Riga facing déjà vu?

[Renomitsu 930]

Riga, Latvia - His career might be just under halfway over -- should he play the maximum allotted years -- but Apollo Hackett is already considering what the future of the league looks like. As part of a Riga defense that paradoxically allowed the fewest goals in the league this season, but then gave up eight goals to Malmo in their game this afternoon, some have been left wondering if the seasonal show of regular-season dominance followed by playoff disappointment will be the only theme in Hackett's career. Indeed, one of the handful of constants in Riga thus far has been Hackett on the blue line the last four seasons - and in each, they've been ousted before reaching the championship game.

 

"Some tell me it's destiny, others tell me it's because we have a ceiling that doesn't quite reach where our opponents have managed to play up to," he noted in today's post-game press conference, "I think we've had our fair share of poor luck -- especially with the Malmo squad last season -- but we as a team need to continue improving instead of attributing failures to forces outside of our control."

 

"We can afford to learn quite a lot from the generations below us -- from rookie and sophomore pros to the midget and bantam leagues; while that won't be a focus of mine during the playoffs, I'll be keeping it in mind as I go into the latter half of my career, certainly. For now, I think we just have to focus on making sure we don't make the same mistakes as the last few seasons."