Rave Puts Early-Season Struggles Behind Him

[tcookie 985]

As S97 reaches its conclusion, the Malmo Nighthawks find themselves challenging for another Victory Cup. If they can close the deal, they will earn their third Victory Cup in centre Phillip Rave's six-year Malmo tenure. In the previous two instances, they did not win a single playoff game. "I don't really believe in curses," says Rave, "but hey. They say our team is cursed, they say the Victory Cup is cursed too. If we're breaking curses, we may as well break two of 'em."

 

For his part, Rave seems to have begun to recover his form lately. In what is a bit of a reversal of fortunes from last season, Rave started S97 performing well below his own standards, as he had 4 goals and 14 points in his first 17 games and was merely hovering around the point-per-game mark for about half the season. Rave currently has 38 goals and 76 points in 64 games - a far cry from his production last season, but he has been playing at roughly a 50-goal, 100-point pace over the last 40 games or so.

 

"Glad we have so many great players here to cover up all the mistakes I made early on," said Rave. "Viktor (Jensen), Lucy (Leitner), Jorgen (Lovstrom) have been incredible all year. Obviously you have guys like Tzesar, RJ, and Conference doing their thing too. The hard part is when you're struggling and you just wonder how much better the team could be if you were playing like you're capable. Fortunately we've been winning pretty much all season so my play wasn't holding us back, but it's nice to be playing better, for sure."

[Banackock 8,316]

Wicked. Bye, bye, slumps.