Talk to Glen Goodall for just a few minutes, and the excitement is palpable. Through the twang of a slight Canadian accent, the former Thunderbird phenom’s voice goes up a few notches when he talks about his upcoming trip.

He’s going back to where it all started: to the team that retired his jersey after six glorious years of making fans sit on the edge of their seats.

For the first time since he decamped in 1990 for a career in the pros, Goodall is going to a Seattle Thunderbirds game.

It’s not just any game, and he’s not just any audience member. Goodall is going to open the T-Bird’s first home game of the season, with his family in tow, to be honored, and to honor his team back.

“This is really the first opportunity I’ve had to come back,” said Goodall, who just retired after 17 years of pro hockey in Germany, and who now lives in Red Deer, in the Alberta province. “I’m very excited to be coming back to be part of the team opener.”

He’s excited to be seeing the fans again – and there is nothing quite like a T-Bird fan, he noted.

“I have played so much hockey since I left Seattle, but there’s no fans I’ve ever seen as passionate as the Seattle fans,” he said.

“Looking back over my whole career, Seattle was probably the funnest time in my hockey career. At the end of the day, the money’s not important at all – it’s the memories.”

Goodall gave the Thunderbirds some memories of their own. He set multiple records as a T-Bird in the Western Hockey League: career most goals scored(262); career most games (399); most assists (311); second-highest points leader (573).

He started at age 14 as a T-Bird (the rules were different then; as the starting age is now 16.) When he left as a 20-year-old in 1990, his jersey – No. 10 – was retired. Goodall’s is the only jersey the T-Birds have ever retired.

“He was a phenomenon,” said Ian Henry, director of public and media relations for the Thunderbirds. “Fans loved him; he put up an amazing season every year he was here.”

Henry said the team wanted to bring Goodall back to honor him at an opener, but Goodall’s busy schedule, playing in Germany and Europe in Germany’s elite leagues, made that impossible until now.

“Now that he’s retired, we can do it,” Henry said.

The team will recognize Goodall with a video tribute before the game, and with his family, he’ll drop the puck for the start of the game.

Henry said there will be a surprise involving Goodall’s tribute as well, but he wasn’t about to give it away.

Goodall may be retired, but he’s not through with hockey. He has part ownership in a new equipment company called SBK Hockey. He’s also involved in some hockey-development programs in the Red Deer area, and is now the coach of his 11-year-old son’s team. That’s in addition to getting his real estate license, and being a family man (he and his wife Jennifer also have a 14-year-old daughter.)

“I haven’t had a chance to reflect on retirement,” he said.

The team that Goodall will be going back to see should be a bigger, stronger squad than last year. Thanks to an intense learning curve for its relatively youthful ranks last year, the T-Birds now have more seasoned returners to their ranks, including goalie Calvin Pickard, Brenden Dillon and Charles Wells.

They’re also bolstered by the arrival of a couple of powerhouse players from Europe: Marcel Noebles, a standout from Germany, is being touted as a major addition to the offensive line. And Dave Sutter of Switzerland has been making his presence felt in defense.

““I think we’re going to be a much more physical team and I think we’re gonna play a more aggressive style,” Coach Rob Sumner said in an earlier interview with the Kent Reporter about how the team should do this year.

It looks like there’s plenty of excitement building around Saturday’s game. Henry said they are expecting to fill about 5,000 seats at the ShoWare Center.

“We’re expecting a pretty big crowd,” he said.

In addition to the hockey action, there will be some pregame festivities right outside the ShoWare Center.

The “Party on the Plaza” starts 5 p.m., with inflatable toys for the kids, food and beverages – even a mechanical bull contest for some of the braver attendees.

Beth Sylves, director of marketing at ShoWare, said the center also will offer an early-bird dinner special, with discounted food and soda offered in the first 30 minutes of the doors opening, at 6 p.m.

“They can watch the teams warm up,” she said.

The Buzz on the ‘Birds

The Seattle Thunderbirds have their first home opener 7:05 p.m. Saturday at the ShoWare Center, 625 W. James St., Kent.

Single-seat tickets range in price from $16, to $22, $30, and $40.

Buy them online by going to www.seattlethunderbirds.com, or by purchasing them at the ShoWare Center box office, which is open 10 a.m. to game time.