Simulation Hockey League

NEW FRONTIERS
by Rusty Klesla / ********.com Staff Writer


ON A PERSONAL LEVEL

One look at Ryan Vas skating up and down the ice with an unmatched calmness and determination makes it clear why he’s moving up from the SMJHL’s Montreal Militia to the SHL’s Edmonton Blizzard this season.

When the game is on, Vas is hard to spot: He doesn’t make amazing plays, he doesn’t have the best shot, he doesn’t have the best skating but you also don’t find yourself saying “Oh wow, Vas’ positioning was horrible on that play” or “What a terrible turnover” when you’re watching him play.

But off the ice, to those who know Vas more closely, he is a kind man who sometimes has a hard time showing it to everyone. But on Thursday last, Vas was seen with a rare smile as he was skating with 8 year old Mackeville Renonsa who through Make-A-Wish had gotten a chance to have a private skate with Vas.

Its Vas who will quietly reach out to those who are close to him and struggling with someone, whether it is after a death in the family or whether someone just needs a listener. Vas will be there and you won’t have to ask.

Vas will quite often address the media after a bad game even if nobody else will or if he just wants others to not deal with the stress of keeping yourself composed and ready for an interview after a bad game. He’ll talk with reporters while his teammates quietly escape to the confides of the team’s bus and focus on trying to forget the bad things that happened during the game.

“I try to step outside my comfort zone a bit, I try to help people,” Vas said during an interview at the Blizzard practice facility in downtown Edmonton. “What truly makes anyone successful are the people who one surrounds themselves with. They help you focus and they help you understand things in a different way. When you understand the locker room, you can more easily help people translate those things onto the ice. Its not easy and that’s why I step outside my comfort zone every day so that I can learn more and more.”

Vas didn’t achieve it all during his time in the SMJHL: He didn’t win the Four Star Cup, he wasn’t voted the playoff MVP and he wasn’t always the most liked person around. In fact, sometimes, he was the most hated. But he strives to never quit and to always learn, not only from his own mistakes but also from the mistakes of others.

“There are guys who lead on the ice and there are guys who lead in the locker room. And he does both,” Ryan Vas’ former teammate Brennan Kennedy said. “He might not always be the most vocal person about it but he’ll give you a pat on the back, he’ll tell you its ok, he’ll help you get the tape off your stick when you’re too frustrated to do it yourself, stuff like that. He has his bad days but he always tries to apologize. I think he went overboard on occasion… Well more than on occasion but he’s got his flaws and I’ve seen him admit to them. That takes character.”

His former GM Randy Randleman had this to say about Vas “A competitive leader. He has his ups and downs and he doesn’t always bring in the most shining example but my god does he try to make sure that he’s doing something for the team whenever he does something. He learns from his mistakes but I gotta tell you, sometimes I wish he had learned a bit earlier. But its all part of his thing, he knows he has a bit of a temper but he means good. I know he does.”

Ryan Vas was named the Montreal Militia captain for season 31 but after that, he took a bit of a dive off the ice and he lost the captaincy. Vas admits to his fall from grace but says that he wouldn’t change a thing.
“Whenever I do mess up, I always think to myself that I’d rather mess up a thousand times if that means that one thousand others don’t mess up. I know its silly but I’d rather see myself fail than others,” Vas said thoughtfully. “Montreal was never the best team in the league when I was with them but we ALWAYS believed in ourselves. No matter if we were on a losing streak, winning streak or if we were in danger of finish last in the league, we always had faith. Even if we were down 3-0, I never doubted my teammates for a second. No matter what face I looked at in the locker room, I always knew that Randleman, Kirkstone, Jeziak, Kennedy, myself and all of us really, we all always told one thing to the new guys right from the get-go, just like we were told when we first arrived: Never give up. Trust the team. And I appreciate that so much and that taught me so much. Its what makes Montreal so strong. Militia strong!”

POLITICAL MINEFIELD

Leading up to and the aftermath of the most unusual presidential election in American history, politics have crept into the light more than ever before in every facet of society. Even in the SMJHL and SHL, the locker rooms are buzzing daily about the activities of, in my personal opinion, the most incompetent politician in the history of the known universe, Donald Trump. When I asked Ryan Vas about this, he shook his head and buried his face in his hands for a second.

“It is a damn shame. It is a damn travesty,” Vas said. “People who used to not even say the word “politics” are now so vocal about it that I’ve figuratively speaking seen people’s heads explode from the overload of politics ever since Trump won the presidency. A lot of it doesn’t make any sense and people are taking it more personally than ever before. Its like what you see on Twitter and Facebook, except you run into it on the street, in the line in Starbucks and even in the locker room. Everyone’s got a say and for some reason, they REALLY feel like they need to say it. I’m guilty of that myself as well and I hate to admit it but I just really don’t like Trump.”

But when I asked a follow-up question, Vas refused to elaborate. “I won’t name any names. I said that I don’t like Trump but I won’t tell you what any specific people have said,” Vas said after carefully. And who can blame him? Donald Trump has made some of the most controversial decision I’ve ever seen a president make. He’s threatened to build a wall on the US-Mexico border, he’s threatened the civil rights of immigrants and he’s signed executive orders without really knowing their contents. But even despite this, outside of what Vas just said, the hockey world has been extremely quiet about politics despite the fact that especially NBA and NFL players have certainly been very vocal about their disdain for Donald Trump. The SMJHL and SHL have plenty of European players who are seemingly in the line of fire thanks to Donald Trump’s policies but they don’t speak out, either for or against.

Vas said that its just a part of how they’re brought up as hockey players: You have opinions about anything else besides the game? Keep it to yourself and that’s it.”

And you can’t really blame players for taking a stand in the era of ever growing instant media: Plenty of people have gotten fired over tweets on Twitter or posts on Facebook, let alone over something they actually said instead of typing it on their phone in as little as 140 characters. But in an age where pressing “send” pretty much means that you’re never getting it off the internet again, its easy to understand why players are so careful.

“I think that if you know all the facts, you know all the little details, you understand the policies, you understand what it means when someone speaks in nothing but political terms that are meant to bore the listener to death so that the bills can be passed more easily, I think then you can say something but even then you have to be careful,” New England Wolfpack general manager Rainbow Dash said. “I myself keep up with the political happenings pretty well but even then I don’t feel comfortable saying anything. I’ll say something in the spirit of “in general, [insert facts]” but I won’t go into specifics because people just reach into their pocket, pull out their computer (I don’t think they’re phones, they’re computers these days, he explained between breaths) and fact check everything you just said to oblivion because they want to prove that you’re wrong. Its a huge minefield and nobody wants to send out even their worst enemies anywhere close to it,” Dash finished.
“I work in America but I still don’t want to think about all the American politics,” Brennan Kennedy said. “Its just makes me dizzy and then I’ll trip over my own words and say something stupid without knowing it because some people’s job is to get offended the same way its my job to put the puck into the back of the net. Its a huge dumpster fire and I see people all the time trying to put those fires out with lighter fluid. Not good.”

Ryan Vas said earlier that hockey players are taught from an early age to keep their personal opinions strictly to themselves but that its not always easy. “Some people don’t know that Obamacare and the Affordable Care Act are the same thing,” Vas said. “They’ll say they’re against Obamacare but that they’d definitely die without Obamacare. And then they’re shocked when you tell them that they’re the same thing. I myself am shocked on a daily basis about Trump’s actions but then I look back 6 months and go “Wait, he said he’d do that and I’m still shocked.” That’s ignorance on my part but some people take it to the next level and that’s why its not always easy to simply keep to yourself. Kind of like how I’m doing right now,” Vas said and muttered something under his breath in German, possibly telling himself to shut up. I am not sure.

I asked Rainbow Dash for an opinion and he just said “Its always going to be one versus the other. Sometimes its harder to accept just which two sides are going at it but its inevitable so why try and stop it? Let them go at each other and fight it from the outside. Vote people in and out of congress, call your representatives, stuff like that. You can only try to change people’s minds but don’t think that it’ll work every time, if ever. You just gotta do your own thing just like the people you don’t like are doing.”
I actually repeated this quote to Ryan Vas and he added “I think a lot of the times when people don’t like someone, its because that someone is doing something you yourself didn’t have the courage to do, even if it is a bad thing. Sure it was bad but at least they did it. They wanted to and they did. Gotta respect them for that,” Vas finished.

It certainly seems that from the days of Ryan Vas’ first season in the SMJHL to his ever nearing SHL debut, things have only gotten more complicated by the day, whether its due to Vas himself, due to someone else within the hockey circles or the political minefield.
“Of course its difficult but you can’t just give up. I think everyone needs to take some hits to make some plays, on and off the ice, but its just a question of whether you’re willing to take a ton of bricks to the face just for your cause or are you just content to let it run its course. I won’t say anything beyond that but its clear to me that the next 4 years might be the most interesting 4 years in a long while, whether anyone likes it or not. What a time to be working in America as an immigrant”, Vas said. “It definitely keeps you on your toes. Can’t be on your heels in times like these.”

The SHL pre-season will be starting soon so be on the lookout for a new face on the ice for the Edmonton Blizzard as Ryan Vas will be most likely skating on the second pairing at least in the pre-season as the Edmonton Blizzard prepare for yet another playoff run, now with Ryan Vas on board who’s certainly hungry for his first cup after he couldn’t achieve a cup victory in the SHL. It will be an interesting season.

“Every point is valuable from the very beginning of the season until the last game,” Vas said. “A good stretch of games can put you in a playoff spot and if you win that last game and someone else loses it, that might be the difference between your season continuing and your seasond ending. It’s encouraging to know Edmonton has only gotten stronger in the offseason and based on what has happened last season, we should be able to achieve at least the same level this season. Edmonton was a great hockey team last season and they’re even better this season. We’ll build chemistry and we’ll get the wins we need.”

Welcome aboard bud, glad to have you here

Quote:Originally posted by karlssens@Feb 10 2017, 09:15 PM
Welcome aboard bud, glad to have you here

Thanks! Time to close down cities due to heavy snowfall!

Congrats again on the call-up