Camus: "I'll be back better than ever"

[solas 1,953]

It was a disappointing playoff outing for the Chicago Phoenix. As the defending champions and the top seed in the North American Conference, expectations were high for the S73 expansion team to build on their already large successes. But it was not to be - Chicago fell to the Los Angeles Stars in shocking fashion, swept on four straight regulation losses. It certainly wasn’t what the fans wanted to see. One of the biggest concerns, surprisingly, was the performances of goaltender Jean-Pierre Camus. Camus won the Kanou Trophy for his incredible efforts in net during the team’s cup run in Season 77, but seemed to be completely lacking all the poise of last season against the Stars. He was outperformed by the younger Doug Dimmadome in three out of four games. The best he could muster in Games 1, 2 and 4 was an .875 save percentage.  One could point to his Game 3 performance (.959, 47 saves) as a counterpoint - but it wasn’t enough as the potent Chicago offense sputtered, only putting up one goal.  

Camus himself is acutely aware of this. “To say I underperformed feels like putting it lightly,” he says.  It’s clear he’s spent some time ruminating on this. With five seasons in the books now, the French Canadian netminder has more experience to use as a guide, and he claims that’s been a big help. “I think if this kind of thing happened to me when I was early on in my career, it would’ve affected me much more. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying it hasn’t motivated me. I’ll be back better than ever next season. But I think a younger me would have taken this differently. Either one of two things would’ve happened - I’d have completely lost all my confidence and shut down, or I’d have overworked myself and tried way too hard to reinvent the wheel.  I think I'm in a good place for Season 78. This offseason I’ve just been trying to keep things low-key: stay in contact with my teammates, relax at home, look at tape from last season and try to iron out some of my mistakes. That’s all you can do, really.”

[Banackock 8,170]

Good luck this upcoming season