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spidey · 02-24-2014, 04:51 AM

Thanks to the popular vote the Manhattan Rage are proud to announce this yearâ€™s team captain. While there were a number of great options on the team, one player stood out as the person the team would like to rally behind moving forward. Despite being one of the youngest members on the roster the super sophomore is looking to expand on his great first season. A loud voice in the locker room and a hell of a workhorse on the ice, this player doesnâ€™t put up a ton of points but he is just a steady even force that puts a little bit of fear into his opponents. We are of coarse talking about none other than Manhattan Rage defender Azriel Stryfe. It is not often a player has this kind of impact on a team this early in his career, but Stryfe the former second overall pick has been one of those rare exceptions. We took a moment to talk to the new Captain:

Congrats on your new captaincy with the Rage, how does it feel to be chosen to the face of this historic franchise for this season?
It is a huge honor we have a lot of great players and for the locker room to rally around myself is a huge compliment. We have a great group of players really starting to gather here and it could easily been anyone of them. I myself voted for Ondrej Ravchitikov, the guy is someone I look up to in our locker room and has helped me develop as a player on and off the ice.

Success can be measured in a lot of ways, what would be a successful season for the Rage this season and how will you help them get there?
Letâ€™s be very honest with one another, we are not in a position to make a run for the cup yet. Best case scenario we are a playoff team in a seasons time, realistically it will be at least two. How we will see success, improving on our record from last season, seeing our team stats improve such as special team success, shots on net, and hits. If we can improve in these areas we will have a successful season. What am I going to do, well everything I can to keep the locker room busy and keep our team members active. An active team a team that participates and works together becomes a team that wins through improved players.

With being a young player on the Rage and being named Captain is there too much pressure on yourself, will it affect your ability to perform, and will you take more of an offensive role then the past?
First off as for pressure, yeah it will add pressure but there is no more than I can handle. We all know the expectations, honestly they are not that high, my personal expectations are higher and I am going to do everything I can to reach those expectations. As for my performance, I doubt this will change a thing. I will do a few more interviews as captain but on the ice I am still the machine I have always been I am focused on one thing and that is winning. I would expect a decline this year in my offensive production, honestly the 20 points last season was pure fluke, I am not that talented of a player in the offensive zone, however I do expect a better rating more hits and blocked shots this season.

One last question, what do you think of the team moving forward, what do you feel will be the next step?
I love it here, we have an amazing group of guys coming in and did you see our draft this year? It was sick! Hopefully we can repeat that success next season. We all know the Rage are building through the draft and I think the next step will be drafting a few more star forwards, after that we need to trade for a founded star player. If we can get that key figure on the offensive side of the puck to build around we have the complimentary pieces in place already. The back end is spoken for at this point now there is one focus to finish everything up.

Thank you so much for taking the time to talk to us Mr. Stryfe and good luck to you and the Rage next season. The way I see it the rage have only one direction to go and that is up, perfect time to bring in a young captain to get the feel for the team and the new responsibility he will have to face.

Keenan · 02-24-2014, 05:26 AM

Grats on the captaincy, Spidey. Keep up the good work, I'm glad Manhattan has a player of your caliber.

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