Disappointment

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For Scoish Velociraptor Maloish, this season was another bust. Another year of no playoffs. After being traded, this will be his second season missing the playoffs and playing in the lottery tournament. Compare that to the team that traded him, Calgary, they are in the playoffs for the second straight season post-trade. In the previous off-season, Maloish worked hard to improve his game and made some big strides in his physicality. Last season he had the best point production compared to his rookie season. Things were looking up for Maloish. Unfortunately, this season he did worse by 3 points and in his +/- rating. Two categories did improve this season, one not for the better though. His penalty minutes went up to 128 this season. He was an average of 1.78 PIM per game this season which could be better. His physical game did improve with 224 hits compared to 172 the previous season. We wanted to get some insights into the rough season from the man himself.

 

The Los Angeles Stars are in town for the upcoming lottery tournament and had a media scrum before heading to their first game. We caught up with Maloish at the end of practice for the lottery tournament.

 

Interviewer: How do you feel going into your second lottery tournament?

Maloish: It’s not a fun feeling. Working all year and falling flat on your face isn’t great. I thought this year would be different but it seems it's just another copy of last season. The tournament is a great way to show that we can play good hockey and show our fans that we aren’t going to take a bad season lightly. This should be a wake-up call for the team.

 

I: What do you think went wrong this season?

M: I can’t pinpoint or call out anyone. It’s a team game and we all dropped the ball this season. We need to work on that for next season if we even want to be able to get into the playoffs.

 

I: Was there something you think you could have done differently this season?

M: I was on the ice whenever the other team scored. It’s degrading to see your +/- rating tank. I wanted to be that shutdown defenseman and obviously, I’m not living up to it.

 

I: Do you think you have the pieces to get to the playoffs next season?

M: We have a great core on this team. We have all the tools to get it done, but we need to work together to make the magic happen. We could use some help on the blueline though. I’m not the general manager or the coach so I can’t speak about what the team needs.

 

I: What areas are you looking to improve on next season?

M: I want to be more disciplined. I get a little hot-headed and I take really bad penalties. I should be the backbone of the penalty kill and if I’m in the box I can’t help. It’s something that is very bad. I’m going to be doing some anger management courses as well. Hopefully, it will help with the penalties. As for defense, I will be working very hard to keep the puck out of the net. I need to help the goalie out and block some more shots and just get into the passing lanes. We can’t give up huge amounts of shots on goal against our goalie. It’s not fair for him.

 

I: Are you going into this lottery tournament at 100%?

M: I’ve had a bit of pain in my hand. I’m hoping to rehab it after the tournament so that I can be 100% for the next season.

 

I: What are your expectations for the tournament?

M: Well we don’t even have the pick in the draft so we don’t know if we are supposed to try or just be loose in the games. The coach hasn’t said anything yet about that. I’d say we are going to be business as usual as we don’t want to look bad in front of our fans.

 

I: Are you going to be taking time off in the off-season from training?

M: I’m going to be going on a nice week-long vacation to mentally reset myself. Hopefully, when I come back I will be ready to go and prepared for the upcoming season.

 

I: One last question before letting you go, now that you are two seasons out from the trade do you think you were worth it for the GM to go after?

M: Wow, that is a loaded question. I hope I am. I work my ass off every season to improve myself. On the team, I’m one of the top point scorers. I had more points than all of the forwards on the team. If that isn’t worth it for the GM then I don’t know what is. I don’t want to cause any trouble so that is all I’m going to say on that subject.

 

I: Thank you for your time before your game.

 

Maloish walks away disgruntled and upset by that last question. How could someone ask if they were worth it? Maloish puts it aside to put his head in the game for the upcoming lottery tournament. 

 

The question was still lingering in the mind of Maloish. Was he actually worth it? Calgary made the playoffs both times after he was traded. The defenseman that they drafted is doing well with the team. Was he the actual problem? It rocked him to the core of that realization.

 

Maloish was off at the pre-game warmups. The team could tell that he wasn’t right. They all tried to get him back in the right mindset. After some time he was able to forget it before the game started but he still had doubts in his mind during the game.

 

The Los Angeles Stars do not have their first-round pick in this draft so they will be competing to improve their opposition's chances. They currently have the 2nd best odds of getting the first overall pick in the draft.

 

Claiming two weeks (1017)

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week 2