Seabass

How have you dealt with the pressure to keep up this recent strong run of results? What pressure? Guys honestly i'm just having blast here and I thank were all just having fun during this strong run. Which unit on the team do you think would be the reason the team wins the cup, and why? I dont believe theres one unit that would be the sole reason why our team would get there. We've all chipped in and played our respective roles, its what made us a strong team. Who has stepped up as a real leader in the locker room down the stretch for Yukon? Draven has really stepped up down the stretch as one of the more vocal leaders on our team and he's been pretty clutch the whole last half of the season. If you could add any player currently on another VHLM roster to the Rush, who would it be and why? None. I dont understand the point of even having this question the trade deadline is long gone so acquiring other players is out of the question. I'm just solely focusied on this team and I dont really pay too much attention to what happens on other VHLM teams. How important is the team's impending 4-game stretch against Philadelphia and Ottawa to our playoff momentum? It's very important to get these wins to get some momentum going going into the playoffs. Which team would you want to face in the Cup Finals the most and why? I want to see Minnesota in the finals as I think we have the edge against them and we've had tight games all year long and I think it would be fun.

Vancouver Riga Malmo Helsinki

Malmo 4-2

Calgary 4-2

Calgary Toronto Malmo Helsinki

damn missed this one

1.Canada 2.Europe 3.World 4 stark

1) With the trade deadline on Monday, what type of moves do you think the team requires to compete? I dont think we need to tweek too too much now that we acquired Nate Wright. Maybe get some more firepower? 2) Which team do you predict to win the WJC and why? Canada because, surprise i'm on their team. 3) Have you performed up to your expectations so far this season? No not at all I started off the season very bad, went something like -12 in my first ten games? I feel like i've only been settling myself in as a player only recently and I hope to have a better 2nd half to the season. 4) Who would you say the MVP of the team has been for the first half of the season? Plunkett for sure, h'es carried the team offensively throught the season. He's hands down the MVP so far. 5) What has been your favorite game so far this season? I've been loving our series against the Storm. We lost our last two but I hope to be able to bounce back in our next game. 6) What is your favorite pass time other than hockey? Fishing and i've been taking advantage of that here in the Yukon.

I will claim the 2nd halfof this PT for the week ending Aug 11th

Perrin opens up about his DUI. In mid october after a 4-2 win in Halifax against the Halifax 21st Perrin got pulled over after the game and got himself arrested. He got charged with driving under the influence of drugs after he had been spotted disposing a roach out his driver window in downtown Halifax. Perrin and The Rush organisation had refused to answer any questions since the event took place stating it was a "legal matter" and that it would be solved in traffic court. Months after the event and days after being named to Canada's World Junior Team Perrin has finally opened up about the incident. " I made a pretty stupid decision that evening to partake in the smoking of marijuana while driving my truck. I lost my license that night and almost had my VHLM career finish itself before it even really started. It was one of the worst decisions of my life and I embarassed both my family and my team and for that I'm sorry." Perrin hopes to turn the page as he plans on making a splash as the S67 World Junior tournament is set to begin soon enough. " It was definitely a surprise for me to even find myself making the team in the first place, I didn't even think I would've been considered let alone make it. But, I plan to make the best out of the opportunity to represent my country on the world stage. I think we have a good team this year and i'm just glad i'm able to come here and help win the gold. " The Rush are well represented on team Canada as the Rush's leading scorer Brendan Plunkett also made the team and is slated to start the tournament on the team's first line. 298 word count

Moscow Riga Calgary Helsinki

Helsinki 3-2

will claim my first half of this PT for the week ending August 4th.

Yukon Rush S67 Coverage Vol 2. , The Awakening This is going to be a weekly thing now as I've decided to keep going with a weekly coverage of the Yukon Rush team. These articles will basically just follow the team's games and offer some insight on how the team is feeling morale wise going through the various ups and downs of a season. My coverage usually features actual quotes taken from various members of the team and management, as I don't like feeding words into other people mouths just for article content. In last week's article, vol.1 I talked about this week's two games against the Minnesota Storm and how I expected that we were going to see a fairly defensive type of hockey displayed in those two games. I also explained how I thought Minnesota had the edge going in, but boy did the boys made my eat my word there as they ended up winning both those games against the Storm. The games were real tight though as they were both decided by one goal. The first game, game #98 started off with another clutch goal by the Girth God, his second after being previously released by GM Josh earlier on in the season. The game featured a two point performance by Seabass Perrin who was given the first star of the game and a game winning goal by Erik Draven who earned the 2nd star. The game was real tight, so tight that they matched each others shots on net totals at 20 shots. It was in the end decided by Erik Draven's powerplay goal at the tail end of the third after a. The second of the two games, game #109 was won by the same score of 3-2 but this time it was won by shootout. This game featured a 2 point performance by both the Storm's Kefka Palazzo and the Rush's Brendan Plunkett who continues his PPG pace this season. This game also contained the long awaited arrival of Lance Flower's first goal of the season. This one had to be decided by a shootout winner by no other than Erik Draven. Draven proved to be the critical piece to both wins against Minnesota, I caught up with him after the game to ask him his thoughts after such a performance. It's pretty simple really, I'm here to do a job and every night I'm expected to deliver. I try to elevate my game against the tougher opponents, maybe I'm getting that puck luck when I need it. Our team needs to continue to beat the good teams in order to get in the playoffs. We have a excellent chance to prove something this year. -Erik Draven It sure was nice to see the team defeat a top team like the storm however, they had those wins mixed in with a few losses against other teams like the 4-3 loss in game #99 against the Houston Bulls and the 1-0 loss in game 110 against the San Diego Marlins. Against both teams the Rush played well and kept the game tight. Against Houston the Rush fell after a late goal by David Willcox with 2 minutes left on the clock in the third. That was Willcox's 2nd goal of the game and third point of the night, and such a performance earned him the first star of the game. Against San Diego it was all about goaltending as both goalies dueled it out all game and kept the nets empty throughout the game. The game ended by a shootout winner by the Marlins' Diamond Duster in the fith shootout round. As expected both goaltenders, Bruce Grimaldi and A Red Guy got both the first and second stars respectively. The team then went on a tear with 4 straight wins against the VHLM worse teams, where they outscored their opponents 16 to 5 and outshot their opponents 109 to 43. Those 4 games included 3 games straight against the Las Vegas Aces and a game against the Mississauga Hounds. In the 4 wins the Rush's top line of Brendan Plukett, Frans Eller and Justin Rushmore combined for 18 points. With Eller getting 8 points (2 goals + 6 assists) and Plunkett getting 7 points (4 goals + 3 assists) the team had almost two players who were playing at 2 Points per game pace. Tony Bolonee who made his debut after getting picked up by the Rush scored his first point of the season after setting up Frans Eller for a easy goal in the 2nd period of the game against the Hounds. The team then faced tougher competition after their few easy games. Sadly the team crumbled once there was some good hockey to be played as they ended up losing 3-1 against the third ranked team, the Ottawa Lynx. The Lynx ended the team's 4 game winning streak but they ended up bouncing back from the loss and finished off the week with two more wins. This time the victims were the Saskatoon Wild and the Halifax 21st as the Rush beat the Wild 4-1 and Halifax 2-0. A Red Guy doesn't get enough recognition from me but please note here that A Red Guy has only let in a average of 1.5 goals per game in the eleven games played this week. He's been winning games and is proving to be very good at keeping his team within one goal of the opposition in the event that they are trailing in a game. In the end the team had a record of 9-2 during this week's games and if the Rush keep up the current play in the next 10 games I'd say they would solidify their playoff contender position and reputation around the league. Now as I conclude this week's vol. 2 I would like to introduce a new addition to my weekly coverage. At the end of every volume i'll award a weekly MVP for the Rush where I judge who's been the most instrumental player for the team that given week. WEEKLY MVP This weeks MVP was a close one between Draven and Eller but I have to go with Frans Eller here. Eller this week led the team with 13 points and is proving that he can make everyone around him better as he notches 10 assists. He's hot and lets hope he remains red hot as next week contains a tougher schedule. Now that's a wrap for this week's coverage, i'll have vol 3. out next week so stay tuned! WORD COUNT : 1089

1) Does your player have a pre-game ritual? What is it? Well I have been taking advantage of living out in the yukon and I have made a ritual of going out fishing either before or after our home games.  2) What is your favorite goal song? The trooper by iron maiden  3) What kind of mascot would you like to see for the Rush? Get gritty up in here. That or a giant artic char or a polar bear or something like that. 4) Who is your favorite player in the VHL? I dont really have one. 5) What number do you wear and why? I wear number 8, no particular reason why, but it was my grandfather's number. 6) We're a couple weeks in, who would you vote for the C and A's? (1C, 2A) Flowers for C, Draven and Stansson jr for As

Moscow Toronto Calgary Helsinki

Calgary 3-1

Nice article man.

Suck it Minny!

The girth god returns!

1) Is there a player on the team that you think deserves more recognition for their contributions? Reference: https://vhlforum.com/topic/66393-yukon-rush-week-1-stars/ Plunkett has been absolutely on fire but he's already got some recognition so I'll have to say Flowers deserves more recognition as he's just been great for us. He brings a certain calmness to the back end and just having him in our lineup is critical. Hes been creating a lot of space and shutting down a lot of chances, we'd be hurting without him. 2) Based on the games so far, where do you think Yukon will end up in the standings at the end of the season? So far it look like we're going to be a bubble team but it's hard to say because we're just so young, we still got loads of room to improve before season's end. 3) What teams do you see in the top 3 of the VHL standings and why? The Storm, the team has just been unstoppable and contains most of the leagues top 10 scorer, Philadelphia Reapers, can never count out the defending champs The Bulls, who I dont believe has played up to their potential but the team is solid. 4) If the VHL does expand as some people expect, where would you like to see a new team? I love to see a franchise return to Quebec city. 5) How do you see the couple of upcoming games against Minnesota going? If they've already happened; review them against your expectations. It's going to be a very challenging series, and we lost our lost game so we're hoping to be exacting some revenge here from the last game. Their currently the top team in the VHLM and we gotta beat those teams to be taken seriously. Our first and only game was a low scoring game with very few shots on net for either teams, so im expecting more of the same . 6) GM/AGM feedback: Is there anything we aren't doing that you'd like to see? Get us a #2 center!

I'll be claiming my 2nd half of this PT on the week of June 22-28th

I'll be using this for my VHL BDAY Doubles week. I still have another week to claim for this PT

Yukon Rush S67 Coverage Vol. 1 After 5 straight losses against some of the top VHLM teams in the standings earlier in the week the Rush had hit a low point morale wise. They opened up the season well with a 6-1 record in their first 7 games. However, they had a tough schedule ahead after that with the next few games being against top teams in the VHLM. The team was primed to solidify themselves as a top team and to proove they were a playoff contender this year. Their winning record however quickly dissolved into a losing record after that and the Rush ended up losing their next 6 games with 2 pairs of losses comming at the hands of the Reapers and the Lynx. Rookie Defenseman Seabass Perrin describes the low his team experienced after their loss in Minnesota: "We're just very frustrated with our play as nothing was going well for us. We're barely generating any shots on goal let alone scoring opportunities. Every team we faced seem to outshoot us and outplay us. Just pisses you off knowing every member of your team is putting in full effort yet still were comming up drastically short. We need a change, something, anything just to shake things up because nothing is working out." After their loss in Minnesota, Yukon split their home and home series with a 5-0 rout of Mexico in their win. That win would end their 6 game skid and it started to turn things around for the team. Yukon Rush winger, Erik Draven has had a real tough time up to that point. The Rush drafted him in hopes he would solidify the right side of the ice on the first line but he has struggled out of the gate this season only managing to get a measily 5 points playing on the top line with Eller and Plunkett in his first 14 games. One thing Draven has done well however is bang bodies and he leads all Rush forwards in hits (41). After the last game against Mexico, changes ended up going down and the GM decided on mixing up the lines. Since those changes things have improved and he has 3 goals in his last 4 games. "Yeah, since I wasn’t productive on the first line in those 14 games I asked (GM Josh) to be demoted to 2nd line to try to help the team find an even balance. We had our 1st line too stacked and needed to spread at least one high skill level player on every line. So, with Josh putting me on the 2nd line and switching me from RW to Center it really helped. My shot totals have went from like 2 per game to 4-6 a game. I’m really happy to finally be contributing and finding chemistry with Sami and Willie. I love playing with this team and I hope with me being vocal and showing leadership on the ice will pay off someday in the future. I am not afraid of taking on a leadership role and will fully embrace it." -Erik Draven Well the changes seem to have worked out for the whole team as they've now won 3 out of their last 4 games. We got a hold of top line center Frans Eller. We got to ask him, "How do you and your team prepare to keep the current momentum going and not fall back to old ways" "We need to just go back to basics, put pucks in deep, push bodies on pucks, force turnovers, and let our creativity take over." -Frans Eller One bright spot on the season though has been Brendan Plunkett who in 18 games is close to doubling his VHLM Career high of 15pts set last season with the Minnesota Storm in 73 games. He's at 24 points right now playing at above a point per game, is tenth on the VHLM top scorers list and is leading the team in points. He's done whats expected of him and more, and if the Rush want to continue winning, they'll need him to keep doing much of the same. Lance Flowers who has always been seen as guaranteed to go top 3 overall in the next VHL draft, has been solid so far but needs to be even better if the Rush plan to contend this season. He has a respectful 18pts in 18 games and is relied on heavily by the rush as he leads all players in ice time. He leads all Rush players in hits (43) and blocked shots (24) so he's obsviously no slouch in the defensive zone either. However solid he may have been he still needs to take his game to yet another level still if this team has any chance to really contend. He has to have a league MVP season for that to happen at this rate. The next 4 games feature a pair of games against the Minnesota Storm so Rush fans are hopeful that the team can exact some revenge after their last and only meeting of the season ended in a 3-2 loss. In the last game we got to see a more defensive game between the two teams as the whole game featured only 34 shots between both teams. The game featured a dominant performance by Storm defenseman Danny DeYeeto who had a 2 point performance including a goal and a assist on the game winner by Berock Sundqvist. DeYeeto has been playing very well so far this season and is tied with the Rush's Plunkett for tenth on the VHLM scoring list. However to show the difference here between the two team a little, Plunkett is first on the Rush's scoring list, DeYeeto however is fourth for the Storm. This goes to show the Storm have been absolutely amazing. The Storm obviously have the edge comming into those games as they are currently on a 4 game winning streak after a dominant 3-0 win against the Hounds and are currently on top of the VHLM standings by a 3 point margin. We'll see how it all goes down starting toomorow for the first game against the Storm. WORD COUNT: 1030

Perrin arrested sunday night with DUI Seabass Perrin a defenseman who plays for the Yukon Rush of the VHLM was pulled over this past weekend in Halifax and now faces charges of driving while under the influence of drugs. Perrin was driving westbound on sackville street in downtown Halifax when officers noticed a roach being tossed from the driver window of the pickup truck he was driving and performed a traffic stop. Officers then noticed a strong odor of marijuana comming from the truck and managed to retrieve the roach that was previously disposed. Officers initiated a search of the vehicle to find over an ounze of marijuana hidden in the center console within reach of the driver. Perrin later tested positive for THC after a swab test at the station and has his license suspended. Perrin hasn't responded to phones calls as of yet and the Rush has declined to comment on the ongoing situation for the time being word count : 154