Mike Hroch is a goalie for the New England Wolfpack. He won the Four Star Cup with the Carolina Kraken during his first season in the SMJHL. Two years later, he was called up full time in Season 53 to serve as a backup for the Wolfpack. Hroch also won a Gold Medal in the World Juniors Championship and recently transferred to Latvia fro the IIHF tournament. The lovable 7'6", 350 lbs goalie loves food and friends and is here today to answer your questions.

Editor's Note - This article was written over about two weeks, so some of the stats and quotes and thoughts may sound slightly weird if re-read in one final sitting.


This is a continuation of this article here.

The__Y-man__100 Wrote:Do you have any individual or team rivals on the SHL?

Despite being mainly a backup, I do have some rivals when it comes to the Simulation Hockey League.

First and foremost, every other backup goalie in the league I consider to be my rival. I told you already it is my goal to be the best backup goalie in the league. When I get dressed at my locker before every game, on the back wall of my locker is a red sheet of paper with the following names written on it in black sharpie:

SCOTTEY CRAWFLING
BILLY SOROKIN
ELLE RUSH
NOLAN MCMAHON
ALEXSANDR ALEKSANDROV
BIZ NASTY
STROM CHAMBERLAIN
SEBASTIEN PRIMEU
KASPERI BRAULIN
EVGUENI MARMELADOV
BEAUJEAUX BISCUIT
IAN VENEBLES
TOBIAS LINDERMAN
PATRICK NIEDERREITER

These people are my direct competition for that title. Nolan McMahon’s name is circled as a big rival of mine. He and I were on the same team together down in the minors and won a title together. He’s a great guy and a great player and it’s my goal to out-goaltend him one day.

As far as specific teams, I haven’t really had enough time in the bigs to duke it out with any teams in particular. I am sure that will change as I progress further in my career, and once I have some playoff experience with the New England Wolfpack, that’s really where rivals and enemies are made.

The__Y-man__100 Wrote:Who has the best wolf howl on the team?

Best wolf howl? That’s gotta be Eko van Otter. You know, a few weeks ago we were on a road trip to Chicago after a couple of tough losses. I wanted to hang out at the hotel bar and buffet before turning in for the night, but nobody was really feeling it so we just went to sleep.

At 2:30 in the morning, I shit you not, everyone is awoken by a startling noise down the hall. I nearly fell off my bed it was so loud and crazy. It was like an animal being murdered or something right there in our four start hotel. I tossed a hoodie and a towel on, grabbed my goalie stick, and ventured into the cold, dark hallway. Tons of my teammates and neighbors did the same, although not everyone was scared enough where they needed their battle weapon. The lights were out and one of our defensemen had a flashlight. Everybody started to congregate by the elevator. I may or may not have been the most scared out of everyone.

Suddenly, from the darkness, Eko leaps out, howling like a damn wolf at the top of his lungs. It sounded so authentic – if I didn’t see him crouching there on all fours, I certainly would have thought that we were under attack by a ravid best. Weirdly, he was naked, with bloodshot eyes, and what might have been ketchup or blood (I’m not sure) dripping from his mouth.

“SCREW CHICAGO! HOWWWWWWWWL!” he bellowed at the top of his lungs. We all cheered, knocked back a few bottles, and watched the sun rise. It was a weird team bonding experience that gave us an edge against Chicago that night despite not getting any sleep. We won the game, and the next few, all thanks to Eko’s great wolf howl. Crazy story, I know.

bbjygm Wrote:What changes did you have to make in your game to adjust from juniors playstyles to the SHL?

I think the main adjustment I had to make coming up form the juniors league was my reflexes. Everyone knows this, but the guys who are playing in the SHL are way faster than those down still in the SMJHL. They are like, really fast. Back when I was growing up my mum had a six-door Toyota station wagon. It was one of those where you can sit in the very back seat and look backwards out of the car, out the back window, and creep on the drivers and whoever is tailgating your family. When I was a wee baby, like 4 years old sitting in that back seat and I was watching the world go by, I thought that car was fast. But when I grew older and my dad went through a midlife crisis before he died, he bought a Jaguar. That car was waaay faster than anything I had every been in up until that point, it smoked my mum’s station wagon, no doubt.

Playing in the SMJHL is like looking at those station wagons coming in and setting up for a goal. But once you are called up to the SHL, practically everyone is a freaking jaguar coming in hot. So yeah, I spent a lot of time on my reflexes. My positioning was already pretty good upon getting called up, but in order to keep up with the speedy offensive players in the bigs, reflexes are going to be key.

How did I do it? I went to this fancy athlete training facility downtown and talking to them about what I needed to do. $500,00 dollars later, they put me in a dark room with a couple of screens and a button in front of me. On the dark screen we had bright green lights appear in the form of a digital shot on goal. When I saw the lights, I had to press the button, and then we would repeat. I must’ve done that exercise three hundred times, but somehow it really helped. I’ll keep working on my reflexes and positioning so I can become the best goalie I can be!

goldenglutes Wrote:How did it feel to be the biggest guy in the SHL (I haven't fact checked this)?

Thanks for stopping by. I will fact check that for you right now … /checks facts/ … YES, that is correct, I, Mike Hroch, am the biggest guy in the entirety of the Simulation Hockey League. I am a big boy. I stand at 7 foot, 6 inches tall. My frame has 350 pounds of something on it. My Size when that was a statistic we kept was the maximum 99 rating.

How does it feel? In a word, cumbersome. I love the advantage that my size gives me in the net – a big boulder in front of the goal certainly helps my keep the lead for my teammates – but beyond that, it’s not a huge deal. I am proud of my body and I’m proud of how I am able to use it in the net is all.

Z0REM Wrote:Your original goal was to maxamize size and make your guy as thick as a walrus in STHS. How did that translate to your new build in FHM?

This is a great meta-question. Yes, my original goal was to make a big boy with a 99 size rating, and before we ditched STHS to join up with FHM, I did accomplish that feat and I am very proud of that!

As far as the transition to FHM, there really wasn’t anything that translated to size. I'm not even sure my body measurements made it into the new engine - 7 feet, six inches, and 350 pounds. So I tried to get a bit more metaphorical with my build, as it were.

Why did I want to make a big dude? Because I want to cover as much of the goal as possible. Make it so there are fewer net spots where you can sneak a puck through. Even if Mike Hroch just sits there in front of a goal like a hippo, he'll have a higher save percentage than a replacement level player. Let's check out the skills for goalies...

Blocker: The goalie's ability to stop shots aimed high on his stick side.
Glove: The goalie's ability to stop shots aimed high on his glove side.
Low Shots: The goalie's ability to stop shots aimed below the reach of his glove/blocker, on either side or through the 5-hole.
(The above three attributes are the shot location-specific ones - in combination, these attributes should identify the goalie's strengths and weaknesses at handling different shot locations.)

Kind of feels like a circle, right? If I am excelling at stopping shots aimed to my high stick side, high glove side, and everything low, it's almost like enlarging my body, which is what I was going for with size. Those are the three skills that I started out at, 15 on the 20 scale.

For the rest of my build, I left Skating at a 10 and Stamina at an 11 for obvious reasons. I'm not trying to leave the net much, more do my eating habits leave me with a lot of stamina in my daily life.

moonlight Wrote:What was your favourite moment as a Kraken?

It’s got to be hoisting the cup with my brothers, right? Becoming a champion? But perhaps that is a little too easy.

If we are going a little more abstract, I do have a very fond memory involving food with my teammates. (Of course.) It was after we beat the Anchorage Armada, the team bus was headed back down through Valdez on our way to the next game. Lo and behold, someone forgot to fill up the gas tank and we were stranded in a some backwards nowhere town for hours.

Some guys got restless, but I tried to make the most of it. It was late, late in the night and we were waiting for AAA to show up to fill us back up. Everyone was getting hungry. I pulled out my phone, and what do you know, there was a small fast food conglomerate just 0.7 miles away.

I gathered the guys and we marked through the snow, bringing our sticks for protection. About half a dozen of us went out into the cold. Normally, would be too scared to attempt something like this, but I hadn’t eaten since my afternoon snack and I was getting incredibly desperate for some grub.

When we finally arrived, there was a McDonald’s, a Burger King, and a Wendy’s. Score! At first I wanted to go to Wendy’s, but McMahon wanted to go to McDonald’s and a few of the forwards were going on and on about Burger King. Suddenly, I had a realization, and my childhood dream was realized. I was going for the Fast Food Hat Trick.

First stop, McDonald’s. McDonald’s has some of the best fries, so I loaded up on those bad boys (two of ‘em, Super Sized) and stuffed them into my backpack. I got a single Quarter Pounder, waited for the rest of the guys to order, and then moved onto the next restaurant. Had there not been all three of these glorious chains situated right next to one another, I would’ve gotten a triple Quarter Pounder and called it a day. But I was not done yet.

At Burger King, they’re all about the burgers, man. I ordered a Whopper and some Chicken fries. Because who doesn’t love Chicken Fries, am I right? I mixed those Chicken Fries in with the McDonald’s fries, set the Whopper aside, and headed to Wendy’s.

Now, when you’re at Wendy’s, you gotta get a Frostie, right? I was debating between chocolate and vanilla until my teammate hit me in the head with his stick for taking too long and I just blurted out “LARGE CHOCOLATE FROSTY!” I picked up another burger because I love those square edges to round out the meal. We walked back to the bus and once I was situated back in my seats, I got to work.

I put my fry combo and my frostie on the side, and then stacked together the burgers from McDonald’s, Wendy’s, and Burger King (the whopper was in the middle, of course). My creation was complete – the Fast Food Hat Trick. I chowed down a full week’s worth of calories while a defenseman took a video and fell asleep right afterwards. So delicious, so glorious.

If we aren’t counting the obvious answer of winning a championship being my favorite moment as a Kraken, I would have to say that night was a close second.

hotdog Wrote:Hroch is all about the food so what's the big guy been chowing down on recently?

You know it! I have build part of my brand on being a fast food enthusiast for better or worse (my favorites include Carl’s Jr/Hardees, Church’s Chicken, the aforementioned Wendy’s, Wingstop for the big game, Tim Hortons whenever we are playing in the Great White North, Subway when I’m on a diet, Quizno’s when I’m sick of subway, Popeyes, Jack in the Box, KFC, mixing in a few Five Guys burgers here and there, Little Caesars if I have to bring something to a party, A&W, Arby’s, Pizza Hut when I come across one of those classic ‘90s buffets, Panda Express, Pollo Campero, Boston Market for family dinners, Krispy Kreme in the mornings, Lee’s Famous Recipe Chicken, Skyline Chili, Sbarro when I’m lost at the mall, Wetzel’s Pretzels when Sbarro is closed, Culver’s, Domino’s, Del Taco on occasion, Papa Murphy’s, the soda fountain at Johnny Rockets is great, Jack in the Box, In-N-Out Burger if I have a boatload of free time, Halal Guys on vacation, Habit Burger, Green Burrito, Potbelly Sandwich Works, Steak ‘n Shae, Qdoba, and of course Taco Bell and Dunkin’s Donuts take the top spot), but lately I’ve been trying to support the local small businesses.

Like, once a week I’ll order DoorDash from the places down the street. Let me go back in my order history and recount the last few meals for you…

Four weeks ago, I hit up this roadhouse that specializes in dope sandwiches. I couldn’t decide between two so I just decided to get both. First I ate a Salmon BLT Sandwich with extra bacon, and a Buttermilk Fried Chicken Sandwich with no tomato, no siracha bleu cheese, and three sides of ranch. Oh, and I also got some “naked fries” ‘cuz they were cheaper and I was feeling naughty.

Three weeks ago I was hungover on Saturday morning and needed some breakfast food, fast. I was in no mood to cook eggs or even to pour cereal, but there’s a bagel shop nearby that really hooked it up. I got a bagel sandwich, of course. The bottom holster of my bagel sandwich was a sliced and toasted everything bagel, and for the top part, the “roof” as I like to call it, I had them toast up an Asiago bagel. Love that cheese! Inside I had scrambled eggs, breakfast ham, sausage, avocado, and a bunch of onions, with two sides of bacon. It really hit the spot, I gotta say.

Two weeks ago I was feeling the fried chicken. The local BBQ joint has a delivery-only side hustle as a fried chicken restaurant. It’s a little weird, I know, but I’m not here to judge. I kept it simple this time, going for the “FLAMING MO”, as their menu describes it, which is a dope fried chicken sandwich topped with ghost pepper cheese, jalapeno sweet heat slaw, pickled jalapeno, “pluck sauce”, and potato chips. (Zapp’s Voodoo chips, if anyone is curious.) I am salivating right now recounting it to you.

And last week I ordered from a Greek restaurant. (I get around!) My appetizer was honey lemon bacon brussel sprouts. Normally I shy away from “veggies”, but it had honey and bacon in the title and I’ve been meaning to eat a little healthier, so I just went for it. Another side of tzatziki and pitas, some lemon chicken orzo, fiery feta sausage mac and cheese, and an order of horiatiki to round it out. Not my typical indulgence but it tasted good. Don’t forget to tip your delivery drivers, kids!

I haven’t decided what I’m going to order this week. Hit me up in the comments down here if you have any suggestions. Here’s my street address in case you need to check the restaurants in my area for their delivery hours:  24 Evergreen Drive, Otis, MA 01008.  Thanks!

hotdog Wrote:How do you feel about having the best GAA in the entire SHL this season, the only goalie with less than one goal against per game?

It is a true honor. I know it’s a small sample size, but that’s still pretty impressive. When I started writing this and you first asked the question, we were still in the regular season, but now that it’s over and the stats are final, let’s take a deeper dive, shall we?

Mike Hroch Season 53 Stats:
- 10 Games Played. Not bad. That’s 20% of the season for a team that went to the playoffs.
- 604 Minutes Played. At least it’s not 666 minutes, that would be unlucky.
- 10 Wins and 0 Losses. I won EVERY game I played in this season, that’s so cool!
- 159 Saves on 166 Shots Against, just 7 Goals Allowed. 7 goals is tie for the lower in the entirety of the league, and Alexsandr Aleksandrov played nearly 500 less minutes than me.
- 0.70 GAA, also known as Goals Against Average as my teammates tell me. That is the lowest in the league, nearly half of the 2nd place Elle Rush’s 1.50 GAA.
- 4 shutouts. I had as many shutouts this year as full-timers Knox Booth (LAP), Peter Larson (MAN), Kata Vilde (CGY), and Tibuk Soonika (CHI).
- 95.8% Save Percentage, best in the league. Shoutout to my teammate Johannes Leitner who got second place with 92.4% in way more playing time.
- Game Rating of 75. I don’t know what this is, but it tied for 2nd with Aleister Cain (NOL), Sebastien Primeau (NOL) and Strom Chamberlain (WPG). First place was Luca Del Vecchio of WKP with just 77.

So yeah, I am proud of this season, and it would be awesome to finish it off with a ring. Let’s get ‘em, Wolfies.

jRuutu Wrote:Thoughts on New Englands season so far - can the team be as dominating in the playoffs?

Sorry I didn’t get to this one sooner. The answer is yes, and we are, we are currently up 3-0 as I type this.

jRuutu Wrote:What is the hardest part about being a young goalie in SHL?

The hardest part about being a young goalie is all the practical jokes. There’s a bit of good-natured “rookie hazing” when a young player comes up to the big time, as I’m sure you can imagine. During our first road trip of the season, the guys made me (“asked me?”) to go get them some coffee at the Starbucks down the street. Easy enough, I thought. I don’t care much for the stuff (coffee is gross, when I go to Starbucks I mainly go for those delicious cake pops), but I was happen to help.

The only catch? They made me run the errand in full hockey gear.

So there I was, dressed head to toe like I was about to go on the ice, walking through the town of our biggest rival. Some people were chill about it and gave me a head nod. Other opposing fans threw things at me. Some Wolfpack fans wanted a picture, which was fine. It was a tough trip though. That stuff is not very comfortable when it’s hot outside… all those pads, so sweaty… and they made me wear my skates too. Skates on concrete do not work well, y’all. On my way back I had almost returned to the stadium, I lost my balance stepping into a sidewalk crack and fell over. Would’ve busted open my knee if I wasn’t wearing my pads. But the coffee was ruined and I had to make the trip all over again.

jRuutu Wrote:How annoying it is to see defenders like Kalju leaning on the net to catch their breath while the puck is still in play?

I’ll be honest, I don’t blame the guy! Hockey is hard work. Skating is hard work. All that moving around… you need lots of energy and stamina and if Kalju needs a break, he deserves a break, in my opinion. I mean, look at me. I don’t like moving out from the net. I don’t even like skating back and forth from the bench, takes too much effort. Those defensemen on the other hand have to skate around all the time or they’re out of a job. There should be more time-outs and relaxation time in hockey, in my opinion.

jRuutu Wrote:How crazy it is that back in the day goalies did not wear any helmets?

That’s literally batshit crazy insane. You could not pay me any amount of money to stand in the net and try to block stuff without a mask. The face is the moneymaker, you know. Here is a non-exhaustive list of things I would rather do than play goalie without my beloved face mask:

- Throw out all the food in my fridge
- Eat a shot glass full of bugs
- Eat a pint glass full of bugs
- Go on a 7 day juice cleanse
- Let a stranger borrow my car for an indefinite amount of time
- Play in the SMJHL again with a mask
- Play first base for the Baltimore Orioles
- Give up pizza for 6 weeks
- Sit on hold for a customer service call for 92 minutes
- Drop my phone off of a balcony
- Eat dirt
- Babysit all of my teammate’s kids… at the same time
- Dump Jägermeister in my eyeball
- Retire

jRuutu Wrote:Do you know that Eller guy? Plays for Carolina and got in trouble recently, do you think the punishment he got should have taken into consideration that he is a goalie, or does that matter at all?

Eller was framed!

Erm, I mean, no comment.