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Player's Tribune: Roller Coaster
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Roller Coaster
by Mitchell van der Heijden, New England Wolfpack center

It’s safe to say this this season wasn’t exactly what I expected it would be. From a production perspective, I emerged from S57, my fourth in the big leagues, with 48 points, almost double my tally from last season and certainly admirable from a second-line center on a borderline playoff team with a weak offense. But from a personal perspective, I kind of view it as a missed opportunity; a season that started off so strong hit a major slump around the 35-game mark and ended with a major push only to fall agonizingly short of 50 points. It was more of the same for me, as I always tend to start off incredibly hot only to fall off tremendously over the rest of the season. But this season gave me some hope in that I was good for a consistently long stretch of time, and still almost hit 50, with most of my production coming from even strength, despite almost outscoring my linemates combined. The season turned out to be what all 4 of my pro seasons have been so far: a roller coaster.

Let me start by saying that I expected us to keep our momentum going from last season. We might’ve lost Smeb, Ulrich, McGavin, and McClure, all decent if not inspiring depth pieces, but to me I didn’t see those losses as an issue. We were calling up some really good young players, especially Kristjansson on my wing and Balzams on the second pair, and while McShotty and Montgomery, our stars, are in regression (although you couldn’t tell from their performances this season), we still had a young, growing team headlined by talents like Bruchevski, Eller, Price, and Yxskaft (still do not know how to spell that fucking name). The Atlantic Division, as we all know, is one of the worse divisions in the league so I thought to myself, “We’ve basically improved this season; hard to argue against us finishing over .500 again.”

The start of the season wasn’t exactly the greatest for us. We did start off with a tough schedule, but I figured we’d be able to make some noise like we did last season. The low point was probably Hamilton shellacking us 11-2. We started off worse than Baltimore and Tampa Bay, and I seriously thought that we were going to miss the playoffs, as it took us 34 games (just over halfway through the season) to reach the 10-win mark. While the team struggled, I was at a point per game pace. Somehow. As a second-liner. On a team like Hamilton or Buffalo, teams stuffed with talent for days, I think that would’ve been around the norm. But on New England? I was hoping for 40 points and there I was halfway to it 21 games in, exceeding my lowly expectations and ramping them up drastically to the point where I was thinking “50+ points here I come!”.

Then the fortunes changes for both team and player. Team? I think it started with the 5-1 win over Hamilton; things started to change, our schedule thinned out, and we roared back into a playoff spot, with the game of the season for us arguably being the comeback from 5-1 down (I believe) to win 6-5 in the shootout, with me of all people scoring the shootout winner, in a shocking win over the Chicago Syndicate that should rightfully be remembered for Andrei’s third period hat trick. I’m glad that we rounded back into form because it overshadowed my awful play in the second half of the season. I believe I was somewhere around 32 points halfway through the season (at least over 30) and I finished with 48. Went ice-cold as the team around me caught on fire (especially Ethan Price who went a point per game as a sophomore in this league; it’s a huge accomplishment and personally my winner for the Richan as a breakout player), and obviously, it stinks if you’re not contributing when your team is doing well. However, we did punch our ticket into the big dance with a few games to spare and after a few sputtering performances from our offense we finished off the season with some big games, including back to back 5-0 wins, in which I had 4 points combined, pushing me ever so close to 50 points and reigniting that confidence which I’ll admit had almost gone out after some poor performances.

We faced a very strong Stampede team in the playoffs, and after losing Game 1 5-1, we bounced back with a 5-3 win, in which I scored. However, the next 3 games were summarized by a total lack of offense. We lost Game 3 4-3, but we just didn’t generate enough shots. We would then be shutout 3-0 in Game 4 and absolutely clapped 7-1 in Game 5, with the Stampede outshooting us by at least 50. It was a tough series and we did play them close in a couple of games, but I’ll be honest; Buffalo is a far superior team to us and I thought we weren’t going to last long. The lack of offense really killed us, and I feel sorry for Frans, who played his fucking heart out in this series.


The next season is quite crucial for me as a player. My contract is up and I’m currently planning to test the free agent market. Will I end up leaving the Wolfpack? Honestly, probably not. I know next season is going to see limited movement in the market with many teams coming up close to the cap, but I just want to see what teams have to offer me. I'd like to be a first-line center and I believe I’m almost, if not already, there in terms of being a team’s 1C. I know next season is likely to be a struggle for the Wolfpack as well; we’re calling up all of the young guys (which is good as we’ll have a fully active team for the most part, but also likely to give them a trial by fire) and while the team is going to be good very soon (we have a very bright future), it’s going to likely get worse before it gets better. I’m content in New England and honored to be one of the team’s ass captains, but I’m still unsure where my future could lie. I still hold some hope about next season though; we could break out and establish ourselves as a future contender. Either way, it’s shaping up to be an important one for the Wolfpack as a whole and me in particular.

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