Phillip Rave's Second VHL Season

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As the Malmo Nighthawks cleaned out their lockers and held their season-ending media availability, Phillip Rave wasn't particularly interested in hearing from reporters about his breakout 81-point regular season.

 

"I'm here cleaning out my locker today and there's four teams still playing next week, so what's it matter, really?" says Rave. "Y'know, just like last season, we play 72 games, it's a long regular season and we come out of that as the league's best team. And then we just get embarrassed in the playoffs. You gotta find a way to win games, there's no bonus for keeping them close. Gotta dig deep and win games... we've been saying how we didn't want a repeat of last season, but we got one. So there's going to have to be some soul searching in the off-season because it can't happen again."

 

"40, 80, 150 points in the regular season... doesn't really matter to me, man, I just want to be holding up the Cup at the end of the year. That's what you play for."

 

Though it's not the thing on anyone's mind after a second-straight Victory Cup Champion squad got bounced early, the Nighthawks ought to be happy with Rave's second season in the VHL. He doubled his rookie campaign production, jumping from 16 goals and 41 points to 34 goals and 81 points, led the Nighthawks in shots with 442, and finished second in the entire VHL in +/- with a +47 rating. Rave moved up and down the Nighthawks lineup throughout the regular season and managed to be the straw that stirred the drink on multiple different lines.

 

In fact, Rave compiled those numbers while putting up just 4 goals and 9 points on the powerplay, which might be even more impressive. He ranked 31st in the VHL in goals and 39th in points overall, but his 30 goals and 71 points at even strength rank just outside of the league's top-20 in each of those categories. Of course, while his rate of production at 5-on-5 is very encouraging, especially for a second-year VHLer, the low powerplay numbers in Rave's case are not a function of a lack of powerplay opportunity. Rave did play on the powerplay, and he did not do it well, with the next-closest Malmo forward still recording nearly twice as many PP points (16).

Rave's entry-level contract is up this off-season, and media weren't able to glean much insight into contract negotiations from Rave in the locker room.

 

"Honestly, haven't thought about the off-season yet. My focus was on winning a championship. The contract stuff... that's for my agent to handle, for one, and it's also just not the time for it. But I mean, I love it here, I love this team. So I'm sure everything will be taken care of, it's just not something I wanted to focus on in the middle of a season. There will be a time and place to sit down and figure out what's going to happen and it's not right now while we're sitting here digesting being eliminated from the playoffs," Rave responded.