Martin Brookside, the rookie.

[diamond_ace 3,106]

Martin Brookside: An Improbable Tale

 

It’s been an improbable road for Martin Brookside to get to this stage in his professional hockey career. Born in England, Brookside’s most often seen sport growing up was soccer. Even his version of hockey was more often field hockey than ice hockey. Ice hockey simply isn’t that popular in England. It’s a bit of a convoluted story how Brookside even got into hockey in the first place, and perhaps it’s better saved for a later point in his career when a biographer will delve into his life. For now, it’s simplest merely to start with when he did get into hockey, which was his junior year of high school.

 

Brookside grew up playing soccer goalie, he was fairly good but would never become a professional. That was obvious from the beginning. He never quite got the diving down since the net was so large. He was, however, always able to get a hand on the shots that were within a body-length of him, even if his momentum was taking him the other way. No one quite managed to put two and two together until the day his family decided to take a vacation to Montreal, Canada. During this trip, Brookside went to an Impact match and was very entertained, but it was at a Habs game that he found his true calling. It was the Habs against the visiting Pittsburgh Penguins, in a game the Penguins won, 2-1 in overtime. Then-goalie Tom Barrasso put on a phenomenal performance for the Penguins and Brookside was hooked. He decided to take hockey lessons and as soon as he was old enough, he moved to Canada and tried out for a junior team, the London Knights of the OHL.

 

Barrasso, Brookside's idol, in the game that changed the young goalie's life.

 

With the Knights, he started as the backup goalie and played only seven games his first year, going 4-3 with a .903 save percentage and a 3.14 goals against average. Once they worked on more of his development, he quickly began to gain skill and by the next season he surpassed the previous starter and took over the starting job. He soon boosted his numbers, and held a .915 save percentage the following season in a total of 64 games, as well as a 2.42 goals against average. He only ended up playing one additional season for the Knights and was phenomenal, with a .931 save percentage and a 1.84 goals against average in 68 games. At this point, it was assumed Brookside was ready for the NHL draft, but instead he chose to go a different route. As he’d already been somewhat accustomed to travel, having lived first in England then in Canada, he decided to choose a league that would allow him a greater amount of travel. What better than a league whose teams are as diverse as Latvia, Finland, Switzerland, and the like? For this reason primarily, Brookside decided to skip the NHL in favor of the VHL.

 

Brookside suits up for the Bratislava Watchmen of the VHLM.

 

To this point, it seems like a sound decision. Brookside played reasonably well his first season in the VHLM, developed before the following season and played phenomenally in his second VHLM season. In fact, he ended up with several top stats, breaking top ten lists all time in the VHLM in several categories and winning three awards. In what is now his rookie season in the VHL, Brookside is playing rather well for a player so early in his development. Despite a 4.09 goals against average (a product of his team primarily), he’s put up a .921 save percentage in 45 games. Fellow Calgary goalie Rock Star has been given a good chunk of the starts and has also done fairly well considering the state of the team, but Brookside has already been the better of the two despite how early he is in his career. Brookside will be an interesting player to follow for the remainder of his career, and it remains to be seen how he’ll fare behind a better team.

[Guest Svoboda_3]

Content: 5/5

A vastly different approach, I imagine you are saving all of the necessary content for your biography. It was well-written, but it acted like a story rather than a Rookie Profile. Leave it to the London Knights to recruit a foreigner illegally.

Grammar: 1/1

goalie, he = goalie; he

he's = he

 

Appearance: .75/1

I thought it was bland considering this to be a major point task.

Over 500 Words? 1/1

688 words.

Overall 7.75/8

[Fire Tortorella 2,653]

Content: 5/5 - The amount of travel seems like an interesting reason to choose the VHL over the NHL, as I'd think the majority of professional players would choose the less travel intensive league. Good choice on the Knights.

 

Grammar: 1/1 - Yeah.

 

Appearance: .75/1 - Probably could have used a little more.

 

Over 500 Words: 1/1 - Yes.

 

Overall: 7.75/8

 

FINAL: 8/8