WSJ on First Half, Team, More

[Cornholio 182]

 

 

Through the first 35 games, the S67 Yukon Rush have put together a record of 19-12-4, good for 42 points (17 back of first place) and the sixth seed in the 11-team VHLM. These Rush have the league's stingiest defense, allowing just 71 goals while possessing the 6th best offense. Not bad, but there's still room for growth. Icelandic defenseman Wolf Stansson, Jr. has established himself as a first-line defenseman, playing alongside Lance Flowers and also earning minutes on the third line. Here are his statistics through the first 35 games.

 

Season	GP	G	A	P	+/-	SHT	PIM	HIT	SB	GW	PPG	SHG
67 (YUK)	35	9	18	27	16	52	14	25	32	3	4	0

 

Not bad at all. The high +/- is a huge draw for WSJ's future VHL prospects as it shows that he is a positive contributor when playing on the rink. WSJ is tied for fourth on the team in goals and is also fourth in assists and shots blocked. He has remained relatively clean on the rink, only being sent to the box a total of 7 times for 14 minutes. So when WSJ is on the ice, the Rush are getting quality minutes. Stansson, Jr. had some words to share regarding this season.

 

"It is still a process, but I believe that our team is slowly but surely getting better. We have a lot of guys who are up there near the 200 TPE threshold. Two have already hit 200. Seven guys with at least 170 TPE.... and another four with at least 125. That's a strong core and I hope that we can all keep on pushing ourselves to greater heights. Our defense has been nothing short of awesome, it's just that our offense needs to improve. I've been working on my slap shot accuracy and I think that it'll eventually come together soon in games as my practices start to become muscle memory. 

 

In terms of practice lately... I'm a little disappointed that I missed out on some golden TPE opportunities to better myself, but I had a family vacation to attend to - traveling back and forth for games and whatnot. But now that we are all settled in here in Yukon, it's already halfway through the season! Jeez the time really does fly by fast here in northern Canada. I am really liking it here, the weather has been great, I've made friends with a polar bear who chills in our backyard of the complex. I try to feed him some stuff, but the locals are telling me not to. I'll do whatever I want to. 

 

It's been a fun ride with these guys and I look forward to finishing out our season strong. I know that nobody is going to want to play us in the playoffs, so that'll be a fun ride coming up. Our offense will need to come around and we have some time... not too much time though, but just enough to get everything to click together. Got to help out our goaltender a little more, reduce the pressure on his shoulders." 

 

It will be tough for the Yukon Rush to climb into the top-three of the standings with at least a 10-point deficit separating the Rush from Minnesota Storm... but they are only three and five points back of seed #5 and #4. So there's opportunity for Yukon to put together a strong second-half run and really stir up some noise in the VHLM Standings.