‘Menacing’ Wallace Shows His Skills

[Hoopydog 195]

Introduction

 

The 85^th VHL regular season is officially under way and it marks the beginning of Fraser Wallace’s career with the Moscow Menace. So far for Moscow, the season has been anything but plain sailing. Despite dominating their opening 6 games of the season, they find themselves 2^nd bottom of the European conference with only 4 points out of a possible 12. It is still very early days and the fact that they are playing good hockey does give them some good optimism for their chances at a cup this year.

 

As for Wallace he has had a great start to life in the VHL as he has scored 7 points from the opening 6 games of the season. He has been playing on the 2^nd line with The Seabasstard and Kyosti Karjalainen and its safe to say that he is managing to hold his own on that line. One improvement that he might need to make to his game is to his defensive abilities as he currently has a +/- of -2 but then again, that will change and balance out over the course of the season. He will be looking to keep up this level of offensive performance and try his best to emulate his scoring from the VHLE last season. If he can, who knows what can happen.

 

We managed to grab a chat with Fraser to get his thoughts on how he is adapting to the VHL and to get his thought on his performance level last season.

 

Interview

 

Reporter – “Good afternoon, Fraser, thank you very much for taking the time out of your busy scheduled to talk to us. How are you doing?”

 

Wallace – “Yeah, I’m doing good thanks mate. It’s great to be back and I’m just looking forward to playing more and more hockey”

 

Reporter – “How has it been adjusting to life in Moscow and how much different is it to living in Bratislava?”

 

Wallace – “It’s different for sure. You know for the obvious reason that you are living in a new country, new city but also when I moved to Bratislava, lots of the team was also new so there were quite a few of us who all got used to the city together. Compare that to now, you are joining an established roster where lots of the guys already know each other and you’re the new kid. That being said the rest of the team have been incredibly nice to me so far and have helped me out with whatever I need.”

 

Reporter – “Last season, you had a fantastic year in Bratislava, putting up 89 points and scoring 41 goals. How well do you feel you played last season and do you think you could potentially match those numbers this season?”

 

Wallace – “I felt like I played pretty well last year. It took me a few games to get going for sure but once I got into that sorta rhythm, I was definitely playing some good hockey for sure. I was disappointed with how the playoffs went last year, I know Istanbul were a great team and they went on to lift the cup but when you get so close, it stings when you fall short. As for this season, I’m trying not to get too bogged down in the numbers. I’m just looking to play the best hockey I can and develop as much as I can, the points will come for both me and the team that way.”

 

Reporter – “Just one last question before we jump to some questions from your fans. How did you prepare for the upcoming season? Did you stick to your usual routine or did you try something new to give you and edge this year?”

 

Wallace – “I had a chat with Spartan our GM and he pitched the idea of me switching to playing on the wing for the season as the team already has 2 top centers and I was one hundred percent onboard. So I’ve been taking the time that I would’ve been using to work on my face-offs and tried to improve my puck handling ability and my skating. In terms of the off-ice stuff, I’ve been trying to relax and learn to stay calm as much as possible. In this league if you panic and make mistakes, the players in this league will punish you so if I can limit the number of mistakes I make, the better I can be.”

 

Reporter – “We asked some of our fans on Instagram I they had any question they wanted us to ask you and boy did we get some replies. Cameron asked ‘What’s been your favourite moment of your career so far?’”

 

Wallace – “My favourite moment or game is probably our most recent game against Helsinki. I scored a goal and got 2 assists. I was also named 1^st star of the game and getting to do I quick lap of honour, especially after a win is always a great moment”

 

Reporter – “That will definitely a moment to remember. Daniel asked ‘If you had to choose between a game winning goal or game winning block, which one would you rather have?’”

 

Wallace – “People always say this is a tough question but I don’t think it is. Either way you win the game and that’s really all that matters. I’d probably go with the game winning block. I think that it shows the ultimate desire to win, to put our body on line for your team takes a very high level of bravery.”

 

Reporter – “Euan has asked ‘Would you ever want to come back to Scotland and play for the Glasgow Clan again?’”

 

Wallace – “Hahahaha I was waiting for this question to come up. With the Clan being my childhood team, they will always have a special place in my heart but as for right now, my focus is with Moscow and only with Moscow.”

 

Reporter – “We have time for one more question. Let’s go with Emily’s question, she asked ‘Do you think you will win the cup this year?’”

 

Wallace – “I think we have as good a shot as anyone of lifting the cup this year. All we have to do is make the playoffs and once you are there then it’s anyone’s game. The team that wants it the most will win.”

 

Reporter – “Thank you very much for speaking to us Fraser and we wish you the very best of luck for the new season.”

 

1074 words

[Hoopydog 195]

Claiming week 2/2