Season 78 - Justin Lose - Another Failure? - Bonus Charity Info

[youloser1337 1,122]

It's time to go over the end-of-season stats for Justin Lose. Although he had a great season, it was cut short thanks to their failure of making the playoffs for the 2nd straight season. In fact, he had career highs for almost every stat this season. First, we will go over the stats and then we will also get an exclusive interview and a special announcement at the end!

 

Official Stats:
37 Goals - 45 Assists - 82 Points
-7 +/- - 17 PIMs - 450 shots - 67 Hits
6 Power Play Goals - 22 Power Play Assists - 28 Power Play Points
Shooting Percentage - 8.22%
6 Game Winning Goals - .77 Points per 20 Minutes

 

Stat Review:

This is a lot to take in so let us start with the points. A career-high of 37 goals with 6 of those coming from the power play. Lose was not close to the top 5 for the top goal scorers in the VHL. The top 5 cutoff was 46 goals by Chris Reynolds of Warsaw. Lose was also 3rd on Riga in goals with Isau DaMoose and Cabe McJake taking the 1st and 2nd slots with 41 and 39 goals. Lose also had a career-high for assists as well with 45 with 22 of those coming from the power play. Compared to the rest of the team he came in 4th in assists overall and 2nd in just the forward group. Linus Zetterstorm, Matt Thunder, and Cabe McJake all had a higher assist count with 70, 52, and 48. Cabe McJake was the only forward that had a higher assist total on the team. With those career-high goals and assists, he had an outstanding 82 point season. The first time in his career that he was above a point a game pace. He was 3rd on the team behind Cabe McJake and Linus Zetterstorm who had 87 and 86 points respectively.

 

Lose wanted to be a two-way forward to be an anchor in the offensive zone and the defensive zone. The +/- rating states otherwise, unfortunately. With a -7 rating, although the best in his career, is not good enough defensively. On top of that 17 PIMs don't help either. 5 minutes of that was a major too, his first career fight which was a tie. Lose also started to get physical this season getting 67 hits under his belt.

 

Lose went crazy with 450 shots. This caused his shooting percentage to drop to 8.22% though. Although not the highest total he had in his career, 27 shot blocks are nothing to be disappointed about. Alongside the .77 points per 20 minutes. Lose has stated that his goal is to make that a 1.00 point per 20 minutes by the time he retires. With Season 78 wrapped up for Justin Lose, his career stats are now 83 goals and 121 assists for 204 points in 216 games. This season has helped get him close to having a point a game pace in his career.

 

Overall it was a better season for Lose in the point production. Getting the first-line ice time really helped improve his game. Putting last season's awful numbers behind him, he managed to restabilize and prove why he deserves to be on the 1st line permanently. Lose also showcased his power-play skills by putting up 28 points with the man advantage. Lose is now an offensive threat on the ice and teams will have to respect that.

 

Interview:
 

As Lose enters into his prime, we wanted to sit down with him and get his reactions to the season and how he did overall.

 

Interviewer: Thank you so much for taking the time to speak with me today.
Lose: I always love speaking with you guys. Ask anything you want.

 

I: Let's just get a general overview. How do you think you did this season?
L: Overall I'd say this was a good season for me. Obviously getting 1st line time all year was a great motivator and it showed. It was amazing to finally get into a groove and score some goals. Hopefully, the GM will take note of my performance and keep me on the first line next season. Not being in the playoffs really hinders my judgment though.

 

I: What do you think went wrong to miss the playoffs?
L: I feel like I was responsible for that. I went cold at the worst possible time at the end of our push. We just needed 1 point so any offense would have been amazing. I also think fatigue finally caught up to us and we just had nothing left in the tank to compete.

 

I: What was the locker room after that loss?
L: Let's just say some words were flying and an unhappy GM/coach. The mood was very hostile and I think the angriest guy in the room was Harvey.

 

I: Do you feel that trading away Addison McLaren brought the team down?
L: We were bummed when McLaren was traded away. Unfortunately, that's our game. You just have to take it with stride though. We got great locker room leaders in Oh Sens and Jolly Greene Giant back though. They were a bright spot in that trade. It's interesting because Jolly Greene Giant was on the Philadelphia Reaper squad that beat the Mexico City Kings to win the cup back in Season 75. There was some initial annoyance but when you are fighting for a playoff spot, you get over it quickly.

 

I: On that note, Oh Sens was retiring at the end of the season alongside Calvin Harvey. What are your thoughts on losing those two so soon?
L: I can't really say much about Oh Sens since we had a brief time together. I hope retirement treats them well. They were a great boost to the locker room during our push. Harvey retiring hurts. Not just for us but the team in general. With him retiring we lose our starting goalie and the hunt to replace him begins now. It sucks to see him go, especially after having a great 2nd half of the season.

 

I: Are you happy being in Riga right now?
L: Yes. If this is a bait question to ask if I want to be traded, At times when we were in our losing streak I thought about being traded, but I quickly squashed those thoughts. I was drafted by Riga and I want to retire with Riga if I can. I don't want to leave. It sucks to miss the playoffs after working so hard all season, but I want to be loyal until I'm not needed anymore. Next question.

 

I: Do you think next year will be another playoff miss?
L: I hope not. I think our group is getting to the point where we will start to regress soon and we are going to win now mode before needing to rebuild again. I'd love to win a cup here before that happens. Losing Harvey is a huge blow to our squad for next season, but I have faith in our GM to get something done.

 

I: With the VHL Playoffs nearing the finals, the lottery tournament will be starting soon. Are you going to take it seriously?
L: Obviously I will be taking any game seriously. Anytime I'm on the ice I'm going to give it my all. Even though this isn't for the cup, it's still important to us. It sucks being in the lottery tournament for the 2nd straight year, but we have our 1st round pick this time. If we can get that 1st overall pick or just moving up in general that would be a great consultation prize for missing the playoffs.

 

I: What are you planning for the off-season?
L: After the lottery tournament, I figure I will take a vacation and relax for a bit. There was a lot of stress on myself and the team towards the end of the season. I want to be rested and ready to go for camp in a few weeks.

 

I: Can't wait to see you back on the ice. Good luck in the lottery tournament!
L: Thank you.

 

Announcement (OOC):
 

Now it's time for the announcement. It's time I put my money where my mouth is. Previously, I stated that I would donate $500 to charity if the Riga Reign made the playoffs. Unfortunately, that didn't happen as we missed the playoffs by 1 point. I still want to donate some money to charity though. So I came up with an idea. In real life I love bowling and I'm currently in a bowling league on Thursdays with some friends. I'm currently a 193 average bowler, so let's have some fun with this. This week in my league I will donate $1 for every pin I get. It's a 3 game series so I could almost double the original donation. The max score I could get is 900 (3 perfect 300 games). Some proof that I am an actual human:

 

So that's where you guys come in. I would love to get some suggestions for where to donate the money. (No I'm not rich btw).

1531 words. Claiming 3 weeks.

[youloser1337 1,122]

Bump / Claiming week 2

Thursday is my league day. I need charity ideas!

[youloser1337 1,122]

Claiming week 3