The Chronicles of a Center
The Career of Gordon Bombay - 1st Edition
1st Article Bonus

While hanging out at his local ice rink where Gordon Bombay once played as a youngster, he saw a poster for a hockey league known as the SHL and decided to put his name out there and see if any clubs were looking to take on a play making center for the last few games of the 46th SMJHL and into the playoffs, for what he’s hoping will turn out to be a deep run and possibly result in a championship series for the cup! But let’s not get ahead of ourselves with talk about a cup when Gordon isn’t even on a team or skated on SMJHL ice yet.

A Young Gordon Bombay Playing for his childhood District 6 Hawks

After being contacted almost immediately by a member of the Colorado Raptors management he thought his path into the SMJHL was clear and he’d be packing up his gear and catching the next flight out to Denver to meet with the Raptor's team and management, tour the facilities and get settled in to his new home for the next few weeks of his young and promising hockey career.

Gordon's new home with the Colorado Raptors!?

To Gordon and that of the Colorado management member’s disbelief, there was an infraction of the league rules and Gordon was not to be contacted by any team prior to approval and other league stipulations. This therefore prevented Gordon from being able to sign with the Raptors straight out of the gate and was left to sit and wait by the phone for other clubs within the league to reach out and contact him for a contract offer and a spot on their roster for the remainder of the 46th season.

With a fire in his heart and gleam in his eye Gordon was more than shocked to only be contacted by one lone organization, the Anchorage Armada. While Alaska was not on the top of Gordon’s geographical wish list of places to end up in, the Anchorage club is certainly a club that Gordon was thrilled to be offered a contract from and didn’t hesitate to accept a position on the 4th line and the promise of some guaranteed ice time from day one. He packed his bags and after an 8-hour flight and a 5-hour car ride Gordon was shaking hands and signing his Herbie Hancock on the bottom of his first SMJHL contract. It wasn’t until after Bombay was already in and out of the locker room and getting settled into his new apartment just down the road from the facilities when he realized that the Anchorage Anchorage were tied for 4th in points in the league and just a single point off the 3rd place Anaheim Outlaws. Gordon’s hopes of playing in a cup series was becoming even more of a reality than he had previously thought.

Gordon's Final Destination with Anchorage

The morning of Gordon’s first game he took to the practice ice with his new line mates for the usual pregame morning skate, left wing Joe Kerr and right winger Jan Silber to get familiarized with their play style so they could get this line on the same page and clicking quickly before the season wrapped up and the playoffs were upon them. That first morning skate was a little rough and Gordon’s timing was yet to be desired by his line mates, but they could see the passion and effort level was there and knew it was just a matter or time before things started to take shape for the new line.


The first game of Gordon's career was the 229th game of the 46th SMJHL season and was against the top seeded Kelowna Knights. Gordon was pretty quiet in his 9 minutes and 26 seconds of ice time registering no shots, hits, blocks, goals, assists or PIM. He ended the game with a +/- of -1, but there was a bright side to this otherwise dismal 1st game, Gordon Bombay seemed to be a force in the face-off circle winning 5 out of the 7 face-offs he took, a whopping 71.4% win percentage.

The next few morning skates seemed to be more productive and Gordon seemed to be really clicking on the ice with his new team and his passes were finding tape even through some of the narrowest of windows feeding his teammates for some sure-fire open looks. The recent development of some chemistry on the ice only took 3 games to pay dividends to for the team and Gordon turned some heads in the league when he registered his first assist, first goal, and first 1st star of his career in game 236 against the Detroit Falcons. Gordon wasn’t nearly as dominate in the face off circle in this game as his first game, winning a still respectable 5 out of 10 drops taken. He did however make up for that with his first two points and finishing with a +2 in only 7 minutes and 20 seconds on the ice.

Through the 4th game of his blossoming career Gordon maintained his above .500 face off success winning another 6 of 11 face offs taken, but aside from that Bombay was of little to no help to the team having a blank stat sheet aside from a glaring -1 in the +/- column. Have it be known that Gordon doesn't let nights like this keep him down for long and has a way of shaking of bad games and keeping his chin up.


During the last game of the season Gordon could not get his head out of his ass in the faceoff circle and only won 3 of the 14 drops taken, bringing his impressive faceoff percentage below the 50/50 mark at .489. Gordon was able to bring some positives to the game outside of the circle though by registering his 2nd goal over five games and bringing his +/- back to an even zero. The game was as close as they can get, especially for the last of the season. It ended 2-3 in a shootout and the shots were 23-24 with Vancouver having the edge in this one.  

With a first round bye in the playoffs as the bottom four teams vie for a chance to play against the top two teams in the 2nd round of the playoffs Bombay has been putting in double time on the practice ice and really working on his timing with his teammates to help elevate this 4th line above that of the other organizations in the league to hopefully bring some success to the Armada in their playoff run and help them reach the championship and raise that ever elusive cup!

In Gordon’s short stint in the SMJHL of only 5 regular season games he was able to skate away with a rather impressive stat sheet and a few season highlights. Gordon, in just five games, has 2 goals and 1 assist for 3 points, which is even more impressive considering he did so with only taking 3 shots and finishing with a 66.7% goal/shot percentage. It’s apparent that Gordon isn’t the most physical of centers with only 2 hits and a single shot block. Additionally he is also bringing a face off win percentage of 48.9% to the scene, which was an incredible 60.6% before that embarrassing display in the final regular season game of the season.
 
Gordon has vowed to carry that success with the promise of even more production throughout the playoffs in an effort to help his new team, the Anchorage Armada, sail to the ship and bring another banner to the Anchorage home stadium when they eventually raise the cup. Gordon is confident he can elevate his level of play not only through continued dedication in practice and staying active within the organization, but he’s caught wind of a store that offers equipment that might be just the lift his game needs to help Anchorage solidify a deep playoff run.

We’ll be sure to keep a close eye on the budding young career of this exciting play making center from District 6 as he tries to make a name for himself in the SMJHL and possibly cements his name as one of the leagues top centers of all time. Only time will tell what the future has in store for Gordon Bombay and you’ll be sure to hear about it in our future installments of The Chronicles of a Center: The Career of Gordon Bombay.


1525 Word Count

Gordon Bombay! If you miss this shot you're not only letting me down, but you'll be letting your whole team down too. 1-2-3.. triple deke

Matsmith Soderberg-Tremblay || Left Wing/Center || #13 || Newfoundland Berserkers
S65 Rookie



Corey Kennedy (RETIRED) || Defense || #13 || Chicago Syndicate/Newfoundland Berserkers - Chicago Syndicate GM || S47 ||
Age: 21
Birthplace: Kinsale, County Cork, Ireland
Height: 6'4"
Weight: 205 lbs
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SMJHL Career Statistics:
Anaheim Outlaws S46 (Rookie): GP: 50, G: 6, A: 10, P: 16, +/-: -3, PIM: 24, SHT: 60, PPP: 7
Anaheim Outlaws S47: GP: 50, G: 7, A: 15, P: 22, +/-: -6, PIM: 10, SHT: 58, PPP: 4
SMJHL Playoff Career Statistics:
Anaheim Outlaws S46: GP: 3, G: 2, A: 0, P: 2, +/-: -2, PIM: 0, SHT: 5, PPP: 1
Anaheim Outlaws S47: GP: 18, G: 7, A: 4, P: 11, +/-: -3, PIM: 10, SHT: 21, PPP: 3
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Transactions & Accomplishments: 
S46: Drafted 2nd overall by the Anaheim Outlaws
S46 SMJHL All-Star
S47 Four Star Cup Champion
S47: Drafted 3rd overall by the Chicago Syndicate



Player Page Update Page

Gordon Bombay If you miss this shot you're not only letting me down, but you'll be letting your whole team down too. 1-2-3.. triple deke

This was one of my roommates and I's favorite lines to quote in college when we'd be playing beer pong and then we'd always have to imitate the coach and pretend we were slapping the boards and start shouting "AYYEE AYE AYE AAAYEE!"