New winds

[jRuutu 2,464]

Helsinki during summer

 

Season 72 is starting soon! Finally, is what someone could say, been a long time since we over here in Helsinki played hockey. Our season ended early due to not making the playoffs, but of course the positive in that is that we got more rest and chance to practice more on our own compared to some of the other teams and players. When looking back to last season, it was not a terrible year by any means, missed the playoffs by three points and I believe we had a lot of one-goal games that could have gone to our way just as well.  

 

A big theme for the whole team during this off-season has been making sure we can turn those tight games into our victory. The number one thing is to find ways to be more dangerous in the offensive end, shoot more and stop passing the puck into the net. I have for example taken big steps in the offensive attributes, managed to improve my scoring to 80, and passing is at 87. Small improvements, but something that I´m sure will bring positive things for Helsinki when the puck drops.

 

As a team Helsinki has gone through a fair bit of changes, we got a new starting goalie in Michael Johnson, he has only represented Malmo during his career so far, but now he is with us in Helsinki, nice addition and I´m sure he can win games for us on his own. Another big one is Aleksander Rodriquez joining the forward group, talented winger who has 250 points in 360 games, he will bring more of that much needed offensive firepower. Finally, another offensive piece, Valtteri Vaakanainen who was drafted in the first round jumps into the big show right away, he can score and really shoot the puck.  

 

From last year's roster Virgil Ligriv moved to Malmo in the Johnson trade and Cody Smith was traded to Prague, so overall the roster lost some familiar names, but the players who joined all will play in big roles and can bring something to the table, which is great stuff.

 

 

I mentioned my little improvements as a player earlier, there is a lot of pressure for me to play well, Vaakanainen and Rodriquez are players who are both fighting for powerplay minutes, for example, If I want to get those minutes as well I need to play at my best right from the start. I´m trying not to think about it too much, I still want to play my own game and hope its enough. To throw some fun little milestone targets out there, I´m setting myself a solid 300 hit and 50 points goal for the upcoming season. Especially offensively I have high hopes, I want to score more and be more of an offensive player than last year.

 

The number one thing is that Helsinki is moving to the right direction in my eyes, looking forward to seeing what the season brings to us, I have full confidence that Helsinki makes the playoffs this year!

 

[joeg 69]

Article Review:

 

This is a great article. You gave great information on how Helsinki played last season and where their shortfalls were. I especially appreciated how when you talked about some of the negatives of last year, such as losing a lot of 1 goal games, you didn't focus on it in a strictly positive or negative light. You made sure the reader understood that losing those tight games was unacceptable, the team is very close to being able to win those close games and make a run in the playoffs. I also thoroughly enjoyed how you were able to highlight the turnover of players during the offseason. Being able to share what new players bring to the team makes me able to have a pretty good picture of what Helsinki is going to look like this season.

 

My only criticism is a couple of run on sentences, which admittedly, is something that I struggle with myself, both academically and on the forum. For example:

 

"I mentioned my little improvements as a player earlier, there is a lot of pressure for me to play well, Vaakanainen and Rodriquez are players who are both fighting for powerplay minutes, for example, If I want to get those minutes as well I need to play at my best right from the start."

 

Could be changed to;

 

Earlier I mentioned how I have improved as a player. I feel as if there is a lot of pressure for me to play well. With Vaakanainen and Rodrquez both fighting for power play minutes I'll need to play my best right from the start.

 

This is a great article. Good luck this season!

 

7.5/10