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Slowpoke · 10-13-2017, 07:43 AM

<div align="center">Firsts</div>

When you are drafted into the SMJHL in the 8th round, 64th overall (Kelowna), it's easy to be overshadowed. Being drafted late in the SHL draft, 4th round, 51st overall (Winnipeg), with only 12 players drafted after me, you are pretty much guaranteed that most of the league wont have a clue who you are. Somehow I've ended up with some hardware. Two Four Star Cups and recently winning my first Challenge Cup, I never thought that this would happen. So, I'm going to do a career review of a career plug. A first generation player that was only ever drafted because at the end of the draft, I was still on the board.

<div align="center">First Trade</div>

I would love to take a look at my SMJHL career, but someone decided that information wasn't important. So I start at my first trade. Before I ever put on a Winnipeg jersey, I was packing my bag. March 3rd 2017 was the first major change for me. I met some solid people in Winnipeg, and I will always remember being drafted with the likes of Zach Evans, Jason Visser, and Corey Bearss. That was a solid draft by the Jets and those players will be the backbone of the team for a long time.

The upside to this is that the trade landed me in Texas. I haven’t been in many locker rooms, but I find it hard to believe that any other team can have a room as dysfunctional as the one in Texas. I didn’t know it then, but I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. I still spent 4 seasons in Kelowna, but was called up for the opening game in S34.

<b><div align="center">First Game</div></b>

My first game was against the Edmonton Blizzard. I was playing on the 3rd line with the likes of Alexander Charlyb'y and Beau Bent. I don’t think I really earned a spot that season, and more or less landed there because I was only allowed 4 seasons in the SMJHL. I played 15:16 in that first game, and lost my first faceoff as well. I was ineffective in all the areas you would expect, which leads to some other firsts.

<b><div align="center">First Hit</div></b>

It took a little over 6 minutes to do what most would say has been my contributing factor in my career, hit something. That something was Ryan Vas, and it forced a turnover, which eventually led to me getting the puck, and somehow losing it. I didn’t get hit, I didn’t make a bad pass, and I just lost it. Inability to be effective with the puck is another one of my key characteristics.

<b><div align="center">First Penalty</div></b>

One of the things that comes along with hitting, is penalties, because that makes perfect sense. I received two penalties in that first game, and the first one was for holding Viktor Svensson. I would end my first game with 4 PIMS and contributing fuck all offensively, thus beginning a career of low expectations and self loathing.

<div align="center">First Goal</div>

You know what they say about the blind squirrel. Eventually I was bound to score, its just fitting it was against the Jets. My first goal was in our 5th game of the season, a 4-3 win over Winnipeg. Maybe I actually contributed? 15:41 into the 2nd period I took a pass from Kristoffer Ruud and by some miracle the puck found the back of the net. I'm still not convinced it wasn’t Lukas Berger's charity work for the month. To this day it always seems that when I have a big game, or a clutch moment, it's against the Jets.

<div align="center">First Assist</div>

When I entered the league I had plans on being a playmaker, oh how things have changed. My first assist took a little longer than my first goal, but not that much. 7th game of the season, against Calgary. I had a goal and an assist, one of my rare multi-point games. It wasn’t pretty either. Late in the 3rd period we had a 2-1 lead and Calgary did what any team would do. They pulled their goalie. It started as a defensive zone faceoff. We won the faceoff, but lost control of the puck with some questionable passing. Michael Boychuk picked up the puck and I played the man, made the hit, took the puck and skated down the ice. Even with an empty net, I missed on my shot, fortunately Kristoffer Ruud was there for the help and ended up netting the goal and wrapping up the game.

<div align="center">First Fight</div>

One of the things about playing a physical game, is that eventually, someone is going to take exception to what you are doing. This was not one of those cases. It all started with a Eibhear Sorenson elbow, followed by a couple other minor penalties, and this was just the beginning. Ieuan Llewellyn and Lord Vader, Krysztof Kowalski and Beau Bent, and then it was my turn. Ilmari Maatta and I decided we also needed square up. At the end of the scrum, it was a draw. Three fighting majors all in the first five minutes of the game. We ended up winning 4-2, but it was the after the whistle play that really stole the show. A total of 62 PIMS and Ieuan Llewellyn mixing it up for the second time with Cody Black late in the first period.

<div align="center">In Closing</div>

I've spent three seasons, now starting my fourth, in the SHL so far. Never having more than 10 points, and never being above the third line, and I wouldn't want it any other way. As a league we spend a lot of time looking at, talking about, and dreaming of being that top line scorer. Some of us will get there, some of us wont. It is those that won't that never get any love. The third line players (I'd say fourth, but we all know the fourth line is just the first), the depth players. The ones who never make the "Top 100 of Anything" lists. There isn’t a lot of us. The grind, the lack of playing time, lack of scoring, and being relatively invisible takes a toll on us. Sometimes we end up retiring in the hopes that the next player will be better, and worse, sometimes we go inactive. Every now and then, just pick up our dinner, or buy us a drink, its all we really want.

<div align="center"> Renegades