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Mika_Kandinsky · 04-06-2020, 02:35 PM

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All wrapped up!  Ready for grading.  2094 words

Please split 50/50 with me and Carpy.

We are proud to announce that Toronto has voted for captains again and the voting was tied for myself and Harry Carpet @Carpy48, so we will be sharing captain duties once again for the Toronto North Stars. We wear the C proudly in Toronto and so we figured we'd do an AUA press conference.

So, without further ado, let's hear your questions for us!

04-06-2020, 02:38 PMJNH Wrote: I heard Carp was an anti-dentite, any truth to these rumours?

I've never known Carpy to be against Dentists. In fact, I'm fairly sure he believes dentists are important to the hockey community, especially. In a sport where losing teeth is as frequent as it is, it's good to have a solid dentist on speed dial. - Mika

04-06-2020, 02:39 PMSDCore Wrote: Mika, How does it feel to be the most overrated player in the SHL :eyes:

I think I'd have to be rated at all to be overrated. I just put my head down and play and I don't really listen to league talk about me. I feel like I earned the Jesster trophy and then after that it's been me just trying to play my game and improve as much as I can to be a strong player for this North Stars team. A star in this league is not born in a day. - Mika

04-06-2020, 02:39 PMSDCore Wrote: Carpy, How does it feel to be the greatest hope for you team?

Currently I don't feel that great to be honest. Luckily I probably have more patience that the entire league combined, so I can wait until this team is good enough. I just hope I won't be too old by the time we win another game again. - Carpy

04-06-2020, 03:00 PMjfisherr Wrote: Mika: why is St. Louis better than Lethbridge?
Carpy: why is Lethbridge better than St. Louis?

Mika: can you teach me to be a good rookie

That's not an easy question. Lethbridge was my first home in this league, so that's why they are obviously the best SMJHL team for me and I still have a very close connection to the team even though they now moved across the country to Newfoundland. I know Mika thinks differently here, but the Berserkers locker room is the best in the league in my opinion. It's really changed so much - for the better! A great place for rookies. Comparing an expansion team like Lethbridge to a team like St. Louis is almost impossible if you look at what they have achieved there and how many championships they've won. Still, I believe at least this year the Berserkers look very promising and I think they can finally win a Four Star Cup. - Carpy

St. Louis is the best team in the SMJHL hands down. No competition there. Best locker room with some amazing people and talent coming out of there. St. Louis breeds stars and unleashes them out into the SHL. Lethbridge is a team, though. That's all I got on them. Once a crow, always a crow! -Mika

As far as being a good rookie, just be cool to your teammates and always be encouraging when you can. Most importantly, make sure to get all the TPEs that you can! You want to improve and be better to help your team in the future, so don't sleep on trying to acquire all the tpes. This means always keeping a bank account full so you never miss a training, or a coaching session. That's super important and your team is going to be really happy with you if you are always grabbing those! Then just be yourself and have fun with the game! - Mika

04-06-2020, 03:07 PMGeekusoid Wrote: How is the general feeling in the locker room? Based on what I could tell, this is the most unprecedented start for an SHL team in league history. What changes is the team looking at to try and turn things around to salvage the season?

I don't think anyone would've expected such a bad start, especially since we looked better than expected during the preseason. We currently take it game by game, that's the only way you can go through such a season. We stick together as a team, even though we haven't won a single game yet this season. We all know we're in the middle of a rebuild and I trust ml with the rest. I'm just here to stop pucks. - Carpy

Generally speaking we are all feeling pretty positive in the room. Sure we'd like to be winning some of our games, but we also realize that our average tpe is way way lower than most other teams in the league. We were not expecting to be competitive this season, but we are a little less competitive than we'd like to see. ML is still tinkering and trying to find the best way to execute a game plan in the new sim so I expect we will get better as the season goes on. Maybe we'll even find a win! The losing aside, we are all pretty excited about the future of this team. We have some really great prospects that are doing well and getting ready to come up to help the team soon. We should start to make our turnaround as early as next season. We expect to be pretty competitive in three season from now. Ml has been building this team from the ground up and it will start to pay off soon. So we're all pretty excited and we are very positive. This season isn't getting us down very much. We are laughing it off a bit and saying, "Ok, this is going to suck in the short term, but long term we are in pretty good shape." - Mika

04-06-2020, 03:37 PMUrsinZ Wrote: Carpy: How do you like your coffee? And how many coffees do you drink a day?

Mika: You made a draft ranking this season. Got any opinions on the upcoming draft and any rookies you are interested in?

If it's free coffee, I don't care. Luckily I talked ml into providing me with unlimited fresh coffee in the locker room. I don't even count anymore to be honest. So - probably too much. - Carpy

It's still too early in the season for me to be looking into the next season's draft. I'm 100% focusing on this season at the moment. We are looking for our first win still, so that is the forefront of my thinking right now. I'll say, when the time comes, we should definitely be taking a good look at St. Louis' rookies. They are usually a sure bet to be solid players. I haven't really looked at the J yet since we've moved to FHM. I'll have to start paying attention to what is going on down there soon enough. - Mika

04-06-2020, 03:57 PMluketd Wrote: on a scale from 1-10, how much do you trust the rebuild

when you guys were drafted into TOR, how did ML pitch the rebuild to you

I don't believe ml explicitly mentioned it or maybe I don't remember. He mentioned that they needed a goalie, because McFadden was getting old and the previous goalie they had drafted (McKorsy) went inactive so they would have to call me up sooner than planned, but I actually thought it was a perfect situation to be in. Not too many rookie goalies coming into the league are in such a position, most of them would be someone's backup for many seasons. In that sense it was quite unique, to my knowledge. I didn't even know much about the team - or any SHL team - because I was still very new and had only followed the SMJHL. When I learned about the team's situation and that we were going to be rebuilding and not winning any time soon, I just thought to myself that I was still in a good and actually quite rare position, because I was the first piece of a rebuild and had basically no other goalies that would take away my job. It's so much better having a young team around you that you can grow with than being thrown into a contending team right away that might not even have a spot for you. I didn't need any convincing and I guess I made it clear to ml that I wanted to stay by asking for NTCs all the time. To answer your first question last: I 100% trust the rebuild, even though it requires so much patience and it's not easy sometimes. I mean you can see how well ml has drafted lately. We went from a basically dead locker room with just the two of us to quite an active one. - Carpy

On a scale from 1-10 I would say I trust the rebuild on the level of about 8. The only reason I don't give it a 9 or a 10 is because I am personally worried that I might not have many competitive years left in me by the time we are in full compete mode. I think we'll be good before I get to regression, but there is always a little bit of doubt. Overall, I think ML is doing this rebuild by the books. At some point I think we'll have to make some win now type trades, but until then, I think we've been doing a good job with our drafting. Drafting is the best way to set a team up with success.

When I was drafted, it was a pretty sad state in the Toronto locker room. It was a stark contrast from the St. Louis locker room that I was coming from. But, over time ML really built it up and now it's a great place to hang out. All the teammates we have are awesome and it's a really solid room. I really like everyone on the team. This was all part of MLs plan. He was saying we'd be competitive in a few seasons and I can see that the plan is starting to come together. He said he would be stockpiling draft picks and trying to draft as many people as he can. He's been doing that and now the locker room is more lively than it ever has been. Players want to play here and they are champing at the bit to get into the lineup. So, ML basically said, things are going to be rough for a little bit, but it's going to get better, just give me time to draft. His vision is coming together, so right now I'm trusting the process and I feel really good about it. - Mika

04-06-2020, 06:42 PMNhamlet Wrote: How do you temper your excitement for the future when it's clearly in the process but also a little bit away?

I don't really feel the need to temper my excitement. I'm very excited for the future of this team. It's going to be a lot of fun every season when the new crop of rookies come in and make an impact. We're going to be able to watch this team grow and improve and start competing and that's fun. So while we aren't winning yet, it's not a big deal. Just keep playing my game and improving and being happy to see all these new active players join the team in the upcoming seasons. I am patient and I can wait. I think we are going to have a really great group on this team and I can't wait to see what all these younger guys can contribute when they get up on the big squad. - Mika

While we're waiting, we can still improve our own skills so it's not like we are just sitting around waiting and doing nothing. Everyone is still getting better, nobody is regressing yet. Also nowadays we have several rookies in the LR that helped with the low activity problem. - Carpy

JNH · 04-06-2020, 02:38 PM

I heard Carp was an anti-dentite, any truth to these rumours?

***SDCore*** · 04-06-2020, 02:39 PM

Mika, How does it feel to be the most overrated player in the SHL :eyes:

Carpy, How does it feel to be the greatest hope for you team?

*Carpy48* · 04-06-2020, 02:47 PM

04-06-2020, 02:39 PMSDCore Wrote: Carpy, How does it feel to be the greatest hope for you team?

Currently I don't feel that great to be honest. Luckily I probably have more patience that the entire league combined, so I can wait until this team is good enough. I just hope I won't be too old by the time we win another game again.

*fishy* · 04-06-2020, 03:00 PM

Mika: why is St. Louis better than Lethbridge?
Carpy: why is Lethbridge better than St. Louis?

Mika: can you teach me to be a good rookie

***Chevy*** · 04-06-2020, 03:07 PM

How is the general feeling in the locker room? Based on what I could tell, this is the most unprecedented start for an SHL team in league history. What changes is the team looking at to try and turn things around to salvage the season?

UrsinZ · 04-06-2020, 03:37 PM

Carpy: How do you like your coffee? And how many coffees do you drink a day? Cheers

Mika: Your made a draft ranking this season. Got any opinions on the upcoming draft and any rookies you are interested in?

*Carpy48* · 04-06-2020, 03:41 PM

04-06-2020, 03:00 PMjfisherr Wrote: Carpy: why is Lethbridge better than St. Louis?

That's not an easy question. Lethbridge was my first home in this league, so that's why they are obviously the best SMJHL team for me and I still have a very close connection to the team even though they now moved across the country to Newfoundland. I know Mika thinks differently here, but the Berserkers locker room is the best in the league in my opinion. It's really changed so much - for the better! A great place for rookies. Comparing an expansion team like Lethbridge to a team like St. Louis is almost impossible if you look at what they have achieved there and how many championships they've won. Still, I believe at least this year the Berserkers look very promising and I think they can finally win a Four Star Cup.

*Carpy48* · 04-06-2020, 03:46 PM

04-06-2020, 03:07 PMGeekusoid Wrote: How is the general feeling in the locker room? Based on what I could tell, this is the most unprecedented start for an SHL team in league history. What changes is the team looking at to try and turn things around to salvage the season?

I don't think anyone would've expected such a bad start, especially since we looked better than expected during the preseason. We currently take it game by game, that's the only way you can go through such a season. We stick together as a team, even though we haven't won a single game yet this season. We all know we're in the middle of a rebuild and I trust ml with the rest. I'm just here to stop pucks.

*Carpy48* · 04-06-2020, 03:50 PM

04-06-2020, 03:37 PMUrsinZ Wrote: Carpy: How do you like your coffee? And how many coffees do you drink a day?

If it's free coffee, I don't care. Luckily I talked ml into providing me with unlimited fresh coffee in the locker room. I don't even count anymore to be honest. So - probably too much.

***luke*** · 04-06-2020, 03:57 PM

on a scale from 1-10, how much do you trust the rebuild

when you guys were drafted into TOR, how did ML pitch the rebuild to you

*Carpy48* · 04-06-2020, 04:15 PM

04-06-2020, 03:57 PMluketd Wrote: on a scale from 1-10, how much do you trust the rebuild

when you guys were drafted into TOR, how did ML pitch the rebuild to you

I don't believe ml explicitly mentioned it or maybe I don't remember. He mentioned that they needed a goalie, because McFadden was getting old and the previous goalie they had drafted (McKorsy) went inactive so they would have to call me up sooner than planned, but I actually thought it was a perfect situation to be in. Not too many rookie goalies coming into the league are in such a position, most of them would be someone's backup for many seasons. In that sense it was quite unique, to my knowledge. I didn't even know much about the team - or any SHL team - because I was still very new and had only followed the SMJHL. When I learned about the team's situation and that we were going to be rebuilding and not winning any time soon, I just thought to myself that I was still in a good and actually quite rare position, because I was the first piece of a rebuild and had basically no other goalies that would take away my job. It's so much better having a young team around you that you can grow with than being thrown into a contending team right away that might not even have a spot for you. I didn't need any convincing and I guess I made it clear to ml that I wanted to stay by asking for NTCs all the time. To answer your first question last: I 100% trust the rebuild, even though it requires so much patience and it's not easy sometimes. I mean you can see how well ml has drafted lately. We went from a basically dead locker room with just the two of us to quite an active one.

Nhamlet · 04-06-2020, 06:42 PM

How do you temper your excitement for the future when it's clearly in the process but also a little bit away?

*Carpy48* · 04-07-2020, 11:53 AM

04-06-2020, 06:42 PMNhamlet Wrote: How do you temper your excitement for the future when it's clearly in the process but also a little bit away?

While we're waiting, we can still improve our own skills so it's not like we are just sitting around waiting and doing nothing. Everyone is still getting better, nobody is regressing yet. Also nowadays we have several rookies in the LR that helped with the low activity problem.

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