Claimed:Year in Review

[sterling 1,997]

Slaughter Year in Review

 

The New York Americans have had a tremendous season as many predicted, but what does it all matter at this point? Through 68 games of the 72 game schedule, the team has 54 wins and 10 losses. Sophomore centre Tom Slaughter and many other players on the roster have grown by leaps and bounds this season. Slaughter has managed to come into his own in what may very well be a season where he captures the Sportsmanship award.

 

Slaughter recorded 76 points last season as a rookie on a New York team that missed the playoffs by one point. This year the team has gone in a completely different direction. Their strong play has allowed them to earn a first round bye in the playoffs which will give the roster some much needed time to heal and rest up. Toronto and Seattle are the other two playoffs teams in the Conference, but the Americans have had regular season success against both this season. As a second year player yet to test the playoffs out in the VHL, Slaughter knows already that the regular season doesn't mean much.

 

"I think a few guys got a little too far ahead of themselves early in the year after we won all those games in a row. I said then that we'd have some high points and some low points. We've seen ourselves struggle lately a little more than we have been used to. Our top line in particular has been misfiring a few times, but I think we've worked that out of our system in the past week. I think we have a strong team, but like I've said all season, we're beatable and we need to keep ourselves grounded," Slaughter said.

 

 

Early in training camp, Slaughter invited all of his teammates to post their season goals on the whiteboard in the locker room. Slaughter's goals were grounded really well in retrospect. Slaughter's goals are below:

 

Tom's Goals:

 

Make Finals
Record 80 points
60 percent faceoff win percentage
Clear 500 TPE by midseason
Harass all of you, especially Jericho

 

Slaughter was able to record 92 points through 68 games. Ideally, the forward would like to clear 100, but that seems unlikely at this point so the 95 will remain as a good mark for the second year centre. Faceoffs are extremely important to Slaughter as well and thus far he has been able to record a 61% win rate. 500 TPE was met earlier in the season and much harassment of teammates was done, especially of Jericho and Higgins.

 

Through 68 games, Slaughter has recorded 29 goals and 63 assists for 92 points which places the youngster 5th overall in scoring for centres. Slaughter will likely be at or close to the top next season as many of the premiere centres in the league are retiring this season or aging. For the second straight season, Slaughter has not a hit or penalty minutes while notching a close to league leading +51 rating. Slaughter has recorded a team leading 222 penalty kill minutes on the season, indicating that the forward continues to be one of the elite defensive players on his roster. Overall, it has been a successful campaign for the sophomore, but it will be all for naught if the Americans don't make it to the Cup finals.

[Molholt 2,185]

Content: 3/3 -  Great analysis of your season, and I particularly liked the section about Tom's goals for the year.

Grammar: 2/2 - Looked good to me.

Appearance: 1/1 - yup yup

Overall: 6/6

[Kesler 1,514]

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