Bonzaijoe

U S A! U S A! U S A! U S A!

Nixon sat down with us as he usually does, both extremely cheerful but a little sad this time. Nixon was stuck in a crossroads slightly, as he was hit with a tough decision right before the season ended. "I'm really extremely excited about our Founders' Cup win! Everyone on that team worked together to earn it and we're all champions. Those guys have been nothing but great to me and I can't thank them enough for everything they've done for me." Nixon said, "that being said, it's with a heavy heart I have to announce to them that I'm giving up my VHLM eligibility to play in the VHL. It was a tough decision, but I know that wherever I go in the VHL, I'll find a home there that might include some of them. I can't wait to see all those guys on the ice in the big leagues, but sadly my time with them as teammates has come to an end." I asked Joe why he made the decision, and where he thought he would go. He answered, "I'm honestly not sure where I think I'll go. Wherever it is, though, I know I'll be happy. Any team that wants me and believes in me is where I wanna go. To answer the question of why, I would have to answer with the fact that I thought that was the best move for me as a player. My time in the VHLM has been great, and the experience was like no other, but with a goalie spot opening up because of an expansion team coming in, my time to shine is now. There's a possibility I could get a solid amount of time in the league next year, depending on where I go, but the main thing is the ability to consistently improve myself as a player. In order to keep my eligibility in the VHLM, I would've had to stagnate my growth as a player for almost the entire offseason, and there's just too much training and work that goes in during that time for the stagnation to be beneficial to me." "I want to make this clear, this decision was my own and in no way is it because anything happened with me on the Aces. That organization is second to none and I will always remember every second I spent on that team fondly. The front office and my teammates believed in me as a player, they helped me grow, and I thrived because of it," Nixon said, "I just finished up the best season of my life. I've never played better hockey than the hockey I played with the Aces, and I have them to thank for it. I will always remember that going forward. That energy will boost me into the VHL with a storm. I'm behind the Aces every step of the way and they help me out in every way they can. I'm an Ace for life!" Nixon was almost yelling at this point, his love for the organization and team is very apparent. We here at VHL.com would like to thank Nixon for doing this series with us for the whole season, and we always looked forward to sitting down and asking him some questions. Now that he's in the VHL though, we'll just have to make a new title! Thanks for reading this season, and we'll catch you again next time, in The Youngster's View!

I'm a little late for this question, but I'll still answer the why. Vegas was balanced front and back. We were a solid team balanced between forwards who were capable of scoring, a defense that stopped an exceptional amount of chances, and goaltending that was coming up big when it was needed. When playing against a balanced team like that who minimize your chances to win, it's frustrating and difficult. At the end of the day, I think Halifax was a really strong team but they just couldn't topple the Aces Undrafted, but I'd like to go to just about anyone! I think it would be extra cool to go to maybe the expansion team? But really any team that wants me, I'll gladly play for them and love it there. Every VHL club looks great and I can't wait to join the league! When I'm not playing hockey I'm on the bowling lanes. I usually join an offseason league and use that to keep up on my skills and have fun on the side while waiting for hockey to roll around again! The team, for sure. The Aces have been insanely cool to me, and not only the players, but the front office have been really fun to be around and really supportive of me and of us as a team. I'll be part of Vegas history forever and that's so cool! I just had the best season of my life as a player, I was killing it out there on the ice and the playoffs I gave everything to help us win in the biggest way I could. Not to say my skill can't go any higher in prep for the VHL, but I'm on the up and up from here forward I always love reading some extra news and articles. Predictions, rankings, player profiles, podcasts, maybe some more VSN supported stuff? The offseason is already fun but some extra little league sponsored content would be fun to see!

Extremely excited to get this opportunity to take on a new role in the VHLM! I look forward to helping Jubo build another great team next season, and can't wait to work with him and the Aces team going forward!

+4

Player of the week ??

Today, we sat down with young GM Bonzaijoe after the expansion of the VHL and VHLM to ask him a few questions to find out his thoughts! What are your initial thoughts on the expansion teams?' "It's interesting. The new teams look great, I love the city choices and the GMs will be really fit for the job. It's gonna be a great new experience to see where these teams come into their leagues and seeing how well they perform early." You said the GMs are fit for the job, are you disappointed in not being chosen? "Not completely. A little, maybe, but I'm a young guy who's only performance as a GM was a lackluster loss in a bronze medal game of the WJC. I'm unproven, I'm new here still, I just have to keep my head up and find a spot where I fit in. Maybe a GM position isn't what I'm fit for, maybe it's not what I'm good for quite yet. Maybe an AGM position will open for me? It's all future discussion that I can't control now. The GMs were chosen, they're all great and they're gonna do an amazing job, I just have to ride the wave to see where I can go from here."' What's your favorite new Name/Logo combo? "The Reapers look dope. I've always digged the skulls/death theme for a team and thought that it would be a sick combo. The jersey potential there is endless, I hope I can see them soon because I'm super excited to see how they will look!" Any comment on the movement of the Storm? "I love Oslo, it's a great place and they have a lot of love for the sport there, but the Storm were not prospering sadly. The change of scenery is gonna be nice for them and they won't regret that move. Minnesota is such a hockey hotbed, the fan and talent potential is so great in that state that an addition of a franchise was really coming. We'll see how it works out but I expect that building to be absolutely rocking." You spoke earlier about your performance in the WJC, care to elaborate? "It's an interesting subject. I loved the team I put together for that tournament and they were some really great hockey players, I'd love to work with them again in the future, but that last game we just couldn't pull it off. Team Canada and Europe were basically unbeatable. Those teams are so solid and so set in stone that it was insane we were even playing in the same tournament, to be honest. Everything else said, though, the Bronze medal game was a little disappointing for us. That team worked so hard and we busted our asses to be competitive and we just fell short. That's not on the team, I have nothing but love for those guys and the experience I got from that GMing job is something that nothing else can compare to. At the end of the day, something was just off in that game and we just couldn't get it done. We'll get it back though, I believe in those guys and know that Team USA will be dominant again when some of those really good up-and-coming guys play in their second WJC." Huge thank you to Bonzaijoe for sitting down with us today in our conference room. We appreciate the time and look forward to hearing his name in GM talks more in the future!

Absolutely, We've been playing so well so consistently throughout the season I just don't see us really falling off in the playoffs. We're gonna make a run and it's gonna be good. It's not a guaranteed win of course, nothing is, but we're playing so well together it's gonna be hard to stop us. The expansion is great and I'm so excited! I love seeing new teams come in and expand the range of the VHL throught the world! More teams is also more competition, which should be a great new experience! After being a GM in the WJC, I'd absolutely love to do that again for real with a VHLM or VHL club! Pittsburgh, PA! Philly was a solid new addition, but I have some hatred toward the city I'll take the close expansion though!

"I just think it's a little crazy, don't you?" Nixon stated to us simply when we asked him about the events that occurred. Nixon, following his shutout victory in the WJC against Team Asia where he stopped all 35 of Asia's shots, was feeling great! The next day, however, when he walked to his locker to suit up for practice, he was greeted with a note. "You have one good ******* performance and the league is on your (butt) assuming you're on PEDs? What's with that? I was feeling great after my sweet shutout yesterday and today before practice I gotta pee in a cup because I played so good? Consider me flattered that I stunned you that hard, but I can assure you that you won't find anything in my system. I'm ******* clean." When asked about what the note said, Nixon replied "a bunch of useless bull****. They said I was 'Randomly Selected' but everyone in this room knows that's a load of crap. Gimme a break. If you wanna make sure your guys are off PEDs, use the random system right, don't go after a bunch of guys who just had good games, expecting them to be jacked up on some steroids or some garbage. It's a mood killer. Treat us all equally and we won't be complaining." Nixon, despite his angered comments, felt better at the end of the day. I asked him for more comments after the practice, and he said "I was outraged earlier but I'm calmed down and more seeing it as a compliment now. My comments still apply though. Treat us all the same, don't target people." The league later released that no PEDs were found in Nixon's test sample.

We're here with GM Bonzaijoe after the group stage of the WJC, and we have a couple questions regarding his team's performance so far. First, we asked Joe how the round robin went for him and his team, he responded, "We could've done better, I'll give you that. We took a couple tough losses to World or Asia, teams we should've beat, but also took Europe and Canada to some losses or overtime points. We could've done worse, I'm proud of where this team came out of the round robin." I asked Joe what he thought of the Canada team he'll be facing in the first round. He responded, "They're good. That's just it. They kicked our (butt) in the one round robin game, the second one we kept close, we just gotta play like we've been here before. I know this team has the potential to take it to the gold medal game, it's only a matter of time before they get a real solid breakout game. This team has so much potential, I've had an amazing time putting the team together, and I'm happy they're gelling the way they have been. I just need to take this squad to medal contention, and not having to play the play-in game is a huge confidence booster going into the playoff rounds." Joe seems hopeful for his team, let's see if he gets the results he wants when the medal rounds of the WJC continue!

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We're here in the locker room following an Ottawa Lynx victory over the Las Vegas Aces in a shootout. Here with me tonight is Aces starting goaltender Joe Nixon. Joe, how do you feel about tonight's game? "Not so sure about tonight. It was a hard fought one, took a hard loss in overtime. I thought we played a really solid game, kept it rolling into the overtime. A hard rivalry game against Ottawa, we really really wanted to win and just couldn't put it away. I wish I could've done better in that shootout but what are ya gonna do. I'll work on it and get it back for next time." With the loss tonight, you and your team saw your nine game win streak come to an end, can you detail some of the things that were going right for you during the streak? "Yeah, uhhh, I was playing solid, I have a seriously great championship-caliber team playing in front of me. This defense is awesome, they're protecting me well. The offense was putting up huge numbers, everyone was playing so well together. We saw that again tonight but sadly we just couldn't put it away to get the streak into the double digits. We just gotta get out there next game and take the next two points. For tonight, though, we'll take our one point and look on forward. We just gotta keep playing our same game, we've been dominant that way." You and your team have recently clinched a playoff berth. How do you feel about that looking forward? "Yeah, it's obviously huge for us, uhh, we just wanna keep playing our game. We can't let up just because we got a playoff berth. We want that #1 seed going into the playoffs. That will give us the best chance of winning, especially playing the way that we have been. We have a solid lead on first place in the league and we have no intentions on going easy in the upcoming games. We're gonna play, and we're gonna play hard. It's that simple. We're looking forward to the tournament, of course, this team is really good, we're playing really well together, and we're excited to keep at it moving forward. We believe that this team is a true cup contender and it shows. The win streak was huge, but we just gotta get back at it. Another 9 game win streak would be nice to finish out the season, ha" If the VHLM playoffs started today and you guys made it to the finals, you would be facing Ottawa or Halifax. Give me your take on those two matchups and why you'd want each to happen. "They're both really good, really solid teams. Ottawa always gives us a good game, we have a really solid rivalry started with them and those games get great, so just for sheer entertainment value I would want to see Ottawa on the other bench against us. They motivate us to play at our best and they do the same to us, without a doubt. Halifax, on the other hand, would be really fun to me, because their goaltender down there is really solid. Smith has been a beast, and having him playing at the other end would really bring the best out of me as a goaltender. I love a good goalie battle, and facing off personally against Smith would be so much fun. Either way, either matchup would be great as a final series, I'll tell you that much now." Thanks for sitting down with us, Joe! Good luck going forward "Thanks guys, take it easy"

Riga 5-3

215 Riga Reign 216 Quebec City Meute 217 New York Americans 218 Calgary Wranglers

I've shot some updated lines your way as well! Thanks! @Devise

I use Bauer S27 Goalie cut! Absolutely love the supremes and will recommend them for anyone (even if they are a little expensive) Well when I was a kid my number used to be 7, it was a lucky number, but everyone used it so I decided to add 10 to it, as 17 tends to be a little more available. If 17 is taken usually I'll move up to 27! 17 also happened to be my graduation year, even if I didn't realize that until much later haha When I made my Rookie Profile I visually represented Nixon with Darcy Kuemper! Mostly because of the comparable physical attributes. Darcy and Nixon are both tall, lanky motherfuckers, and both are solid goalies! As a coyotes fan, personally, Kuemper has been really great as a backup goalie and I love the way he's been playing this year, so he's one of my favorite players right now, and a solid representation of Nixon Dick Rash makes me laugh every time. I also love Burnt Toast Thanks so much for the questions @BladeMaiden!

article of the year

Recently an article came out placing Bonzaijoe's USA squad at 3 in the power rankings for this season's WJC. While Joe seemed happy with the assessment of his team, he expressed his opinion, saying "Do I think we've been underranked? Maybe. These guys have been working great together and I have a great squad in front of me. Our early practices have been so good and our chemistry is coming together. I think this is a great team of players ready to hit that ice and work hard as hell to do the best they can." Joe said that he's excited for games to start, saying "I've submitted my lines for the first game. It's gonna be fun, I'm excited, and I'm ready. These lines look good and I think they'll work well together. If they don't? I'll switch em up for the next game, nothing wrong with that." WJC games start tomorrow, and each team is looking to compete for that gold. Bonzaijoe's team thinks they have what it takes to end Team Canada's gold streak, but there's a lot of young and hungry players ready to take a bite out of this new competition. With a lot on the table, each team looks to play as well as they can and showcase their young talent to the world!

Team USA's Lines have been submitted

You're just taking my picks because I'm on a hot streak ?

It was actually Nixon bored in net today

I have faith in my squad! U. S. A! U. S. A! U. S A! U. S. A! Let's go!

Riga 4-2

148 Riga Reign 149 Toronto Legion 150 HC Davos Dynamo 151 Calgary Wranglers