I know their ins and outs and I know everything about ever single guy on that team,” Henry said with a smile. “But when it’s all said and done, the puck drops and you play and you don’t over-think anything.”
