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+10 Joakim Bruden

This is part two of a multi-part series examining Ottawa Lynx backup goaltender Joakim Bruden and his story of his journey so far: We get a lot of snow in my hometown. Being a coastal city there is a lot of moisture in the air, and we're high enough north that a lot of that moisture comes back in the form of snow. The benefit to this is that by late October we are able to skate around outside on the frozen lakes or backyard rinks, but I'll explain why that was such a benefit for me a bit later. I finally had a team! I had my own equipment as well, although it didn't feel like mine. I had so much trouble moving around due to the tremendous weight of protection, and the chunkiness of the pads that I was constantly getting frustrated. I knew what I wanted to do, I knew where the puck was going to go, but I just could not will my body to get there quick enough. When I complained about this issue to my older brothers, they laughed and told me that the solution was really simple. I was always playing with cheap, lightweight equipment meant for street hockey. The pads were just pieces of air filled foam, a baseball glove for my catcher and a hockey glove in place of a blocker. I didn't even wear a chest protector, and the helmet was more of the same, cheap plastic case over cheap foam padding. This gear did offer enough protection against a tennis ball in our basement, but no where near what was needed for a puck. They told me that I was a pretty good basement hockey goalie, but I was a horrible ice hockey goalie. If I wanted to get better at ice hockey then I needed to practice how I played, so that meant every day when we were running around in the basement that I would be in full gear. I wanted to get better more than anything else in the world. Day after day, week after week passed. Every day after school I would race home and start getting ready so that by the time my brothers and sisters got home I would be ready to go. Everything hurt. Even without skates I was having trouble moving as my pads would bump into each other, and I would trip over my feet. My arms were sore from lifting the chest protector and catcher / blocker constantly. My neck was sore from wearing the heavy helmet, and my eyes were sore from focusing around the bars and all of the sweat dripping down my face. Sore, but excited. I noticed at the end of the first week that I was able to stay going longer. The first day I only made it an hour, but by the end of the week I was at 2 hours. The end of the second week I went 2.5 hours before supper, and I let in less goals than the week before. I noticed my glove hand was getting faster. I was getting a better handle on my stick (I had never used a goalie stick before, it felt weird having the curve backwards, or left handed), and even tried a few passes when I had some time. I was improving on ice as well. My biggest issue was stopping once I went down to slide because on the floor there is grip, but on the ice there was nothing to stop me from sliding a little too far and getting caught out of position. My scoreboard was improving as well - My goals against went from 8 or 9 per game, down to 3 or 4. We were still rotating goalies each game, so when I was not on the ice I was watching how people get ready to shoot, or if they are going to deke, and of course opening the far change side of the bench for players to change. In our league we didn't really have lines, it was more or less the first 5 people through the door were on the ice. There wasn't much comprehension on the idea of positioning or any ability to skate backwards either, so I was opening the door for people racing off the ice so that they could be first in line for the next shift. About 2 months after tryouts were finished I had started in 9 games and we had won 6 of those. The weather was also constantly cold enough that they were starting to freeze the outdoor rink in our neighborhood and soon it was going to be ready for us to use whenever we wanted to. The day before Halloween we got the all clear and I discovered a new issue with my equipment - I didn't know how to tie my skates by myself. I always had my dad or my coaches tie them for practice or games, but they weren't around. I vowed that I was going to figure out how to do it myself, but in the meantime the pressing issue was getting them done, so I bugged my brothers to help out. There was some back and forth, and I had to agree to bring water and carry their skates to the outdoor rink every day (this wasn't an issue for me because I put all of my gear in a wagon and pulled it for the 3 block journey.) My family wasn't able to make the trek to the outdoor rink every day, but on days that they weren't able to come I would bring my skates and pads and try to tie the skates, fail, then take off my pads, tie my skates like normal and just skate around on my goalie skates for about 30 or 40 minutes before heading home. I was getting very comfortable in my heavy, once bulky equipment. Able to move faster, react to what was coming to me and especially after I was able to get ice time every day (even if I was just skating around, or practicing passing and puck handling with my goalie stick) I was improving a lot. When I would see where a play is going, my body was able to make the movements it needed to to put me in a position to make a save. I was also learning how to control my push offs, so that I wouldn't be horribly out of position when I want down to make a save any more. The improvements were fast and noticeable. By December when I was in net we would be guaranteed to win, 5-2 or 6-1, the games were never closer than 3 goals. It felt great and some people started to take notice. -- To be Continued -- 1114 Words, Media claim for week ending Jan 5, and week ending Jan 12

5 uncapped TPE Double week

Thank you, Ottawa, for giving me an opportunity the last part of the season and into playoffs a chance to experience goal tending in the VHLM. It was a large change of skill coming over from Europe and it took some getting used to for the harder shots and the faster skaters, but I was able to get a few good starts in and experience some playoff action (even if they were all losses, I feel like it was good experience). I don't know where I will be playing next season, but my first choice would be to come back here and finish what we started. I want to thank the fans and people of Ottawa for being so supportive, especially for a young goalie coming in part way through the season. You made it feel like home to me, and a huge reason why I want to be back here next year.

1. What's something you want for christmas? For Christmas I would like a new computer part. I'd like to build a new one this summer, and I want to start acquiring pieces for it to lower the upfront cost 2. What's something your player wants for Christmas? Joakim would like a new glove. His is getting pretty worn and it isn't closing all the way. He is worried one of these days a puck might slip out and he would give up a bad goal as the result. 3. Do you think you know where you will be drafted? No idea at all for either of the drafts. I'm enjoying my time in Ottawa and I'm working hard at getting better. I think I'd like to start next season, but I'm not sure how ready I will be by then for a full workload. 4. How do you feel about the VHL charity drive. I think it is an awesome idea. Helps get some money into places that can use it and gives an incentive to people here to donate. Nice bonus if you can and are willing to. 5. Who do you think wins the cup now? oh gosh this is all above my paygrade. I'll take a cheap answer and say Vancouver because they topped the league this season. Saskatoon for the same reason in the minor league. 6. Who do you think gets the first overall pick? Chad Magnum. I had a look at his improvement and he has done a really good job recently being on top of everything to get the most out of his time in the Jrs.

This is part one of a multi-part series examining Ottawa Lynx backup goaltender Joakim Bruden and his story of his journey so far: Growing up in a small town on Sweden's east coast, there was not much to do. The winters were long and snowy - about 8 or 9 months out of the year, and if you were outside you were likely either on skates, or cross country skis. I am the youngest son in my family, I have 3 older brothers and 2 sisters who are younger than me. We have a big family, so we would usually play games with each other. A favorite growing up was 2 on 2 hockey, and I was always volunteered to be the goalie because I was the youngest boy. Those childhood games are what made me fall in love with the game, as well as the goalie position. It didn't matter to us what the score was, we were always ready to try our best and if I got scored on all I wanted to do was stop the next one. Playing against my older brothers forced me to be better than my age dictated. I had to be quicker, faster, more agile and thinking ahead because they were bigger and stronger than me. They could shoot fast and heavy and I needed an edge of my own. For my 8th birthday, all I wanted to do was play competitive hockey - to that point I had played with school friends and my brothers, but I wanted to be on a team, I wanted to travel to other towns and play against them. My parents were able to scrape together enough money to buy me a used set of pads that had seen better days, but all they really needed was some conditioning, and a bit of sewing and I was able to get the most out of them. I was also enrolled in the upcoming season of ice hockey with my local club team and excitedly got ready preparing for tryouts. The biggest change was getting used to goalie skates. I had never worn these before and they felt so clunky. All my years I had always used regular skates, these were long and heavy and I kept digging the toe into the ice and falling down with them. In addition to the trouble with the skates, the rest of the equipment felt so heavy. I could barely raise my glove hand, let along have a quick reaction with it. I felt like I was chained to an anchor, and it was holding me back from what I could be. Tryouts came and I was still struggling to learn how to move with my new gear, so I did the best I could, but it wasn't very good. They also used smaller pucks for the younger age group, so everyone was able to raise the puck, and shoot with a lot more power than I was used to. I made the second team for the 8 and 9 year olds as the starting goalie. We only had 2 teams, so it was basically people who didn't have much experience on skates, or playing hockey at all. I'm not going to lie and say I accepted this, because I was pissed off, but looking back, I was also one of those kids who couldn't move around, or was falling all over the place because I was not used to my equipment. I imagine there were a few of my team mates who were in this exact same circumstance and they were probably grumbling about their useless team mates as well. -- To be Continued --

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Moscow Menace Malmo Nighthawks Helsinki Titans Calgary Wranglers

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1. You can any player you want, what do you do. First thing I do is become Joe Thorton, grow the beard, enjoy life in sunny Cali. After that I want to live some of Roy and Hasek's best moments trough their eyes. 2. Who do you think wins the VHLM cup? This year it'll be down to us or Saskatoon 3. What about the VHL cup? Not sure. I'm really not familiar with the pri circuit teams. Come back to me on this one please. 4. What's your least favourite NHL team and player? Team has got to be Vancouver, and current player is tough, there's not really an Avery or Carcillo. Let's stick with Kessler though, because I think he's still technically not retired. 5. How good do you think Ottawa will be next season? Cup baby. 6. What's your favourite snack? Let's say a fresh orange for the healthy side, dark chocolate for the rest.

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