Werbenjagermanjensen Looking to Build off of Rookie Season [1/2]

[Fire Tortorella 2,653]

Werbenjagermanjensen Looking to Build off of Rookie Season

 

DAVOS, SWITZERLAND - Things are looking up for HC Davos Dynamo and second year defenseman Smitty Werbenjagermanjensen. After a solid, but unspectacular rookie campaign, both Smitty and the Dynamo are looking for improvement this season.

 

"Last year, I definitely struggled at the beginning of the season - the pace of play was so different than the VHLM. It took something like 10 games just for me to get my first point, and I want to say at least a quarter of the season, if not closer to half the season, for me to get my first goal. Defensively, I started OK. Throughout the season, I improved, and it was definitely reflected in my stats."

 

One of the main things that allowed Werbenjagermanjensen the ability to improve was playing time. Smitty averaged just over 31 minutes per game, including playing on the 1st power play and rotating in on the penalty kill. Especially early on in the season, this allowed the then rookie skater the opportunity to play, make mistakes, and learn from them. Overall, Smitty finished the season with 3 goals and 44 assists for 47 points,  a defensemen high -1, 275 hits, and 131 shots blocked.

 

"Would I have liked to see some better numbers last year? Yeah, a little bit, especially offensively, but I wouldn't say I had a bad season or anything like that. I recognized that I had some holes in my game that I had to improve, and that's one of my goals for this season."

 

From a team standpoint, when you look at the year as a whole, it went as expected. However, the fans were left slightly disappointed during the last week. After an awful first half of the season, the Dyanmo were able to work themselves into a possible playoff spot, but they were unable to win either of their last two games and clinch a playoff spot. At the end of the day, this was almost certainly better for the Dynamo in the long term. If they had made the playoffs, they almost certainly would have been bounced in the 1st round and gotten a lower draft pick. By missing the playoffs, Davos won the 2nd overall pick in the lottery and was able to parley it into multiple trades that ended up in the team acquiring future draft picks and moving down to the 6th spot to select defenseman Charlie Paddywagon.

 

As far as the expectations this season?

 

"Personally, I want to see better numbers. I know that playing time is going to be harder to come by this year with the addition of Glade, Paddywagon, and Cast, but if I want to be an elite player in this league, I'm going to have to put up numbers in order to get that recognition. One thing I noticed last year was that no one was respecting my shot, so that's something I worked on in the off-season. Through 10 games, I already have 2 goals, which is just 1 shy of my total from last year, so it's definitely been effective. Last year I finished with 47 points, so this year, I'd like to finish around 60...maybe something like 10 goals and 50 assists. Theoretically, my hits and shots blocked should decrease some this year, as a team, we'd like to have the puck more. From a team standpoint, I think anything less than a Conference Finals appearance would be a disappointment."

 

 

[Renomitsu 934]

Review - Well, you got to the conference finals! Hopefully most things have turned out as you wanted them.  I don't have any comments on composition, grammar, or spelling. I've always been a fan of this type of article, if only because it gives you a reality check when you look back on it a season later (i.e. now). Points may have not changed much, but that +/- tells all of the story you need to know.