My History in the WJC/WC: Rylan Peace Edition

[Peace 1,580]

It has been a considerable amount of time since I was last engaged with the World Junior Championships/World Championships in any regard, really; my player Trokker was named to a roster for the second World Junior Championship with Team Canada in a row, and while he was doing really well out of the gate, it quickly seemed like we had everything to lose; we would lose the heartbreaking gold medal game in overtime to team USA, but the experience alone was refreshing enough to be happy about it.

 

A realization hit me while having coffee on my couch this morning: I've been looking for a topic to write a media spot about, had just seen the score for the gold medal game, and then the idea to write about my WJC/WC history just appeared inside my noggin. Not only was I curious about my players history representing Canada or Mercenaries, but I wondered how many medals I've aqcuired through my years.

Rylan Peace

S63 World Junior Championship: Gold Medal (1)

It would be helpful if the indexes were still available, but unfortunately neither the round robin or medal rounds are intact. What I do have, however, is R. Peace's individual statistics within his player page on the portal. I do remember R. Peace being announced to the roster, and I do remember him performing quite well through the round robin, but it would seem like poor performance in high pressure environments would follow him throughout his short career: R. Peace would earn the gold medal with the S63 WJC Team Canada but wouldn't contribute anything more than a handful of shots on goal, really.

S64 World Championship: Did not medal.

The player portal says I played on Team Canada, but in reality I was actually a member of the underdog 'Mercenaries' team that surprisingly did quite well for a team selected by players that were eligible to make a team but failed to do so. Team Mercenaries went 5-4-1 throughout the round robin, earning themselves a place in the finals, but fell to Scandinavia 5-1 in their matchup.  R. Peace would lead the Mercenaries with 18 points through the round robin, but would fail to produce in the match against Scandinavia outside of being a negative two...

S66 World Championship: Bronze (1)

BRONZE MEDAL FOR A TEAM OF MERCENARIES!? I remember thinking that when we earned the medal as a group of misfits, and the thrill of earning that achievement despite national teams full of amazing players. The Mercenaries finished 7-2-1 with R. Peace tied for team lead with 17 points through the ten round robin games, but like I said... history of being unable to perform in high pressure environments. When an offensive leader on your team earns no points in a bronze medal effort, there's problems somewhere with the build, right?

S68 Wold Championship: Did not medal.

The only time R. Peace made a national roster and they failed to materialize into... anything, really. Scoring was low, and a change in the way the medal games were simmed meant that the bronze medal game isn't included as statistics on the player page, so really R. Peace played two medal games and only recorded a goal. For the fourth time a team leader in at least one category disappeared when it mattered the most, but this time it hurt those around him.

 

 

So there it is for Rylan Peace!
A gold medal in the WJC, and a bronze medal with the Mercenaries in a year where we probably shouldn't have medalled at all despite a strong round robin.

I'll be back next season with Erik Killinger, who would be named to two WJC rosters and three WC rosters.