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*Toast* · 01-22-2012, 08:42 PM

Two days have passed since the SHL kicked off it's regular season, one that has been long awaited by fans all over the nation, and even the players seem excited to be able to get back on the ice. One of the 10 teams looking to make the best of this season are the Minnesota Chiefs who suffered this off season with some of their best talents requesting trades out of Minnesota. However, the Chiefs refused to let that hold them down as they head into the season with a nice looking team full of players well known to the Chiefs fans as well as some new rookies looking to breakout this season. The Chiefs started off their season with a 4-1 loss against a strong looking Calgary team. That just got the Chiefs rounded up though. Heading into the game a few hours ago versus the Hamilton Steelhawks, not many fans would've expected to see the Chiefs plan kick into motion, with rookie Kurtis Hunter stepping up to the plate and scoring the game winning goal for the Chiefs that would send them home happy for the night.

Kurtis Hunter is a player that was picked up in return for Mortellaro who was one of the players that requested a trade from the Chiefs. Seeing the pressure that was now on him to impress the Chief crowd, Hunter did his best to become the character of the Minnesota locker room. Addiction to the Pokemon franchise and rapping at the season opening press conference have been highlights of Hunter since he arrived in the Chiefs organization just a few short weeks ago. We caught up with Hunter as he was leaving the arena tonight and we made sure to be able to hear how he was feeling after scoring his first SHL goal in just his second game.

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Kurtis Hunter celebrates with the bench after his first SHL goal.</div>

"The pressure is sure there to succeed, because you want to make sure that the team that traded for you doesn't feel like they got screwed over for giving up one of their top players just for a rookie that might or might not be as successful. So I spend most of my time trying to make sure that I'm set for the competition that the SHL brings. Sure, my first game didn't go as good as I hoped it would, but I'd like to think that just with my second game I was already improving my skill a bit. Scoring my first SHL goal has shown that what I'm doing is a success just because of how things go in the games. Heck, if I improved from my first game to my second game, doesn't that mean that I will be improving every single game? Haha!"

Hunter for sure has been giving it his best shot to live up to expectations as it seems that the Chiefs are the central point of his life right now, as when he isn't on the ice improving his game little by little, he is out promoting the team to try to draw interest for the team's upcoming season. As of right now it seems that the deal to bring Hunter to the Chiefs was a fair deal, and with that 2nd round draft pick still being a question mark as to what it will bring in whenever the next draft comes around, it seems that the Chiefs very well may win this trade in the end of it all. We asked Hunter to share his pre game drills to see exactly what this guy does to prepare for the games.

"I don't work myself up to waste all my energy before the game, no, that would just be foolish of me. Instead, I like to relax a bit, watch The SHL Network to keep up on league news and play a bit of Pokemon on my 3DS, really gets that mind working. By the way, does anyone have a Spheal they can trade me? I just love those cute things? Huh? Oh right, the pre game stuff. Yeah, essentially I just relax myself and focus on trying to impress my teammates and management for the Chiefs, because I want to be the best player I can possibly be for them."

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Fans cheering on the Chiefs during the Home opener.</div>

If Hunter's play stays the way it was for the first two games we could see a pretty impressive rookie season from him. Hunter right now is playing on the Chiefs third line but with some pretty impressive play, he could easily move up to the second line to give him a bit of a boost in playing time. If Hunter continues to work the way he has been, we expect him to develop into one of the Chief's top players. If Hunter does indeed develop into one of the top players for the Chiefs this season, then they will sure be happy to get Hunter for a disgruntled player that would've just left the Chiefs in the off season anyway. We wish Hunter and the Chiefs the best of luck in their upcoming games, and we'll be sure to report on it all as anything big happens!

For the StarTribune,
Steven Clark