Well, the season is over. For some, they would say it wasn’t a great season since we were knocked out in the second round of the playoffs, but I think sometimes success can measured in more ways than wins and losses.

On the surface, that seems contradictory, but not if you consider everything that is a part of being on a team, it is the relationships, the comraderies, the belief that we are building something greater than what we could ever imagine, that we are working to become something greater together than we would ever be as individuals.

So, we got knocked out of the playoffs, that was definitely not a “win” for us, so what would I call our victories? Even though we were knocked out, we have to be given some recognition for knocked out the Nevada Battleborn in the first round after we dominated the series with a 4-1 series victory.

Firstly, we were able to bring in myself and Mathias to add defensive depth with us swapping being on the 1st or 2nd line. We formed a strong partnership, not only on the ice, but off of it as well. Even though we spent most of the season on different lines, we were able to learn from each other and pushed each other to be better than we could ever have imagined. The countless hours we spent on the ice after practice and then latter watching other matches to look for those things that could give us a little edge, yea, I do believe those things made us better and I do think that we will continue to improve next season.

Unfortunately, the other new draftee had to retire from hockey due to life circumstances, we wish him the best in whatever comes next for him. I know from experience that it is tough to try to focus on the ice when life throws other issues at you…sometimes…life just has to come first.

As far as the rest of the team, yea, that was a huge win as well. The Scarecrows are full of great people. The veterans on the team didn’t treat us as outsiders after we joined the team. We were welcomed as old friends and quickly felt at home and settled. There is also a wealth of former players who also did a fantastic job in welcoming us new guys. I cannot say enough good things about the St Louis organization. They have set the bar pretty high for other teams to aspire to as I progress in my career.

With this fantastic base of players in place I envision great things for us next season as the whole team has another season of growth under their belts. If nothing else, it will be great to spend another season with my fantastic teammates.

I am back at home now. I missed my family. I figured it would provide me an opportunity to just relax and, believe it or not, disconnect from hockey for a while. I decided to spend a month at home before heading back to St Louis to start next season and to not even hit the ice for the first 2 weeks, I wanted to have a chance for my season-long collection of aches and pains to dissipate before throwing myself into the game again. I looked forward to those 2 weeks of just being Ozzy, the big kid who lived down the lane.

Well…that lasted a whole 2 days. I had been told that some SHL teams might be reaching out to talk to me about their upcoming draft. I figured it would be like the J draft, kind of a low-key affair. Boy, was I wrong! My phone started to blow up the Monday morning after I got home. There have not been a lot of teams that have contacted me, but the interviews have been VERY in-depth. Not only have I spoken to scouts, but there have also been some General Managers that have reached out. Some of the GMs called me after I had spoken to the scout, for others the GM was the only person to call me. I did expect the phone calls, but I didn’t expect the Zoom meeting requests. This will take some getting used to for sure.

One other unexpected call I got this morning was to inform me of my selection to the British Isles World Junior Championship squad. I am honored to represent my home nation in this tournament and hope we are able to win the trophy to make our supporters proud.

I guess I will wrap this up by saying that I truly believe that the victories we measure can include things other than just the total number of points that they earn. So even though we didn’t achieve what we wanted to this season in that regard, the season was one that had more victories than losses and I believe that in the not so distant future we will see those victories translated into wins that will lead us to the elusive championship trophy.

Defender St Louis Scarecrows: S78-

A great rookie season and a big success for you. it was great to have you join the team