Svoboda Scrambling to Salvage Season

[StamkosFan 72]

Pat Svoboda demonstrates his puck handling skills during team warmups.

 

After a dismal start to the VHL season with Quebec, registering 3 goals and no assists in the first 15 games, rookie right winger Pat Svoboda has been striving to improve his stat line over the last 12 games. He has added 3 more goals to his tally, and garnered 2 assists, but in spite of making the numbers appear less desperate, they are still quite underwhelming and a far cry from his prior expectations. Svoboda is seeing ample ice time, as he is a fixture on line two, nestled beside Beau Louth and Jorgon Weyed, so a lack of minutes is certainly not the culprit. His shooting percentage is a respectable 12%, but with only 50 shots on goal, that does not translate to many tallies, which is why Svoboda's coaches are encouraging him to shoot the puck more. In the VHLM, he had 136 shots in 46 games; while they are different levels of competition, he may want to try to replicate that volume of shooting if he intends to find the net more often.

 

Only one of his goals was at a key time, as he is listed as having only one game winning goal. He seems to be performing decently on the man advantage though, as half of his goals for the season are power play goals; sniping from the faceoff dot seems to be working out at the professional level. He certainly needs to contribute offensively, as he has only 1 hit and 3 shots blocked, so he certainly is not pitching in on the physical or defensive side of the game. On the plus side, his lack of physicality means that he has not taken any penalty minutes this year, which is something his coaches must appreciate. And while his defensive abilities are never lauded, he must not be a total liability in his own zone, as he has a plus seven in the plus/minus column. While plus/minus is not considered a very important stat, it can indicate that he has a positive impact on the ice beyond what is seen on the scoresheet.

 

"Well, I'm not very pleased with just about anything, but I'm trying to carry on, trying to salvage my season. With all the off-ice drama, it's been hard to focus on adjusting to the big league game. I'm going to just try to shoot the puck more, and if I continue not to be able to get shots off, maybe I'll actually have to start passing. Assists aren't as fun as goals, but at least they make your points total look better. It's almost at the point though, where I have to give up on making this season look good, and just wait to give it another go next year. I don't think anyone is giving up on me long term, but you just have to write this off as a bad year and pretend it didn't happen. If you think about it, I'm hoping a lot of things change and are better next year, so this is just something else to add to the ever-lengthening list," said Pat Svoboda.