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SabresFan · 11-10-2021, 10:09 AM

THE DIARY OF A ROOKIE - Part 3

11/10/2021

We Scarecrows enter the regular season with a lot of holes, especially in our defensive game. This is not the fault of the six starting defensemen who are one of the pillars that provide this team with a foundation to build upon. We are simply a young team, especially up the middle. We also have a total of 9 players out of 23, or 39% of our roster that, at the risk of being considered too harsh, I would consider to be busts. These are players that have not reached at least a score of 200 on the SHL scouting’s Total Player Evaluation (TPE) scale. Add to the above information that four of our players who are currently receiving a grade above 200 TPE are SMJHL rookies.

It was with thisr rag-tag nature and our youth in mind that coach, Sparky Dee entered the clubhouse for a pregame speech. It was more of a party atmosphere than a serious talk involving tactics. Dee had been around the block long enough to know that we were going to suffer this season, at least in the early going. For the most part, we are an overmatched hockey team. Sparky wanted us to go out on the ice, remembering what it was like as young children going out on a frozen pond and playing for the sheer joy of it. So, prior to dressing for our first regular season game, Sparky walked into the clubhouse to share these words, all caught by a security camera and recorded.

Sparky Dee Addresses the Scarecrows Prior to The Regular Season Opener

I was hopeful to start off the regular season with a win that night, since we were playing a team that I considered to be in about the same shape we were to start the season, the Detroit Falcons. Unfortunately even against Detroit, we were outshot 35 to 22. This proved to be a harbinger of things yet to come through our first six games of the regular season. Vincint Catalano proved once again to be the rock upon which this team will be built, stopping 32 out of 35 shots. Sam Stone picked up his first goal of the season from rookie Alix Nunez and Top Cheddar scored a second period goal from Daniel Merica and Mars Stanton to make it a one goal game. In the end, Detroit Falcons star Dirty Boots scored two goals to earn the game’s first star award as we lost 3 to 2.

The remainder of the six games played so far have been a blur. To show on one side how bad it can get, over the worst three games of the first six, we were outscored by a combined 25 to 1! Over the first three games of the season, I was in fact, our worst player. I had an average game rating of 49 and a shots against per 60 minutes of over 66! It got a bit better for me personally over the following three games and I am not looking quite so atrocious, most likely because I was not on the ice very much in those worst three games against stronger competition.

Our lone bright spot was a 4 to 3 overtime victory against Quebec. If we play Quebec ten times, we probably lose eight or nine times, but not on this night. Daniel Merica Jr, Sam Stone and Cody Sherman all tallied during the course of regular action. Perhaps our most promising rookie, Alix Nunez, put us into the win column with his overtime goal. Cody Sherman was named the games first star, with a goal and an assist, while Spicy MagHaggis, returning from his preseason bout with bad Thai food, picked up two assists for the third star award. MacHaggis returned to the locker room recently to let us all know that he is now doing fine and that is a big plus for us going forward.

As a team and individually, we simply have to start where we are and work to improve. Most teams in the SMJHL make the playoffs and our competition is not all that great at the bottom of the league. So, we begin the season six games in at the bottom of the league looking up. But the Detroit Falcons and the Regina Elk are not much better than we are. Those are our targets to try to overtake and give our veteran players another shot at playoff action before they move on to the SHL.

DeletedAtUserRequest · 11-10-2021, 05:05 PM

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