Growing up in Japan there weren't a ton of Japanese hockey players I really looked up to and wanted to emulate my play after. Then one day I was watching a hockey game and Monkey D. Luffy hit the ice. I was instantly amazed by his scoring abilities and his beautiful puck handling. He wasn't just amazing off the ice, he seemed to get along with everyone and was an incredibly hard worker. Really he is the whole reason I started taking hockey seriously. However when trying to emulate what he did I found I was really bad at it. Offense just wasn't for me so I decided to be a defenseman who one day would stop Luffy and the quest for a defenseman that I could emulate my game after continued. 

That was pretty short lived once I got drafted by the Anaheim Outlaws. During the preseason I was placed on the first line with Ursin Zimmerman and during those games I came to really idolize his play. Ursin has amazing passing and defensive abilities that someday I hope to match. It wasn't just his abilities on the ice that I was hoping to emulate though. In the locker room he is always joining in on the conversation and gives words to encouragement anytime someone did anything remotely good. I'm not sure how much longer I'll be his line mate as he can get called up to the SHL anytime and our other rookie defenseman, Alex Patrenko, is absolutely killing it out there but I hope to learn a lot from Ursin and maybe I can be as great as him.


@TnlAstatine 
@UrsinZ