Reflecting on Season 73

[SlapshotWrangler 786]

CALGARY - The regular season is over and now it’s time for the playoffs. In the beginning of the year, the Calgary Wranglers were struggling, especially due to Jacques Lafontaine’s individual struggling as the season kicked off. They had a couple tough losing streaks and it looked like they might miss the playoffs, or at least barely make it in. 

 

“I dunno. I guess I got too used to winning and expected to be successful. Probably not a good idea as I guess that caused me to be too cocky. And as a goalie, you wanna keep that mindset of playing hard and I guess I just didn’t put enough effort. That’s gonna change though, I guarantee it. Everybody else is playing great and it’s my turn to carry my load. All I gotta do is make the saves and make sure the opponent doesn’t score. Our backup did his job and he did it really well. Now, it’s my turn to step up.” Jacques Lafontaine said when asked about his struggles.

 

“I see this as the world telling me, ‘hey, you gotta keep your head in the game’. The VHL is a great league with great players so I better get better myself. My opponents keep getting better and so I gotta make sure I can keep up. But yeah, my play hasn’t been the most consistent. I have like maybe 3 good moments but I can’t seem to work as hard in other moments. Heck, our backup has been more consistent. If I don’t get better soon, well, then I guess it’ll be me who’s being the backup. I don’t want to hold my team back from the success they deserve so I’ve gotta step up my game.”

 

However, the Calgary Wranglers and Jacques Lafontaine were able to find their footing midway through the season and ended up in second place to the Seattle Bears. They won consistently and even had a 10 game win streak. They finished the season with 44 wins, 22 losses, and 6 losses in extra time.

 

“We definitely played better in the second half of the season. I actually made some saves. Our general manager made good choices when it came to our lines and it paid off. Overall, I just think we needed some time to adjust to the changes in our roster and we just needed to find some chemistry. I was able to refocus myself and continue playing well. The team looked fresher than we did at the start and I guess that was to be expected. Now it’s time for us to carry that momentum to the playoffs. We gotta keep that same intensity and same mindset if we want to make it all the way.”

 

Last season, the Calgary Wranglers were able to make it to the finals, winning the first two rounds with both series going to seven before losing to the Riga Reign. Now we’ll see if they’ll be able to win it all.

 

“Yeah, a lot of the guys who were part of the team, including me, still remember the pain. But now, it’s time for us to win it all.”

[Baozi 1,635]

Good luck out there! Standard self review/thought content here. Flows nicely. No real errors. Usage of quotes and formatting break up the text well. Could use some coloration or pictures to spice things up though. Even with a bad streak ending the season at 0.915 is relatively strong for goaltending.

 

7/10