I like sleeping. When I’m tired, I tend to get super grumpy. And when you live in a hockey-mad area like Boston, and you’re out on the street with bags on your eyes, people notice. One day, I was walking to the practice arena and I was very tired. I was never really a coffee drinker as I like to think of myself as a morning person, but you could easily tell on that day that I’d gotten no sleep whatsoever. So I’m walking down the street and this one dude walks up to me and says, “Ya like dunkin’, kid?” Now I’ve never heard of this “dunkin” in my life, so I say, “No, what the hell is it?”. And this dude, with a thick-as-fuck Boston accent, says “Follow me, buddy. It’ll change ya life forever. Wicked good.” So I follow him to Dunkin’ and he tells me to order a coffee and it was fucking great. “It’s a Boston staple, kid. Get used to it.” And now I drink coffee, specifically from Dunkin’, whenever I’m tired before practice to wake me up. That whole interaction was great for me, as I began to know the fabric of the city a bit more, which is great for fitting into a new team in a new city.


Of course, I was traded after the Challenge Cup finals to the Wolfpack, going from the reigning Cup champions to a team in the middle of a re-tool. The Wolfpack had traded away Guy Zheng, Dick Clapper, Benjamin Blue, and Ola Wagstrom, and had just traded Rex Kirkby and Boris Poroshenko for me. They’d gone from being the best team in SHL regular season history in S53 to a rebuilding team just two seasons later. Yet they wanted me to be the face of the rebuild. And as soon as I walked into that locker room, I knew I’d found a team that would have my back and a place where I’d fit in. Frans Eller and Sasha Dangelchek brought me in to the LR right after my introductory press conference and it felt like home immediately. There was the cool Swedish defenseman Sven Yxskaft, who may seem cool and quiet but is actually goddamn hilarious. Dangel, the Czech winger who’s the heart and soul of the team. Jakub Bruchevski, the quiet yet confident first line right winger. Foulmouthed Brit blueliner Perry Morgan. And the quite interesting defenseman Igor Volkov. And then there were the faces I knew. Eko van Otter, the team’s star left winger who I consider to be a mentor of sorts. Swiss teammate Slap McShotty, known for being a dynamic playmaker. And, of course, one of my best friends from juniors in Stan Hanson, who I won the Four Star with in S51. Stan was one of my alternate captains in S53 too, and it was great to see him again as a teammate. Plus, Matthew Sawful, another juniors teammate of mine, was in the system. Once I saw the group we had, I knew we could make some noise around the league.

I got voted as one of the alternate captains (Sven was the other, and Slap was named captain), which was a major honor as a newly-acquired player. I extended my contract literally two days after I was acquired, keeping me in town until S57. And then the season started and we started kicking ass. No one had expected the Wolfpack to make the playoffs, let alone compete for a spot. We knew we weren’t favored for any spot, which meant we weren’t burdened by any expectations. And we came out of the gates on fire. An overtime win against the Steelhawks to start the season off 4-0-0. An 8-6 thriller against the Edmonton Blizzard four games later to improve our record to 6-3-0. And the crown jewel early on? Ending the Stampede’s undefeated start in the very next game. Everything was in sync. The first line of McShotty, Bruchevki, and van Otter were producing. So was the second line of myself, Dangel, and Rafe Ulrich. Even the third line, led by the clutch Hanson (scored the OT winner against Hamilton) and surprisingly ageless Shooter McGavin (who finished second on the team in goals with 18) were putting up points. And the defense was great as well, buoyed by Morgan, Ysxkaft, Maximilian Egger, and the newly-acquired Dominic Montgomery, an endlessly happy and contented person who knew how to brighten up the room. Let’s not forget Frans’ play as well; he came in as a rookie and played like a brick wall. He was fantastic for us this season and very well could win the Jesster. Sure, there were some low points (a loss to a much-improved Tampa Bay team and our inability to beat the Baltimore Platoon), but we were flying pretty high as we fought with a surprisingly underperforming Chicago Syndicate team for the fourth and final playoff spot.

Then some things happened that dampened the mood for a bit. Our co-GM, van Otter, got one of the two expansion teams. Well-deserved, as he’s a great general manager who knows how to run a room and relate to his players, but someone who will be sorely missed. Later he was traded to Buffalo as they loaded up for the playoffs. It sucked for me, as Eko was a mentor to me and one of the best people in the league hands-down, but it was a trade that made sense for both teams, as the Wolfpack got MORE draft picks to go along with the shit ton that they had already and the Stampede got a top-tier LW who enables them to only lose one player to expansion. And finally, the GM got fired. Frans, who’s assembled this team and done a great job of doing so, was on probation for trading the same pick thrice. He’d done it again, and was fired for it as he was on probation. Sven, who had recently been named co, was placed as interim GM. And this all happened at the end of the season as we were tied with the Syndicate (who had a game in hand) for that last spot.

We had 3 games left (vs MAN, TBB, MIN) while Chicago had 4 left (TBB twice, SFP, TEX). We beat Manhattan 3-2 as I scored twice, while Chicago dominated San Fransisco 7-2. We then had a day off as the Syndicate lost to Tampa Bay in a shootout, putting our fate in our hands. The next day, we had an off night and lost to Tampa in a shootout. Now Texas controlled their fate, and came back from a 2-0 deficit against the Renegades to stomp them 6-2. We were eliminated after a thrilling fight with the Syndicate, and finished off our season by dominating Minnesota 6-1. The Syndicate really were on fire at the end of the season, and they deserve that playoff spot (they’d also beaten us a couple of games earlier, which put them in control of that fourth seed). They’re a great team with fantastic depth and I hope they do well.

As for my production, I had what some could consider to be a breakout year. I scored 15 goals and chipped in with 19 assists to finish with a grand total of 34 points, almost doubling my point total from last season. I felt I played a more complete game as well, as I also had 70 hits and 48 blocked shots which led to a better performance in defense. My promotion to the first line after Eko was traded also led to a slight uptick in my offensive performance to end the season. But I don’t consider this to be a breakout year at all. I’m just getting started. That Dunkin’ helped, after all. My first season with the Wolfpack was better than I ever imagined it to be, and we still have more young talent coming up as Ethan Price, Erben Kasius, and (Clean) Andrei Kostitsyn are all making their SHL debuts next season, with other players like Sawful, Gudmundur Kristjansson, Alex Oscarsson, Leonids Balzams, and Ryan Rieley still in the J. This team is going to be scary soon and I'm happy to be a part of it.