As the regular season comes to an end, it's time to look back upon what you've accomplished over those long 50 games.
Your Task
Write at least 300 words reflecting on S31 so far. How did your player contribute this season? How did they do compared to how you hoped? How did they do compared to the other rookies? In what ways have they improved? What do they still need to work on?
Your Reward
5 capped TPE for doing the thing.
Remember, the PT cap for the season is 30.
Only S31 SMJHL Rookies are eligible for this PT.
You cannot claim TPE for this PT until a post is made in the global claim thread.
<div align="center"> -France's greatest export, after surrendering to the Germans. Jean Girard, reflects on his fabulous first season in the SMJHL
(read with the thickest, most over the top French accent)
Jean Girard: Even though I have only played a third of the games the other Prince Georges Firebirds, I have certainly contributed to this team more than any of the other players and coaches have done.
After all, there is only one man that has imparted his sagely wisdom in the world of style and haute couture, and that person is naturally me, Jean Girard. I didn't just contributed by bringing my unstoppabke scoring prowess (rd. 1 <s>goal</s> point in 15 games), but along with me came a small army of the finest Parisian stylists to transform the Firebirds from a backwater hick team to the team that defines the very definition of looking good on skates.
- Next season's outfit is slightly controversial amongst plebs, but they're certain to dazzle the opposition like the finest French deke!
And oui, I understand that these Faux-French so called 'Canadian' people do not realize that to win big is to look dashing, and it only makes sense that these uneducated swine did not appreciate my advice to make Prince Georges the city and team to be afraid of not just on the ice, but off the ice, as they slay their opposition through their uncanny fashion sense.
So whilst on the ice the best is still to come, the greatest rookie of season 31, and arguably greatest rookie of all time, me, Jean Girard, deserves to walk away with every award, into being able to make the beasts a beauty at the same time, fierce, yet beautiful, like a Lion. Fabulous, like a bird of fire.
First I shall transform the SMJHL from the ugly duckling, then I shall conquer the SHL and finally allow it to compete with the finest sport of figure skating and male modeling!
</div>
Jenny Registered
S30, S31, S33, and S54 Challenge Cup Champion
Quote:Originally posted by deknegt@Nov 2 2016, 01:06 PM <div align="center"> -France's greatest export, after surrendering to the Germans. Jean Girard, reflects on his fabulous first season in the SMJHL
(read with the thickest, most over the top French accent)
Jean Girard: Even though I have only played a third of the games the other Prince Georges Firebirds, I have certainly contributed to this team more than any of the other players and coaches have done.
After all, there is only one man that has imparted his sagely wisdom in the world of style and haute couture, and that person is naturally me, Jean Girard. I didn't just contributed by bringing my unstoppabke scoring prowess (rd. 1 <s>goal</s> point in 15 games), but along with me came a small army of the finest Parisian stylists to transform the Firebirds from a backwater hick team to the team that defines the very definition of looking good on skates.
- Next season's outfit is slightly controversial amongst plebs, but they're certain to dazzle the opposition like the finest French deke!
And oui, I understand that these Faux-French so called 'Canadian' people do not realize that to win big is to look dashing, and it only makes sense that these uneducated swine did not appreciate my advice to make Prince Georges the city and team to be afraid of not just on the ice, but off the ice, as they slay their opposition through their uncanny fashion sense.
So whilst on the ice the best is still to come, the greatest rookie of season 31, and arguably greatest rookie of all time, me, Jean Girard, deserves to walk away with every award, into being able to make the beasts a beauty at the same time, fierce, yet beautiful, like a Lion. Fabulous, like a bird of fire.
First I shall transform the SMJHL from the ugly duckling, then I shall conquer the SHL and finally allow it to compete with the finest sport of figure skating and male modeling!
</div>
i just wanna say that this is one of the finest PTs i've ever had the honour to read, so i hope everyone takes it as an exemplary model for their own work.
Matthew Rossi came into the SMJHL season as a free agent and he signs a minimum deal with Detroit Falcons with a bunch of his friends to have great LR and just have fun during the season. They had a lot of pressure to do well this season as well, came into the league like stars but did they perform like stars? Let’s take a look at Rossi. Matthew Rossi started the season off very slow but picked it up during the middle of the season and is still trying to improve his game to get a high ranking. Playing 46 games right now, he has 6 goals and 12 assists. Not much of a scorer but he could do much better with the puck at passing. The kid is still young though, he has a lot of time to improve his game and I know he will because he wants to keep on improving his game and in the end when he reaches his potential the sky will be the limit.
Comparing the stats to what I have hoped I’m not up there, I don’t expect myself to be hitting 40 points but I feel like 25 points would have been a better stage in my career as of right now. They are lot of things that I could work on my game, I feel like it’s still hitting there and I hope that it will hit there when I hit the big leagues because I need it. To me as I look at the rookies, I’m doing better than them. Not a lot but a bit because rookies don’t average a lot but some of them are hitting the expectation stage of what I put myself. In the end, I feel like I could be much better because I know myself and I need to keep getting better than them.
Going into the season 31 junior draft, Cory Knouse expected to be a late 1st round pick, but somehow he fell into the lap of the Kelowna Knights at the end of the 2nd round (#16 overall). After waiting longer than expected to hear his name called, Knouse came into the league with a chip on his shoulder. Let's take a look back at his performance as an SMJHL rookie.
Knouse has contributed to the Knights' locker room significantly this season, making many new friends within the team. He's made a considerable contribution on the ice as well, leading all Knights rookies in goals (11), points (22) & shots on goal (65).
Coming into the league, Knouse didn't really know what to expect, but after averaging a point every 2 games during pre-season (25 points in 50 games), he got a pretty good sense of where he'd be when the regular season got started. He'd hoped to improve on that scoring rate, but unfortunately it's stayed about the same, racking up just 22 points in 46 games played. After being taken off an under-performing power play early in the season however, I suppose a slight decline in production should've been expected.
As far as how he ranks among his draft class, Knouse has shown the teams that passed on him that was worth taking much higher than 16th overall. During pre-season, his 25 points placed him 3rd on thr rookie scoring list. While his scoring rate may not have improved, apparently the same applies to the rest of the rookie class, as his 22 regular season points still ranks 3rd in rookie scoring.
Even though his on-ice production hasn't quite progressed the way he'd hoped, Knouse has improved his off-ice attributes greatly, becoming much more vocal inside the Knights' locker room with each passing day.
Assuming he comes back to Kelowna for another season, Knouse hopes to keep improving his leadership skills & earn a letter for next season. He also hopes to improve his passing, skating & defense abilities to earn a spot on either of the Knights' special teams units.
That about wraps up my synopsis of this skilled young winger. Hopefully this gives any SHL teams interested in picking him a better understanding of who he is & strives to be on and off the ice.
The season so far has been a little bit overwhelming for my player, who only has 8 goals 10 assists in 15 minutes ice time per game in 46 games so far but that is to be expected by a pure two-way forward. Playing with a team full of rookies might have something to do with the low point production, as everyone is trying to prove that they belong in the SHL. Although, on the man advantage he has been sensational with the highest point production per powerplay minute on his team, with 2 goals 3 assists in 97 PPM. Point production is not everything though-- on the defensive side, my player has lived up to his expectations, +3 and 5 blocked shots on a team that is in the minus in goal difference. The reliability of my player is not to be underrated, he is one of the most disciplined on his team with only 12 PIM and despite his weakness being checking-- Nova has proven that he can be a bit physical; with 43 hits in 46 games. I was hoping my player would contribute a little more on the offense but I'm not really that disappointing because he is proving he is a versatile stat-sheet-stuffer and it will only improve as I progress my player. Nova is currently tied for 3rd on the team in points amongst the rookies and is a top 10 rookie this season.. so compared to other rookies, he is doing just fine for his year of adjustment in the junior level. I feel like last couple weeks my player has gotten a little more consistent as the chemistry is still building with his linemates but one thing i would like my player to improve on is his scoring, as he is a sniper build.
Radisk Rodders's rookie season was short but explosive. Rodders' joined the SMJHL on advice from his friend and goalie mentor Stiv Dingels. Rad Rod has always been much more of a partyer than Stiv every was, and moving to any major North American city was an extremely exciting idea for the young small town Latvian partyer. Radisk always hoped to join the Vancouver Whalers. It is where Stiv made a name for himself and where Radisk hoped he could start his illustrious career as well.
Rodders' season started fairly late in the season and the rust really showed. He started his season going 1-2-0 in his first 3 starts. However, the silver lining was that in two of those three games Rodders posted save percentages above .900. Rodders was showing a lot of promise in his first few SMJHL games.
After a fairly lengthy hiatus, Vancouver GM Jon Ross decided to give Rodders another chance in the net. This time Radisk really impressed the team. He won all three of his starts posting very solid save percentages in all of the games. Rodders showed that Dingels really had been training him and played some of the most solid goaltending he ever had.
Comparing Rodders to the rest of the SMJHL is a tough task. He was the only rookie goalie this year that seemed to have amounted to anything. For the short time that he played this season his numbers were very solid. 4 – 2 – 0 and a .913 save percentage in those six games, plus a short relief effort in a late season game. For a young goalie with a shortened season, these numbers are solid. Not great, but solid. Solid is all Radisk could have hoped for out of this season. After being thrown around so much Rodders is emphasizing how happy he is that his season went so well. Now he patiently awaits the playoffs and beyond hoping to help out the Vancouver Whalers organization as much as possible.
Vincent "Vinsanity" Garland, the adopted son of Sparks Lightning, has finished his first season in the SMJHL. He is reported "unhappy" about his stats as he total 3-7-10 in 50 games played. "I hope to do better and I will do better" says Garland. He is proud to come this far coming from a broken down neighborhood and also proud to do better than his foster dad in the SMJHL, but was expected to be a top 10 player but unfortunately he was on a cold streak mid season. "Off the ice, I was fooling around, me and my stupid ex girl and her friends, but you know what, that's my fault. No excuses that was on me." Garland was involved in a few off ice drama and glad it's finally over. wants to lead the Mammoths this upcoming playoff and hopes to have a great season next year
sytarah Registered
overwatch is a first person shooter for weebs
Samee Iqbal... the Kelowna Knights rookie center forward, one who spent most of his season playing big top 6 minutes for his level.
He was struggling at the start of his SMJHL career, with only a few points to put alongside of the big minutes he was playing. Then, after a few line changes here and there, and abut half way through the season, he was starting to score the points he wanted. And man, he was scoring a lot of points.
Although Samee put up 21 points in his rookie season, he was hoping for more.
"I was aiming for 25-30 points this season, honestly. Considering I was playing top 6 minutes, to start of my career, I was producing at an exceptionally low rate." He isn't to worried about his production now though. "Yeah, I'm not to worried about that now though. I think during the last half of the season, I really started to pick it up." And he did, he scored almost all of his points in the last half of the season.
Compared to other rookies though, he wasn't to shabby at all. Despite his slow start to his career, he was 5th in rookie scoring with 21 points, only behind the likes of Taro Tsujimoto, Cory Knouse, Kyle Kylrad and Teodors Cukurs.
"Well, being a top 5 forward in scoring is a really good thing. But honestly, I had such good linemates like Knouse and Light, so I owe some to them. But man, I wish I could have had a better start. I would love to have topped all rookies in scoring."
He was quite an important forward for the Kelowna Knights. Considering the lack of active centers, he was a desperate piece to solve to lack in centers, and filled in a major top 6 role.
Some things that Samee could use some improving in is his skating, and scoring.
"Yeah, my skating could use some work I think. I've been at the rink day in and day out working with the coaches on the skating. And scoring well, I could be putting the puck in the back of the net more, but my focus is to be a good playmaker."
Max Weber, rookie defenseman for the St. Louis Scarecrows, has just wrapped up his first SMJHL regular season. And, with the playoffs on the horizon, let's take a look back at his performance, and how things look for the future.
Max was drafted #3 overall in the S31 SMJHL Entry Draft by St. Louis, a move that surprised some given he had not seen much mention among the upper echelon of prospects. He was the second defenseman off the board, after Kelowna selected Eibhear Sorensen with the first overall pick.
Weber started off well enough, scoring his first goal nine games into the season and getting his first SMJHL first star in his sixteenth game. Weber finished up with 2 goals and 13 assists for a total of 15 points. Weber's production fell off in the second half of the season as he saw decreased minutes and the Crows went into a downward spiral that saw them finish last. Weber did manage to provide solid shot blocking and his -3 is actually not too bad given the team's overall goal differential. In terms of development, the talent is definitely there, as he appears to have the most TPE of any defenseman in this draft class as we enter the playoffs.
Weber's skills are quite balanced, with the notable weakness being his checking. Other than that, he does truly possess two-way talent and has developed at an elite pace. The production in his first juniors season did not really match that talent, though. At one point well into the season Weber was near the top in rookie scoring, but some roster shakeup amidst the Crows' losses ate into his minutes, and he really didn't produce offensively with those more limited minutes.
Still, results are king, and all the talent in the world won't make Weber a star in the the SHL if it doesn't translate to on-the-ice results in real games. A lot to build on, here, and Max seems extremely motivated to keep pushing on and improving every day.
#GOJETSGO S32 SHL Draft No. 1 Overall
Max Weber || D#39 || Portland Admirals/Winnipeg Jets ||
Kylrad came out of the SMJHL draft after going 6th oa to the falcons right in the middle of all the elite prospects with unsure expectations being on a very young rookie stacked Detroit team. At the start of the season he started off with a bang leading the falcons in points as well as being near the top of the league.
After awhile however Kylrad began to cool down and after some line changes, losing that scrub Luke Atmey on his line who seems to make those around him play better but doesn’t actually do anything himself as well as well as just disappointing play in general from kylrad led to a massive decrease in his offensive production. It was still enough though to finish 4th on the falcons in scoring and 2nd amongst all rookies with 27 points and 1 goal away from tieing the falcons record for rookie goals.
Although Kylrad still had a very good season compared to rookies, the early season was a sign of what he was capable of and made him quite disappointed that he wasn’t able to maintain that level of play throughout the whole season and he knows that he will have to keep on working and become more consistent if he wants to go far and be successful in the SHL. Hopefully during the upcoming playoffs now that he has a whole season of experience under his belt he can get back to his earlier form of play and win it all in his rookie year with a still developing Detroit team.
Derrick Glover was selected 14th overall in the most recent SMJHL entry draft to the St. Louis Scarecrows. Since then, he has gone on to play 50 games with the team. During which, Glover collected 9 goals, and 8 assists, to make up for 17 points, which was 8th best on the team. As well as his point totals, he managed to stay at a +/- of 0 as a rookie, and collect 40 hits. Glover split time at center and on the wing because of his weak face-off game, which was at 31% by the end of the season. Overall, Glover’s stat line isn’t exactly one to get to excited about, and for him personally, was a bit disappointing.
Despite Glover being disappointed in himself, he was possibly the best rookie on the team, as all the other rookies were behind him in points, and had a far worse +/-. As a result, Glover was awarded the most minutes among all Scarecrows rookies, and in comparison, did just fine with those minutes.
What is most intriguing about Glover is how well he developed to close out the season. Glover recently tweeted that he was just hoping to hit 15 points, as he had a mere 12 points with about 5 games to go, but his offensive skills shined in the remaining games to finish the season at a point per game pace. Glover can only hope that he can continue with his recent play into the playoffs, to give his team the best chance at a championship run.
Lastly, while his offensive development shined at the end of the season, it is clear that he would like to be better defensively, and that comes in the form of 2 of the stats we’ve already mentioned, with those being his +/-, and face-off percentage. In order to become the solid two-way player that Glover hopes to be, he needs to improve upon his terrible face-off percentage, which will get only worse in the big leagues. Improving upon this will translate to more possession time, and as a result, less time in his own end. His face-off improvement is the first part to an improved defensive game.
The regular season is over and the playoffs are about to start, so we can see a lot of local and regional media outlets to write about their teams best players, games, moments and of course rookie performances. Although media should not be bias towards anyone and use facts only to speak about someones performance, we still will see a lot of exaggeration about some of the rookies in the league this season. But let's keep the facts straight and talk about the obvious #1 Rookie of the SMJHL S31, our own Prince George Firebirds - Teodors Cukurs.
Before the draft he was definitely to be one of the top choices and all the SMJHL teams knew it. He was not only promising young prospect but also someone with a lot of will and passion to succeed and be one of the greats. Because of that a lot of teams who had lower end draft picks, did not even contact him and not because they did not want him, but because there was no way they would get him. Nonetheless Prince George having their 4th pick was not sure they would have this opportunity and made some deals to be able to snatch him at #2 overall.
Being as one of the top picks came with a lot of pressure as he had to perform and show that he is not a bust as league has faced many early round picks to end up being busts in the end. Already in the pre-season games he showed that he can play and is ready. Starting the regular season Cukurs was put to play on the second lineup as Boone was the starting Center for PGF. The decision was obvious as Boone had more experience and it was not his first season in SMJHL. Towards the end of the season, Cukurs was switch with Boone and he became the starting center for PGF.
Since the first games Cukurs showed really strong playmaker abilities and proved that he was the right choice to draft. Earning points by mainly assisting for the whole season, but also scoring when neccessary, Cukurs did what was expected from him and earned his place in the team and on the first line, right besides the team captain.
Ending the regular season with 21 assists and 10 goals and leading the S31 rookie class in points with 31, having a 4 point difference between the 1st and 2nd place, Cukurs did everything that anyone could expect from a first year player.
Throughout the season there was a lot of improvement and mainly you could see the difference in his defensive abilities as at the beginning he was not the greatest on defensive side of the game. Scoring was improved as well and it showed towards the end of the season when he scored several goals as well.
Overall his performance has been great and there is no doubt he will have a great future as this was his first year and he already managed to put up a good fight with results between players that have been playing in the league for several seasons already. With the work ethic and the talent that Cukurs has - he will show even more the next season.
When I was considering what to expect out of myself for my SMJHL rookie campaign, I used my mentor Hannu Hamalainen’s SMJHL rookie year as a starting point. Hamalainen was a playmaker who began as an undrafted free agent with the then Montreal Impact. He finished with 5 goals and 9 assists that season as he moved up from the fourth line to the third line during that season. I thought that I would fall in only slightly ahead of Hamalainen’s point production; given that I’m more focused on defensive positioning than he was early in his career. The reason for my belief that I would score more points than Hamalainen was that I was able to get signed on with the Halifax Raiders for their Four Star Cup win prior to the start of my full rookie season and shouldn’t see fourth line duty.
What was unexpected was due to the line tinkering done by the management in Vancouver through the first half of my rookie season. I found myself getting time on the second line and briefly, the first line. I even enjoyed a cup of coffee on the power play, where I picked up three assists. By the time I’d settled into my expected third line role, I was much improved as an all around forward and continued to produce points at a reasonable rate with the reduced ice time. So I ended up with 10 goals, 11 assists and 21 points. That’s solid production out of a rookie forward in the SHL considering that I finished fourth in rookie scoring. The ten goals were especially unexpected, since I’m a less than average shooter even for the SMJHL. I was a plus player until I landed on the all-rookie third line. We struggled collectively as a unit against better competition and I went from around plus five to a minus two by the end of the season.
I still see myself as a two-way forward who will is responsible in the defensive zone and the neutral zone first. I’ll be making tweaks to my game before I hit the SHL, however. I’ll probably hit even less than the 41 I dished out in S31. I’m not very big or strong, so hitting in the SHL will likely do no more than wear me down. My defensive play in the future will consist mostly of deflecting and intercepting passes, retrieving loose pucks and blocking the occasional shot to help turn the play the other way. After all, for a two-way player, offense should be as important as defense. I was happy to discover in S31 that I have an offensive side to my game and look forward to increasing my offensive production as a send down in S32.
This rookie season has been an utter disappointment. Everyone knew coming in late would be a tough job to do, but still I had hoped for a much better season. The hopes were high but in the end I only scored 5 points in 42 games. Worst of all, as a playmaker, I had a hard time giving assists, ending up with more goals than assists, which really made me question my own abilities.
I started out on the first line, with high hopes and motivations, but the team struggled. We were in first place at the time but quickly found ourselves in last place. I was demoted to the second and later third line, with less and less playing time as well. While I started out with around 16 minutes per game, in the end that got lowered to about 14 minutes per game.
I also played on the powerplay with mediocre success, getting one goal and one assist there. I did manage to block one shot, did not commit many dumb penalties (only 8 minutes in 42 games). While I started out with a decent plus-minus rating, it ended up going downhill fast and I ended up with -12.
All in all, this was a terribly disappointing season and there is a lot of worries about the draft now. There are a lot better rookies in terms of efficiency and scoring. In terms of motivation and talent, I still believe in myself but it will be interesting to see where I go in the draft. I am hopeful that I can improve in the next year and still continue to grow as a player. Ideally my statistics next year will be a lot better. I especially want to improve most in terms of playmaking and have a ton more assists than I did this season.
ej27![[Image: h-FRENCH-STEREOTYPE-628x314.jpg]](http://i.huffpost.com/gen/1237958/images/h-FRENCH-STEREOTYPE-628x314.jpg)
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