600 words. Double payout for 1st article (actual first article was during double media week for draft)


The Falcons didn’t have the best of luck in the first fourteen games of this pre-season, with only three wins in regulation and one shoot-out win. A good number of losses were within a 1 goal difference though, including a shoot-out loss, so with a little more luck, things could have been looking a lot better for this young Detroit team. Nobody in Detroit will be too disheartened with the results so far though. Earlier this week, their GM dubbed season 51 a ‘rebuild season’, and with almost a full line of rookies on the ice, nobody expected Detroit to step up from game one and grab win after win. It’s a team with a lot of potential, and so far the rookies have shown they can keep up with the pace of the SMJHL and are standing their ground and grabbing their points where they can.

One of those rookies is Swiss-born forward Cal Labovitch. Not only did he score in just his third game, after some beautiful back-and-forth passing with Kaarlo Kekkonen, to record his first ever goal for the Detroit Falcons; Cal has also shown off some really promising passing skills for the Detroit-based team in the first fourteen exhibition games. The playmaking right winger from Lausanne has especially stepped up to his role on the special teams. He is currently tied for most time on the ice during the man-advantage situations; grabbing one power play goal and three assists in thirty-six minutes on the power play in the first part of this pre-season. His production on the power play has boosted him to first place in rookie points for the Detroit Falcons, grabbing another assist in five on five situations for a total of five points so far.

Showing off a clean, European style of hockey in the SMJHL, with a focus on playing the puck instead of the opponent, has led to spectators only getting to see Cal lay down four hits. It has also kept him out of the dreaded penalty box so far, making him one of four Detroit players without penalty minutes in these first fourteen exhibition games.

One area of the game the right winger will have improve on in the future is his defensive commitment. Despite his goal and four assists, Cal recorded a plus/minus of minus ten during these fourteen games, ranking second to worst on this statistic for Detroit. Cal has consistently shown to be uncomfortable with the amount of defensive tasks SMJHL hockey is throwing at him, but has been  seen on the ice working on his defensive positioning during practices.

During this pre-season, Cal is also active in the WJC, held in Tampere, Finland. Representing the Swiss-Austrian joint venture ‘ Team Alpine’ in thirteen round robin games so far, Cal has grabbed an official assist on the international junior level as well. His plus/minus rating of zero for Team Alpine looks promising as well, and Detroit fans are hoping he will start to show some defensive growth when playing for their team in the near future as well.

If the Detroit playmaker can turn his defensive weakness around, improving his efforts on his own side of the ice, while keeping his assist-production up, we can definitely expect some great things from him later in the 51. Season. Hockey fans from both Switzerland and Detroit are all very keen to follow the young right wingers progress and are hoping to see him wearing both teams red and white jerseys for the next few years.