Make or Break Year for McLaren and Riga?

[tcookie 897]

For Addison McLaren, it kind of feels like deja vu, answering questions to the media about how he's worked on his game over the off-season and what's going to be different for him this year.

 

"I think I'm doing all the right things. I'm watching the tape, I'm on the ice practicing every day, hitting the gym. Same thing I told you all last year," he says. So why isn't it working? For a second straight year, McLaren didn't live up to expectations, especially on offense. A popular candidate for the Funk Trophy as the league's Most Improved Player, all he improved was from 18 goals and 37 points to 22 goals and 41 points. Meanwhile, Riga's season went down the tubes early and they never recovered.

 

"Like I said, I think I'm doing all the right things. No point in me worrying about things out of my control. Going to keep going out there, playing hard, doing whatever I can to help this team win games."

 

If McLaren has that high end potential in him that Riga saw when they took him 8th overall, it's going to have to come out this year. He's back on the top line with Cabe McJake and Justin Lose and will be getting all the ice time he can handle this season.

 

Likewise, it's a big year for the Riga organization. While S76 was an early sign of progress before falling off in S77, we're now four seasons on from the big S75 draft that they built the core in. This is when those players start to hit their primes, so this is when the team should be starting to be at its best. Now is the time for McJake, Lose, McLaren, Isau DaMoose, Artair McCloud, Linus Zetterstrom and company to put together a big year and prove GM Benjamin Zeptenbergs' strategy was a good one.