It’s been three seasons so far and I’m just about to finish out my fourth and presumably final season in Juniors and with the Maine Timber. It’s been a lot of ups and downs as I come into my own as one of the better defenders in the league (I think) and on the Maine Timber. I thought I’d just recap it a bit for both fun and profit.

Season 1 (Season 54)

4 Goals, 17 Assists for 21 Points with a minus 19. 10 of my points came on the power play this season (2 goals, 8 assists). I totaled 109 shots and ended up with a shooting percentage of 3.67.

Ah yes, the start of a young career and not a bad one at that. Twenty one points in my first season was nothing to sneeze at. I was ecstatic when I realized that I had ended up being the highest scoring defender on the Timber by a few points. It was a pretty nice ego boost for someone so fresh to the team. It’s easy to believe you’re destined for greatness when you start off well too. It wasn’t all great though, minus 19 isn’t great and I ended up leading the league in something, giveaways. That’s not exactly something to be proud of but given that I had been thrown into first pairing minutes soon after joining the team, it was to be expected. I did have the good fortune to be paired up with Valentin Kalashnikov for the majority of the season. I won’t lie to anyone and say it wasn’t a huge boon to have someone from my home country help lead me into North American hockey in Juniors. We ultimately didn’t make it to the play-offs that season but I still view it as a successful one for me personally. It showed me that the type of player I want to be is the right one. I was set on the path that I’m on today by this season.

Season 2 (Season 55)

7 goals, 14 assists for 21 points with a minus 6 at the end of the season. 4 of those points came on the power play, with an even split of 2 goals and two assists. I shot a bit more, with 118 for the regular season and a 5.93 shooting percentage.

I’d call this one a down season for me personally. I was on second pairing with Rikard (Bjerg) was great but getting taken off the first power play unit was not. My point totals remained steady but without that extra time on the power play, I wasn’t able to actually, you know, improve on my point totals. Getting paired with Rikard really helped me clean up my game though and together we were a pretty solid pairing. Overall, I feel like what I lost in points I gained in defensive acumen and ended up almost in the positives. Honestly though, I’d rather score more points then be worried about being defensively responsible.

That introduction to actually giving a damn about being defensively responsible would be a real help as I got my first taste at the play-offs this season too and we went DEEP. I wasn’t paired with Rikard anymore. Normally it’d be pretty awful to be pulled from a great partner like that but the Coach paired me up with Will Windsor and that man was a beast. Practically a second goalie out there on the ice. And together we were fuckin’ magic out there. It was a sad day when he decided to retire after our run. We didn’t end up getting the Cup though, but we did get to the finals and I ended up with a solid twelve points and a respectable plus twelve, good for fourth best on the team and a pretty drastic improvement from my regular season.

Season 3 (Season 56)

Four goals, 26 assists for a grand total of 30 points. Ended up in the positives for the first time too with a whooping plus one. Got a whole five power play points, all assists. Shot out of my damn mind too with 144 shots on the season. Ended up being top scoring defender on Maine again. With all of that in mind though, this was without a doubt, another down year. Why would I call it that, you ask? I had more points, better statistics and all the power play time I wanted so it was clearly a good year but you know what really, really spoils the regular season? A shooting percentage of 2.78. Sure, I was utilizing my fellow players better and setting them up for goals but I always end up thinking about the goals I could have scored if I’d just kept my normal average of about six percentage. Too bad I just couldn’t fight the allure of shooting the puck directly at the opposing goalies crest instead of the back of the damn net. I fought the puck this entire season. It should have been my breakout but instead I struggled to do what I do best and produce offense on the rush. It felt extra bad because a majority of our team struggled to produce any kind of consistent offense for this season as well. I could have been the difference if I’d just worked myself out of my funk a little bit earlier.

I got my groove back in the play-offs though and felt much more like myself. 3 goals, 5 assists for 8 points in 12 games. My shooting percentage went back up and from a personal standpoint, I was back on my game. This wasn’t our dramatic push to the finals of the previous season though and as a team, we still struggled to produce points. We ended up getting knocked out in the second round but that’s alright.

I’ve loved my time on the Maine Timber and I will cherish these memories even more as I move forward and onto the SHL after this season. But my time with the team isn’t done yet and were just about to finish up this season and move to the play-offs. Here’s to hoping for a spectacular end to my career in juniors and my time with the Timber.

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