The New Guy

[jacobcarson877 2,527]

It can be hard being the new guy in the locker room. Everyone else has established relationships, chemistry and generally just knows each other inside and out after spending several seasons together, constantly surrounded by each other. On the ice, off the ice, there is often no one else to turn to. But when they have each other, where does that leave you?

 

On the ice it has been hard to find anyone else. All that Landon Wolanin can feel is the puck on his stick. A three team game, between himself, the Titans, and their opponents. It feels like some teammates were really trying to reach out to him in the first couple games, tossing pass after pass in his direction, and to great success, with Wolanin potting seven in his first two games. But after that it has felt like nowhere he is can be the right place to be.

 

Passes awry, shots going wide. It is as if his stick is no longer an extension of his body, but someone else’s. He feels a bit like an imposter, like a toddler wagging a stick around in the middle of the adults game. Sometimes they gather in a circle to give him the puck, gawking at the incompetence of the small child. Of course this doesn’t actually happen, but it does feel like all the eyes in then world are on him whenever the puck comes to him. It never felt like this before, and Landon had never prepared for this moment.

 

Where did it all go? Where is the superstar in the making? Where is the confidence that won him a Continental Cup? Where is the talent that helped him ride along with Daniel Janser?

 

Even when his team is winning, dominating a puck-bitten London United team, he can’t find a single thing to do on the ice to help the cause. He just sat back and watched, as the Brits banged their heads against the wall that is Fuukka Rask’s pads, and revelled in how little he was needed. He considered for a moment disappearing into the United locker room, finding an extra jersey and seeing how long it would take for someone to notice the mysterious unnamed extra player on the United bench. Maybe he’s even get a few shifts in. The United look like they need someone, and well, Wolanin needs to feel needed. So maybe it is a match made in heaven.

 

That’s not to say that the Titans haven’t been kind. They’re trying their best, but sometimes you’re happy with the clique you already have. It isn’t some huge attack on Landon’s character, but simply an understanding that things existed before him, and will continue to after his career is over. Sometimes you aren’t the main character, sometimes you’re just a footnote. Some trivia nerd will remember his five goal debut forty years from now in a bar, and I suppose that is all that matters. To be remembered for something.

 

Hopefully Landon can make something a little more memorable happen.

[Aimee 1,119]

Come to London. We have cookies (and need goals). 

[JCarson 723]

Article Review:

 

The frustration of moving to a new team can be felt within this story.  You want to be successful, you want to contribute but you don't quite fit in.  Put that on top of leaving a team you have worked with for your entire career, a core group of players who have always been there and it can be understandable.  It may be a struggle now but I expect that we are going to see a great season from Wolanin, he will mesh with his new line mates and they will show how good this player really is. Until then we wait and see.

 

I give this article a 9/10.

[Daniel Janser 2,165]

3 hours ago, aimkin said:

Come to London. We have cookies (and need goals). 

Don't Londoners call them biscuits?