Greg_Di

Henry Eagles started off with a bang into the new season as he scored a hat-trick in his first game into the season. Even though he notched 3 goals the Wolves still lost 6-5 as London managed to scored 5 unanswered goals in the 1st period. The comeback was close but it was not enough. "Feel's great to be back on the ice and scoring goals" Henry said "it sucks losing and we had some rust to shake off at the beginning but once we found our legs and started playing hockey we looked good. I mean we were down 5-0 after the first and we fought back. Yeah we still lost 6-5 but im proud of the teams and our guys for not giving up!" After 5 games so far this season, Henry has 3 goals and 5 assists for 8 points. Looks like Henry is off to a good start and if he can continue this pace, the Wolves should have no problem making the playoffs. The Wolves sit at 4-1 with the London game only being there loss so far.

F - Henry Eagles D - Jake Thunder @Viper

Henry Eagles got the call at the beginning of the week that he was selected to represent team Easter Europe. This will be the first time in his career that he has been called up to the world cup, only having played in the world junior championships before then. "It's always an honor being called up and representing a region in Europe where I came from. "Henry said "I think Eastern Europe has a wealth of top players and this tournament gives us the opportunity to showcase what we are all about. These are one of the few teams where multiple countries come and work together to achieve a common goal, that goal for is is Gold" Henry is hoping that the world cup tournament gives him a boost in the upcomming VHL season. With being able to get on the ice and compete against top talent before the season starts, he will not have any rush to shakeoff versus players who may have not trained or participated in the world cup. "It definitely gives you a leg up in terms of getting yourself up to speed on the quickness of the play and your shot " Henry continued " I can't wait to try and win gold and then head back to Vancouver and win the cup!"

If the World Cup is anything to go by, then it looks like Henry Eagles will be a force to be reckoned with this season. 4 games into the World Cup with his Eastern Europe team, Henry, sits with 6 goals and 3 assists for a total of 9 points. He was named #1 star in the tournament this week and leads the tournament in goals scored and points. He also after 4 games has an insane shooting percentage of 33.33% by scoring 6 in 18 shots. It seems like his off-season work on his shot has paid off. This is also the first time Henry is playing in the world cup and representing Eastern Europe on the big stage. In game 1, Eastern Europe faced off against Team USA and came out on top 4-2. EE put up 49 shots in the game and showed early that they will be a force to be reckoned with. The first game was Henry's worst game of the tournament as he only notched 1 goal. In game 2 Eastern Europe once again faced off against the USA and it was a much closer game this time around with EE squeaking by with a 4-3 win. Henry Eagles showed up to this game as he put up 3 points. He got the game winning goal with 1:05 minutes left in the game and also helped out with 2 assists for a total of 3 points. Game 3 saw Eastern Europe face Team Canada and it was another close one. EE edged out Canada 3-2. Eagles led the team with 2 goals as he continued his hot scoring pace. In the last game of this week Eastern Europe faced off against Team Nordic and Won 4-3 in the shootout. Eagles put up another 2 goals and also added a helper to finish this game with 3 points. "Things have been going great but I couldn't have put up numbers like these without my team-mates" Henry continued "now the goal is to continue playing at this pace and help our team win a gold medal. We have a very strong team and we all believe that we can win the gold. We are off to a 4-0 start which has been amazing" Eastern Europe is also off to a hot start and are the early favorites for the tournament. They are currently the only team at this time of writing who are undefeated. If Henry can continue this pace we see no reason why Eastern Europe can't win the gold at the end of this tournament. Alot of their games have been 1 goal wins, so going forward they will have to find ways to build on their leads as in hockey, luck can go any way. This showing by Henry is also good news for Vancouver who are expecting big things from their star player and to build on his last season. Many are predicting and even Henry himself has set this as his goal of notching 50 goals in the VHL this season.

Pretty solid team! Lets do this!

Henry has set his goals for S89 and they will be slightly lower then what he expected in S88 "This season I am keeping my expectations in check and setting goals to something more reasonable" Henry said " This upcoming season I will go for the double 45's. 45 goals and 45 assists for a total of 90 points. I think this is very doable and it all honesty I think I will exceed it" Last season Henry finished with 42 goals and 45 assists for 87 points which was close to his new targets but some way off his last seasons target which was 50 and 50 for 100 points. "While I am still aiming for those individual awards, this season I want to focus more on getting us back to the cup. Wolves deserve another one and one for my career just won't cut it. So I guess you can throw that in as a third goal" Henry continued " While I will keep on shooting as much as possible, I will try to involve my team-mates more as well. I don't know who my line mates will be yet but we have a very solid offensive team so I will be happy to play with anyone"

The season may have already ended for Henry Eagles and the Wolves but the player who will be entering his 5th season in the VHL has already started working towards getting better for next season. "My training never stops, I barely take any time off in the off-season as I want to ensure I keep getting better" Henry says "and with the 5th season being my last before this old age regression thing kicks in, I need to ensure I am training as much as I can to counter-act that" The Wolves will have an interesting off-season and season ahead as the team needs to decide if they can compete with the core they have or if they will need to rebuild "If I was in Management, I would say that we still have the team to win it. With a key off-season signing and maybe a trade or two we can be back in the playoff next season" Henry says "But I am not management and once they are ready they will let us players know. I have full faith in the management team in whatever way they go and am excited to see how that plays out. Either way it should be a great off-season for the Wolves"

The S85 first overall pick has not had the career he has envisioned but in the grand scheme of things it has been a rewarding and productive career, with potentially 5 more seasons to go before he retires, we can look back on his current career and see how Henry has fared. By this time, Henry, would have thought he would have won some sort of individual award, break the 50 goal mark or the 100 point mark. As of today, this has not yet happened. His best season to date has been his finished 4th season where he put up 42 goals and 45 assists for 87 points. Not bad but for Henry that is an underperformance. As a first overall pick he always excepted better of himself. His first goal was to win the rookie of the year but he didn't even come close in the votes. Not even top 10 as he struggled during his first season. His second season didn't go much better either and he only really started showing his true potential in his 3rd and 4th seasons. The only Award he has to his name is winning the Continental Cup is Season 86. It was a big achievement but as a first overall pick Henry always expects more. He is also the type of player that won't give up on his goals and will strive to achieve them before he hands the skates up for good. "I have a few more years to go in this league before I have to retire and I still have time to reach all my goals" Henry said "I know it will be harder as I get older but I want to win some of those individual awards and I want to break that 50 goal and 100 point mark. I got close but close is not good enough" When asked if he would do anything differently or if he had any regrets, Henry did not think so. "I couldn't have asked for anything better, I got drafted to a top tier organization in Vancouver, we won the cup together and I intend to spend the rest of my career here" Henry said " Would I have changed anything? I don't think so and definitely no regrets. If anything maybe practice more in the off-season and focused more on scoring versus focusing more on being a two-way player but all in all I am still happy with how things turned out and hopefully I can only get better going forward"

After a reverse sweep of LA, the Vancouver Wolves were feeling good heading into the series against Seattle. The series started off ok as the Wolves were tied 2-2 after the first 4 games. The last two games were a different story though, even though the Wolves goalie, Fuhr put up 2 great performances with 50+ saves in each game, the Wolves were unable to win any more games and were eliminated out of the playoffs. "It's unfortunate, we played really well against Seattle and one bounce the other way and the win would have gone our way" Henry says "but that's hockey for you, you need to have a little luck on your side. We will now just have to look at how we can get better and focus on another run next season" Henry will be staying in Vancouver this off-season to start early off-season training in the hopes of improving even more as he reaches the middle years of his career. These middle years are the most pivotal to do off-season training as regression will slowly start to kick in once a player reaches their 6th season. "When you get older, you slow down a little bit" Henry says "but if you keep up with training it really shouldn't affect you too much"

Q: After going down 2-0 to the LA Stars; How high was your panic level on a scale of 1-10? Why? I would say an 8, so much so I voted for LA to win in the Fantasy VHL bracket (whoops!). I am happy that we all came together and ended up doing the reverse sweep! Q: After coming back to tie the series at 2-2 and forcing a deciding game five in the series; what were you expectations/feeling heading into the deciding game? After we tied it, I had a strong feeling we would win the game. We were playing great the last 2 games and their was belief in the locker room that we could do it. Q: We are reversing the roles from last year as we head into our series against the Seattle Bears; How do you like our chance against the Bears? They are the top team but like last season it has been shown the wildcard can knock out the top team. Let's get some revenge on the Bears! Q: Now that the first round or wildcard round is completed; who do you have as our current MVP of the play-offs? Why? At this point I would say Kerr! He set a new career high in playoff goals and assists and has really helped the team get back into the series! Q: Predictions seem to be everywhere at the moment with Stanley Cup, Fantasy etc… How do you rate yourself at predicting the outcomes? Why? This season my predictions have not been good. Last year they were much better but this season for whatever reason there has been way to many upsets. Hard to predict those Q: Riddle: Why couldn't Goldilocks sleep? Didn't know this one but looked it up and won't spoil it for the rest of the team.

Henry reached his goal for the season and at the same time set a new career high in goals. At the beginning of the season, Henry, set out to score 40 goals this season and at seasons end he netted 42 goals. "I think goal wise it was a good season, 42 is a good number but next season I am aiming for 50" said Henry " I want to win that scoring title and I came up a bit short this season, I want to focus on the playoffs now but in the off-season I will be working on my shot and hopefully being able to put more past the opposing teams" Henry will be starting his 5 season next year and he still has no individual awards to show for his past 4 seasons " It's rough not having anything to your name after being the first overall but hopefully the last few seasons change that" Henry continued "I am the only Eagles so far without an award and I can't finish my legacy in that way"

Review: I always like re-draft topics and other members opinion on them. Great list with breakdown of why you think the players should have gone in that position (now after 9seasons) For me I would still have Papa #1 and Jerome #2. Goalies to me are usually the #1 player that can make or break a team. It was a great article to read, the only thing I would add is maybe a picture and also maybe tag the members who created those players. I know most like to see these kinds of things. 9/10!

Henry Eagles has been a scoring threat this season and he is closing in on a new career high in goals. Last season that number was set at 37 goals. This season with 13 games left, Henry sits at 34 goals. " I think I can hit 40 or so this season so I should be able to beat my previous record" Henry said " I was hoping to be in the top 3 in goals this season in the league and I am closing in on that as well. I just need to make sure to keep putting the puck in the net. It would be a great goal for me to reach and I will be working hard on that end of the game" Henry has really stepped up his game on both ends of the ice this season. He has played more physical setting a career high of 201 hits so far compared to his last career high of 114 "I put on some extra muscle this off-season and started to throw around my body to help on the defensive side of the game " Henry continued " I think this has helped opened up my game and I can give myself more space on the ice but as well contribute more on the defensive side of the game, I am happy with how my season has gone so far and hopefully we can continue to showcase our play down the stretch in the playoffs"

What a difference a few days can make, Henry was in the top 5 for scoring before this recent stretch of games and even close to being in the top 3....but now he has fallen to 9th overall and has failed to score in a few games when he used to be scoring 1 or more per game. " I don't think anything has changed, just bad luck I guess. Every player goes through a rough patch and I guess its my time " Henry said " I am not to worried about it yet, I am still playing well and have 22 games left to make up ground. I want to be the top scorer so I just have to get back in the groove" Henry sits 9 goals behind current leader Brendan Marner who has been leading the pack most the season. It is hard to see Henry catching up but that has not deterred him from doing his best. " Maybe he will hit a rough patch down the stretch and that could open up an opportunity for me" Greg continued " but I am not going to worry about how other players play and just need to focus on myself and getting back into that scoring streak. 2 plus goals a game down the stretch and we should be where we want to be"

Review: Good article on this seasons theme week. Great to read about what retro means to t he users participating in this league. Definitely like the call outs to some of those older 90's players like the enforcers. To bad the actual game now has pretty much done away with enforcers. It would have been good to add a picture to the article to help it pop and stand out more, maybe even a pic one of those enforcers. I know it might not be mandatory but would have been good to see some sort of tie in or reference to VHL as well. Overall though, well done! 8/10

The Vancouver Wolves are scheduling a retro theme classic game with all the top Wolves players over the last few years. One of those players is the grandfather of current Wolves player Henry Eagles. That man is Greg Eagles, the popular Wolves goalie has been invited to wear the Wolves colors one more time for one more day as he has been selected to the Wolves Classics team to play an outdoor game during the Wolves retro week. Retro week in Vancouver is a week where the Wolves celebrate all there past players and heroes and keeps the fans up to date with what they have been up to. This week ends in the highly antipicated Wolves Classics games where the heroes of old put on their equipment one more time and play 3 periods of 10 minutes each. Fans will be in for a treat as all the top players have agreed to participate (some of these names will be named below). This week long event is free to all Wolves fans but thee classic game is a first come first serve event as there are limited seating in the outdoor arena. "I don't even know if my equipment still fits, it has been about 12 seasons for me since I last played and I can tell you I definitely have not stayed as fit as a VHL player should " Greg laughed "It is an honor though to be selected and I will do my best and try not to let in 10 or more goals and try to help my team get the win, I also haven't played an out door game in a while so that will be interesting" Greg will be joined by some Wolves all-stars and fan favorites such as Robin Galante Nilsson, Jeff Downey, Henry Tucker, Julias Freeman, Brock Louth, Andrew Su, Hunter Hearst Helmsley and Greg's counterpart Jimmy Spyro. "It is a great group of talented players with lots of history with this Wolves team, the fans are in for a treat" Greg continued "We may not be as fast or skilled anymore as we were in our youth but we will make sure to make it fun and entertaining for all our fans. It will be great to see some of these guys and catch up with everyone. We will also be organizing a meet and greet during this retro week so that fans can come out, talk to us and if they want have some autographs signed" This retro group has also been invited to the Wolves press box for the next couple of games so that they can sit in and watch the current team play. "It's always fun to see the new future of VHL players play, there is always a difference between generation to generation and I get to watch my grand child play" Greg said "I always wonder if we played at the same time, if Henry would have been able to score so many goals against me as he scores against the current crop of VHL players. Maybe one day they will come up with a simulation and see"

This might be the breakout season Henry was expecting as he is off to a hot start this season. While the Wolves have been off to a not so hot start, there is still playoff hope for the team if Henry continues playing the way he has. Goals: Henry currently leads the Wolves in goals with 17 in 30 games played and also sits at number 10 in the VHL scoring race. He is just 4 goals away from the leader Nils Godlander (at the time of writing this article). He is also on pace to set new personal bests in the goals category as last year he managed to net 37. He has been a scoring machine this season and his hard off-season work has seemed to paid off. Shots: Henry is also number 4 in the league in shots taken. He has vastly improved his offensive side of the game and has made a big point this season to take more shots on net when the opportunities present themselves. This has lead to more goals for the fourth year player but also has produced a steady amount of assists due to rebounds. Assists: While Henry has focused more on the scoring side of his game the assists still keep on coming. He currently sits with 19 assists in 30 games and if this pace continues can surpass his career high of 44 assists last season. While he has been more greedy this season with the puck; if he sees someone open he will feed them the puck or make sure to shoot a shot that will guarantee a rebound Points: 36 points in 30 games for Henry this season and on pace to be his best producing season. In order to accomplish that goal, Henry, will need to continue playing at 100% the rest of the season. Motivation might play a factor in his scoring as the Wolves overall as a team aren't doing the best but if he is able to keep his motivation high and motivate his team; there is still a chance the Wolves will be playing playoff hockey at the end of the season. Hits: Henry is already at 112 hits this season and is just 2 away from his personal best of 114 which was achieved last season. Henry has been playing a more physical two way game this year and it has helped him on both ends of the ice. While scoring is always great; a good player cannot be a defensive liability. "I think it's been a great season for me so far and I just want to continue playing at my peak " Henry said "This is probably the time I will be the most in shape for my career and the time I need to utilize to get those points. Our team has struggled this year but we are all still very motivated in the locker room and we all believe that we can still manage to at least make the wildcard spot. There is still lots of hockey to be played and alot of things can change from now until then" Henry is hoping this season to finish in the top 10 for goals and points; we will follow closely and see how he fares closer to the end of the season.

Review: Good article discussing where you would potentially want to play in the VHL along with your other upcoming career choices. I don't follow the M or E as much so it's great to see perspective from the players playing in those leagues and their future aspirations. Some improvements for this article would be to add a picture to the article to help it stand out. Length is good, 250 more words and you could have a claim for next week as well ;). Overall good article. 8/10